This is the last weekend of summer as next Monday is Labor Day in the US. Theorectically, the end of summer signals the end of wearing white clothing (if you are a proper Southern lady). Being a pseudo proper Southern lady, I decided to photograph the summer whites in the garden.
A ‘Bridal Bouquet’ Frangipani (Plumeria pudica). These are the most reliable flowering Plumeria, they are a nearly continuous show all summer. Very lightly fragrant, I notice the scent at night.
Another much more fragrant flower, the Sweet Almond Bush (Aloysia virgata). This is a bee and butterfly magnet planted near the back door for maximum enjoyment.
The flower of the Adonidia Palm (Veitchii merrilli). Palm flowers fascinate me. This one makes a grape like hard fruit that turns red around the holidays. These are sometimes called Christmas Palms because the fruit looks like ornaments.
Another fragrant plant, the Tropical Gardenia (Tabernaemontana diviricata) This also flowers most of the summer.
Another white semi year round bloomer. This is the White Geiger Tree (Cordia boissieri), there is a orange version of this tree that is native to Florida. I have been contemplating how to prune this tree, it has a really weird habit, branches growing over and over each other with no particular shape.
Last, but not least. A white flower on the Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea). These are usually red, but pop up in many other colors. A fun plant to let reseed freely in the garden. It’s a Forrest Gump “Life is like a box of chocolates” plant – you never know what you are going to get.
If you are wondering about Covid in Florida, it is awful. I only go out for food and to walk. I am fortunate to have dogs and my garden. Our local hospital is 50% occupied with Covid patients, 90% of them unvaccinated and most in the ICU are unvaccinated. Elective surgeries have been cut by 90% because there is no one to care for the patients. Vaccines are free and readily available. I have been vaccinated since April and was very relieved to get the jab. A number of vaccinated friends have caught the Delta variant while masked in the grocery store. Fortunately, all have recovered.
The governor of Florida refuses to allow local governments and school boards to enact mask mandates. Local school boards revolted and began their own mask mandates, sued the governor and won. The university system (colleges) are being made to have classes in person (they were starting classes online and were stopped) I think Florida has 1 in 5 of the new Covid cases in the US. Yet, the tourists continue to pour in. I am baffled by the whole thing. The governor has also opened numerous Regeneron clinics around the state, for when you get exposed to the virus, I am further baffled by this….
That is my six with a bit of commentary this Saturday. Thanks to Jon at www. thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com for hosting this week. Follow the link to see more Six on Saturday fun..
The Shrub Queen 
I love your end of summer whites! We northerners like to hang on to summer as long as possible so I’ll wait until September 21 to declare the start of autumn! 😆 Did you get any of Ida’s rain? Sad to hear about the Florida covid situation…our numbers are going up again, with the delta variant…835 new cases today (population around 14 million)…but with 67% fully vaccinated the hospital situation isn’t so dire. (Yet?) Take care!!!
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Thanks Chris, Canada is doing much better with Covid. Hurricane season peaks Sept. 10, so I am only too happy to bid summer farewell. One of the things I have come to appreciate living in Florida is the scope and scale of the hurricanes. Ida was about 400 miles away and I could watch and feel the wind and the change of direction of the wind as it marched north. No rain so far. Stay safe…
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Love your whites and that salvia is the backbone of my garden. Over here in Texas we are in the same mess. We will be back to only going out for necessities. I do not understand these governors. I don’t even know what Louisiana is going to do with Ida coming, as the hospitals are full and they are not going to evacuate them. I would not want to be on life support. I’m looking forward to my third shot soon.
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Thank you, the Salvia is a backbone here as well. With you on these governors, I think they are going to reap what they have sown. DeSantis popularity is dropping. Hope springs eternal. The Covid comments here have surprised me. Hope you are not seeing too much wind today. I could feel Ida passing by yesterday.
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We are fine here as far as Ida goes, but we drove through NOLA on Friday and didn’t anticipate the rush on gas. We have been through enough disasters and should have realize that, but even NOLA was not prepared and the mayor said it was too late to evacuate. We found a place to fill up and it took about 2 extra hours to get home because of traffic.
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Ugh – glad you made it through that I-10 must have been nightmarish. Looks terrible in the aftermath.
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The report on the health status is roughly the same here … Many patients touched and those who are hospitalized are mostly unvaccinated. I am since February
The children will be going back to school soon and it could be even worse with the end of the holidays… Stay safe…
Very nice plumeria: I had one that my sister-in-law sent me from Reunion Island but which unfortunately didn’t survive the 3rd winter.
