Category Archives: gardening

In A Vase on Monday – Brown Greyhounds

20160626_093959-1

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.

20160626_094601

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.

20160626_093950-1

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.

20160307_164454(5)-1

 

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.

20160619_100804

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.

20160619_110831

In A Vase on Monday – I’ll Swanee

20160605_103101-1

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:

20160605_102718

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.

20160605_103253

Bird of Paradise Progression

 

20160514_174246 (1)

 

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:

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

In A Vase on Monday – Tea Stained Melange

20160508_113259

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.

20160508_113008

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?’

20160508_140846

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.

CCE05082014_00000

Miss Betty and Mr. Tommy

Mom Nature Lights My Fire

This plant appeared in my garden a couple of years ago. I thought it was some sort of Amaranthus blown in from across the Atlantic Ocean and decided to leave it to see what happened. Amaranthus can have some interesting flowers (Love Lies Bleeding, etc.) The foliage started getting red around the edges, confirming my thoughts, then the stems started getting woody. Maybe it wasn’t Amaranthus at all.

Then it flowered.

20160503_182813

Definitely not an Amaranth. Not a clue what it was. So, I took this to the Native Plant Society meeting and they said Firebush. Hamelia patens var patens? I said no, it couldn’t be, this is my Firebush, Hamelia patens. Orange flowers and the leaves are half as big.

20150625_081158

Firebush and Friend

Then it dawned on me, there is a great deal of arguing about the true native Firebush. I  usually ignore this kind of argument being more designer than botanist, but think I am agreeing with the Hamelia patens var patens crowd. The orange flowering one is supposed to be from the Caribbean somewhere instead of Florida. Given the seemingly magical appearance of the patens var patens in my garden, I think that the red one is the native.

Mother Nature really is a good designer, she placed the Native Red Firebush in a bed of red and yellow Heliconias behind some yellow Beach Sunflowers and across from some red Bromeliads. Perfect.

20160504_131122-1

Now if everything would just grow together. And be happy.

 

Gardening in the Rain

20160415_163135-1

One day this week I was waiting for the rain to start so I could go work in the garden. I stopped to think – this seems really stupid, do other gardeners do this? And then went out into a gentle rain to move some Beach Sunflower around. It has been so dry lately the sandy soil has tightened its grip on roots to the point it is difficult to pry things out of the ground. Soil is an overstatement in my garden – I should face the facts, it is Sugar Sand, white, infertile and oddly capable of growing many things. I pried some intractable Johnsonsgrass out (and threw it away) then went looking for more beautiful things.

Here is what I found:

20160415_104634

This is a Bromeliad, Billbergia pyramidalis, I think, bought as a cutting in February. I was told it would grow up the trunk of a tree. As a planted it, I was scoffing. Well, whoever told me that was absolutely correct – it is growing up the tree and much to my surprise, flowering at the same time.

This made my time in the rain worthwhile and hopefully the skies will open again soon.

 

 

In a Vase on Monday -Natives Tea Party

20160410_160949-1.jpg

 

The copper tea kettle is one of my favorite things. I bought at a flea market on a weekend trip to the Appalachian Mountains many years ago. I am relatively certain it won’t hold water as it was repaired on the bottom and you can see through the repair. What is lovely about this kettle is the patina of many years of use with dents and hand crafted solder joints adding to its beauty. I can only speculate how many souls have been warmed by the contents of this vessel. The Blue Willow teacups are English and belonged to my grandmother, the saucers are too cracked to use and are kept for their patina as well.

As neither the cups or the kettle can be used for tea, this is a party for the natives. The native flowers in the kettle, of course. The arrangement is primarily native plants of South Florida, the yellow flowers are Beach Sunflower (Helianthus debilis), the orange tubular flowers are Firebush (Hamelia patens), Boston Fern, the purple foliage is Purple Hearts (Setcresea pallida), native to North America says the Florida plant database, and joining the party some Painted Fingernail Bromeliad foliage with the cerise tips, from somewhere south of the border.

As I was arranging the flowers in a pickle jar to place inside the kettle, it occurred to me I should go antiquing to see if I could find some copper friends to join the kettle.

In A Vase on Monday – Spring Renovations

 

20160403_135338

Here is the Spring part. I put this vase together and thought ‘wow, that really looks like a fresh spring arrangement’. The bright pink flowers with baby Boston fern fronds and some bits of cream Begonias and foliage spoke to me of new beginnings in the garden.

The pink flowers are a new beginning. They are from a Coral Vine (Antigon leptopus) on a nearby fence. This vine is native to Mexico and considered invasive in South Florida, the owners of the fence are snowbirds, winter visitors from the frozen north, and come to Florida for the winter. This vine is unapologetically immolated annually and I have never seen another one around. To the owner’s delight, I cut it back for the flowers. It started to flower just about the time the owners went back north, to my delight.

The rest of the arrangement is comprised of – in white and chartreuse, the flowers and seeds of the Sweet Begonia (Begonia odorata ‘Alba’). The foliage is my ever present Boston Fern, the new spring growth, some culinary Fennel and the variegated is from Hawaiian Snow Bush (Breynia nivosa)

20160403_135346

And now the renovations part. Last week I had Orchid Tree branches in this vase and they lasted precisely 50 hours. The flowers wilted despite my best efforts. The buds looked promising so I plucked the offending flowers and left the budded branches to hopefully reflower. After a couple of days I figured out this was not happening. The foliage was in such good shape I cut some Heliconias with long stems and added them to the vase, here is the result.

20160403_134911

I like this arrangement as well, it seems like the tropical version. Below is last week’s arrangement. Hopefully this one lasts longer.

20160327_142327

Springtime in Tropic Florida

20160330_143413

This is a Tabebuia in the parking lot of my grocery store. To me, Tabebuias are the Forsythias of spring in South Florida. Bright, cheerful yellow flowers on a semi gnarly trunked tree with corky bark. This tree will soon be covered in yellow trumpets.

Tropic Florida, to the best of my knowledge is a term coined by Frederic Stresau to describe South Florida, he is a fellow Landscape Architect who wrote the book on Florida. The book is unfortunately titled Florida, My Eden, making it sound more like romance than shrubbery. Mr. Stresau has been gone for many years and I think his book could use a little updating and really a new title.

20160331_091303

Onward, I do like the sound of Tropic Florida vs. South Florida. Whereas it never gets really cold here winter has its cold fronts and they are finally passing into warmer cold fronts. It is late March and here are the actual signs of spring from the garden:

The fruit trees are blooming and the bees are out in full force:

On the left, we have a Rose Apple, Syzgium jambos, a rather weird fruit common in the Caribbean, it has a rose scent with a slightly sweet taste and the texture of a water chestnut. We keep meaning to make a pie from the fruit.

On the right is a Mango in bloom, I think this is a Haden Mango, nice fruit for eating or baking a Mango Rum Cake. I have had fruit from this particular tree and it is highly recommended.

Other harbingers of Spring from Tropic Florida

 

On the left, Shell Ginger, Alpinia zerumbet, a true sign of Spring peeking out from its foliage and to the right flowers from the Hong Kong Orchid tree. I have cut these for flower arrangements these past couple of weeks.

I am trying to get everything in place for the hot summer weather and feel time slipping away for working outside. My tomatoes have set fruit and I think the Armadillos ate it! Tomato season really ends about Memorial Day here, although it can be pushed to July 4th. I have seen people use umbrellas over tomato plants to extend the season.

Time for me to get back to the garden.