Category Archives: gardening

Six on Saturday – Life Cycles

Spring in South Florida brings changes to the garden. It took me a while to figure out what was going on and I am still observing the action.This Saturday morning I noted my fruit trees growing and changing and the ever fascinating (to me) Bromeliads. To see more spring (and maybe fall!) garden pictures, visit Jim at GardenRuminations

O’ Rourke bromeliad flower. These start out very pale pink and are now gaining a deeper color. The flower stalks came up at the end of January. I am not sure how long they last.

Pickering Mangoes starting to color up. These flowered prolifically and set a lot of fruit. I am left wondering what happened to it. There are maybe 10 or 12 left on the tree. Did the evil Agama Lizards eat it?? A garden mystery.

Gallardia pulchella, once considered native but its status was rescinded. For some reason, these only grow in the shell walkway.

The life cycle of the Jill Neoregelia bromeliad. These are stoloniferous. The top picture is the mother plant at the end of the cycle, turning deep red and flowering. This plant will soon die and I will twist its dried up remains off the stolons. The bottom photo is what Jill looks like most of its life.

Blushing Bromeliads (Neoregelia carolinae) doing the same dance. New pups are visible on the right side of the picture replacing the mother plant and spreading. These are considered ground cover bromeliads.

The first ‘Miss Alice’ Bougainvillea flower of the year. Miss Alice was knocked off her trellis by one of the hurricanes last year and remained naked until just now. I was beginning to wonder if she would come back, but here she is! It is hard to keep a Bougainvillea down.

That is all from my garden this beautiful Saturday morning.. Happy Spring!

In a Vase on Monday – Signs of Summer

Tropical Gardenias and Frangipani flowers mark the beginning of the inevitable slide into summer in South Florida. Spring is fading away, though the pollen isn’t and the weather is fantastic. Of course, being a persnickety gardener, we can’t be happy with what we have and could use a little rain.

The fragrance from this combination would be worthy of a candle. The Tropical Gardenia (Tabernaemontana diviricata) has a much lighter scent than G. jasminoides. Combine that with the sweet yellow and pink Frangipani (Plumeria spp) and add a touch of the herbal tang of White Flame Salvia. I am really enjoying walking into my house and expect the scent to magnify this evening.

The fern in the vase is a Climbing Asparagus Fern (Asparagus africanus). These are invasive in Florida and I pull them when I find them and inevitably find another sooner or later. I enjoy using these in vases and recycling them that way. The plants have thorns so they usually find me.

That’s all from South Florida. I’ll be in the garden not watching the news and getting things straightened out for summer. To see more vases, follow this link to visit Cathy RamblingintheGarden.

In a Vase on Monday – Seeing Red

Suffice it to say there are many in the US seeing red this week. I’m leaning towards seeing a monochromatic color scheme that has a tropical Christmas spirit. Making America Garden Again?

Seizing on the garden update. This is an heirloom Amaryllis (Hippeastrum). I think it is a Red Lion. My father in law grew these every holiday and went through an incredible in the closet/out of the closet ritual to force the flowers. Once the bulbs stopped putting up with his behavior, he planted them outside and gave me a few. This one usually flowers on his birthday, which I consider a wink from the great beyond. This year it was about 10 days late. Maybe things are slow in the great beyond.

The Red Lion roars again. The bell shaped red flowers are Firecracker Plant (Russelia equisetiformis). Palm foliage is from Dwarf Pygmy Date Palm (Phoenix roebellini). I found the vase by the side of the road while walking the dog.

The frothy white accents flowers are Sweet Begonia (Begonia odorata ‘Alba’) These are a fairly indestructible perennial for South Florida gardens. I am not sure how long this one has been around. Ten years at least and it has provided a few generations of offspring along the way.

I am hoping to see more red flowers! That’s all from my South Florida garden this Monday. Follow this link RamblingintheGarden to visit Cathy and see vases from other gardeners around the world.

In a Vase on Monday – Spring Pinks

I’m thinking my spring pinks are different from most everyone else’s?

