Category Archives: gardening

In A Vase on Monday – Pina Coladas

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An idea formed in my head as I was walking my dogs yesterday morning, a coconut rolled down the street from a nearby palm and one of the dogs stopped to see what it was. Not very interesting to a dog, but I thought otherwise and picked it up. Then, I walked through my garden and spied this miniature pineapple, it has been around for so long the mother plant was producing pups and I had been thinking that it might be better for the plant to cut the pineapple.

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The next thing to find was some rum. The cabinet supplied enough for one frozen cocktail. Perfect. My husband is not a fan of such girly drinks. If only I had some umbrellas.

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The vase is a monogrammed highball glass from my in laws collection. A friend gave me the pineapple, the plant is red and green striped and the pineapple is inedible. But it looks great. The foliage is from a Dwarf Jamaican Heliconia and the spray of pink flowers is from Coral Vine (Antigonon leptopus). The coconut is Cocos nucifera, the Coconut Palm, very common in my neighborhood.

In my Rainforest Garden, later in the afternoon….rum, what rum?

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The Pina Colada actually has some Mango granita in it. Maybe it is a Sunset Pina Colada or a Mango Colada.

Cattleya Orchids, Finally Flowering in my Fig Tree.

 

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I have been writing about my ongoing attempt to grow Orchids in the trunk of my Strangler Fig for two years! It finally flowered!

This is a Cattleya Orchid gifted to me by my neighbor. Hers looks much better having been in place for a lot longer than mine-here are my neighbors Cattleyas just starting to flower, these are in the trunk of a Hong Kong Orchid tree.

Sometimes the best thing for a garden is time.

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I think my flower is a bit more purple. Curious. I also think I nearly killed the orchids by not watering them enough during dry weather. They were looking pretty puny a couple of months ago, then I started watering them daily or so.

Feeling very lucky today.

In A Vase on Monday – Prunings

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My Bridal Bouquet Frangipani was getting too tall, so I planned an arrangement around the prunings. This variety of Frangipani is columnar and tends to break apart in thunderstorms, if anyone else is familiar with the dreadful Bradford Pear (I hope that tree never made it out of the US) the branching structure of this Frangipani is similar and breaks in the same way. The problem with the branching structure of both these trees is that the branches are held at such a steep angle to the trunk the weight of the foliage breaks the branches and sometimes the trunk splits.

The good news is the Frangipani usually doesn’t get more than ten feet tall and rapidly repairs itself if branches break off. This arrangement is four or five feet tall, so there is plenty of shrub left and it looks reasonably good. Better than broken in two anyway.

The red accents in the arrangement are just for fun. No pruning was needed, it just happened. The tall red element is a Raggedy Ann Copperleaf (Acalypha “Raggedy Ann”) A somewhat unfortunate pruning story. This plant is the closest thing to a Japanese Maple that will grow in Tropic Florida. Japanese Maples are one thing I pine for in my garden- so I bought this thinking I could prune it into a tree form ‘Japanese Maple’. Reality is this plant has none of the graceful habit of a Japanese Maple and is totally upright and frankly kind of scraggly looking, especially after tree forming by someone trying to make a Japanese Maple.

Very Raggedy Ann Copperleaf

The big red foliage leaves are from Blanchetiana Bromeliads, I love these plants for their coarse highly colored foliage and crazy flowers. It took me a couple of years to figure out how to cut the leaves off – kitchen scissors, go figure.

Blanchetiana Bromeliad

Here is a close up of the flowers in my arrangement:

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In A Vase on Monday-Bromeliads Singing the Blues

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Here’s the collection of blues. The violin bottle belonged to my grandmother, she always kept unusual bottles on her windowsills, some filled with colored water. The footed glass was found in my in-laws house whilst cleaning it out to sell it. For some reason they collected one glass each time they went to an Arts Festival, so there was an odd collection of ones, many of them pottery wine glasses. The corked bottle holds dried rose petals I collected from bouquets my husband brought home.

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I started with this one, my husband came in and said, ‘It looks like the violin is playing music’ – maybe the blues! The flower in this bottle is from a Miniata Bromeliad (Aechmea miniata) These are very easy to grow and bloom regularly in July. A simple Heliconia leaf has been added to the bottle. Here are the Miniatas in the garden.

