Home & Garden

I took several shots of the orchids in our local garden emporium today, and although all of them were beautiful, these stood out as being the most unusual and interesting.

“Arctotis hybrida” daisies offer a wide variety of colors. These fiery ones are blooming in my back yard in late October with more to come soon.

Damsel isn’t in to this strange flowering succulent, but I’m sort of entertained by it. In a way, it’s kinda disgusting, since it’s main pollinators are flies and it has a foul odor like roadkill. What’s interesting about this particular plant is that there are more pods blossoming into flowers than we’ve ever seen in the several years we’ve had it. I estimate there will be about 15 flowers this season — usually only one or two per season prior to now. It must be due to global warming (just kidding — sarcasm intended).

From Dave’s Garden:

Stapelia gigantea — Interesting succulent, olive green and erect. Lots of branches. 4-sided spineless stems average up to 9 inches and about 1 inch thick. Cactus-like appearance.

Grown mostly for the starfish-shaped flower. Flowers are pale yellow with reddish stripes, covered with white hairs. Flower can average 8 to 12 inches across. It is said to look flesh-like, also reported to have a rotting meat odor, which attracts its main visitor, the fly, for pollinating

This plant which is usually grown in pots is known by several common names which include the following: starfish flower, Zulu-giant, carrion flower and giant toad. It is native to southern Africa and Mozambique.

By the way, Dave’s Garden is one valuable resource when trying to learn about plants and flowers.