ABOVE
Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis jalapa)

We had some in 2002, but a high percentage of last year’s seeds sprouted, so we had a lot in 2003. Because of our weak personality, however, we find it hard to thin them out; but we can’t leave them crowded, so we pushed some to our parents’ house, and some to acquaintances and friends.

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Bergamot (Monarda didyma)

This plant gives its fragrance to Earl Grey tea, so we were curious and planted it. It has been growing little by little beside the pineapple sage. The flowers quickly lose their good looks, but this plant is also one of the few successful plants in our yard.

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Hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus ‘Blue Bird’)

It is actually a tree (or is it a shrub?) growing next door. From our house it looks nice; but our neighbour, who planted it as a privacy screen, doesn’t have much chance to see the flowers. It makes many sprouts in our yard. We wish it was the variety with white flowers, but such is life.

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Blue Daze (Evolvulus pilosus)

The plant itself was able to survive the cold of winter, but we don’t know why it doesn’t bloom nicely. Whenever we see the lovely one they have in the garden across from our house, we wonder ‘Does it need more sun?’

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Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

At the time when we didn’t have many flowers in our yard, my elder sister gave us some sunflower plants after she thinned out her garden. It gets to be so tall we can’t have very many, but it’s a nice summer flower. Last year, our next door neighbour had very tall sunflowers from the seeds ours dropped in her yard. We didn’t have so much success with ours, so we enjoyed seeing hers.

ABOVE, LEFT AND RIGHT
Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana)

We recommend this as a good flower for a shady garden. It was very successful in our yard in the summer. The layered flower (on the left) is pretty and looks like a rose. It not supposed to be strong for winter cold, but we brought it in the house, and it wintered over well. The other (on the right) is a single petal variety, and is the most common impatiens. We often see them in red and pink but we have no mind to plant those colours in our yard. This is also a very nice plant for a shady yard like ours.

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Cotton Rose [Confederate Rose] (Hibiscus mutabilis)

This is the child of a tree next door. Our neighbour gave it to us after we moved in to this house, in 2000. Hers probably sprouted from a seed dropped by a bird, or carried on the wind. However, the parent tree died after we got this one. Fortunately, a cutting from our tree managed to take root, so our neighbour could get back another daughter of her tree. The flowers start out white and later change to pink. The Japanese name (suifuyo) is a joke on the changing colour, and means ‘the drinking fuyo (hibiscus)’. Ours is a single petal variety, but we often see layered flowers when we are out walking. It’s easy to get mildew and is loved by various bugs.

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Hydrangea

This is also from the neighbour who gave us the cotton rose. The flowers are mostly pink, but it seems to be becoming blue-ish little by little. We don’t know how much we are supposed to trim it, so we feel scared every time we cut it back. All we know is that we should trim it just after the flowers finish.

ABOVE LEFT
Flower of the Western Wind [Storm Lily]
(Zephyranthes candida)

Its section of the garden also doesn’t have good sun, so it can’t produce many flowers. But it shows nice pretty flowers every year, even though we don’t take care of it much.

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Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon japonicus)

This is a typical plant we usually see as edging around flower beds. We regret that we didn’t notice its quiet purple flowers until this year. We made the flower bed in this part of the yard, but the plant itself is left over from the former resident’s garden.

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Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)

We see this plant everywhere around town. Even my elder sister turned down our offer of a cutting because she already has a bigger one. This also came from the neighbour who gave us the hydrangea and the cotton rose. We saw its flowers for the first time this year. Its unexpectedly pretty flowers surprised us.

ABOVE RIGHT
Lantana (Lantana camara)

Unusually for us, we bought this brightly coloured flower (in a pot), but it bloomed in the first year and disappeared later. Some houses in our neighbourhood have nice big ones, so we wonder why ours didn’t take. We think that the place where we planted it was probably just the wrong place for it.

Date posted: 2004-08-09