It is still officially spring in South Florida…but we already hit 90 F/ 32 C and the humidity is rising. There is always some point when the heat and humidity hit critical mass and I begin pining for fall. We are definitely not there yet, however, the colors in this vase reminded me of my future fall aspirations early.
There are some strange things going on in the garden. The mango trees that were hit by frost in early February have all come back, seemingly from the dead and are producing flowers. This usually happens in early February followed by fruit in June. We have dead foliage, new foliage and flowers on the same tree. I am puzzled, but think I should fertilize them. So weird. Creatures are eating the buds off the zinnias I planted in tall pots for cutting – giraffe rabbits??
The closer view. This is mostly flowers from trees and shrubs. I really enjoy cutting from these plants as they are rarely seen in this venue. The white flowers are White Geiger tree (Cordia boisserie). Yellow flowers are Esperanza tree (Tecoma stans). Orange tubular flowers are from the native Firebush (Hamelia patens var patens) Red fruit with foliage is Brush Cherry (Syzygium paniculatum), a common hedge here. The bronze foliage is an unnamed coleus bought locally.
I’m adding to the weird by buying obscure tropical vegetable seeds to grow over the summer. I planted edible Hibiscus (Roselles) recently (the calyx is the edible part, tastes like cranberries) Yard long and winged bean seeds go into pots soon..more weird to come…
That is all from South Florida. Thank you to Cathy for hosting IAVOM for all these years. Follow the link to her blog RamblingintheGarden to take the garden tour.
The Shrub Queen 
Great combo of color and texture– smooth and shiny leaves to white tissue-paper blooms. Weird is fun, looking forward to seeing the new additions. 🙂
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Thanks, Eliza. I am very intrigued with winged beans!
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Tecoma stans is surprisingly rare here, although it performs well. I only recently noticed a compact cultivar in a local nursery. I worked with a large specimen in San Jose many years ago, and no one else knew what it was. That coleus is nice. That is sort of uncommon here.
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That cultivar is nice of T.stans. The one I have is pretty rangy. I think I am going to prune it and just don’t visualize what it should look like. It’s a blob. I am interested to see if that coleus will actually live in full sun – it is supposed to.
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The specimen that I worked with in San Jose was likely the straight species. It was quite old, and probably predated the development of the compact cultivar. It was also somewhat floppy (or rangy) and had the personality of an elderberry.
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The Elderberry! that is a good description.
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I think that one of its common names is ‘yellow elder’.
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It is, at some point it was considered native here..no longer. I still have a blob!
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Oh dear, it is sad that you are ready to start thinking about fall/autumn when we are only just into May, but I suppose it’s not dissimilar to people (not me) longing for spring and summer when we are going through winter. What strange responses you have had to your strange weather earlier in the year. I enjoyed admiring the vibrant colours of the flowers you have chosen today, which definitely look too bright and sunny to suggest a change of season. I have grown some coleus from seed this year, but have 2 seedlings that are no more than 5mm, so can’t see them making an impact for a while (although I did succumb to some plug plants as a back-up, which haven’t arrived yet). Thanks for joining us, as always
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I’m not longing for fall just yet, soon though. I usually keep coleus going for years through cuttings. My chartreuse one finally wore out. This variety is supposed to like full sun?! We will see.
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I have no idea if I will be able to winter coleus here, but we shall see
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I just want to see that giraffe rabbit. I know how it feels to be longing for a cool fall or a cold blast from Canada. I am having the opposite feeling in my new home, as it has not been warm enough for many of the plants I am looking for. I also have a basement full of plants I want to get outside, and the temperature keeps dipping.
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LOL! I just found the culprit, a worm of some sort eating through the zinnia buds. I stepped on it =probably too soon as I have no clue what it was.. I guess you have to wait until June 1 for frost sensitive plants? I think the last coolish days are next week.
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They say Mother’s Day. But the weather has been crazy this year. One day in the 90s, and a few days later 30s at night. I think it is stabilizing now.
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I never planted summer annuals before May 1 in Atlanta. You are much farther north.??
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I’m at the southeastern tip of PA in zone 7, Atlanta is zone 8, more like my former home.
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Zone 7 when I lived there!
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I’m not a professional, but I’m not totally on board with the changes. I found in Houston, even though a plant was marked for the zone, it didn’t necessarily make it through a hard freeze or two in the winter. One can only haul so many plants inside.
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I agree with you there are a lot of microclimates and mitigating circumstances
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Oh, and they just recently changed this to 7 from 6.
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That is like Atlanta 40 years ago..they used to say Mothers Day.
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Too long to wait!
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The flowers are lovely. I don’t think about using flowers from trees and shrubs enough when I make an arrangement.
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I am an indiscriminate flower cutter!
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A lovely balanced arrangement. I love the yellow flowers from your Esperanza tree. Is it a large tree? Must look gorgeous when flowering! And the berry is a nice touch too.😀
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Thanks, Cathy, probably 15 feet tall. It never flowers all at once, but is a nice bit of color here and there.
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