Category Archives: theshrubqueen

In a Vase on Monday – Solstice Special

This is a hot color special in honor of the summer solstice. I must have some Three Bears issues about day length. I don’t like them too long like they are now – but I especially dislike them too short, like they are at the winter solstice. The question is what is just right? I need to find Goldilocks..

It had not crossed my mind until today that the Lobsterclaw Heliconia are usually in sync with the solstice, the flowers always start appearing after mid June. I think they like the day length.

It is blistering hot here as predicted by the purveyors of the El Nino weather phenomenon. High temperatures in the low 90s (33 C) feels like 101 (38C). We have been getting extensive evening thunderstorms so the plants are thriving. I have been moving orchids around in the trees, they are loving the heat and humidity and rooting into the bark quickly. It’s interesting to watch. I installed 2 types of orchids in a mango tree this week – it doesn’t get more tropical than that!

The red, yellow and green flower is a Lobsterclaw Heliconia (Heliconia rostrata). Red hots flower is from the Aechmea miniata bromeliad. Multicolored foliage is Piecrust Croton (Codieum variegatum) Trimmed palm frond is a Cabbage Palm (Palmetto sabal)

That is all from my garden this Monday. Reclining in air conditioned comfort seems like the best plan..though I did manage to plant another batch of zinnia seeds!

Visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden and follow the links to see more vase creations.

In a Vase on Monday – A Plonk & The Photo Shoot

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I’ve been plonking my zinnias into glass jars as they appear and enjoying them by the kitchen sink. I cut the stems at the lowest point on the plant to encourage more flowers. The V shape of the flowers is a happy coincidence of different stem lengths.

I decided to elevate my Plonk by adding Asparagus ferns and Juba Bush flowers.

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I like the colors of these Zinnias .. orangey fuchsia red! I think.

Cathy asked me to fill you in on the photo shoot in my garden a couple of weeks ago. It was actually a lot of fun. A lovely young couple appeared at my door. She was the photographer and he was the stylist.

Of course, it was pouring down rain!

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It had not rained in weeks, we were 24″ low for rain in a year and the skies opened when the photographer arrived.

The magazine is Homecooked a food and travel magazine. They found me by reading my blog and asked for dessert recipes using fruit from my garden. They wanted to take pictures of the garden and the kitchen and dessert. We started talking about a sour orange pie and ended up with vegan mango filled cupcakes with mango buttercream frosting. I warned the editor I would bake rustic desserts!

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Staging the cupcakes in the kitchen:

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The rain let up a bit and we went outside and my husband and I were photographed eating cupcakes in the garden. She took a lot of photos of the soggy garden that I will be really interested to see!

The magazine will be out in September. I left some ‘fall’ leaves and rakes around for autumnal ambiance. LOL. In South Florida.

I will share whatever appears and hopefully love it. Until then, visit Cathy at http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com to see more vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Zinnias, Actually

After several false starts in 2026, I am pleased to post my first zinnias of the year! I usually have zinnias much earlier than this, nearly year round. I think they were worth the wait. The longest stemmed flowers I have ever grown. As usual, no clue why!

The first batch of seeds I planted – frozen. The second – eaten by unknown varmints. The third time was the charm. I have planted so many zinnia seeds, I am not sure what these are. ZinMaster, I think. I really wanted Cactus Zinnias, but I think I have gone through all those seeds

The closer view:

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The vase is a jar that held specialty tea. The small green flowers at the base are seed heads from Pentas, an annual flower, I am not sure what kind. Creamy white flowers are from Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa). Ferns are from the invasive Asian Sword Fern.

Simple pleasures from the garden.

Thank you to Cathy at RamblingintheGarden for hosting. Follow the link to visit her garden and see more vases.

Six on Saturday – May Garden Happiness

I am joining SOS this week with my latest crop of unusual. Even in South Florida, April showers bring May flowers. Generally, they are not the same flowers everyone else grows, but I am happy. My cutting flowers are not quite ready for viewing, but their friends are. Visit our host, Jim at GardenRuminations to see more May happiness.

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I do love these miniature pineapples. I have a few around the garden. The fruits are reportedly good for juicing. However, I cannot resist cutting them for flower arrangements or drying them for the holidays. And painting them gold!

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Intense rain showers inspired the Rain Lilies!

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Flaming Torch Bromeliads (Bilbergia pyramidalis) are appearing early this year.

