Author Archives: theshrubqueen

A Home for a Lonely Christmas Tree

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I am not quick about getting the Christmas decorations up. Anyone who knows me is aware I detest fake, silk or faux plants. So, the wreath on my front door is always real and never hangs around very long. South Florida is not kind to cut foliage hanging outdoors in the sun. This particular wreath is hanging in sling with a bottle of water holding Saw Palmetto, dried Bromeliad flowers, Brazilian Pepperberries, Frazier Fir and a dried miniature Pineapple.

I try to remember to buy a Christmas tree on Monday as fresh trees are delivered on Monday and the least amount of time spent broiling in the sun on an asphalt parking lot the better. This year it slipped my mind and I managed to wait until the Monday before Christmas. Oops, no fresh trees and what was left over was well, less than optimum. I sorted through the Frazier Firs marveling that the needles were still bending and not brown at all. Then decided to see if anything else appealed to me to use as a tree. Podocarpus and Palms are just too far afield to use as a Christmas tree.

Back I went to the Frazier Firs, finding one in reasonably good shape and looking a bit forlorn I was checking for a price tag. Not one to be found. I went inside and asked the cashier who replied ‘they’re free, we are trying to get rid of them’

Minutes later I was dragging the tree through the parking lot and a lady stopped to help me. I told her about it and she was off to the Christmas tree tent. Hopefully all the trees found homes.

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Merry Christmas!

In A Vase on Monday-Chrismukkah

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This year Christmas Eve and the first day of Hanukkah fall on December 24, the media have christened the date Chrismukkah, which I suppose sounds better than Hanukmas.

In honor of the season and Chrismukkah, I have done two arrangements, one in Christmas colors, red and green and another in traditional Hanukkah colors, blue, white and silver. Being perpetually and cursedly curious, I wondered about the origin of the color schemes.

According to Cambridge University the Christmas color scheme could go back to the Celts who used a red and green tree to mark boundaries. Here is the link, Who color coded Christmas. More research tells me the Hanukkah colors are based on the Israeli flag, why blue.

Now that we know the origins of the colors, here is the Hanukkah arrangement. The silver goblet is an heirloom from my mother’s collection and the flowers are in blue and white – Pom-Pom Asters (inspired by Cathy, our hostess) I started some seed in September and now have blue, white and perhaps pink Pom-Pom Asters, who knew they would grow in Florida in the winter.? The Asters are thriving, but alas, so far my other IOVOM flowers, the Cactus Zinnias are a disappointment. Another inspiration, White Italian Sunflowers are going, but they are showing signs of mildew, time will tell. The other blue members of this arrangement are Evolvulous, Blue Daze the annual peeking out here and there. The White Begonias are Sweet Begonias, a perennial here, the silver flowers are from Flapjack Kalanchoes. Deep plum foliage along the edges is from Purple Oxalis, from my neighbor. I think this plant may be the common thread between all of us. Asian Sword Ferns provide a bit of green.

 

Here is the Christmas arrangement, the original thought that it looked sort of non tropical. Then, the white Bridal Veil Plumeria is a bit difficult to explain. The dark green Yew is Japanese Yew, Podocarpus macrophyllus. Unabashedly tropical as are the red berries of the Brazilian Pepper, outlawed years ago as invasive, but determined to stay around, it is sold as Pink Peppercorn the world over and I have not eaten one of the berries near my house, but many birds have – and on the Brazilian Peppers go, The red striped foliage is from Martin Bromeliads and the ferny foliage is Copper Fennel. I think I have cut more of this than we have eaten, though it is tasty. The vase is an old Brandy snifter from my husbands ‘flaming things in a glass phase’. Go figure. Drinking flaming liquids is not my area of interest.

So, there we go. Happy Holidays to all.

Rum Cake – updated

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I know the holidays are here when Rum Cakes start appearing in my kitchen. Not by magic, by me. This was my mother’s favorite holiday treat and she demanded one every year. She began baking Rum Cakes when I was a teenager and then passed the reins over to me. Her biggest problem, being a woman of tasteful Southern breeding was being seen in the liquor store buying rum. Imagine a grey haired upstanding Republican woman who dropped her change at the cash register while muttering “I think that is the pastor of the Presbyterian church”. She would then nearly wreck the manual transmission car trying to skip gears in the parking lot to avoid being seen and was very happy when I was old enough to go buy the evil booze. Why it was OK for me to be seen buying rum remains a mystery lost to Southern ages. So, really this is a family tradition. This cake is being gifted to my brother and his family.

The recipe is based on a Bacardi rum recipe from the 70s. I started having trouble making Rum Cakes when all the boxes of cake mix were downsized from 18 ounces to 15.25. So, I have ended up buying two boxes of cake mix to get the amount right. Otherwise the cake ends up soggy.

