It seems like there is a lot going on in my Blue Willow teapot this Monday.The Parrotflowers are flying, the Juba Bush is swaying and the Zinnias are celebrating their escape from the leaf cutting bees. A lone palm frond holds it all together.
The height of hurricane season has passed, yay! It’s not time to celebrate quite yet as we still have the wind down until the end of November. October is usually more active in the Gulf of Mexico (yep, not changing the name on my blog) I usually start my sigh of relief in mid October and start cleaning the screen porch and setting up the outdoor furniture for winter. We had permanent accordion shutters put on our windows last week so we can be storm ready in a short period of time. That will probably prevent storms for a while!
The cream colored flowers are from the Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa). This is a lightly fragrant native wildflower that has a mind of its own and shows up uninvited. I have no idea how to propagate it, but somehow ended up with a spectacular plant beside my porch. It’s named after a Caribbean dance – the Juba as the plant sways gracefully in the wind. The Parrotflower (Heliconia psittacorum) flower when it rains and I have difficulty resisting cutting them, so here they are. The trimmed palm frond is from a Sabal Palm (Palmetto Sabal)
The stalwart Giant Benary Zinnias. We have leaf cutting bees here and they seem to love the zinnias, the bees are even eating the flowers. This is new to me, the flower eating. I’m going to keep watching to see what happens.
That is all from my garden this Monday. Visit Cathy at RamblinintheGarden to join in the fun or view more vases.
The Shrub Queen 
Beautiful! So well arranged.
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Thank you.
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I love when orange zinnias have a bit of pink at the base of its petals, it plays so well with other colors like the pink in the parrot-flowers. Looks like the US got a break this year (so far) from horrible storms that plagued us last year. Definitely good news!
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I left some zinnia flowers to make seed, hopefully the same colors. I had similar ones last year. Hoping the weather break continues. This reminds me of 2012 weatherwise, the season ended with Sandy, ugh.
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Ugh, let’s hope we get through the season minus a big storm like that one. 🤞🏼
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Well done, Amelia. These are lovely. Your permanent accordion shutters seem like an especially smart investment if they keep the hurricanes away. Fingers crossed for no weather drama. There’s too much else to deal with.
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Thank you, Susie. I agree with you. Fingers crossed here as well…getting a little weed drama from all the rain, coping.
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There are too many unfamiliar palms there to remember. Palmetto sabal? I know what it is now, but forgot the name.
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Cabbage Palm? same thing
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That is even less familiar. I saw a few at one landscape in Los Angeles a few years ago. They were described as sabal palms (pronounced like sable), and were unhappy. They may be gone by now.
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This is a very common native palm in the Southeastern US
Called Sable or Cabbage Palms. So common it’s cut down to make Swamp Cabbage soup from the hearts of palm. I cut the seedlings for arranging flowers as they pop up everywhere.
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Ha! Arborists here ‘try’ to get heart of palm from Mexican fan palm when they need to get cut down, but it is not the same.
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I was surprised to find they eat coconut heart of palm here. I am also looking for a peach palm.
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Eating coconut heart of palm seems like a waste of a good tree. I suppose it would work if they are grown for that purpose, or for the few trees that need to be removed anyway (like the Mexican fan palms that are sometimes removed here).
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Apparently they are not as good as Sabal Palms. The Peach Palm is a multi stem tropical palm that produces hearts of palm over and over and has fruit. I am probably too far north to grow it but how interesting.
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It would be tough to kill a trunk that has potential to produce good fruit.
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I don’t know how it works. Apparently it’s farmed on Hawaii for hearts of palm.
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I like your use of the palm. I probably would have never thought of cutting them. One year on a Christmas house tour, one person made a beautiful decoration from whole palm fronds and spray-painted it. It is good to hear about the hurricane season, as my daughter is heading to Florida.
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Thank you. Gold spray painted foliage is a Southern thing. I always feel like I am channeling my grandma when I do it. I dried some Lobsterclaw Heliconis to paint for the holidays – it might be too weird. The weather is turning nice..but you have to keep an eye on it.
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We will be on hurricane watch for her. She is my last baby and is going on her honeymoon. It has been quite the year for us. We moved and had a wedding in a two week time period. I think I’m still sane.
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I’m surprised you are still sane! Jerry looks good for a fish hurricane. The models are aligning.
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I just checked and was surprised it became a hurricane. It looks like it will head out to sea. Thanks for the updates! My daughter will head all the way to the Keys.
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The weather people are promising cooler temps with lower humidity.. I’ve taken to watching the spaghetti models.
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Good. Up here, they are talking about a nor’easter coming up the coast from the South.
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I had to smile at all the things which just seem to pop up in your garden! You always manage to make good use of them, and I like the way you have framed them today with the trimmed palm leaf, which really sets them off well. Glad to hear your hurricane season seems to be over
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The things that pop up here you would probably consider houseplants for the most part. It’s always a surprise and another mystery to figure out. Hurricane season is not over til it’s over. We have had storms in November.
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Love all your flowers swaying and waving in the hopefully light breeze and not strong winds! Such pretty zinnias, you can’t blame the bees for making for them. I had a zinnia selectiion called ‘Bumblebee’ but hardly noticed any leaf-cutter bees at all this year. The outside shutters sound like a good idea – they are quite common here in Germany.
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Thank you, Cathy. I have never seen bees eating flowers before. The leaf cutters usually eat evergreen shrub foliage. Why do people have the shutters there? I thought it was a hurricane thing.
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Well, people don’t always have curtains or indoor blinds here, so the shutters are closed for darkness, warmth and security at night. Then they also keep the sun/heat out in summer, which is useful.
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Wonderful contrast of the orange and blue across the color wheel–I’ve always enjoyed them together! Jeans and an orange top, meal decorations, flowers in a vase…love the color combo. And the fanned foliage and Juba Bush flowers for framing are great, too! Also, it’s always so fun to observe the pollinators and insects enjoying the garden elements. 🙂
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Thanks, Beth. I always love to play with color theory.
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I so envy you your parrotflowers – they always make a statement. The Juba bush flowers make a perfect vase filler too.
https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/
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I love the sculptural quality of your arrangement this week, and the colours are so punchy too.
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