Category Archives: theshrubqueen

Six on Saturday – Florida Freeze Rebound

Greeting to the SOS crowd from South Florida. I am pleased to report my garden is bouncing back from the historic freeze in early February. There have been a few casualties. I lost two out of three mango trees and a specimen tree form Firebush (It looks terrible in black – I did not know plants could turn black!) Otherwise, the skies are blue, the birds are singing and the citrus trees are setting fruit!

Citrus trees are more cold hardy than I imagined. This is a Sugar Belle Mandarin orange I planted last fall. It is setting fruit – there is a tiny orange on the right side of the photo. I will probably remove most of these as the tree needs to put its energy into establishing itself. The flowers have a wonderful scent.

The Rangpur lime is also flowering. The orange seems to have a stronger scent.

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I was very happy to see the Nemesis Papaya coming back from its roots.

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I found a surprise in the front garden. It looks a lot like an Amaryllis, though I never planted any Amaryllis. All will be revealed soon. I hope it is a Butterfly Amaryllis!

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I replaced some Salvia. These are Mystic Blue. A favorite.

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New growth on my one surviving mango. You can see the dead foliage still hanging on around the edges. This is a Glenn Mango. Some of the older mangoes on my street are setting fruit. Fingers crossed.

Happy Spring, Everyone! Things are definitely looking up here.

Follow the link to visit Jim at GardenRuminations and see what else in going on this Saturday in the gardening world.

In a Vase on Monday – Salvia – How Do I Love Thee?

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Oh yes, let me count the ways…heat tolerant, nonstop flowers, short lived perennials, thrives in sugar sand. Elizabeth, need I go on?

My love affair with Salvia continues. The freeze or drought or something lambasted what remained of the White Flame and Mystic Blue Salvia in my garden, so I replenished my supply. This involves meeting a friend for Thai food, then traveling to our local favorite https://pindersnursery.com and stocking up. Of course, a few other items were purchased…and in the vase.

A closer view:

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The white flowers are White Flame Salvia. Red and coral flowers are from the reseeding annual Salvia coccinea. The buds and bigger leaves are from Mystic Blue Salvia. Possibly my all time favorite. A few stems broke off the plants from the nursery, so I am hoping the roots continue to grow in the vase. And I will have more!

Purple flowers are new to the garden, Heliotrope. I am told these don’t like heat – we will soon find out about that. The fragrance from these plants is used to scent baby powder, reportedly calming. I have had these for a few days and can’t smell anything. Could be the oak pollen or perhaps I am calm. One never knows.

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The foliage is from Golden Dewdrop (Duranta erecta) with a few fronds of native Boston Ferns. The vase is from my florist collection.

Happy Spring Monday from my pollen infested garden. I am hoping the incoming rain clears the air. Please visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden to see more vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Hong Kong Orchid

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I like a catchy title and the name of the biggest flower here serves its purpose well. The lavendar flowers are from the Hong Kong Orchid tree next door. The tree is actually my neighbors, planted by her grandmother in the 1960s, so it has been around for a while. I filched a few flowers that are encroaching. It’s one of those love/hate types of trees. In March the sight of this tree covered in these Lavendar orchid shaped flowers makes me sigh with gardening pleasure. Later in the year it drops a million pods and then the seedlings come up with summer rains. Then I am sighing from the effort of trying to remove all the little seedlings that seem to have suction cups attached to their roots.

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A little closer view. The Hong Kong Orchids are Bauhinia purpurea. The white flowers are from Sweet Begonia (Begonia odorata ‘Alba’). Blue flowers are Plumbaga auriculata. Burgundy spears are from Aechmea ‘Burgundy’ Bromeliad. Ferny bits are the creepy Asparagus Fern. The vase is from the Ute Indian tribe in the Southwestern Us.

It seems to have started raining again. The forecasters are saying our weather pattern is shifting to La Nina which means cooler weather, more rain and fewer hurricanes. This sounds good to me. I am slowly reclaiming the garden from the freeze of a month ago. One mango tree is dead, one is coming back and a third the jury is still out. I decapitated the papaya tree, so fingers crossed it comes back.

Happy Monday from South Florida. Visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden to see more vases!

In a Vase on Monday – Simply Red

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The garden is coming back slowly from its first brush with Jack Frost. A hummingbird was sighted sipping nectar from basil flowers I had not gotten around to trimming. I left the flowers after seeing that and a few butterflies scouting for food. My simple, small vase was put together in the spirit of leaving flowers for the pollinators.

These sensuous, red flowers are from a Turk’s Cap Hibiscus (Malvaviscus penduliflorus). These are also called Sleeping or Nodding Hibiscus. I like those names better. These tend to pop up in the shady areas of the garden and flower prolifically in the winter. They are a sort of raggedy looking shrub, but difficult to get rid of, so I enjoy the flowers and prune them – a lot!

