On Sunday, I arrived home from a two week sojourn to Maui, Hawaii and my hometown, Atlanta, Georgia and found a beautiful vase by my front door. South Florida may seem seasonless but Fall is evident here. My trip to Maui provided tropical beauty not available in Florida and the pass through Atlanta added a touch of Autumn, just settling in the Southeastern US providing a tiny bit of fall color in the leaves of Tulip Poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera) and Sourwoods (Oxydendron arboreum). In South Florida, the Beautyberry is setting fruit as well as the Papayas.
Two weeks ago I left a posy for my neighbor for feeding my fluffy white cat.
Much to my surprise, she left a lovely posy for me that I discovered this afternoon when I arrived home. Here is a close up:
The Coral flowers in the arrangement are Dwarf Poncianias (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), Coral is an unusual color in these trees and plays nicely against the purples and pinks in the arrangement. Purple berries are Beautyberry (Calliocarpa americana) – these berries materialized while I was on vacation. The Pink flowers are Coral Vine (Antigonon leptopus), White flowers are Plumerias, the foliage is Hawaiian Snowbush (Breynia nivosa)
The fruit sitting in front of the vase is a Papaya, grown by another neighbor, who was outside when I walked by with my dogs this evening. We have been discussing Papaya Date Nut Bread for weeks – waiting for these Papayas to ripen.
The Papayas are chopped and I am searching for a recipe, Bread should be ready to stand by A Vase later on Monday.
The Shrub Queen 
Such a nice neighbor!
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Absolutely, baking Papaya bread right now!
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Wow, how wonderful to be able to share fresh, local papayas. The marvels of tropical living. 😉
I love seeing all the plants that grow well there. We are are on far northern range of beautyberry, sourwood and tulip tree. My beautyberry dies to the ground every year (too cold for it). I had a sourwood that the voles unfortunately girdled last winter. >:-( So disappointing! Just this past Friday, I liberated a tulip tree seedling from the side of the road to bring home to nurture until I can plant it out. So there are plants we have in common!
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The Tulip Poplar and Sourwood were in Atlanta, we are way too far south for those. Too bad about the voles, Sourwood is one of my favorites and I love the honey.
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Those sound like some pretty wonderful neighbors. I keep meaning to plant beauty berry. Really need to do that as it is so beautiful in your arrangement.
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Thank you. i planted Beautyberry earlier this year and it is just starting to fruit.
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What a beautiful vase your neighbour has left you – the colours are gorgeous and the callicarpa is a darker shade than those in the UK and more densely berried. You must have been thrilled – and thanks for showing us the papaya – I realised I didn’t know what a papaya looked like and expected a stoned fruit. Most intriguing…
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I was thrilled. The seeds from the Papaya are edible and have a peppery taste, it is used to make salad dressing with grated onion and oil and vinegar.
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So does it have the growth habit of a melon, for example?
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Not at all, it looks like a weird palm tree, the fruit hangs around the underside of the canopy. I will take a picture and post it.
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Ah, I see – makes me feel a bit ignorant but I think I have just never really considered it before!
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Don’t feel that way – I wondered what the weird Palm trees were for a long time.
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Spectacular vase to come home to, love the berries even if that does mean that autumn is here.
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Autumn is good here! Winter is better.
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Wow, I have never seen such a huge Papaya.
What a gorgeous bouquet. Your neighbour is kind. The Callicarpa is so full of berries, mine never looks like that. I love the Ceasalpinia too, it is such a pretty colour. I have often tried to grow this from seed, but I can never get it to bloom in my greenhouse.
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The Papaya is a Mexican Yellow variety my neighbor grew from seed. I think the pear shaped smaller ones are Hawaiian. The fruit still on the tree is bigger. The Beautyberry here is much more fruity than the ones I grew further north. I think it must be the rainy season. I have started a Ceasalpinia from seed, it is 1/2 meter tall, I will have to wait to see what color it is.
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How fabulous to arrive home to gifts like that, treasure your great neighbours. The colours look very lovely.
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Thank you, kind of Autumnal colors.
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That is one huge papaya. I buy the fruit weekly for my husband, who loves it, and have been thinking I should try planting a tree – it’d probably be cheaper!
The flower arrangement left by your neighbor is very pretty. I really need to try growing that beautyberry here.
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My neighbor grew the Papaya from seed! You should try the Beautyberry – it is very full of fruit here, really needs shade. People make jam from the fruit but I haven’t tried it.
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Your post is full of nice neighborly deeds. The flowers are lovely. Nice to see beautyberry is doing well for you too.
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The berries are amazing here.
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Your neighbor left you pretty flowers, but I would go for the papaya. The bread sounds wonderful. Even if I grew one from seed here I wouldn’t have the greenhouse to get it to the tree size. I love the scent of the Plumerias, it must smell wonderful, Amelia.
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Wonderful scents all around and the bread ended up papaya, rum soaked raisins and pecans, my husband loved it.
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How nice to have such a bountiful relationship with your neighbours. I don’t think I’ve seen a papaya that big before. We had one growing in the corner of the garden when we lived in the Canaries. I don’t recall liking the taste much though, although it was considered useful for jellyfish stings! Enjoy your flowers, they are beautiful.
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Thank you, that is a Mexican Papaya, the Hawaiian variety is more like a pear. I like them in bread or with vanilla yogurt but the taste is a bit weird.
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How wonderful to have a papaya tree in the neighbourhood! My neighbours have been sharing their plums with me and there may be apples to come too. Lovely vase – beautyberry is quite lovely.
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The Papaya Bread turned out very well so I may go back to that tree. Plums are wonderful, too – pie baking?
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German plum cake, plum jam and plum compote! 😉 Papaya bread sounds like a delicious idea.
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Papaya bread sounds good! I love the tropical papayas with lime juice. We grow the mountain papaya which is not as sweet so we don’t use it much, but perhaps it would be good in bread and salad dressing.
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Yes, I like the tropical ones better for eating straight up.
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