My first foreign flowers

Blogging has created not only networks of international friends but a lot more! Some blogger friends take time to personally meet when their space and time allow. I've read many of you especially in the US, to have driven miles, took planes just to meet newly found blogger friends. You exchanged not only information in gardening but also the much coveted species or cultivars available in a friend's garden. And of course they are mostly done with wonderful lunches or dinners, or a cup of coffee at the least!


Another product of blogging networks is the sending of seeds through the posts. I have twice been a recipient of this blogger-friends' kindness. They are both from the US and being a temperate country, the seeds they sent were all experimentally monitored. Not all temperate climate plants germinate in hot tropics like the Philippines, so i germinated them without much expectations. Skeeter sent my first seeds of vegetables and ornamentals. I remember it was my interest in the birdhouse gourd which touched her to send me seeds with additional ornamental packets. However, the gourd and other cucurbits germinated but did not grow well. Only the marigolds grow favorably and they are now already in their third generation. But marigolds thrive on wide ranges of temperatures and climates. Actually, we already have marigolds in this country, although Skeeter's was my first of the pom-pom variety. 


My second seeds from the US came from The Suburban Gardener of Illinois. She is a lily breeder, sent me fourteen kinds of seeds including two bulb species. The two bulbs are growing well, but the gaillardia is the first to flower. It will be followed by coneflowers which are still in the vegetative stage. The rest either did not germinate or not able to grow. I hope she will be thrilled like me in seeing the survivors. My mother, sisters, nephew and niece (as well as the cats and chickens) were excitedly thrilled too!

We were thrilled seeing the first gaillardia flower bud.

The stingless bees want it too, even if they see this for the first time! We have both the native honey bee and stingless bee in our property, signifying ours is a healthy environment.

It is affected much by high temperatures, so maybe the stalks are so long and thin, and they might not be as prolific as their relatives in the country it came from.

A collage showing the different stages of maturity of a gaillardia flower

 The above coneflowers are another source of anticipation.

 I haven't seen flowering coneflowers, so i hope the above will be successful.

My sincere gratitude to Donna@Gardens Eye View for checking my flowers as gaillardia.