We actually experienced some temperatures in the 70s (21C) without rain. So refreshing and a prelude to fall in South Florida. It wasn’t 70 for very long! I decided on an autumnal color palette for this week’s vase and set out into the garden, pruners in hand. I have already made one batch of pumpkin maple cupcakes (Pumpkin is a favorite ingredient in fall cooking in the US) The cupcakes were devoured but they didn’t inspire fall to arrive sooner!
The vase ingredients:
Yellow flowers are from the shrub, Thyrallis (Galphimia glauca) Bell shaped red flowers are a Firecracker plant (Russelia equisetiformis) Red and yellow flowers are “Lady Di” Heliconia (H. psittacorum) Orange tubular flowers are Firebush (Hamelia patens)
The temperatures are back up in the 90s…time for more cupcakes!
Thanks to Cathy of RamblingintheGarden for hosting IAVOM. Follow the link to visit.
Your tropical vase of autumn is colorful and interesting as ever. Keep calling autumn with those pumpkin maple cupcakes and at least you’ll be contented until she arrives. Enjoy!
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Thanks, Susie. Fall is elusive!
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We’ll be back to 90s by the end of the week but I am enjoying a taste of autumn. Hope the heat lets up down your way soon.
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92 here today!
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Thyrallis? Is that a new one?
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No, I have had these for a while. It’s a very drought tolerant shrub from the Caribbean.
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Love those heliconias, a wonderful ‘autumn mix!’ Fall is definitely here with trees, etc. showing beautiful colors. The really cold weather is not far behind, I expect.
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Ohh, I envy your maples. I have to find the three nearby red maples that represent fall here.
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Sadly, most of our sugar maples are blighted so clear bright yellow and oranges are no longer happening. So thank goodness for the red maples, which are close to peak now.
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Ack! blight is bad.
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You do have a nice collection of fall colors. That cupcake looks so gooood! Enjoy that cool weather; I know it’s rare. On the first day of fall, the temperature dropped to the 50s and 60s, which, as you know, is winter for a Southerner. I have not bought a winter coat yet. I need to start looking.
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Thank you. Definitely time for coat shopping. Your current weather is Antarctica for a Floridian. Are you hearing predictions for a colder winter from El Nino?
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Yes, I heard it would be colder with more precipitation. We had snow and cold weather last winter, which everyone said was unusual. I need boots too.
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Time to shop! Land’s End duck boots?
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I’ll be making a stop there for sure.
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Susie says it perfectly when she says ‘your tropical vase of autumn is colourful and interesting as ever’ – and it’s just so different from any vase that could ever come out of the UK! Love it 👍I am up to date with my tomato chutney for the next 12 months, and have frozen enough apples for the year too, but still need to use some of the apples before they all drop for a batch of mincemeat. That’s the extent of my autumn harvest. We seem to be having a late summer spell, the rain at the end of August having slowed down the march to awards autumn
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Thank you, Cathy. I’ll bet there are Heliconias in a greenhouse somewhere in the UK!?? I want to try your chutney recipe, but I keep eating all the tomatoes! A friend gave me at least ten pounds of mangoes from his tree, I have been madly chopping and freezing them.
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Yes, I imagine you are right about the heliconias and no doubt other tropical blooms, but would they get picked for vases? 🤔Not very likely…
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Meant to also say that I have been enjoying drid mangoes from Aldi – do you have a dehydrator, or the means to try drying mangoes?
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I have Roselles (edible Hibiscus calyx) in the garden you may be familiar with from Indian food? I am growing to dry and use to make granola – I was thinking of trying to dry some mangoes in the oven as this sounds delicious to me. I have one huge mango that is not ripe yet. No idea how to dry mangoes in the oven!
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No, I haven’t heard of roselles – would they be crunchy wen dried, or chewy? I could dry things in the warming oven of the Aga, but have also bought a fairly inexpensive dehydrator which has plastic stacking trays so you can dry more at a time – they must be available in the US, surely?
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Roselles are like raisins (sultanas?) when dry and taste like a sweet cranberry. The mango suddenly got ripe so I dried it in the oven. Delicious. Dehydrators are available here, but I have a warming drawer! The Roselles are at least a month away from harvest so I will look around for a dehydrator, the mangoes didn’t seem that dry so I put them in the refrigerator. No worries about them hanging around too long.
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So many things to discover and try!
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Yes!
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Pumpkin maple cupcakes! Yum! The small yellow flowers add pretty touch to your bolder tropical plants. I hope you continue to enjoy cooler weather as the season progresses.
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Thanks, Kris. Same to you and may the hurricanes stay away.
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Those colours are perfect Amelia – we have hints of those oranges and yellows here and there in our garden, but still a lot of green. Your tropical autumn sounds a bit too warm for me. We are enjoying mid to upper 20s and even that is almost too warm for me in September!
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Thank you. I search for fall! It’s difficult to find and a bit too warm for me right now!
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Oh, and the cupcakes look delicious! 😁
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Thank you
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Oh, wowza! I’ll be right over for the cupcakes 😉 , and that arrangement is stunning!
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