And now for something completely different! The theme from the past week or so around here. It has been oddly, well, cold. The greyhounds are perplexed, a lovely nap in the backyard sun has turned unpleasant and I have had to rethink my attire.
My personal definition of winter clothes – short sleeve shirts instead of tank tops, shoes, never and God forbid, socks. The middle of last week I found myself in my closet, searching for long pants, sweatshirts and shoes and the detestable socks. I haven’t put coats on the dogs yet, they are somewhat offended by canine jackets.
The good news, warmer weather is returning tomorrow. We had a low temperature of 38, nothing was damaged that I can tell. The garden still has Salvia, Beach Sunflower, and some other sort of regular things flowering – I decided to look for something different.
I am not sure how much more different one could go. The plants in my different arrangement are in Salmon, a Bromeliad flower, Aechmea weilbachii forma viridisepala, Yah! a new friend from my garage sale collection-bought a couple of years ago for a few dollars, having no idea what the flower might be..In off white, Sansiveria (Snake Plant, Mother In Laws Tongue, etc), The burgundy striped foliage is from a Ornamental Pineapple, Striped foliage from a Pandanus spp, fluffy fern – a volunteer Asparagus Fern.
Another different scene from South Florida, the Winter Vegetable garden, a few people have asked about the Potager, so far, so good. We have from the left potatoes, garlic, radishes, green beans, red peppers, tomatoes, snow peas, papayas. I am planting spinach, arugula and romaine lettuce next week.
The Shrub Queen 
Love the fresh new look of your vase. Saturday morning when we met our friends for coffee at 8 a.m., the temperature was minus 6 degrees. This morning at 6:30 a.m. it is a whopping 29 degrees. Can’t decide if I should laugh or cry at this strange weather.
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I think shiver is the correct response!
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I know I can always depend on you to give me a burst of tropical flowers even if your temperatures have been cold of late.
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My purpose, a burst from the tropics!
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Your vase is full of interesting texture. Like you, I will be happy to have the temperatures shift upward this week. Enjoy the balmy days.
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Hope its balmy for you!
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The greens you have used today look especially luscious somehow. Oh and I had to smile at the description of your usual winter attire 🙂
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The greens are all really thick!
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I love your vase and the veg garden….and I’ll take your cold weather….here we were below zero with lots of snow!
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Thank you, I am too far gone Floridian to deal with snow and that!
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A lovely fresh vase with lots of different shades of green as well as an intriguing flower. I thought you might have had snow, but I am sure 38° was cool enough for you and the doggies when it is so unusual. Hope you can shed the socks again soon! I hate having to put them back on in autumn, so know what you mean!
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Thank you, needed something fresh and funky! There was some snow and ice in Florida further north and frost to the west of me. I am close enough to the water to get the moderating influence. Still have socks on!
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You do have the most marvelous bromeliads – I’ve never seen a flower like the one produced by that Aechmea. Nor do my various Sansevieria produce flowers anywhere near as dramatic as yours. You’ve had colder temperatures than we have of late but, at last, we got some rain today, just 0.18/inch thus far but more is supposedly on the way.
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One thing we have in common – sanseviera flowers – haha! I keep them to clean the air inside all winter long. Your little potager looks good!
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I have a snake plant border..the veg is coming along.
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Nice 🙂
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The bromeliad flower is a stunner and is set off well by the frothy asparagus fern. I like the picture of your potager – I am hoping to grow garlic this year too, am a bit late planting, but now I have my new beds am going to try a late variety.
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Thanks, I think the Bromeliad is otherwordly. I did not realize quite what was involved in growing garlic, that has been growing for about 3 months and is starting to brown. Now I can have a garlic braid!
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Glad it’s warming up again! I’m always amazed by the variety of plants you have in your garden. these ones in your vase are again very unusual. Lovely!
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I think those flowers are kind of weird, though they are turning purple on the tips.
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Complaining about socks doesn’t get much sympathy here. I have to put so many layers on to do any gardening at this time of the year that it takes ages to unwrap me like a mummy.
I love your tropical arrangement and I’m very impressed with your productive potager.
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