Common yellow daisies are cheerful on city balcony

普通の黄色のデイジーがきれいですね。

This daisy keeps blooming. It’s super common, and very cheerful.

Honeybee visits 10th floor balcony flowers, storing up winter food

冬の準備のために、ミツバチはベランダの庭に訪れます。集中しているので、カメラに気が付かないようです。

On our balcony, I observed this honeybee harvesting daisy pollen. It was so enthralled with its work that it hardly seemed to notice me and my camera.

Daisies and grass on a mid-rise fire escape

デイジーやススキのようなシンプルな植物が素敵だと思っています。

I am not a horticultural snob. Simple daisies and self-sown grass can be lovely in the big city.

Fire-colored African daisies on Tokyo balcony

ベランダに、火のような色のアフリカ・デイジーが咲いています。史火陶芸教室で作った植木鉢で一番大きいです。

African daisies on Tokyo balcony. This is the largest of the handmade ceramic pots I have made at Shiho studio.

True horticulturalists like rare plants, or specialize in specific species. And garden snobs often like a constrained palette. For my own garden, I like a lot of color and don’t mind the most ordinary plants if they are colorful and hardy.

Pink, purple & red in balcony garden. Flowers & foliage.

去年の写真でベランダの紅葉を見られます。前の年の紫色のサルビアと新しいピンク色のガーベラもあります。

From last year, I like these images of the balcony garden in late fall, still crowded and with leaves turning color, the previous year’s purple salvia re-bloom, and new pink gerber daisies as highlights.

Fairy white with cityscape: petals and high-rises

Okinawa morning glory

On our balcony, this Okinawa morning glory is just now flowering. All but one of the four Japanese morning glories have died back. The Okinawa morning glory is a vivid “crystal blue,” whereas the Japanese ones are variegated. The Okinawa flowers and leaves are larger, growth vigorous, and best of all the tag claims it is a perennial.

Last Wednesday was the first official day of fall, so the wind charm has been packed away. New fall flowers include fujibakama, cosmos and a “fairy white” daisy.

Here’s what the Okinawa morning glory looks like when the bud is one day from opening. The flower lasts just one day, but each bud is in a cluster of three to six, and there are many forming this month.