Gongora odoratissima

Gongora odaratissima with flower spike

Gongora odaratissima leaves

Gongora odaratissima first blooms

Gongora odaratissima first blooms

Gongora odaratissima first blooms

Gongora odaratissima first blooms

Gongora odaratissima first blooms

I picked this up at the Houston Orchid Show in 2019, it’s mid May 2020 and it has its first blooms. the blooms have a strong, sweet smell, which should be obvious given its name. I’ve found it needs far more water and sun than the usual house orchids. This window gives it strong morning sun for several hours in all but the winter months.

Gongoras were first mentioned in the mid 1800s after being discovered by Spanish explorers in their native Ecuador, Columbia and Venezuela.

Gongoras are true epiphytes, I find growing epiphytes in semi-hydro works extremely well. ( a clear shallow bowl, pebbles and about 1″-2″ of water keep in the bottom of the container ). As you can see from the tips of the leaves, it found the winter too dry in here, even in Houston. It’ll probably need a greenhouse in drier parts of the world. It also loves warmth, There is no winter hibernation for this orchid.

Gongoras like the rest of the Stanhopeinae subtribus grow large, this one has doubled in size in a year and I hope it’ll continue to do so for several years. Blooms come in the spring.

They are pollinated by solitary male bees, solitary bees are native to the Americas, the hive bees were imported by the Europeans.

Propagate by division

… more photos and info as it gets larger and I learn more about it

Eriobotrya japonica aka ‘Gold Nugget’ Loquat

I fell in love with this random find. Turned out they were loquats and easy to find locally

So I grabbed 3 at Houston Garden Center. I put one in a full afternoon sun, some what damp place ( my neighbor over waters), 2 in full afternoon sun in a bit drier location. The first doesn’t look so good the others are putting out new leaves. I’ll let the first one sit a couple of weeks just in case.

The tag says:
Full sun
15′-20 spread
15′-20′ tall
drought tolerant
hardy to 10’F, but will drop flowers/fruit at 32’F
fertilize in Feb with time release fertilizer

A bit of digging says they are quite prolificate, producing dozens of yellow/orange fruit but usually only fruit every few years in Houston

More details and photos as I learn about them and they grow…

Full sun does not mean full sun in Houston. So far morning sun through mid day is working out well. The ones that received all day full sun shriveled up. Moderate water, not nearly as drought tolerant as expected. They will require a good soaking at least once a week in dry times.

Since mine were just settling in I dug them up and stuck them in the garage for the big freeze. I’m told they would’ve dropped their leaves and recovered just fine outside.

Nov 2020

Olive Tree

Just home from the store and plopped into the ground (late summer 2019)…

Native to Middle East
Evergreen
Drought resistant

I know little about them yet. I planted it in a spot that gets morning and mid afternoon sun. Despite the lack of rain it seems to be settling in okay. I’ve been watering heavily this week, I’ll taper that off and we’ll see how it does. This is truly drought tolerant and can handle full sun morning through afternoon, it only receives a bit of shade mid day.

… a few months later after its first pruning…

Properly pruned olive tree

Pruning trees
– remove dead branches
– remove the weaker of any branches rubbing up against another branch
– remove inside branches so all branches get plenty of light
Later as the tree grows we’ll trim down its height, suckers, and branches the grow straight up, they seem to sap the strength from other limbs

It’s been pruned again, it’s happily growing like a weed.

This survived the big freeze with temps down to 9’F. The leaves dropped. About 2 weeks after the temperatures warmed up it put out new buds and is recovering

Nov 2020

Carissa Macrocarpa Natal Plum Shrub

Natal Plum Shrub

Natal Plum Shrub

Natal Plum Shrub

Native to South Africa
White flowers
Thorns
Fruits in summer to fall
Does well in coastal areas, salt tolerant
Propagate by seed or cutting

Attracts night flying insects

These are in pots, receive full afternoon sun and it’s been awfully dry this fall. Still they are happy and even produced a few plums.

Since they’re in buckets we put them in the garage during the deep freeze. I don’t think they would have survived outside. The garage stayed close to freezing

Milkweed

Orange milkweed

Yellow milkweed

orange – yellow milkweed flowers

Yellow milkweed flowers

Milkweed

Milkweed

Milkweed

Milkweed

January is caterpillar time. There are at least a dozen on this plant.
Lots of scale on the other one, I’ll deal with it when the weather breaks

I had some milkweed planted out front, but a tree grew up around it and shaded it out. Despite the shade, lack of water and complete neglect it flowered every year. I’ve relocated it to a somewhat sunnier location. Pictured above are some new ones I planted last week. They are in almost full sun. The one that gets a little bit of afternoon shade is doing well, the one on full afternoon sun is struggling.

Someone has been munching on my milkweed, butterflies I hope. I read that milkweed should have the stalks cut back to 6″-8″ in Oct to encourage any late travelers to keep migrating south. idk? Since this is its first year in the ground I think I’ll leave it be and trim it late spring. After seeing the hungry January caterpillars I’m sure I won’t cut it back in the fall.

Once I see new growth in the spring I’ll trim them so they’ll bush out a bit more

In the early fall there were dozens of posts that milkweed needed to be cut back in the fall. Ugh. Don’t do it. Every plant I trimmed back died.