Our banishment continues, I was just trying to think of where Napoleon’s exile was…Elba. That sounds pretty good, except it is in Italy. Oh well, I will just stay here and look at the spring flowers in my garden. I am guessing mine are different from most other Six on Saturday posts. To see other posts for spring flower comparisons, go visit The Propagator at http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.
Above, I started with a Florida classic, the Hibiscus. This is an old fashioned red that is decades old in my garden.
Below, a flower on the Hong Kong Orchid Tree (Bauhinia purpurea). This is my neighbor’s tree – you can tell by the foliage how dry it has been here.
This is a Coral Plant (Jatropha multifida) a funky plant – about 18″ wide and 5 feet tall. I have it in a narrow space. The flowers do look like coral and the foliage looks like marijuana.
Miss Alice Bougainvillea is just starting to flower. I waited a long time to find a nearly thornless Bougainvillea and here she is. You still need gloves for pruning, just not rose gloves.
There are several Justicia (Shrimp Plants) I grow as perennials. This is called Mexican Bush Honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera), it is a shrub – about four feet tall currently.
Last, but not least, the flower of the Adonidia Palm (Veitchia merrilli). On the left side of the trunk is the bud.
Hopefully everyone is making the best of our global exile and working in the garden. I realized I should make a list – there are so many little details to work on. I am making broth and soup this afternoon. I bought a 22 lb turkey and cooked it this week for many future turkey sandwiches and soups. My husband smoked the thighs and I saved the carcass to make broth. In the kitchen for me this afternoon. I am proud that I was able to stop myself from posting large turkey pictures and making political comments. Well, not quite.
Happy Gardening.
The Shrub Queen 
It is amazing to think of the billions of folks that are staying home around the world. Bored to tears, most likely! I am grateful for the garden and acres of land here to walk in.
We had a porcupine visit this morning, nibbling on the hemlock hedge. I let it know it wasn’t particularly welcome. One has to maintain ‘social distance’ after all. 😉 Luckily, we saw it before Wren did.
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Ohhh close encounter of the prickly kind.. I am grateful for the garden also and glad I like to cook.
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I will not see a hibiscus flower for awhile. I just got my tropical ones out of the garage. Another fact I did not know is that bougainvillea grew thrones until I decided to prune one. Mine only bloomed when it was new and yet they bloom all winter a few miles south of me. I hate to admit that I’m a homebody and I have enough projects to keep me busy until the day I die.
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I am not familiar with coral plants. Interesting. I also am glad to have a garden to get out into. Although, I’m better off than many, we are still allowed to take walks for fun! Until last week it was freer, but then over last weekend too many idiots went to beaches and state parks! If we all just stay in we’ll get out quicker. And no complaining! If we can get out and garden we aren’t doing so poorly!
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Same idiots here now our beaches are closed and the restaurants kept open in a few cases…
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But Napoleon escaped from Elba. I love your tropical 6. We are lucky to have lovely gardens to retreat into. Enjoy your turkey.
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We will escape from this as well, no Waterloo please. Thank you, we are lucky.
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An orchid tree! How fanciful!! And how wonderful your neighbour planted it!!
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Thanks, Chris. It is less fanciful when the gigantic seed pods start falling..
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😄😄😄
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Love your coral plant – and actually all your flowers. I haven’t eaten yet tonight, so I wish you hadn’t talked about the turkey quite so much! But we might have enjoyed the political comments …
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My political comments are getting ruder by the day.
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You are not alone!
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I love all your exotica, warms my toes!
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Such exotic offerings from your garden, and colourful too. I haven’t been able to discover how to photograph red flowers successfully…. your red hibiscus photo is perfect.
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Thank you, Jane. Tropical plants can be madly colorful, though there is a lot of white. The Red Hibiscus was taken in nearly full sun at my back. If that helps!
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Lovely to see some flowers from a more exotic environment. The blue orchid tree flower is very beautiful and the name reminds me of something, but I can’t figure out what! I hadn’t considered that bougainvillea plants had thorns! I do however have a Justicia carnea plant. I cut it back at the end of last autumn as it was becoming very tall and gangly. I was hoping it would bush out when it began to grow again, but now I’m not so sure 🤨
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Thank you – completely different from UK garden fare that is for sure. Bougainvillea has gigantic thorns on most of the plants ( 1 inch long and sharp) I had one of those Justicia carnea but couldn’t keep enough water on it and lost it. Good luck with yours.