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The Purple Heliotrope is still hanging in there with the chartreuse Golden Dewdrop (Duranta erecta)

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Mystic Blue Salvia is shining.

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Turkeytangle Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) “lawn” is flourishing and providing food for butterflies. Note holes in leaves. Happy caterpillars.

That is my six for this Saturday. Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Sunday Mother’s Day Madness

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It’s Mother’s Day in the US this Sunday. As I collect flowers, my thoughts are always with my mother, the Greatest Generation Southern Belle, Miss Betty, who would have adored In a Vase on Monday. I am certain if she was still with us (she would be 98 years old) I would be printing out blog posts and mailing them to her. Computers were not happening in her world, ever.

My father’s mother, Blanche (yes) was the Blue Willow collector. I suspect there is a gene as I love the pattern and china. The teapot was found on a shopping mission with my mother.

The Sunday Madness? A Food and Travel magazine contacted me a couple of months ago – soon after the historic freeze, and they wanted to photograph food in my garden. I agreed. And am madly putting things right. This week I am baking! I will share more as things progress.

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A closer view. The white flowers spilling down the side are Sweet Begonia (Begonia odorata). Orange flowers are Mexican Honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera). Blue flowers are Plumbago (P. auriculata). White spikes are White Flame Salvia. Scent is added by chartreuse culinary dill flowers.

Foliage is ‘Mammey’ Crotons and Asian Sword Ferns.

Please send me positive vibes for the photo shoot. To see more vases, visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden!!

Six on Saturday – Spring Shift

It’s time for the weekly garden tour hosted by Jim at GardenRuminations Follow the link to see what is going on with gardeners around the world.

In my South Florida garden spring is rapidly shifting into summer. I’m trying to get the garden tucked in for the oncoming blast furnace of heat and humidity. The rainy season officially starts May 15, but the usual May forecast is hot and dry. I’ve decided to try some tropical vegetables. I bought long bean and winged bean seed and have Roselles coming up from seed. I will post pictures when they are coming along. As usual, I have some unusual things going on.

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Desert Roses (Adenium obesum) love the heat. These plants fry is a cast iron pot on my driveway and love it. I rarely water and throw a little liquid fertilizer on them in the spring. A gift from African deserts.

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The last White Bird of Paradise picture, I promise. These are shattering from the heat.

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Some new container plantings and a washed up mermaid were added to my front garden.

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I read up on using Purslane as a summer annual as everything I have ever tried has burned up in the full sun. Charco broiled Begonias are not pretty. My Bronze leaf Begonias will grow anywhere theory was quickly roasted in the SoFla summer. This is a named cultivar (name already lost) of a native Purslane. Despite the propaganda stating these plants do not like rich soil or water – you guessed it. The one planted in the container with rich soil and water is twice as happy as the ones in the supposed perfect gravelly soil! Unless the mermaid has magical purslane powers. Hmmm.

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Several people have asked me about this plant I use in flower arrangements. It’s the ferny thing – it’s called Asparagus Fern (Asparagus setaceus). It’s not the usual thing, it was once grown around here for use in floral arrangements. Native to Africa, it escaped cultivation (have you heard this before??) and is now invasive along with the other types of Asparagus Ferns that are common houseplants. These appeared from who knows where and grow up the stems of the Lobsterclaw Heliconias. They are thorny and pretty enough to use in floral arrangements, so that is how I control them.

This is a new plant in the garden. I realized when I bought this it was quite possible I had eclipsed horticultural norms by having pineapples and bananas in a foundation planting – is this an American term? Pineapples and now a banana are planted in front of my house. I bought this as a Red Abyssinian Banana. Having never seen one before, it doesn’t look particularly red?? Anyone have thoughts? Thank you! My husband has a near phobia of bananas, so I sought out an ornamental.

Happy Spring Gardening to all. Cheers from South Florida!

In a Vase on Monday – Fall into Spring with a side of weird

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It is still officially spring in South Florida…but we already hit 90 F/ 32 C and the humidity is rising. There is always some point when the heat and humidity hit critical mass and I begin pining for fall. We are definitely not there yet, however, the colors in this vase reminded me of my future fall aspirations early.

There are some strange things going on in the garden. The mango trees that were hit by frost in early February have all come back, seemingly from the dead and are producing flowers. This usually happens in early February followed by fruit in June. We have dead foliage, new foliage and flowers on the same tree. I am puzzled, but think I should fertilize them. So weird. Creatures are eating the buds off the zinnias I planted in tall pots for cutting – giraffe rabbits??

