Bloomingdale Garden Club Garden Views Home About Us President's Message Recent Club Activities Mark your Calendars Garden Care Garden Share Garden Views Resources Membership   Travel Members Section Contact Us           These are Joyce’s lilies –  the pink lily is absolutely gorgeous, and look at the bud count on the white one! And here is Linda’s Red Castor Bean plant, an absolutely stunning specimen. Photo was taken in late September. Considered a shrub.  Bloom time is late summer/early fall.  Height ranges from 3 to 10 feet.  Not hardy in our zone, but if properly cleaned, seed can be successfully stored. Family:  Euphorbiaceae, Genus:  Ricinus, Species:  communis, Cultivar:  Carmencita Takes full sun.  Water regularly but do not overwater. This plant grew from three castor beans (seeds) Linda’s sister planted in pots in April, then planted in the ground in late May.  The seedlings were about 6" tall. The seeds were purchased at Platt Hill Nursery.  Linda will try to harvest the seeds this fall and hopefully will have seeds to share with Club members next spring. Let Linda know if you want to try a couple. IMPORTANT:  All parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested. Linda found this cool yellow & black spider in her garden. She checked out Bug Files at www.davesgarden.com, and its name is Argiope.  It's a common garden spider that creates beautiful webs in a ziz-zag pattern.   Here’s Linda’s Weber Grill planter in summer glory.                A praying mantis that took up residence in Helen’s container of sun coleus. It lays its eggs in the fall, the eggs overwinter and hatch in the spring. It’s a beneficial bug that eats many pesky garden insects. Hummingbirds were regular visitors to Helen’s garden – they loved the Black & Blue Salvia, the Cardinal Climber (extremely easy to grow from seed) and red lantana. We can obtain salvia and lantana from our grower next year. Thank you, Rebecca, for sharing a photo of your new shade garden with the Club. These gorgeous plants were purchased at our Flower Sale.  They are Victory Blue Salvia and Sun Coleus.  Have to make a note to order these again next year.  I added Osmocote pelleted fertilizer to the soil at time of planting.  These Victory Blue Salvia have much larger flowers than the ones I planted at the office (without the Osmocote).   Are you pleased with the plants you purchased at our Flower Sale?  Please send photos of your successees so we can share them with our members.   Let us know what plants did really well ... and those you weren't so happy with ...