One of my favorite things about gardening – the little bursts of joy along the way. Finding that first tomato, or mango, or anything edible that I have planted is a true joy. This week it was the hidden treasures that survived and thrived through record breaking cold to provide flowers for my Monday vase.
I have been hauling dead bodies out of the garden this week. Plants only! although I found some frozen invasive lizards; unfortunately after the dog (who was fascinated) did. The good news, I gather they were not very tasty or emerald green guts offend greyhounds, so I got my tongs and removed the offending lizards. I like our little native Anole lizards, but the invasives are sometimes a foot long, ugh!
The most interesting survivor this week is the Graptosedum succulent. Flowering! I always thought these were tropical, but they are fine. There seems to be a microclimate where these were growing in a pot, uncovered. Another garden mystery to ponder.
The tulips of South Florida are back again – pink flowers from Quesnelia testudo bromeliad. These Quesnelias are known for their cold tolerance. This one is common much further north of my garden. The flowers that were open burned to beige, but the new ones look great. The spiky stem in the back is a flower stalk from Dracaena reflexa. I am not sure what this was doing, there are berries on the plant, so it could be forming berries or just burnt from the cold. The ferny stuff is Climbing Asparagus Fern, a weed that pops up from time to time.
That is all from my garden this week. Hopefully, no more cold or lizard finds in the foreseeable future. Visit Cathy’s blog RamblingintheGarden and follow the links to see more vases.
The Shrub Queen 
The Graptosedum succulent flower is so interesting. At least you have some blooms. Cleaning up is the worst.
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It is. It’s weird to me they survived. So far, no real disasters, just a lot of leaves.
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All so pretty but I love that Graptosedum succulent!
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Thank you.
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Pretty arrangement! Your compost pile must be pretty big by now, eh?
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Thanks, Eliza! I had forgotten the quantity of leaves trees can drop! Making beds of compost!
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Splendid! I remember that Graptosedum. We have one here that looks just like it.
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Thanks, Tony. Do you think they are frost hardy?
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A love this arrangement, Ame! The graptosedums do a great job of emulating flowers even without he real flower stem and the bromeliad “tulips” offer just the right jolt of color. I really need to try a succulent-based arrangement again.
My former (as in not current) cat ate one of our western fence lizards once and, after promptly vomiting up its blue blood, never did that again…
https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/
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Thank you, Kris. the dog is fine, I think I beat him to the lizards. The last batch of Graptosedums rooted in the vase. Give it a try!
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