Cinnamon Girl has turned out to be a really prolific hibiscus, and so is Stolen Kiss, the flower in the foreground in the larger photo…

At the right is the center of a lilly flower. In the background on the larger photo is Pedilanthus tithymaloides, known by many names but which we call “red bird” because, if you scrunch your eyes up when looking at the tiny flowers they have, it kind of resembles a bird. More so if you’ve had a glass of wine.

Two pomogranate bushes I planted in the fall have generated about a dozen buds each so far this spring. The flowers on this ancient plant are close to spectacular, bursting out of what look like little fruits. Unfortunately, it appears the large wholesale nurseries several years ago stopped labelling their plants by the true cultivar, and gave them pop-culture names. These were called “garnet sash.” Even more unfortunately, the nurseries switched the cultivars given these names – to the point that it’s been impossible for me to determine what variety these are.

The honeybee whose butt is sticking out to the right is hip-deep into a banana flower on an early fruiting Raja Puri plant.

This Indian variety handles our winters really well, and most years, as in this winter just past, while a few leaves may get frost-burned, the plants don’t die back. When they do, the roots always survive even the coldest winters. The fruit are very small (maybe 6 inches) but very sweet.

The plants themselves are short by banana standards, reaching 10 feet or so. They have short, wide bluish-green leaves that give your yard that jungle look.

A short, deep red amaryllis bore fruit last year, and I managed to kill off all but one of the plants I got from the seed. At the left is a close-up of the one that survived. Click for a larger look. The coloring is really different from the parent, and it’s also a much taller plant.

Click the one at your right for a view of one of the big flowers on a Madame Dupont hibiscus. I should be pruning back the hibiscus plants to shape them and prompt a hard spring bloom, but a lot of them have so many flowers that I’m not about to slice them up and miss the results.