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Thank you, Fred. Interesting things are the same in France. I am thinking this becomes more Darwinian by the day. I hope your schools are doing the right thing. I am so worried about Florida’s children. When I lived further north I never succeeded in keeping the Plumerias over the winter. I have read the key is to take them out of the soil roots and all and hang them in a unheated area over the winter. Though I never tried this…how are the Roselles?
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My only remaining Roselle is in bad condition… The top of the stem is black and the leaves are curled up . Unfortunately I’m afraid it hasn’t recovered. Having no more seeds, I will have to order some one day.
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Uh oh. My neighbor’s did the same thing. I think they were overwatered..? I will probably have seed in November or so, if everything goes well. I think these need the long summer days to grow. Let me know if you want some seed..
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😇 we’ll see ! Tks.
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Lovely whites – the wrinkled flowers of the Cordia boissieri are so interesting. Stay safe!
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Thank you – as I was looking at that picture I thought they look a bit like squash blossoms.
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Thank you for sharing your white beauties. At first I thought the aloysia was a lot like a buddleja, but it isn’t really, as I found out comparing the two online.
I’ve read about the dreadful situation in Florida. There’s no understanding the ideas of some people, unfortunately. We are in lockdown here with cases on the rise, but a lot of our problem is down to the vaccine ‘strollout’ and a PM who turned down 40M Pfizer vaccines last year, which would have been enough to vaccinate the whole population more or less. Now there’s talk of opening up and living with covid. The schools are opening soon, there are anti vaxxers demonstrating in the streets without masks.
I hope things improve for you eventually. Stay safe.
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Wow, Jane. Thank you for the Oz update. I have this idea the rest of the world is primly waiting for vaccines and being careful. Not so much. The Aloysia is reminscent of Buddleia in form and flower. It is a rangy shrub. I prune it a lot. It does beat Buddleia for fragrance (and I can’t grow B. here!)
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Stay safe Queen.
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Lovely, crisp, summery whites! Hard to believe Labor Day is next weekend. This summer flew right by, didn’t it?
Shocking C-19 numbers down your way, and I share your bafflement about why folks feel they can maintain the status quo while a pandemic rages around them. Perhaps it is an insane degree of false optimism?
I’m glad FL isn’t getting Ida, can you imagine trying to evacuate during Covid? Yikes.
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Thanks, Eliza. I am amazed that summer is almost over as well. Insane false optimism has not occurred to me..I think that is optimistic of you to come up with that! I have one friend who won’t get vaccinated cuz she did not like what she was hearing on the news about it???the evacuation thing frightens me…
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Lovely all white post. Gosh – I had no idea how bad Covid was in Florida. You learn more from fellow bloggers than you ever do from the news!
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Thank you – I am also intrigued by what the other bloggers are saying. New Zealand seems like the sanest place on Earth.
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OH! I will discretely refrain on commenting on your choice of color.
Anyway, I can grow none of these, although I do intend to bring some frangipani back from Southern California. I suspect that the biggest and most prolific cultivar at Brent’s house is the same as your. (It is the common cultivar around the Los Angeles Region.) However, I do not remember it as being so white. I thought that they yellow center was a bit more pronounced. If I grow just one, it would be that one, just because it performs so well. There is another that is pure white, but it is not vigorous, and never branches. It is not even all that pretty. It grew up like the single trunk of a saguaro cactus, and then branched into two more of the same. I pruned those back to get it to branch more, but they just bypassed the cuts, and continued with single trunks. It has branched since then, but is still rather lean and tall.
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I know you love whites..and that Frangipani is much more reliable than the other white tree I have.
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Does the other bloom with pure white flowers (without the yellow center), and smell like coconut?
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No, the other white has a yellow eye with a bit of red. There are a zillion Plumeria cultivars. I am not sure which one I have.
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Well, those that are popular there may be very different from those that are popular in Southern California.
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I always break the rules and wear crisp white blouses after Labor Day! Who wears white shoes anymore? Love your bright-as-can-be whites today, and I appreciate the commentary, too. We are baffled by the schools reopening in our state, diagonally across the nation from you. Hubby is now a high school teacher and our rural county’s stats are dismal. Another side note, I felt weird posting about parties we held recently BUT they were all outdoors with loads of room to roam and every person attending was vaccinated other than the young children.
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Love it..Florida is confusing to me about wearing white, It is always summer here. Good luck to your husband, I am mystified by everything to do with endangering students. We are also only hanging out with the vaccinated. The comments from everyone about Covid are similar, so interesting. I thought it was just Florida.
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Lovely whites you have there. I’m sure glad your beautiful white flowers didn’t get the end-of-summer dress code memo. The crinkly petals of the White Geiger Tree are spectacular.
Stay safe and healthy.
Cindie
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Thank you, Cindie. A lot of these whites never stop. Don’t care about fashion, I guess. Amy
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