Hen and Chicks

 It took more than 3 years after I have adopted 3 hens and chicks plants at the same time that they decided to bloom for us. It was really sad to leave them since it took so long to finally enjoy their lovely bloom. Now these plants have been safely adopted by other gardeners in Adelaide.

 Hen and Chick plant is very easy to grow and can live with neglect at our previous dry Adelaide garden. This succulent plant is easy to propagate and does not need much soil to grow big. A very drought-hardy plant. It needs well-drained soil to live happy. The plant leaves form a rosette which resembles more like a flower itself.

 The flower bud jutting out from the leave rosette centre.

How the flower stalk form from this angle. I waited so long for the flower bud to finally open and bloom. I was even very worried that I will miss the chance to watch the bloom before I have to part with it.

 Alert alert when you found black ants exploring your hen and chicks plant, make sure to get rid of them. Those black ants will only cause problems to the plant as it usually a sign that it has bring some pest along with them and give shelter to unwanted pest. The presence of many ants on the flower bud can damaged the buds from being able to open and bloom.

Not just me, but bees were also enjoying themselves with the blooming flower of hen and chicks plants.

I think those gave-away plants must have more blooming flowers now. 

Sigh, wish I still enjoy looking at them.

Succulent Flower

This year it was the first time all of the adopted succulent plant in our garden produced flower after 3 years growing them in our garden. We only have 4 different succulent plants in our garden. We don't really need to take care of them. The succulent plant seems to be happy provided with sun and does not require much water to grow well, with these the plants do grow really fast and needed re-potting or divide in dormant season. It is a new experience and fun learning to watch how these plant have grown. Most of these succulent flower colour interestingly are bright orange-red. 

 I think this is an aloe plant type flower, I might be wrong since I adopted them without knowing anything.This is a new bird which adopted itself in our garden since autumn. The birds like to follow us around in the garden and caught our attention. The bird did not fly away as I get closer to take a photo.

I am not sure what succulent plant this is but it has grown quite large. Almost 50cm in diameter. Do you know the name of this plant? 

Sue from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotment has helped me to identify this cotyledon plant. 

Not sure either what succelant plant this is. A volunteer calendula plant sharing the same pot caught in between.

A memory photos of our succulent plants, as I might forgot how they flower.

Have a lovely weekend.

Another Adopted One ( Cotyledon)

 This is another plant that we adopted together with Arum Green Goddess blooming side by side in the garden at the moment. I still have no idea what plant this is. Not very good with this type of plants. I thought it does not produce any flower, how naive can I be. Still am novice in this part of group plants. I hope you can help me identify this plant. The flowers are slightly reddish and in a shape like bell. 

This is how the plant actually look like growing in pot.

A drought-hardy plant and thrive without care.

Never got any fertiliser since we adopted this plant.

Suddenly a flower stalk appeared in the middle.

Just noticed that there is a yellow insect nestling between the bud.

Do you know what it is?

Apparently not a good bug.

Infested the flower stalk and causes it to rot and not blooming.

Weird never seen this bug on other plants before.

Lucky some flower stalk were save and free from that bug.

The flower does take a long time to bloom from the emerging buds.

It took several months before the buds finally open and bloom.

New Blooms.

Have a lovely weekend!

Are you staying indoors for Olympic or outdoors gardening :).