We are on the downhill slide to the end of hurricane season. The peak is September 10. November 30 is the official end but mid-October is the unofficial end, though we had a wimpy hurricane the first week of November last year. So far, we have been lucky and stayed outside the cone of uncertainty in the weather forecasts. Watching these cones is a daily ritual in September and October.
Here is the recent cone from Hurricane Idalia.
There are some cones of a different sort in my vase this week, certainly not originating in my garden.
I love pine cones and collected these in Atlanta, prior to moving to South Florida. I keep them in a large brandy snifter on my side board. Something about the textures in this arrangement just demanded a few cones. These are from White Pines (Pinus strobus). It is really too warm for them in Atlanta and I am wondering if there are any there now with global warming.
The rest of the vase is mad tropical flowers and foliage. The orange and yellow spikey thing is the flower of a Blanchetiana Bromeliad (Aechmea blanchetiana), probably 3 feet long; colorful leaves are Piecrust Croton (Croton variegatum); palm frond is from a seedling Cabbage Palm (Palmetto sabal); the big leaf is White Bird of Paradise (Strelizia nicolai). The vase is Tiffany crystal, a wedding gift from a dear friend.
I’ll be checking the cones daily as a new potential storm might form off the coast of Africa this week…
Thanks to Cathy at ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting. Follow the link to see more vases.
The Shrub Queen 
Oh those cones of uncertainty. Do your crotons grow all year around?
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yes, the crotons are evergreen here and that one is six feet tall, which surprised me…
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I always look at the weather forecast daily here too, but for you, with the possibility of hurricanes, it takes on a completely different meaning. What an intriguing mix you have today – the ‘orange and yellow spikey thing’ is a real curiosity, and I am intrigued by a white strelitzia…does it really have white flowers?
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The hurricanes are fascinating to watch and I haven’t done that until living in striking distance. The white strelitzia is a big Bird of Paradise – 15-20 feet tall. They do have big white flowers with blue middles, similar to the orange ones but not generally planted for the flowers, it is a big, coarse textured tropical accent plant.
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15-20 feet tall? Good grief! I need to Google for apicture, or perhaps you could post one in due course?
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Yes, I thought they were some weird palm tree for a while. The one in my garden is probably 8 feet but only a few years old.
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When I googled, I found one of the plant suppliers I buy from were offering them for sale – shan’t be getting one though!
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They are a bulletproof houseplant. I was surprised when writing an article about BOP how popular they are in the UK. They sell special soil mixes to get the orange ones to flower indoors, which is very difficult.
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I once grew the orange one from seed but left it outside one summer and didn’t water it at all
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Your arrangement startled me – in a good way! It’s intense and dramatic and it illustrates the theme of uncertainty that accompanies a tulmultuous weather event like a hurricane.
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It is a whoa, what is that?? kind of thing..
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Love the tropical foliage…and unique use of pine cones. I am glad you have been spared so far this hurricane season.
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Thank you.
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This feels like a Mardi Gras vase! My former neighbor used to grow white pines and I thought they were so beautiful. Funny I don’t remember their cones at all, but the needles. I hope the hurricanes stay away from everyone this season.
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That is a great description. The white pines are a lovely shade of blue, I am kind of a cone freak. My mother and grandmother made what they called DelRobbia wreaths out of cones and acorns. Fish hurricanes are the best kind.
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Wow, do the storms start right over the other side of the Atlantic? We occasionally get bad storms in October, including the famous unpredicted one of 1987 when I was on a channel ferry!!!
Love your mad mix of tropical foliage and flowers. 😃 And the cones are a clever link to your weather map cones.
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Thanks, Cathy. Many of the storms are called Cape Verde storms as they originate there and gain strength as they move west across the Atlantic.. They can also start in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Glad to hear that your now heading to the tail of the hurricane season Amelia. I get nervous enough when we have wind gusts of 50 miles per hour! Your vase is a striking concoction this week and has warmed me up on what is a cool autumnal day 😀
P.S. How have you got the pines cones to stand to attention like that?
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Thank you, Anna. The pinecones are probably 15 years old and dried straight. They are nested in the spikey flower which is strong.
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Even your foliage is flamboyant! Great fun and the cones are a wonderful centre to the whole thing.
Also, good luck with the paths of those prediction cones until the end October/November!
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Thank you.
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The cones add a nice touch to the tropical vibe, for sure. For many years, there have been almost no white pine cones to be found around here. But this year, all the pines for miles around are bursting with cones. Was it the drought last summer? Who knows the trigger, but there is going to be a bumper crop this year. The squirrels and other critters will likely follow suit, thriving on the abundance.
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Interesting though I remember bumper acorn crops on oaks and never figured that out!
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Mast years are a natural rhythm that occurs every few years to get ahead of the animals that eat the seeds. It leaves enough to sprout and grow the following year. Sometimes it is a response to stress… “oh, god, I’m gonna die… better make lots of seeds before I go!” 😉
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Eastern white pine is rare and striking here. Western white pine is also interesting, but not so appealing, and grows wild farther north. We just installed a cultivar of Eastern white pine that grows and densely rounded mounds, like softly textured mugo pines. I would prefer trees, but we have no use for more trees here. While in Oklahoma, I met Georgia pine. It was striking to me because I had never before encountered it.
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Georgia Pine? do you mean Loblolly? Pinus taeda?
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Pinus palustris?
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Longleaf ..those are cool. Using the needles for mulch now.
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Huh… I rather like the idea of using those strelitzia leaves for vase accents. I certainly do need to prune the ones on the balcony soon and usually they just go straight into the compost since the animals can’t eat them. Not this time!
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Thanks, I like big, tropical green leaves!
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