The rum I prefer is Bacardi Gold. Having made this cake for almost 40 years I have tried all types with the exception of 151 which I believe might blow up the kitchen, so Bacardi Gold is the rum of choice for this cake:

Rum Cake:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

1 cup chopped pecans (this is a starting point, I fill the bottom of the pan)

1/ 15.25 oz Yellow or Butter Golden Cake Mix, plus 1/3 cup Cake Mix (buy two boxes) make more Rum Cakes with the leftovers

4 eggs

1/2 cup Canola oil

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup rum (Bacardi Gold)

Butter and flour a 10 inch tube pan, then break pecans into the bottom of the pan until it is covered. You can chop the nuts or use walnuts. I hate walnuts and just cover the bottom of the pan with big pieces of broken pecans.

Put all the other ingredients in the stand mixer and mix til there aren’t any lumps. Pour batter over the nuts and bake for 1 hour or until a tester comes out of the cake clean. Leave the cake in the pan for five minutes and then turn the cake out. Let cool til barely warm and make the glaze.

Glaze:

1 cup sugar

1/2 stick unsalted butter

1/4 cup cold water

Mix ingredients in small saucepan, then stir until everything is combined. Stirring over low medium heat the mixture will come to a boil, when the entire surface is bubbling set the timer for 5 minutes. Let it boil gently for five minutes, then take the mixture off the heat (this is important because it will catch on fire if you don’t) Add:

1/2 cup Rum

Stir until the alcoholic fumes wane. Meanwhile poke holes in top of cake with a skewer or pointy old knife. Spoon glaze over cake until the holes fill with glaze, then drizzle down the sides.

In A Vase on Monday – Bus Redux

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Last year during the holidays I made an arrangement in this biscuit tin. A friend of my husband had brought cookies from the UK, my husband ate the cookies and I used the tin as a vase.

This year I decided to go as tropical as possible and keep a green, red and white theme. The result is reasonably festive and has a large variety of plant material included.

The tin is deep, so I nestled three bottles from drinking water inside with the tops cut off, then filled them with water and made three matching arrangements in the bottles. I feel certain I would regret filling the tin with water (or the furniture would)

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The arrangement includes: in red and yellow Parrotflower (Heliconia psittacorum), the red flowers hanging over the edge are Turks Cap Hibiscus (Malvaviscus penduliflorus), foliage hanging over the sides is Sweet Begonia (Begonia ‘Alba’). The dark green foliage in the back of the arrangement is Snake Plant or Mother In Law’s Tongue (Sanseveria something, runs wild here), the white striped foliage is from ‘Martin’ Bromeliad. Whoever Martin is, he has come up with an amazing bromeliad, red striped in shade and white striped in sun thriving in both places. The ferns are the everpresent invasive Asian Sword Fern and finally, the conifer like bits are from Firecracker Plant (Russelia)

Here is last year’s bus, a much different look:

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Things are looking festive around my house, even if we don’t have a Christmas tree yet. Here are all the arrangements:

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They are not all living in the foyer, this was a holiday portrait. The watering can is on the screen porch and the basket in the living room.

In A Vase on Monday – A Day at the Beach.

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I usually conjure up my vases on Sunday morning as many things in South Florida can get wilted in the afternoon. This morning I was scratching my head as it didn’t seem to me much was going on in the garden.

As I was walking around the garden it occurred to me what a wonderful exercise  in seeing putting a vase together every week is. (This is also a flashback to design school -looking and really seeing) First, I noticed the berries on the Firebush (Hamelia patens)

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Then the fluffy seedheads on the mystery plant:

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Whatever this is popped up in my garden a few years ago  and I left it for the flowers or seedheads, please let me know it you recognize it. I thought it was some sort of Amaranth, but don’t really know.

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After finding the two base plants, I found the Red Shrimp Plants (Justicia brandegeana) and Beach Sunflowers (in yellow, Helianthus debilis) are still flowering and the thus far, oddly small Cactus Zinnias were added. Then I went around to my herb pots and snipped some Copper Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare “Purpurea”) to complete my arrangement. The flowers were placed in an vintage amber glass candlestick holder from Dansk, a favorite of my husband, repurposed for a vase on Monday.

Then it dawned on me, this was so easy it was like a day on the beach. So, I decided to go see how things were on Jensen Beach. If you are in a cold place I hope this warms your heart.

 

The Harbinger of Winter

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My Northern Hemisphere concept of the harbinger of winter has changed along with the latitude I now call home. We have Christmas Palms starting to bear red berries and many plants coming into bloom as the seasons change. A sled pulled by a team of flamingos has appeared on a front lawn up the street and the flamingos are wearing red capes! I laugh everytime I see this bit of holiday yard art.

Hong Kong Orchid (Bauhinia) trees start to flower in December and I spied my first one this morning while walking my hounds. The first one was white and as I walked back into my driveway, I noticed my neighbors purple one had just started to flower as well. In the next month or so this tree will be covered in what appears to be purple butterflies.

Winter is just around the corner.

 

In A Vase on Monday. Frogs and Hallelujah

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I know, your reaction was probably the same as mine. “Good Lord, what is that?”  Purple and white spotted foliage with a red, white and blue flower – who on earth could have dreamed that up?  As it turns out a guy named Don Beadle did, a famous breeder of bromeliads he created this one – the Hallelujah Billbergia. Here is a closer view of the flower:

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I bought the Billbergia a couple of years ago at a gardening show in Vero Beach, Florida. It was selected to add a tall purple accent in a terracotta wok container of bromeliads I was putting together for my front porch. I did not realize it would flower at all.

