September Flower Photos of the day

[farmer d]

Farmer D

[Kyle]

Welcome Dr. Rebecca nice Space Oddity you have.

I been real busy lately but now that baseball season is over for us have some time to post some pictures.
Let me start by saying this has been 1 heck of a roller  coaster year for weather. 
Mild warm winter turned cold and snowed through April as winter dragged on forever.
June normal heavy rain late.
July no rain at all 90's
August was  coldest Aug. ever in Cleveland's history.
Sept was hottest and driest Sept ever in Cle.   I think we had 6 or 7 days of 90+ temps and no rain at all.

I have had my Pinot Noir for a couple years always does well.  Gradually potted up as needed.
Every fall she gets a major hard prune and takes off early spring and blooms spring-fall over and over.
 
Fall 2016 was the 1st year I did not hard prune Pinot Noir.  Did the usual fall flushing and bug blasting before returning has a houseplant.
I trimmed 1 branch over summer and 1 branch in Fall no hard prune.
Over winter she got multiple hours of direct sun as a houseplant 60-70's F Temps all winter.
I noticed over winter the bloooms were getting distorted and not always opening.
No pest at all.
By middle of  winter she dropped all of her leaves after they all turned crispy brown, green, and yellow.
I did nothing out of the ordinary fertilized over winter with houseplant formula and cut back a little bit as I started to see burned leaves.
By the end of winter she was all bare sticks but with lots of nodes and looked promising for summer. 
She stayed dormant from Feb-July.   Not even Veg leaves.  Did nothing at all, no growth no branching. 
I also used Wake Up Spray to get her going but didn't seem to do much.
When the weather warmed up end of May, she went outside where she got lots of direct morning sun, and late afternoon through all  evening direct sun.   Space Oddity and Pink Panther loved it. 
Finally in July I started to see some new growth as she started to take off.
She stayed in veg until Sept.   

August had turned so cool I brought her inside my covered porch until next year.
By the end of Aug. the bush looked great no sign of trouble with many blooms on the way.
The 1st  blooms started out as winter colors since it was so cool in Aug outside.
As Sept. heated up, summer colors arrived but as it became 100F in my porch the blooms turned very pail. 
By the end of Sept. into Oct  bi color seems to be getting back to normal but blooms still distorted, small, and 1 day flowers that dry up very fast.   Bush and foliage look really good though but dropping 50% of buds like some of my other CV have been doing since winter.
Here are some photos of flowers in about 1 months time.
Feeding was very consistent with Special Blend and Booster just like all my other hibiscus all summer.
She back on Houseplant Formula since saucer being used or water drains all over the floor.

The pictures continue into Oct Photos of the Day.

Kyle





 
 

[Kyle]

All of my hibiscus have been a houseplant at some point or still are.    They all start off as houseplants and gradually work their way outside if they can handle the direct sun or if I like what the blooms look like outside.  

Out of all my CV's the Best Houseplant Award goes to..... Wow Factor!

Over the years my Wow Factor was a houseplant, an outdoor plant, a  covered porch plant, and for the last year it's been a houseplant and will always be a houseplant forever now.
Less is more.   No direct sun is best for my situation.        
Not even direct sun that is filtered through windows, screens, or greenhouse material.  
The bush is so big inside my home I have Plant Yo-Yo's holding up the branches from the ceiling so the bush doesn't fall over.  
I don't have enough light inside my home to take photos inside with my camera.  
My camera doesn't show true colors in direct sun with certain blue and purples.

The bi colors of green and magenta show up only in certain conditions.
Those conditions are whatever it is inside my home.  
If you count the bleed and eye as 2 colors I count 6 colors on the houseplant blooms.
Just outside the bleed the red mixes with the blue body and forms the bi color magenta.
The blue body blends in with the underlying yellow edge to form the bi color green.
I don't usually see the bi colors until later in the day when the pink fades just enough.

The bottom photo bloom made it through day 4 but quickly closed at sunset. 
The blooms don't usually last 4 days. 

[Kyle]

Close up of the bi color bleed.