It’s finally a sunny, warm blue sky Saturday morning in South Florida. Not to worry about perfect weather, tomorrow’s forecast predicts a 90 percent chance of thunderstorms. So today, I planted sunflower and zinnia seeds. I discovered on my weekly tour my succulent plants are doing well and fruit growing in the garden looks promising for succulent treats. Join other garden tours by visiting Jim’s blog and following the links in the comments section.
I cut my first Rangpur lime this week. It was very juicy, but I did not get quite enough juice for a pie so I froze it until the other lime was ripe and picked it this week. There is a lime pie in my future.
The next lime and my first tomato of the season! I think it is a Lost Marbles tomato.
The mango trees are loaded with flowers and setting fruit. This is a Glenn Mango and the fruit is delicious. This is early for mangoes to set fruit, so I am hoping it all works out.
Baby mangoes are visible on the Thai dessert mango, Nam Doc Mai. This variety reportedly can set fruit four times a year. It has been in the garden for about 8 years and I have never seen more than one crop, last year being the best ever. I was vigilant about fertilizing and we had a lot of rain, so this may be the result of water and food.
Senecio barbertonicus is starting to flower. This is about all you get for flowers, soon there will be dandelion like seedheads.
The indestructible Graptosedum. I dropped a leaf in my bookcase and it sprouted. I use these as pseudoroses in flower arrangements. This one lives in a pot with Fireball Neoregelia Bromeliads and a Desert Rose. Never watered and rarely fertilized.
That’s all from my garden this Saturday. Happy February to everyone.
The Shrub Queen 
Oh wow, a tomato in February! Love all the fruit, looks like your mangoes will have a banner year.
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Fingers crossed for mangoes.
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This rangpur lime looks very juicy! Rather acidic or sweet? Your climate has of course helped and I’m not sure I have such big fruits here…I’m interested to see how the flowers of this senecio look like in a few days/weeks.
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It is acidic not a sweet citrus. The senecio flowers look a bit like an aster for a very short time. I will see if I can take a picture.
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Those limes still confuse me, but it is nice to have fresh produce in the winter. Our freeze of ’21 killed the orange trees in my area. I’m going to look into a Graptosedum if it can grow on a bookcase. I did have a Wandering Jew root to my carpet.
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I am not sure the sour orange thing ever made it out of Florida. There are some citrus varieties I love that I have never seen anywhere else. Orri tangerines for one. Have you seen finger limes?
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No, I have not seen them.
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I think some of the tropical fruits never make it into the mainstream because they are so perishable. The Rangpurs last about 2 days on the counter – I did not really start eating mangoes until I moved to Florida, the ones that ship well are called Tommy and are not very good.
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Fascinating to see plants that I know nothing about.
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I hope you get more juicy limes from your Rangpur lime, a lime pie always makes me smile.
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Thanks, Karen. Me, too. I have all the ingredients except the juice!
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Cool to see the baby mangoes. Visited my MIL in Ft. Myers years ago and she took us to a mango farm where we were able to taste a variety of mangoes. Don’t remember which ones we liked but they were distinctively different. My aunt from Homestead Fl used to visit each summer with paper bags full of mangoes.
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Hi Susie, I thought of you this morning when I saw my first Long Tailed Skipper. Mangoes here are different from what you can buy further north. The varieties are yummy! I don’t know which ones I like the best. I have turned into a mango freak.
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Wow those limes look tasty! I have just enjoyed my first home-grown tomatoes too! The Mango tree looks so lush and healthy.
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Thank you
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What a treat to be able to pick all this exotic fruit! Honestly, my mouth is watering 🤣. Brilliant title!
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LOL, I hope I get to pick it all!
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How exotic can it get? Your lime is almost like an orange in colour, we usually only have green ones, what is the flavour like?
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It is pale orange and so is the juice, it tastes like a lemony orange, but that is what it is a Mandarin crossed with a lemon.
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I must look up what a lime pie is, as I only know lemon meringue pie from my childhood. Fingers crossed you get a good mango crop again this year. It is always wonderful to eat something from your own garden , isn’t it. I have just cut some lamb’s lettuce which survives being frozen multiple times and still tastes good!
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It is usually called key lime pie and may be an American thing. I did see Nigella making Seville orange pie. I am amazed you have lettuce! that is great.
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The thought of lime pie has my mouth watering! 😉
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I hope I have all the stuff as my mouth is also.
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‘Rangpur’ lime is one of my favorites of the forty or so cultivars that I grew in the 1990s, even though I have no idea of what to do with the fruit. It seems that all of my favorites were the least useful; ‘Marsh’ grapefruit (which we discontinued because we did not sell enough), ‘Rangpur’ lime, ‘Moro’ blood orange, and the Kosher ‘Etrog’ citron. ‘Meyer’ lemon was our most popular cultivar, but was also my least favorite, not because I dislike the fruit, but because it was not as much fun to grow as the others. Also, I was not so keen on ‘Valencia’ orange or ‘Sanguinelli’ blood orange, which are some of the prettier cultivars within landscapes. (‘Sanguinelli’ blood orange grows almost as big as ‘Eureka’ and ‘Lisbon’ lemons, but without all the spiky spire stems protruding from the top.) I like how ‘Rangpur’ lime holds its abundant tangerine like fruit on the exterior of its canopy, and develops such well rounded form.
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Well, I made a Rangpur pie and it is good. The tree itself is pretty odd looking the trunk is growing in stair steps and it started leaning. I cut the heavy side off to see if it will straighten up. I have read the leaves can be used like kaffir lime – do you know?
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I do not know. I never learned how to cook. We grew the Kaffir lime, but I never actually used it.
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