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I walked out on my porch a couple of mornings ago and thought someone had stuck something in the back of the wok planter. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a flower, a very funky flower. So I gave it a couple of days to see what it would do and decided to cut it for my Monday vase.

I cut it, brought it into the house and had this feeling something was looking at me. I looked down into the foliage and there was a tiny frog in the foliage surrounding the flower. The frog needed to go back outside, I took the whole thing back onto the front porch and the frog happily jumped over the wall and joined a friend in the Heliconias.

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Now there were two frogs looking at me. Hopefully, they are having some grand frog fun eating bugs in the garden. Bad bugs only, of course.

The vase in an old silver-plated something my mother bought in (her words) the junk store. I love the patina and I think it was a goblet, but at my house, it has only been used as a vase. Given the brilliant coloration of the centerpiece Hallelujah Billbergia Bromeliad adding a little green and white seemed the best option. Asian Sword Ferns and Asparagus Ferns are the greens and the white flowers at the base are Sweet Begonias (Begonia odorata “Alba”)

Hallelujah!

In A Vase on Monday. Thrift Store Finds

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Another one of those things I never knew about living in South Florida-the thrift store shopping is excellent. I suppose many estates are settled here and the population is somewhat transient as people buy and sell vacation condos don’t use them very much and then don’t want to move the furniture. A result of all this makes for some unusual and great thrift store finds. Especially if you are in the market for pseudo tropical furniture.

I was actually looking for a table lamp when I happened upon these pottery vases. I love things that are handmade and these are a bit thick and obviously hand thrown for the fun or love or it. I bought them immediately, I spent eight dollars. Well worth it. I also found a table lamp.

While winter is approaching, actual winter in South Florida is more like a really long spring. Freezes are rare and this is gardening season. Vegetable and annual seeds are started in late summer for planting now.

One of my new vases has my first ever Cactus Zinnias, started from seed in September, these do not look nearly as good as the ones I saw in other vases this summer, I am hoping they get bigger. Also new to the garden is the Copper Fennel, which I bought by accident thinking it was Dill for my herb pots. The Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) and Bridal Bouquet Frangipani (Plumeria pudica) are old standbys.

Between the Zinnias, Salvias, Fennel and Frangipani the fragrance of this vase is a bit weird. Kind of medicinal.

 

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My other new vase has a more tropical feeling, I decided to try to avoid ferns for foliage today just for a change. This vase has Parrot Flower ( Heliconia psittacorum) and the foliage and flowers of Sweet Begonia (Begonia odorata ‘Alba’)

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In A Vase on Monday – A Cross Cultural Experience

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This is truly a cross cultural experience. The plants, while grown in South Florida, hail from both sides of our planet, Southeast Asia and Brazil. The terracotta man in the vase is an incense burner from Pier One that belonged to my brother in the late 1970’s. I am not sure exactly where he came from but the concept was Pre Columbian. I think.

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The red and yellow swirling crab claws are the flower of a Blanchetiana Bromeliad, a native of the eastern side of Brazil. The plant itself is about four feet tall by six feet wide. It has been flowering for about six weeks, of course the flower is on the side I can’t really see unless I am turning the compost heap. So, I decided to cut it and enjoy it in the house as long as it lasted.

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These Bromeliads are relatively common in South Florida and I nearly wrecked my car the first time I saw one. Talk about wild and crazy plants, the foliage can be orange, red, green or yellow and it is big. Even though I had experience with Bromeliads I didn’t realize how big they grew. Another houseplant myth busted by Tropic Florida.

The foliage is a frond of a Lady Palm (Rhaphis excelsa). This palm is native to the Rainforest in Southeast Asia, an understory plant that enjoys shade and water. Relatively hardy, it will grown north to Orlando, and is a favorite of mine for interior use as a potted plant. I bought one a couple of years ago and it sat in the pot a little too long, so it is a bit lopsided and has finally recovered its healthy deep green color and need a little trim.

Here is a shot of my Rainforest Garden, where the Lady Palm lives.

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In A Vase on Monday -Triple Bubbly

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This first Monday of November a challenge was issued to use threes in an arrangement. Given our now wonderful weather in Florida and the third anniversary of In A Vase on Monday I thought a celebratory arrangement was in order. Champagne is always a nice touch on a happy occasion.

Out came the flutes and the search was on for some bubbly flowers. I decided the flowers from the Firecracker Plant (Russelia) were red and bubbly enough and then added one Parrot Flower (Heliconia psittacorum) and a bit of Bromeliad foliage (Neoregelia spp) and a few sprigs of Asian Sword Fern complete the cocktail.

I found a relatively historic bottle of Cava in my refrigerator and added my mother’s relatively historic Fostoria ice bucket with matching tray to complete the vignette.

Here are the flutes without the wine. They are now perched on a table in my foyer.

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And here is a single flute:

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Thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden blog for hosting this meme. Each Monday bloggers from around the world post arrangements from their gardens.

 

Cheers!