Question of the Day, Wednesday, Feb 1, 2017

sivyaleah said:

 
Oh I LOVE David Austin roses!  I have a few in my garden and my favorite is Gertrude Jekyll which is incredibly prickly (the worst I've ever encountered) but, so fragrant it's worth the thorns.  I have it as a climber going up into my PeeGee hydrangea tree.  It's pretty glorious when it blooms in the Spring!

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I have a climbing rose - Wichurana or as some people call it, Memorial Rose.  It's actually an accident, i.e. my neighbor planted it on my side of the fence!    It usually blooms in June and looks beautiful but the thorns are, as you said, "incredibly prickly."

My parents had Paul Scarlet and Blaze climbing roses.  

I love so  many flowers.. I really do not have a favorite....I used to garden a lot, and experimented with all different ones...People used to love walking by, looking at my flowers. The neighbors loved to see the different flowers each year.. I also had a big vegetable garden also.. I got my green thumb from my mom...

Black-eye Susans, Cannas, roses, hydrangeas, peonies, clematis,  and in hanging pots, the wave petunias are gorgeous.. 

I just love flowers.. 

Before I adopted Artie, I always had fresh cut flowers on my dining room table.. I have an apartment now, so I only get to garden in pots.. and that is limited.. It is a hassle to water them.. 

I love growing flowers, all kinds, but roses are my favorite. I used to have about 30 of them, from miniatures to dinner-plate size, but it's terribly difficult here to keep them over the winter, so I gave up, and only have a few hardy ones.


Hawkeye Belle - Griffith Buck rose


Fourth of July - climber

Before I gave up:


Bride's Dream - a florist's rose


Sunset Celebration - a rose that changes colors during the waning fall sunlight


Secret


A bouquet of my hybrid teas and fall crocus

I would have to say my favorite is what we call SURPRISE LILIES.  I never saw them before I moved here.  There are two kinds, and what I have is the kind whose flowers emerge in fall and when they are finished blooming, they grow leaves like flat grass that last all winter, then disappear.  You forget the plant is even there in the summer.  Then in September, suddenly tall naked tall stems push up through the earth and produce lovely delicate red flowers (surprise lily / red spider lily / hurricane lily, because they flower in hurricane season),. After the flowers are finished blooming, lycoris bulbs grow leaves which hang around until late spring. Unlike most bulbs, surprise lilies have foliage that grows in the winter and goes dormant in the summer.

I have them planted around all the cat graves (they are also known as resurrection lilies because they seem to appear from the dead).  Right now there is lots of pretty green foliage, then it disappears.  I September there's a big surprise as all the flowers start popping up. I have some of my own photos on here but cannot find them, so will just use one taken from the internet.

Those are beautiful. The only lycoris hardy here are also called "summer amaryllis" because they look like amaryllis. They put up leaves in the spring with the daffodils, then die down at the same time with the daffs. In August, they send up a stalk from which the flowers bloom. Sometimes they are called "naked ladies."

Yes, yours are much more hardy and grow up north.  Ours are not, they are definitely southern, although moderately temperate.  I'm in the foothills so it's cooler here.  I don't know if they grow in south Georgia or not.  It says Zones 7-10, but I'm not familiar with where zones begin and end.  Here is a good write up.

http://www.southernbulbs.com/red-spider-lily-southern-heirloom-triploid/

We used to live in Atlanta and I never saw any of the lycoris there, but that's probably because there were so many more beautiful things around, like gardenias. It's very dry in Atlanta, too, in the summer.

Here is the hardiness zone map. Looks like you are in zone 8a.

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/ 

Oh my gosh, I love flowers, so I have a few favorites. It's just too hard to pick just one!  I have always loved sunflowers, I grow them every year. They are a staple in my garden.

I also love hydrangeas, Gerber daisies, and my favorite rose is the orange, I think it's called the sunset rose. Usually orange with a raspberry color around the edges of the petals. 

...and of course anything purple! 

i love most flowers, but my favorites tend to be the 'old time' flower varieties -- the ones that don't seem to be 'in' anymore, though they're just gorgeous. if i had to pick one, i think it would be daffodils -- in all their varieties.

I just LOVE carnations!
Mostly, red and white, especially the mini ones. Red is my favorite color.
I always got my Mom pink ones, as she also loved carnations and her favorite color was pink.
Of course, my husband would prefer to buy me roses. He says they are so much prettier than carnations. At least, he knows to buy red and white!
I haven't got flowers in awhile, though. While my Mickey was so good, and never touched my flowers, not too sure about my two kitties now. Shadow especially loves to touch what he knows he shouldn't. He had lots of fun playing (destroying) my Christmas tree.

Are all flowers harmful to a cat?
I am just not sure.
I do miss not having flowers, but would never want my kitties to be harmed.
Nothing is worth that!

I love seeing flowers in the neighborhood.  We have some that have survived our care   Weeds do best here, although I have quite a few rose bushes that are doing well.  I also have some freesia that has been reseeding itself and is spreading in the back flower bed.  I love the smell of freesia.  I used to buy them for myself when I was single.  DH doesn't like to buy cut flowers because they die, sadly so do the plants he purchases instead.

The only flower I dislike is the daisy and only when indoors as part of an arrangement.  The don't smell nice to me.

mickNsnicks2mom said:

 
i love most flowers, but my favorites tend to be the 'old time' flower varieties -- the ones that don't seem to be 'in' anymore, though they're just gorgeous. if i had to pick one, i think it would be daffodils -- in all their varieties.

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You hit one of my favorites, along with what my grandmother called "snowdrops" or "paperwhites."  Like white, miniature daffodils, with a WONDERFUL scent!