Coleus, Portulacas and Spider Lilies

Some images from Year 2013....

Thanks to the team at Wordless Wednesday.

My balcony garden with Poinsettias, Mums and Coleus

My balcony is looking rather dressed these days with Chrysanthemums, Coleus and my favorite Poinsettias. Every year I take a trip to the nursery around November and buy some Poinsettias which I then flaunt on my balcony. The plants this year are rather small and two of them have lost a branch each so they are looking even smaller now. Poinsettia branches sadly are rather brittle!

I grow the Chrysanthemums on my rooftop terrace garden as it gets good sunlight unlike my lawn which is shaded by huge trees growing just outside the boundary wall of my house. Once the buds make an appearance, we take the pots down to the balcony where we can enjoy them even more.

 Rows of Chrysanthemum pots on the terrace.

And brought down to the balcony now.

Ornamental foliage..time for a change!

All summer my garden and my balcony have been mostly devoid of flowers. My attempts at growing Sunflowers and Zinnias failed miserably. I needed to see some color and soon! So I went to a nursery and treated myself to some bright red Poinsettias and some brightly colored Coleus.

With foliage colored as brightly as that, who needs flowers?!

I think I have killed it!

About a month ago I bought this beautiful coleus from a nursery. Its leaves were ruffled with serrated edges and a beautiful bright yellow green color. I loved it immediately and kept it on the sunny edge of my balcony. I thought it loved it there...
Until one day last week when I noticed that its leaves had burned. Delhi in summers gets very hot and the temperatures here are already touching 42 C/108 F and the tiled floor of my balcony gets very hot too. I guess it got too hot for it. I am surprised it happened so fast that I did not notice it . I wish I had kept it in the shade.
And this is what it is looking like now. Though the little leaves at the bottom give me hope I am not sure it will survive...