It has been a rainy and windy week in South Florida, Christmas is over and I am looking forward to a new decade in my tropical paradise. Winter brings changes to the flora and is the most enjoyable time of the year to be outdoors. We live on our screen porch, my next task is to plant some containers for the porch.
Above is a Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet), I cut these frequently in the winter; they have a light, gingery scent and are very reliable in the garden. Other Gingers suffer in silence in my garden.
Below is a Hong Kong Orchid Tree (Bauhinia purpurea) These are common parking lot trees and produce a lot of seeds and seedlings.
The Dombeya (Dombeya wallichii) finally opened on Christmas Day, a wonderful gift. It is so windy it makes pictures difficult to take as the flowers swing in the wind.
Zinnia of unknown origin. In December.
I have three types of Mango trees in my garden, all are flowering, it is a bit early. Here is the flower of the Glenn Mango. These are panicle flowers, if pollinated produce numerous small Mangoes.
And finally, my first homegrown Papaya breakfast – with honey vanilla yogurt and granola. A very satisfying end to my gardening year.
Six on Saturday is a gardening meme hosted by The Propagator. For more posts, go to http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.
Happy New Year!!
Amelia
The Shrub Queen 
Your planet is paradise, Queen.
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Wish I was there right now, your porch sounds idyllic! 🙂 Nice to see all that is flourishing in your garden, esp. the Dombeya, which look like upside down hydrangea. 😉 The papaya ensemble looks delicious!
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Come on down! I just made some Smoked Fish Dip, pouring a glass of wine shortly.
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🙂 “If only in my dreams… ” 😉
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Gosh – a home grown papaya! How wonderful.
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And 20 more on the tree!
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O, that papaya brekky looks scrumptious! Love both the ginger & dombeya flowers. Can’t imagine having ginger wafting around my porch – what a treat that must be. The mango flowers are really interesting, especially knowing what they’ll turn into. Looking forward to seeing that.
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Thanks, I have been eating Papayas for the past couple of days! Still enjoying it though I think there are at least 10 on the tree. Mango flowers are interesting, I will post the progress.
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When I brought my orchid tree back from the Los Angeles region, it was the only one I knew of up here for many years. I finally saw another very nice specimen in Oakland. Anyway, it grew in San Luis Obispo, where I studied horticulture. Los Gatos is in the same climate zone. I really don’t know why it never became more popular here. There is a cultivar that blooms white too. It is a street tree on Burton Way in Beverly Hills. Even though white is my favorite color, I don’t think it works well on orchid tree.
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I agree with you about the white, there is one on my street. They reseed prolifically and break in wind, probably why they are not very popular.
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The white ones reseed?! Are they true to types? I mean, do their seedlings also bloom white? If I were to grow one again, I would want it to be the ‘normal’ orchid tree color . . . but white might be pretty if it happened to be among the redwoods. Do you notice if those that bloom white have darker green foliage? Also, do you happen to be familiar with Bauhinia punctata? We studied it in school in the late 1980s, but have not seen it since then.
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