Some Six on Saturday garden tours make me feel like there should be a garden wizard around the corner or behind the shrubbery. It has started raining again and the tropical creeping has started. I was contemplating my Strangler Fig and the cactus that produces Dragonfruit (there must be a wizard here somewhere!) winding its way around my fence. To see more magical SOS garden tours, visit Jim’s blog by following this link – garden ruminations.
The Dragon fruit (Hylocereus megalanthus). This is a night blooming cactus, a yellow flowered variety that is supposed to produce a fruit that is lemon sorbet flavored. It flowered last year, but produced no fruit. I am finding the fruit producing plants here will often flower for the first time and not produce and then the next year flower and produce fruit. Fingers crossed! It has been so long since I bought this I had forgotten about the lemon sorbet flavor. Thai dessert mango tree in background.
We had our rather magnificent Strangler Fig (Ficus aurea) pruned. Talk about a Harry Potter tree! These are quite interesting and don’t really strangle anything. It is amazing how quickly they can grow – 15-20 foot long branches (4-6 inch diameter) were trimmed back to the trunk from our roof line. I think it has been a year and a half since it was last pruned.
Fruit from the Strangler Fig. These are edible, but only wildlife enjoy them. And I think about a million of them fall to the ground. This is followed by fruit flies who are followed by birds. Wildlife enjoys this tree. It is also larval host to the Ruddy Daggerwing butterfly.
The birds take the figs up into other trees, commonly Sabal Palms and deposit them in the crown of the tree. The figs germinate, take root followed by a small branch growing out of the side of the palm. These branches eventually get long enough to reach the ground and a new Strangler Fig puts roots down and grows up right beside the palm. It is common to see a palm engulfed in a Strangler Fig. Maybe it should be called an Engulfing Fig.
The leafy branch is from the Strangler Fig seedling growing out of the palm trunk.
These trees also make buttress trunks. They are growing in a bed of Snake plants, an impossible to get rid of weed here that I have embraced rather than argue with.
I have just added some Guzmania bromeliads to some pruning made planters. These trees are known for hosting epiphytic plants, so I will add more.
That’s all from my magical tropical garden this Saturday. Wishing everyone Happy Gardening.
The Shrub Queen 
I love the Bromedliad placed in the trunk of the tree. Hopefully you get some dragonfruit next year, the yellow is the most flavorful in my opinion.
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Thank you, I am adding more. I am not sure the Guzmanias will spill over the trunk.
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Who needs a wizard when nature is its own magician? Lovely.
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This is true.
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Rosie said it best. What a magical habitat growing around your fig tree and palms! I love that your fig tree both grows epiphytically from the palm trees and also hosts bromelaids. Your birds must be very, very happy ones! A lovely post today!
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Thank you, the birds have been very prolific this year. I am not sure why, we had a cardinal family in the front yard.
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You do have a tropical jungle growing. It is interesting to watch the plants’ habits.
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one of the joys of gardening.
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With the rain starting, the grew growies will be hard to control as they start to try and take over everything. Your dragon fruit looks like a green snake climbing up the fence.
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Yes, indeed the growies are taking over…
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Good luck with your dragon fruit! The pink ones we buy here are never very tasty. I would like to try yellow fruits one day. Regarding figs, you say that there are a lot of them and that they are edible, but have the same taste as “classic figs”? less juicy?
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Thanks, Fred. The pink ones in the grocery store are usually pretty tasteless, but attractive! The figs are about the size of lentils, all seeds and skin, basically inedible. The skin is tough, pyracantha or nandina berries is what it reminds me of. I have never heard of anyone eating them.
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Oh, very small so. Thank you for the description. We don’t have them over here.
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Yes, if you know Banyan trees they are a close relative and native to this area. I am on the northern end of their range.
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An interesting Six this Saturday, Shrub. I wonder if our bromeliadswuld grow from one of our trees/
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Thanks, some of them will and some of them won’t! The Jill Neoregelias are the best climbers I have.
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Enjoyed seeing your Ruddy Daggerwing butterfly–a new one to me. The bromeliad is a pretty thing.
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The strangling growth of a strangler fig is mostly juvenile growth and roots. (Some extend roots downward from where their seed germinate within trees, but some extend stems upward from where their seed germinate on the ground.) Adult growth develops after juvenile growth matures and reaches the top of its support. Such growth that needs no support may not need to climb or strangle anything, although it could if it leans onto some other vegetation and decides to continue in that particular direction.
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It certainly is magical, and a little spooky at times too! I hope there are no man-eating plants or dragons lurking… I do like the sound of dragonfruit though!
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It is spooky at times. My husband fears the Dragon fruit – it is sharp! I hope I get to eat one someday.
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