After a fairly dry month the rain gods finally smiled on my garden and gave it a good, solid drenching. I think two inches of rain fell in a few hours. Some plants responded with flowers while the bromeliads are pushing out pups. Spring showers are inspirational and I suppose a little fertilizer increased the magic.

A close up of the Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet). These are native to East Asia, I can only imagine the fantastic rainforest they are from. They are edible and have a wonderful gingery fragrance when trimmed. Culinary ginger is better for use in cooking, this is a bit thinner in flavor.

The Shell Ginger is actually a bit late this year, though I do associate it with spring. It sometimes flowers a few times a year. So, it is a bit unpredictable and actually multi-seasonal..sounding like a gardening marketing piece here. The Gingers with solid green foliage are a bit difficult to find but flower on a regular basis. Varigated Ginger is known to flower about once a decade.

This is a miniature ornamental pineapple. I am told they are edible and may be juiced. I think about 50 would be needed to make juicing worthwhile, so I just use mine in vases.They are so cute it is difficult to resist cutting them. A friend gave me a start of this plant some years ago, now there are many in the garden. The only downside – sharp everything.

We are meeting at Cathy’s blog again this Monday to share vases. Follow this link RamblingintheGarden to join in.

Six on Saturday – Garden Goodies

I am joining the group at Jim’s blog this Saturday, sharing six items of interest from our gardens. Follow the link to join the garden party GardenRuminations

This week has been wonderful weather wise. Clear blue skies, sunny, low humidity and a rain storm that quenched the thirsty plants in the garden. I have been enjoying homegrown produce, admiring fruit coming along in the trees and spying orchid flowers in the Gumbo Limbo tree.

First up, the orchid. This is a Dendrobium superbum. The fragrance was fantastic when it first opened. It has been flowering for about a week. I tied this into my Gumbo Limbo tree last spring.

Second, another mad bromeliad flower. This is from Aechmea ‘burgundy’. They do not flower often, but it is an interesting bloom.

Another bromeliad, the pineapple. I think it doubled in size with the addition of fertilizer and rain.

More fruit in the garden. The Thai dessert mangoes are coming along.

I have been enjoying heirloom Arugula and cherry tomatoes – in everything possible.

The heirloom Pentas (Penta lanceolata) are doing their best to welcome spring.

That is all from South Florida this Saturday. I am waiting for another set of rain showers to move through and hopefully wash some pollen away.

Happy Spring!!

In a Vase on Monday – Quesnelia Quest

In my quest for materials for a vase I spied a sure sign of spring in South Florida. The arrival of these pink flowers signals winter is over. Meet Quesnelia testudo, they are a bit like a pink pinecone. I like the name. I have heard them referred to as the tulips of the tropics.

These bromeliads are native to Brazil and thrive in my garden. They only need a few accents to make a dramatic arrangement.

A closer view:

I placed the flowers in an heirloom crystal vase, added water, swirled them around, avoiding the seedy parts and then added the accents. In white, a few sprigs of White Flame Salvia followed by a few more sprigs of Boston Fern. Voila! Quest complete.

To see more vase quests follow this link to Cathy’s blog – RamblingintheGarden

In a Vase on Monday – Spring Gusto

Spring arrived with a blast of heat on Sunday. 84F/28C. I am not ready for this. The perennials in the garden, however, are quite happy and flowering with gusto in approval.

Pinks, whites and purples rule the garden. The hotter colors seem to be reserving their action for higher temperatures. That doesn’t really explain the fuchsia zinnias, does it? Oh, well. I am enjoying them all and just planted a batch of what I suspect are fuchsia zinnias with orange accents. South Florida rolled into a zinnia!

Most of these plants attract butterflies. The butterflies (mostly Gulf frittilary) are starting to hatch out and buzzing the garden for nectar. I left plenty of flowers as I do not want any disgruntled insects in the garden.

