Summer is the rainy season in South Florida. After a month of dry weather, we had a tremendous round of thunderstorms yesterday. It looked like a couple of inches of rain fell, based on what was left in a bucket on the back porch. One of those “I really don’t want to go to the grocery store” days. I did anyway.
The summer tropicals loved the moisture and are showing their colors in this installment of Six on Saturday. To see more SOS posts; visit Jon at http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com
My first ever Sugar Baby watermelon. I thought it had died, but it seems the stem turns brown when the melon is ripe. This was delicious and the sweetest watermelon I have ever tasted. There is another one on the vine.
Gulf Fritillary butterflies are back. This is a caterpillar beginning to make a chrysalis on a Corkystem Passionflower vine. I leave the vine to ramble through the shrubs in the front garden and feed the butterflies. These look mean, but they don’t sting. The orange coloration is to keep predators away.
New to the garden, Apricot Profusion Zinnias, grown from seed. I like the color and wasn’t sure how pastel it was going to be.
First Frangipani (Plumeria) of the season. The flower is almost open, I will most likely enjoy the fragrance tonight. Fingers crossed.
First Dahlia in the garden is problematic. I ordered a cactus variety called Labyrinth. It should be pink, peach and fluffy – it is not.
Full size pineapple in the garden. I have a pineapple patch – rooted tops of all kinds of pineapples. I am told they might cross with each other and the results will be seedy fruit. This one looks a little seedy to me, though it is the only one that flowered unless it crossed with some other bromeliads. No clue. Time will tell. In a couple of months, the fruit should ripen.
That all for this lovely spring day.
Happy Gardening!!
The Shrub Queen 
Your watermelon looks so good. I hate when you order something and get the wrong thing. I also have shrubs grafted with two different colors of flowers.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, the bulb people asked me to send a picture, so I did and no response. That shrub would drive me crazy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pleased to hear that your watermelon delivered. Very exciting to see the caterpillars utilizing your passion vine!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes! Zebra Longwings and Gulf Frits use the Passionvine as larval host plants.
LikeLike
This watermelon doesn’t seem very large in diameter but looks perfectly ripe! It matured very quickly if I remember when you showed us the small plants.
These plumeria flowers are full of promise! I would love to have flowers like that on mine, ( if you remember I took a picture of it last week) / Maybe this summer
LikeLiked by 2 people
The watermelon was 10 cm or so. I did not think it could be ripe and cut it just to see…it was perfectly ripe. There are already Plumerias in full bloom here and I have three varieties, two have buds. I hope you get some flowers, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you ! Here is a link to last attempt of watermelon : https://twitter.com/frdvil/status/1305118478354055169?s=20&t=FExIPDLENoPAuObvdqWJHg
It was ‘Moon and Stars’ variety : a success !
LikeLiked by 1 person
That looks great and bigger than mine. Do you know if the stem is supposed to turn brown when the melon is ripe? I thought some kind of fungus got it but I think the vines are just done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Indeed the stem turns a little brown but the best sign is the weight and the sound it gives when tapped gently. it must be a full sound. The skin sometimes turns yellow and the leaf following the fruit is dry
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ok, thanks. There is one left and the stem is drying. I was hoping it would get a little bigger..but the fruit was excellent.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love that you got to eat your watermelon. I have dahlias almost ready to flower, but we are still getting some frosts, so they are still inside.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. The Dahlias are surprising all around. Hope you get some flowers…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oops on the dahlia, but it is a nice vibrant color and would do nicely for IAVOM along with red salvia, etc. I bet the melon was tasty, the tropics grow the best melons I’ve ever had.
LikeLiked by 1 person
OOps. I have some cactus zinnia coming along so I guess that will have to do. I will try some more melons. Not sure really when to plant them?
LikeLike
Melons are prone to mildew, so maybe ahead of your dry season might be the best time?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just looked it up. Watermelons planted 12/10. I think that was the guidance of the Extension Service, also lost 75% of the vines to cold in January…I can tell from our local Farmers Market the professionals are harvesting their melons now..betting the mildew is terrifying here in summer!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Plumeria! I really should bring some back from Brent’s garden. I used to prune Brent’s plumeria for him, but have not been there in a few years. I doubt that they have been getting pruned properly. I do not know how many he has now, but I only want scraps from the old original specimens that he got from a neighbor when we were kids.
LikeLiked by 2 people
please give me some pruning tips. My Plumeria always looks a bit weird, though I am okay with pruning the P. pudica. The Plumeria in the picture is a South Florida heirloom a friend gave me, not sure of the name.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The various cultivars of Plumeria have various characteristics. My favorite of Brent’s, which blooms with plain white flowers, almost never branches. Therefore, it never needs pruning. I only prune the tops off to force it to branch. It often continues on past the cuts with single stems, without branching. Some of the fancier sorts develop angular branch structure, which need pruning to limit tangling of branches. The largest sorts get pruned from below, to groom out a well rounded canopy above. Unfortunately, I can make no generalizations about pruning them. They are all so different. Although some are quite complicated and sloppy, some are quite well structured.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Melons and pineapples in the garden…seems so exotic 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Not when you have Mango trees.
LikeLike
Wow, your own watermelon! 😃 The dahlia is lovely, even if it is the wrong one. I have only just planted mine. 😉 And I sowed zinnias last week – a mixture of colours. I like that apricot one.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, hoping the whole stem of Dahlias will flower and I can cut them! Good luck with your zinnias.
LikeLiked by 1 person