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The closer view. This is mostly flowers from trees and shrubs. I really enjoy cutting from these plants as they are rarely seen in this venue. The white flowers are White Geiger tree (Cordia boisserie). Yellow flowers are Esperanza tree (Tecoma stans). Orange tubular flowers are from the native Firebush (Hamelia patens var patens) Red fruit with foliage is Brush Cherry (Syzygium paniculatum), a common hedge here. The bronze foliage is an unnamed coleus bought locally.

I’m adding to the weird by buying obscure tropical vegetable seeds to grow over the summer. I planted edible Hibiscus (Roselles) recently (the calyx is the edible part, tastes like cranberries) Yard long and winged bean seeds go into pots soon..more weird to come…

That is all from South Florida. Thank you to Cathy for hosting IAVOM for all these years. Follow the link to her blog RamblingintheGarden to take the garden tour.

Six on Saturday – Spring Whites

It’s time for my weekly garden tour. I noticed a lot of white in my garden and decided to focus on the different types of white flowers. I realized eventually and unintentionally I like to add white to offset all the high colors in my garden. I have a lot of color – reds, oranges and purples mostly and the white adds a cooling touch to all that color.

The White Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia nicolai) is making another appearance as it is adding on layers of color as it continues opening.

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The native salvia (Salvia coccinea) is showing off in white.

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Another favorite native is Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa). These are lightly scented and make a good cut flower.

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Miss Alice Bougainvillea is making a shy return to her former glory. She was knocked back by the cold.

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White Geiger (Cordia boisserei) has been flowering for a couple of weeks. This is sometimes called Texas Olive as it is native there and produces odd, olive like fruit. The fruit is edible but oddly gelatinous and best left for wild life. My greyhound will eat it if left to his own devices.

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White and pink Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) are budding and blooming.

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That is all from South Florida this week. Gardeners here continue to do rain dances. I read it would take almost 2 feet of rain to break the drought here.

Visit Jim at garden ruminations to view more Six on Saturday garden tours.

Six on Saturday – Spring Bounty

Saturday morning is prime time to tour my garden and take pictures to share with Jim at GardenRuminations and the rest of the international gardening gang. Follow the link to tour more gardens in the comments.

The White Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia nicolai) is progressing, but not quite open. It surprises me how long the flowers take to get going. I have been watching this for three weeks.

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I decided to try some different container plants. Verbena, Callibrachoa and an unknown succulent.

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The flower of the unknown succulent. I hope it drops some seed right there!

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The Pinot Noir Bromeliad (Aechmea ‘Pinot Noir’) is showing it’s true to its name. This will flower later this summer – I hope.

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The miniature pineapples are bearing fruit.

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We have been enjoying tomatoes and herbs from the garden.

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That is all from South Florida this beautiful spring Saturday. I bought some Cinderella Fairytale Purslane cuttings I must pot up, so it is back outside. Has anyone had these? I bought them for the name as much as anything else. I wanted to try purslane and it supposedly makes it through the summer here.

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Mystic Magic

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I have confessed my love for Salvias on more than one occasion. My favorite, Mystic Blue, has been flowering so profusely it needed deadheading. I did not resist, trimmed all the stunningly large flowers and proceeded to vase making.

With all the rain (11″ in a week measured nearby) the White Flame Salvia and Blue Plumbage are also flowering luxuriantly. They were relieved of a bit of the bounty and all was plonked into one of my favorite thrift store finds – the ubiquitous grey pottery vase.

Being from much further north, this still seems like a midsummer vase to me, and here in South Florida it is entirely possible I can recreate this in July. Since it is mid April, I am enjoying it and savoring the beauty as Florida tends to fry things before their time!

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A closer view. This is simply two kinds of salvia and Plumbago. ‘Mystic Blue’ and ‘White Flame’ Salvia and plain Plumbago auriculata and the cultivar P. auriculata ‘Imperial Blue’. The Imperial Blue is closer to hydrangeas in color, I think. Though I like them both. Oddly, the flowers stick to my greyhounds long noses, so I associate them with my dearly departed Charles, who loved sticking his nose in them and always came out covered with blue flowers.

That’s all the blue news from my garden this Monday. To see other gardens and vases visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden.