This vase accurately reflects what thrives in my South Florida garden with very little water or attention. August is the hottest month of the year, it is frequently 94 degrees in the shade (F or almost 35 C). Gardening is best abandoned for cooler days. There has also been a long dry spell here, we are 8 inches below normal on rainfall and some plants have burned up. My stalwart zinnias succumbed the first week of August, despite my best effort to hand water them, they are curled and crispy brownish tan. I left them to shade the lime green sedum in hopes of nursing it through August. The lush tropical border is a memory. The Dahlias dramatically folded their foliage up the stem and turned brown standing straight like soldiers praying to the rain gods. Bah.
Saturday night we had a refreshing rain shower and the white flowers in the vase, Bridal Bouquet Frangipani, smelled so lovely I had to cut some to bring inside. It seems the more tropical plants tolerate the dry heat a bit better than the Florida natives, which seems odd. Another gardening mystery to ponder.
Beauties in detail:
The lurid purple berries are from the Beautyberry (Calliocarpa americana); fragrant, white flowers are Bridal Bouquet Frangipani; orange tubular flowers are Firebush (Hamelia patens); yellow flowers are Esperanza (Tecoma stans).
The balance:
The peach flower is a Choconiana Heliconia (H. psittacorum ‘Choconiana’) I have tried to find out what the heck is a Choconiana to no avail. Purple foliage is from ‘Purple Prince’ Alternantera – I should admit to watering this one and keeping it in a pot in the shade. There is one in the garden, surprisingly still alive, but much smaller.
I wish everyone gentle rain, but not too much, and cooler weather. Thanks to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting. Follow the link to see more vases.
Happy Gardening!!
The Shrub Queen 
Such a beautiful arrangement. I’m especially enamored with and admire the gorgeous purple of Beautyberry. I wish I could grow it here in Wisconsin.
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Thank you, BLL. You are way too far north for Beautyberry, though I would love Kousa Dogwoods here!
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I’ve been trying to think of a beautiful flowering tree to plant in my front yard. A Kousa Dogwood just might be the ticket.
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I love them, a real four season tree and the fruit!
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At first glance when I saw the yellow and white I thought I was seeing daffodils! Of course, my brain quickly clicked into reality. Wishful thinking perhaps? 😉
The lack of rain nearly everywhere (except the mid-Atlantic and Arizona) is pretty depressing. Even Europe is frying. Plants here are giving up and dropping their leaves early. 😦
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I think the first vase of Esperanza was during daffodil season and several people commented they did not know daffs would grow here! And they don’t. The lack of rain is pretty depressing, at this point I am just hanging on til fall sometime.
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Your photos show off the contrasts of the contents of your jam jar so well, Amelia – I can’t risk using a higher resolution on mine otherwise I will use up all my WordPress allowance. It makes for such a fresh and clean-cut vase – refreshingly cool in fact, despite the hotter colours included in the mix. Lovely – and some interesting conundrums too!
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Thanks, Cathy. I am hopeless at downsizing photos, so I let google do it. Not sure how well that works out! I think white flowers are very cooling with hot colors, despite the weather.
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They always look really good so Google must be doinga good job – how do you access its photo editing? I have been using Google’s Picasa but it is no longer supported…
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Thank you, I started using a Chromebook several years ago as I just am not great with computers, Windows kind of mystifies me, a very lateral thinker. I do like nice images, so my husband bought a Pixel phone for me which is comparable to an iPhone and works with Chrome. The Pixel shares the images to Google photos (comes on the Chromebook) and I can edit the images on the Pixel or in Google photos, somewhere in there they are downsized to share or you can create albums to share. The Pixel can upload images directly to WordPress. I do that sometimes, I think the Pixel photo editing is better.
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Thanks for that – I need to look into alternative editing as it is not really ‘safe’ to go on using Picasa
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I love the bright colours, and the white really shows them off too.
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Thank you, Noelle. I always thought purple and orange were a bit weird together but I like it.
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So pretty!
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I believe anything including purple berries is special but I love those white frangipani flowers too. I’m glad you got a touch of rain but sorry to hear that you’re experiencing drought conditions too.
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Thanks, Kris. There are a surprising number of berries considering the dry summer. Amazing the drought prevalence this year.
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Beautyberry! Mine are growing, although slowly because I canned them late. They could go into a landscape or a few landscapes next year. They are the only beautyberry here that I am aware of. I know that they are available online, but I have see no others locally.
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my beautyberry is 7 or 8 years old and probably six feet height and spread, kind of rangy, but one of those things that looks weird pruned.
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It looks weird if pruned?! Although I am unfamiliar with it, I intended to coppice it annually, or at least alternate canes like for forsythia and lilac. Of course, it must grow for a few years first. Since it blooms and fruits on new growth, I prefer coppicing to alternating canes, although I could try both to see what I prefer.
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I have to post a picture of this..it usually ends up sort of tree formed as I like to walk around it. The fruit develops better if not cut to the ground.
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So, it fruits better on older stems? If so, alternating canes should still be a practical method of pruning it.
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I think so, there aren’t very many stems.
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Perhaps more aggressive dormant pruning at the end of winter would promote more branching.
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I am with Eliza and thought I saw a daffodil. It is odd the tropicals are doing well without rain.
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LOL, no daffs here, The tropicals continue to amaze.
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Oh I LOVE this bunch, Amelia! So many unusual things, skillfully combined. Does the frangipani last very long in a vase? I’m interested to see Calliocarpa growing in your climate. We sell it at the nursery where I work, which is located in a cold temperate climate, so I thought that was what it preferred – but it is clearly very happy in your neck of the woods too.
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Thank you. The frangpani lasts a couple of days. I will post a picture of the Beautyberry in Six on Saturday. I was very surprised at how well it does this far south, far better than in my former much further north garden
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Beautiful. 😃 The yellow flowers in the centre are especially striking. All the flowers you use are pretty, but even nicer when combined in a vase. Hope you get your rain. 💦🌧
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Thank you, we got a good rain last night! Yay.
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Great!
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