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The footed vase has a sprig of Frangipani and a few clippings of our native Firebush (Hamelia patens var patens)

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Here is what has me singing the Bromeliad Blues. I bought this grey foliaged Bromeliad this spring at a Master Gardeners plant sale. No one knew what it was, but I liked the shape and foliage (the leaves have a deep pink tip) and it was $6, so I bought it. Check out this flower, I think this is a Bilbergia ‘Soundwaves’, but I am not sure!

In A Vase on Monday -Grapes and Gardenias

 

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This idea germinated as I was surveying my new natives garden. My natives garden is currently a repulsive field of weedy grasses, sand and Indian Needles. The Indian Needles are a native that look like Coreopsis, reseeding like Crab Grass. Crab Grass averages a quarter million seeds per head. Dreadful stuff. The one weed I have not encountered in my garden. Thankfully.

I digress. The grapes in the arrangement were noted on my survey as well as the Tropical Gardenias (they are the buds) The grapes are also native and frighteningly prolific. These are Muscadines (Vitis rotundifolia) I have been pulling them out for five years. The grapes, while attractive stay this size and turn purple. The wildlife usually eats them before they ripen. It took me a while to find out what these are, terribly seedy and bitter, they are male muscadines, the female grapes are larger and sweeter. My grandfather used to grow these and make wine with them, it is syrupy, treacly wine.

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The Tropical Gardenias are the double white flowers with buds. Commonly called Florida Gardenia, the botanical name is Tabernaemontana divaricata, probably native to India and not tolerant of freezing, this Gardenia is from a different family than its more well known counterpart, Gardenia jasminoides. The foliage is a lovely dark green and the flowers are not quite as fragrant as G. jasminoides although the fragrance carries nicely on a breeze at night.

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In the center of the arrangement is a flower from my Frangipani, there are also a few flowers from the culinary Fennel and some Asian Sword Ferns. I have been calling these Boston Fern forever, but they are truly Asian. Tuberous Asian Sword Ferns, is the whole name, Boston Ferns have pointed tips.

I decided to stick with a white, chartreuse and green color scheme and the arrangement is held in a Fostoria pitcher from my mother’s collection of American pattern Fostoria. This pitcher graced the table filled with iced tea at many family gatherings. The arrangement is in my foyer as the fragrance from the Frangipani and Gardenia gets a bit thick!

In A Vase on Monday – Brown Greyhounds

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I had a brown greyhound vase long before I had a brown greyhound. The vase came from my great grandmother, Miss Emma. I am fairly certain my gardening interest can be traced back to Miss Emma. She was a famous gardener in the small South Georgia town my mother grew up in.

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The vase is marked ‘Made in Occupied Japan’ and is made of some sort of plaster that won’t hold water. I had a pair but the other vase was squashed as I didn’t realize about the plaster. My grandmother kept winter wheat in these and there was still some sand in the bottom from wheat days. When I poured it out the first thing that popped into my head was “Oh no, Great Grandpa’s ashes”. Then I remembered seeing his headstone. Whew.

There is another vase inside with water. Plants in this vase include in orange, Soap Aloe (Aloe saponaria), in yellow, Beach Sunflowers (Helianthus debilis), White flowers are Gaura, the Bellezza variety, pink is Coral Vine (Antigonon leptopus), the purple is Purple Hearts (Setcreasea pallida) a bit of Asparagus Fern adds some fine green texture.

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The real greyhound is Fuzzy’s Alan Alda (racing name) we call him Alan. His color is actually called Blue Fawn, the most wonderful and apt description of his coloring I have heard is it looks as if he has been painted with deep gray watercolors. He retired from racing at an early age because he lost nearly every race. I am deeply suspicious Alan is smarter than the people who were trying to race him as he is still extraordinarily quick and can easily outwit me! Alan and his toys, the “lawn” is a bit worse for wear.

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In A Vase on Monday – Fire and Ice in a Purple High Heel

 

 

20160619_110417I have been looking at this vase for quite some time. The purple high heeI I believe is a Blenko Art Glass piece from the early 1950’s; likely a wedding gift to my parents and another vase from my mother. My issue with this vase is how to make an arrangement in it, the base is basically a trench, so no hopes of using a frog – I had some scraps of green floral foam and thought I could stuff the trench full of foam and stick the flowers in that, no such luck. The green foam floated up, so I added some pebbles to hold the foam down and proceeded.

