June in South Florida brings thunderstorms, moisture and flowers. I am enjoying the flowers, but could do with a little less moisture, we have had some intense thunderstorms with more lightning that I can recall experiencing.
Above is the very appropriately named Rain Lily (Zephyranthes spp.) I am not sure which Rain Lily this is – it reseeds freely in the garden. I have several clumps of this along the pathways in the garden and enjoy it as it flowers off and on throughout the rainy season.
Soap Aloe (Aloe saponaria) flowers. A great garden plant for growing in sugar sand. It flowers at least four times a year.
Aechmea fasciata or Silver Urn Bromeliad in full bloom. Many brom flowers last a long time if not cut. I am leaving these to see how long they last.
Adonidia Palm (Veitchia merrilli) flower buds. These open and make red fruit late in the year that gives them another common name, Christmas Palm, as the fruit looks like Christmas ornaments.
This is a Vitex trifolia purpurea, I think. I am not sure about the purpurea part, the backs of the leaves are purple, so maybe that is the right name. It is sometimes called Arabian Lilac. I bought it in place of Butterfly Bush (Buddleia) as I am really too far south to have success with those. It is finally establishing itself after a few years of suffering in the sugar sand. I hope the butterflies find it soon, it is a nectar plant for many.
The formerly native Thyrallis (Galpinia glauca). The tiresome native plant continuum changed their mind about this one. It is reportedly a very drought tolerant shrub, although I find it needs water during the dry season. Also advertised to bloom year round, doesn’t do that, either. Oh well, I still like it in summer and maybe it hasn’t been in the garden long enough. A gardener’s hope springs eternal.
That is my Six for this Saturday. To see more SOS posts, visit http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.
Happy Gardening!!!
The Shrub Queen 
I love that Aechmea fasciata. Hope the moisture eases up for you.
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Thanks, the moisture will ease up in about 5 months!
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I am envious of your rain as we are going into a drought. Your Rain Lily has a darker throat than mine, but I don’t know the name of mine either. Do you fertilize bromeliads? Mine made it through two freezes and I have given it a bit of liquid fertilizer and it seems to like it and is doing well.
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Ugh, droughts! especially in summer. We have had a tremendous amount of rain here in the past couple of weeks. I rarely remember to fertilize the broms, though they do better with some food and my sand is zero food. I usually throw some Osmocote around them. And it surprises me when they perk up and look better – Floridians will tell you not to fertilize the cups feed the plants, I do not agree.
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Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Yep, I’ll have the lot, please. Mind you, I don’t think they would last very long here!
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I think you need a conservatory!
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I wish!
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I saw the superb red fruits of this adonidia merrillii in Martinique https://twitter.com/frdvil/status/1097454441308045312?s=20&t=dD4Vu9AfjvoujPdzjGA6CA if you can see it.
It doesn’t surprise me that you have one at home.
Pretty Aechmea flower and my aloes saponaria is too small… the sowing only dates from this winter… I will have to wait a bit more to get flowers 😂
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Yes, I like the red fruit. Most people trim the seeds off here. Though you do get a lot of seedlings if you leave them. Your Soap Aloe will flower quickly I think.
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Thanks for sharing your exotic treasures, so very different from my usual garden plants.
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King palms bloom sort of like that, but their tassels are much more pendulous. We refer to the process as ‘graduation’ because they need to mature before they do it, and then get tassels that resemble those that we wore on our mortar boards when we graduated. Even the color is the same.
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pygmy date palms are like that, graduates, I missed the flowers this year.
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The. romeliad flowe is gorgeous and must make quite a statement! The Arabian lilac is pretty. Is it scented?
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