Garden Blogger Bloom Day BLING



Close-Up

 This Garden Blogger Bloom Day brings a bit of *BLING* to my garden in the form of Jewels of Opar (Talinum paniculatum) aka Fameflower of Jewels of Ophir.

The basal foliage is a bright, lime-green and is thick, almost succulent-like. The blooms are tiny pink things heald aloft of spring-y, spindly spikes, rather like a Heuchera. The "gems" of this plant are the ruby beads (seedpods) on the flower sprays.

I have it in a large container and part shade and it is doing very well -- doubling in size and blooming its head off just a few weeks after planting it. It is fairly drought-tolerant, which is good for summer here.


Whole Plant

 I got three baby plants from Doug R., a garden club friend who loves in Rockville, MD. Don't you love pass-a-long plants? It is an annual here and self-sows readily I hear, so we'll see if I have some to share next year.

PS If you are reading this post at the original posting on Washington Gardener Magazine's blog (washingtongardener.blogspot.com), you can click on the photos and view them at full size.