An Adenium Obesum Blooms on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

One of our Gulf Hills Garden Club members has a small collection of Adenium Obesum also known as the Desert Rose.

One of them is starting to bloom and the flowers are just beautiful.  These plants are a great succulent that thrives in hot sun and little water. 

This plant require a minimum temperature of about 50°F, so it even has to be brought in during the winter here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. But the little bit of extra trouble during the colder months here seems to be worth it for this members Desert Roses 

During the summer months it stays outside and requires minimum attention and has flowers off and on all summer. This one gets a bit of a hose down every so often and it and the others in the group seem to just thrive.

Needing a well drained soil mix they do have a bit of a problem with root rot, so be careful about having good drainage for your desert roses.

The Adenium Obesum has a latex like sap that may bother some people and the sap is toxic, so be careful handling it if you get one.

There are a vast many different types available. They come in reds, pinks, white, rarely yellow, and sometimes a mixture of two different colors.

A wonderful addition to any deep Southern Garden!

For more information about the Adenium Obesum/Desert Rose check out this PDF from the University of Florida,Miami Dade. This two page file has a lot of very good general information about growing and maintaining this plant.

The Gulf Hills Garden Club of Mississippi Presents Aleurites Fordii The Tung Oil Tree

Have you ever seen such wonderful flowers!

The elegant flowers in the image below are from a Gulf Hills Garden Club member, who is fortunate enough to have a small grove of graceful Tung Oil Trees growing in their garden.

 The Tung Oil Tree(Aleurites fordii) is also known as the Chinawood Tree and this is the tree that tung oil comes from.

The large (poisonous) seeds of this tree are pressed for the oil, which is then used in the manufacture of lacquers, varnishes, paints, linoleum, oilcloth, resins, artificial leather, felt-base floor coverings, and greases, brake-linings and in cleaning and polishing compounds.

It is said that during World War II, the Chinese used tung oil for motor fuel.

This tree has a very long history, having been cultivated in China for at least 2,000 years and more recently in modern times traveling all the way to the Gulf Coast of the United States.

Tung oil has been a major industry here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as can be testified to by an article about tung oil on the website of the Biloxi Historical Society.

For more information on tung oil take a look at the Tung Oil entry at WikipediA

Our Tung Oil Flower images were taken back in April of 2014.

Welcome to The Gulf Hills Garden Club Blog

We at the Gulf Hills Garden Club would like to take this opportunity to say hello to all our friends, neighbors, and all that may come to this blog.

The purpose of this blog will be to  provide information to both our club members and the general public as to the various different activities that we are involved in and also to provide information about gardening in general.

Now, just for a start, below is an image from one of our members. This is their Red Passion flower (Passiflora coccinea) vine. This vine is ever so exotic in any garden and if potted you can even have this wonderful tropical in the colder climates if one is willing to over winter it inside.  This plant is a fast grower and can very quickly fill a trellis or other support. A sure winner that will add color to your garden.

Another nice benefit is that once a passion fruit vine is well established it can provide the much talked about passion fruit!  Of course you know what you can do with passion fruit?  Yes, Make Passion Fruit Cheese Cake!  Click here to find the recipe
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/passion-fruit-cheesecake-recipe.html

Red Passion Flower (Passiflora coccinea)

So having a passion flower vine can have a lot to offer in your garden and may be purchased from many sources online.