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Eventually I added enough pebbles to keep the foam in the trench. Onto the Fire.

The Fire is Florida’s native Firebush (Hamelia patens var patens) which cooperatively pops up in my garden, the foliage has a lovely red tinge so I have included that in the arrangement. The other reds are Red Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana) and some buds from the Parrot’s Flower (Heliconia psittacorum). The Ice elements are Bridal Bouquet Frangipani (Plumeria pudica) nearly bashed off by thunderstorms and saved by my vase. The Sweet Begonias (Begonia odorata ‘alba’) offer a different texture in white and add some coarse green foliage to the mix. A few culinary Fennel flowers and Boston Fern sprigs complete the arrangement.

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In A Vase on Monday – I’ll Swanee

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I’ll swanee is slang from the American South. I think of it as a polite old lady’s way of exclaiming I swear. I have never swaneed myself, either I am not old enough or not Southern enough. Stay tuned. My mother would come up with things like “I’ll Swanee! I have never seen anyone with hair the color of a cocker spaniel before” translation, “I swear that is the worst dye job I have ever seen, meow” The term Swanee is frequently used as a means to soften a catty comment.

The green glass swan is another  heirloom from my mother, the avid swan collector. It might be an ashtray from the 5o’s, I am not quite sure what it is, today it is a vase. The swan collection was so overwhelming as I was clearing out her house everyone got a swan, I ended up with this one and some other green glass pieces. Another view:

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As for the plants used in the arrangement, this is a good vase for butterflies. All attract butterflies, the blue flowers are from Tropical Blue Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) I think of these as the hydrangeas of the tropics, summer flowering and they are showy as the weather heats up in June and July. The smaller purple flowers are from the Golden Dewdrop (Duranta) and the white flowers are Plumeria or Frangipani. I added a few green ferns for contrast.

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Bird of Paradise Progression

 

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This winter I finally indulged my desire for a Bird of Paradise (Strelizia reginae), debated with myself about placement of the plant, read all sorts of conflicting recommendations, ignored most of them and planted it in a morning sun location that I pass on the daily dog walk. The greyhounds remain unimpressed.

The above picture is full bloom on the first flower. The bud teased me for about two weeks sending a straight stem up that I wasn’t sure if it was a leaf or flower bud, until it started to bend and turn orange and blue.

Thinking these were long lasting flowers I was disappointed when the flower only lasted four or five days. Much to my surprise it bloomed again on the same stem

A curious plant to begin with- I am wondering what it will do next. It seems to be shooting up another something. Stay tuned. Here is the show thus far:

 

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In A Vase on Monday – Tea Stained Melange

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It was Mother’s Day as I was plotting my Monday vase, so naturally I thought of what my mother might like in a vase. My mother (passed nearly seven years ago) was not nearly as snooty as I am about her flowers and enjoyed just about anything she could grow successfully. I am hard pressed to think of something she really didn’t like. Growing up we always had a seemingly magical forest of Cosmos and Scarlet Runner beans to play in. Many of the plants grown in the garden would end up in a vase on Monday! She would definitely get a kick out of all my wacky tropicals and the vases every Monday.

I ended up with her favorite teapot. I am fairly certain it was a wedding gift, the rim and base stained russet from untold thousands of pots of tea, many shared with me. I walked through my garden and cut everything that was in bloom and arranged it all in the teapot.

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The big leaves in the back are Sea Grape (Coccoloba uvifera), the pink flower in the middle is a Brazilian Plume (Justicia carnea), Florida Gardenias (Tabernaemontana divaricata) on each side in white, Sweet Begonias (Begonia odorata ‘alba’) the smaller white flowers, Beach Sunflower (Helianthus debilis) are the yellow and Parrot Flower (Heliconia psittacorum) the red and yellow on the sides. The teapot is marked Hall, made in the USA.

My husband wandered through as I was assembling the vase and asked me, aghast, ‘Is that your Monday vase?’

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This is a side shoot from Sweet 100 tomatoes I hope to root to extend my tomato season.

Here is my mother, ever the Southern Belle, at the peach packing house with her grandfather in the late 1940s.

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Miss Betty and Mr. Tommy