Spring is not quite in full force in South Florida and my garden is in tune with the season producing Spring Mix in the vegetable garden (lettuces) and a mixture of tropical and not so tropical flowers.
The lettuce is Baby Romaine, Arugula and Leaf Lettuce. The Cactus Zinnias have produced another round of tiny flowers, the foliage with the Zinnias is from the Hawaiian Snowbush (Breynia nivosa) a green, white and burgundy shrub that has white new growth like it snowed.
The Shell Ginger usually blooms in February or March and is a bit late this year. I am not sure if this is due to a chilly spell in January or the Hurricane last year. This is Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet), a Split Leaf Philodendron (Philodendron selloum) leaf and some Asian Sword Fern.
The mystery is the Amaryllis in bud I cut a few days ago, hoping for a long lasting cut flower. About 15 years ago, my father in law gave me some bulbs. his were red and despite my carrying them around all this time, they have never bloomed. There were also numerous bulbs in the garden that I think are our native Spider Lilies, but this is obviously Amaryllis- waiting to see it’s pedigree, inherited from family or a real estate transaction?
Happy early Spring and welcome back to the garden.
The Shrub Queen 
I love seeing your zinnias, I just picked up some new seed the other day. Will start them inside in a few weeks. I’ll see if I can prevent the slugs from getting them this year!
Shell ginger is so pretty!
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Thanks, Eliza I have been reading about biodynamic gardening,have you heard of pine nut slug repellant? I thinkI have seen one slug here. The Dahlias update- two remain and I found the remains of the biggest vole I have ever seen, not sure what happened there, I think the Bobcat got him.
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You have bobcats? Or is that Bob the domestic cat? Somehow, I didn’t think you’d have them in a non-rural area, but who knows?
I use slug pellets in spring, as shoots are emerging. They aren’t as effective once everything leafs out. I make corrals out of copper flashing and hand pick EVERY night, which gets pretty tedious, believe me!
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Oh, this is pretty rural,we live near the last 7 mile stretch of never developed land on the east coast of Florida https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Savannas. Bobcats, coyotes and gopher tortoises, the birds are amazing. The cat is strictly indoors!
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That is cool – that’s where I’d want to be. 🙂
Glad to hear your kitty is safely indoors. Coyotes are too numerous.
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I have seen the coyotes once and they are as big as my smaller hounds – 75 ish lbs. The Bobcats are 40 or 50 lbs and I think that is what got the vole that decimated the Dahlias. Many cats have been lost here and I would not leave mine outside.
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Lovely sunshine flowers to start my week, thank you. The ginger flower is just so exotic!
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Glad you like them. The Gingers and Heliconias are my favorite tropical exotics.I’ve just planted a Bougainvillea, so we’ll have to see if that moves up.
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I’m going to buy Bougainvillea as a summer planting and keep it in the greenhouse during the winter.
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Beware the thorns, I bought a Miss Alice, she is a bit testy versus thorny. I wanted an apricot one, but the thorns are gigantic.
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I’ll watch out for that
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I love the lettuce! Still eating mine.
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The Salad Bowl has gone bitter, but the Arugula and Romaineare still good.
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That lettuce adds a nice touch. My sis and I enjoyed throwing sea-lettuce at each other in our younger day. Good job Queen.
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You should come down, the prettier lettuce tastes awful and would be good for throwing!
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Ha.
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In addition to lettuce bombs, I found a gigantic dead vole in the garden and we have a bobcat and a coyote!! My dogs are going crazy.
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We had a bobcat. I know because our crazy dog we used to have brought us a dead baby. We have coyotes also. Doesn’t everybody? If you haven’t read, Coyote America, you should. I am a fan of coyotes and wolves…but not rats. Ha.
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It’s an exciting time of year and your mystery amaryllis adds to the anticipation of things to come. Great combination!
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Thanks..
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Oh my that Shell Ginger is stunning hanging from the vase against the tall foliage….beautiful vases!
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Thank you.
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The Shell Ginger is a beauty and your lettuce looks very tempting.
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Thank you, now I am wondering if the Shell Ginger is edible?! I think it is.
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Oh that is indeed an exciting mystery – do make sure you show us the outcome!! Your zinnias have been so pretty and it is fun to see them displayed with some more tropical blooms and your salad crop as well
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The Amaryllis is looking more red by the hour, did you put something in the hollow stem to shore the Dancing Queen up?
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I put a piece of bamboo cane in it – well, for the second stem I did. The third stem was relatively short so I didn’t bother and it was fine
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It seems to be standing up,I was surprised to see how hollow the stems are.
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Nature never ceases to amaze me 😉
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It still hasn’t opened, though there are four buds!
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Your arrangement really testifies to your gardening prowess. The colours are so beautiful.
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Thank you, I am trying to work out how the opposite seasons work here.
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This is such an interesting combination to see from far away. Love your zinnias.
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Thank you, just tried the Zinnias in winter. Then sowed another batch over the weekend. Always an experiment here.
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Your salad leaves look delicious – where do you grow them?
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In my vegetable garden, in the ground.
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I love the shell ginger. Beautiful!
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Thanks, where are you? I am from Atlanta.
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It’s a lovely vignette, Amelia. I didn’t realize that shell ginger opened orchid-like that way (which demonstrates how infrequently the plants are seen around here). I grew Hawaiian snowbush in my former garden but had all but forgotten about the plant until now. I wonder if it’d be happy in a shady corner of my garden here – I’ll have to look into how thirsty a plant it is.
P.S. Congrats on your state legislature’s recent action. In contrast, it looks as if the feds are going deaf again.
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Hi Kris, the Shell Ginger continues to intrigue me.The Snowbush is growing where there is not too much water, under a fig tree in sugar sand. Lesser plants have given up. The legislature did something and was promptly sued!
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It will be interesting to see what color your mystery amaryllis is. 🙂 Isn’t Florida gardening fun.
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It is, you never know what isgoing topop up next.
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The zinnias are looking good and the whole collection of blooms along with the salad leaves and shells is quite lovely! 🙂
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Thank you
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