The close up:

The cast: Two types of white Salvia in spikes. The greyish one is ‘White Flame’ Salvia, a long serving perennial. The other is the white version of Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) it is a reliable, reseeding annual. Pink stars are the Perennial Penta (Penta lanceolata), they are much bigger than the annuals and hang around for a few years. The butterflies love them. Pink zinnias are from seeds I grew last year that reappeared in a pot, not exactly sure what they are. In purple, the big flowers are an annual Petunia and the viney stuff is Purple Heart (Transcandentia pallida). Fern is Autumn Fern (Dryopteris erythrosora), something that probably shouldn’t live here, but is perversely happy on the front porch in a pot. I am, too.

Thanks to Cathy at http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com

for hosting In a Vase on Monday. Follow the link to see more vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Say it with Flowers

These days a simple blue bowl filled with sunflowers packs some political punch. This seems a bit odd to me. It also seems odd that I felt compelled to seek out the closest thing in the garden to a sunflower (actually it is a sunflower, just not one that could be found in Ukraine) The sunflowers are standing up for Ukraine and I agree with my sunflowers.

The sunflowers are Beach Sunflowers (Helianthus debilis), a groundcover reseeding annual that grows naturally on sand dunes. They love sand and are incredibly drought tolerant. They can also be overly enthusiastic and are quite fond of my revolting garden ‘soil’. I have never managed to quite pull them all out. Though I do enjoy their sunny presence in small doses in the garden.

The small blue flowers are Blue Porter weed (Stachytarpheta jamaicaensis). Chartreuse foliage is from an unnamed coleus that has been around for years. Ferny foliage is Copper Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

I really need to declare a media blackout and stay in the garden!

Happy Early Spring to all and many thanks to Cathy for hosting IAVOM for all these years. It is my favorite thing about Mondays!

To see more vases, visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden and follow the links in the comments section.

Six on Saturday – Spring Promise

Saturday has rolled around again and my garden tour this morning revealed much potential. More fruit has set for later in the year and vegetables are taunting me “we’re almost ripe”. I have been harvesting greens and herbs and eyeing tomatoes. The winter bromeliads are putting on their show.

Follow this link to Jim’s blog GardenRuminations to catch up with other gardeners.

O’ Rourke Bromeliad in full bloom. This one never grows quite straight. The flowers last for weeks and then get a sort of berry.

Native Tillandsia bromeliads growing on prunings from Firebush.

Not eggplants. Brad’s Atomic Grape tomatoes. These are bigger than I thought they would be and still hard as a rock.

Pickering mangoes. These are a dwarf variety, called Condo Mangoes. The trees are about four feet tall and bear small crops, perfect for a patio or courtyard. A very good fruit and it is looking promising. Barring disaster I should have a massive mango crop. But it is early. And I probably should not have said that.

While I was admiring the mango flowers, I noticed a sweet fragrance in the air. The Rangpur limes are flowering like mad. Come December we will see how these turn out.

Another South Florida oddity. Snake plants (Sansieveria) are invasive in the garden. I cannot imagine how many there are growing down my property line. It takes heavy construction equipment to get rid of them. They flower in late winter and have a wonderful fragrance.

That’s all from South Florida this Saturday. Happy Gardening to all.

In a Vase on Monday – Fennel Soap

It has been cool and very dry in South Florida. Another ‘reason why people come here for the winter’ week. The succulents celebrated by flowering. I like the architectural aspect of succulents and enjoy cutting them to view the subtle color shading up close. The foliage from the Aloes is left in the garden, it is too sharp to handle.

Silvery grey Graptosedum and its flowers. I did not realize these would set seed until they started dropping on the floor. The ferny plant behind is Bronze Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). I have been enjoying using this in vases and it would not have occurred to me to buy it for that purpose. It lasts a long time and adds a nice fragrance.

Soap Aloe (Aloe saponaria) flowers. This Aloe blooms about four times a year in my garden. Native to South Africa, it can be used as shampoo. Unfortunately, it seems most people are allergic to it, so I have not tried it!

Happy Monday and Happy Gardening or Garden Dreaming..

Thanks to Cathy for inviting us into her garden every Monday to share our vases. Please follow the link to visit and view the vases. RamblingintheGarden