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Thank you! I have some cuttings that seem quite healthy so we’ll see.
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I have not seen an orchid tree in a very long time. I do not remember them as Hong Kong orchid trees. I brought one back from Los Angeles years ago, but ended up returning it when it grew up and needed a home. There is a white cultivar that was planted as a street tree on Buron Way. As much as I really like white, I think it is rather boring for an orchid tree. The foliage seems to be greener though.
Adonidia palm was one that I wanted to grow. If I grow any, they would need to go down south eventually. I would not plant them in the ground here.
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When I learned plants (early 80s) they were called Hong Kong, I think it was a purple cultivar, there are some white ones on my street and I agree with you, though I don’t like them well enough to bother. Adondidas are easy to grow from seed and very cold sensitive.
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Hey, that was the same time I learned them! Did you happen to learn the Bauhinia punctata too? We learned it back then, but then never saw it again.
Sensitivity to frost is why I would not want to grow adondidas here. I can get them started, but would need to send them away.
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Don’t know punctata, but looked it up. I have seen them around and did not realize what it was. Thanks!
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That is interesting that they are around. I do not even see them in landscapes here. I talked to a colleague who knew them like I did, and he says the same about how they were around only briefly in the Los Angeles region, but did not last long. It was if they do not live much longer than a western redbud. The white orchid trees on Burton Way were planted shortly afterward, but are still doing quite well. They are not large trees.
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It’s one of those weird, sorta creepy shrubs. I think they are prolific seeders.
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Creepy?! I don’t like creepy. It is one of those shrubs that sort of intrigued me, just because I never got acquainted with it. I would consider growing it if I ever found it again while down south. If I remember correctly, it is tolerant of frost. Technically, even the orchid tree can survive in the milder climates here. I worked with one up near Oakland.
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Just because I was curious, I looked up Hong Kong orchid tree to compare it to common orchid tree, and there is actually a difference. I knew that name sounded familiar. The common orchid tree that I remember is Bauhinia purpurea. Hong Kong orchid tree is Bauhinia X blakeana, which is a hybrid of the maternal Bauhinia purpurea and paternal Bauhinia variegata. If I remember correctly, Hong Kong orchid tree used to just be the cultivar ‘Blakeana’ of the otherwise common orchid tree, as in Bauhinia purpurea ‘Blakeana’. It is likely that the Hong Kong orchid tree (cultivar) replaced what I remember as the common orchid tree from a long time ago, and is no longer known by the cultivar name, but just Bauhinia purpurea. (However, my colleague down south said that the Hong Kong orchid tree might Instead be classified as a cultivar of the paternal parent, as Bauhinia variegata ‘Blakeana’, which I have not investigated.) But of course, all this confusion could just be about regionally different common names.
My colleague also explained what you meant about Bauhinia punctata being ‘creepy’, since they creep over retaining walls like a lavender starflower or cape honeysuckle does.
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Yes, Blakeana is probably Hong Kong, South Florida is weird like that. The growth habit on some of the tropical shrubs is creepy, not like the Adams family.
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Creepy like sprawling. I get it.
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Yes, definitely different flowers to what we see here, and beautiful too. That last one is quite weird! I had no idea Bougainvillea have thorns. I learn something new every day! 😃
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Very different! Palm flowers are generally pretty weird. I will post more as I see them. And will take some Bougainvillea thorn pictures – I don’t know a comparable plant for thorns, they are huge.
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I had an ornamental quince in my last garden and those thorns are Monsters! 😉
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LOL, a thorn challenge!
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We may not be able to travel for real, but I felt transported to a tropical garden for a few minutes there. Thank you.
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Thank you, I frequently feel I had a trip to the UK. It is that Magic Carpet of the blog thing.
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You called it, when you said yours were different, but yours usually are a bit unique. Love all the beautiful flowers, but the orchid tree & coral plant are my favs. Wonderful colours & form.
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Thank you, Lora. I am enjoying that Coral Plant. It is pretty funky!
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