That’s all from South Florida this Monday. It has finally rained, so I am looking forward to more progress in the garden. Thank you to Cathy at RamblingintheGarden for hosting this weekly meme. Follow the link to see more vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Winter Deflector

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Generally, people who move to South Florida dislike being cold, at all. I admit to being one of those people. This past week has been a bit of a trial for me. Last night we experienced the coldest (is that a word?) temperature of our tenure in Florida. 28 F/-2C (minus!) I was not amused, especially facing the morning dog walk and decided Rob the Greyhound, being lean and short haired, needed a jacket. He had different ideas, peed on the jacket (it is pink, from a long gone girl greyhound) and shook it off. So much for that. Rob is from West Virginia, where it is much colder, either he didn’t mind the cold or couldn’t cope with a pink jacket?! Another animal item of interest. People always ask me if we have iguanas falling from the trees during cold spells. I am, fortunately, slightly too far north for that. However, the county south of us is collecting bags of frozen iguanas at their fire stations. Ugh.

I moved many of the tender orchids, tomatoes and herbs into the house and covered many more. It seems a frost every sixteen years might be the average – 2010 and 1989 are legendary here. This took a few days as water lines into the house are not necessarily insulated and those need to be taken care of as well as the plants. I have plants in our spare bedroom, bathtub, foyer and garage. I am happy I went to all the trouble of moving them inside as the weather forecast was spot on and the tender plants would not likely have survived.

Today’s vase is intended to project some warm, tropical vibes back into the universe. So far, the only cold damage I have witnessed is, ironically, a Firebush, the foliage burned black. Fingers crossed that is all. But, I doubt it.

A closer view of the vase.

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These are Bromeliads, reportedly cold hardy, Quesnelia testudo. Tulips of South Florida, with teeth. The ferns are invasive, Asian Sword Ferns, but I do love them in a Vase. The vase is a jelly jar wrapped with a leaf from another Bromeliad, ‘Lemon” Aechema blanchetiana. I would be shocked if anything killed these things. Maybe a winter in Chicago.

Cheers to warmer days!

Thanks to Cathy for hosting. Follow this link to her blog RamblingintheGarden to see more vases.

Six on Saturday – Winter Gardening / So Fla Style

Hello all and Happy 2026! I haven’t joined SOS in a while as it seemed there wasn’t very much of interest going on in the garden. Winter gardening in South Florida brings what everyone else knows as summer vegetables and cool season herbs. This is also the time of year for dividing bromeliad pups and moving orchids around. So, I have been doing all of that.

Winter is the dry season, so it has not rained in weeks. I am fortunate to have a lot of bromeliads and they only need to have their cups filled about every 10 days. Amazingly resilient plants. High temperatures are running 78F / 25C, the humidity is low and skies are deep blue with a magnificent range of clouds. The migratory birds are passing through, so it is wonderful spending time outdoors.

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Winter also provides tropical fruit. This is the first hermaphrodite flower on the Nemesis Papaya I planted a couple of months ago. I am hoping for some fruit this year. Papayas produce male, female and hermaphrodite flowers that are self pollinating. Nemesis is a selected variety for that and I think the name reflects its resistance to nematodes. We have bad nematodes in Florida.

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Billbergia bromeliads flower in winter. I think these are Billbergia amoena. Above are the rather impressive buds, I cut one of the flowers, they last a week in a vase and open with tiny cobalt blue flowers are the tips that look like curling ribbon.

Here is some of the wildlife passing through. This is a juvenile Red Shouldered Hawk. Hopefully looking for invasive lizards.

I have been harvesting Rangpur limes. These may not look like limes, but they are ripe. They are a cross between lemons and mandarin oranges. A sour orange, really, and used in cooking and baking. They make a delicious key lime pie.

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More bromeliads in flower. These are ‘Candy’ Porteas. I think they are named after Good and Plenty licorice candy.

I use these as cut flowers, here is a closer view.

I believe I am over six pictures, so I will stop. Visit our host, Jim, at this link GardenRuminations to see more SOS posts.

In a Vase on Monday – Celebrating Garden Mystery

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The holiday mood usually kicks in for me around December 15. True to form, I reached for the big red vase and went in search of some ‘Christmasy’ flowers. This vase presents a challenge. It is very tall and has a very narrow opening.

The hunt was on for holiday mood flowers with skinny stems. In South Florida! A challenge, to say the least. My garden provided several selections. Not one of them was planted by me. Where did they come from?? An unanswerable question.

I suppose the birds have been planning to provide me with holiday vase clippings! Every December I remember how many birds pass through. The numbers are truly astounding as well as the variety and lengths of the commutes.

A closer view:

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The red berries are Brazilian Pepper (Schinus terebinthifolia) – a dreadful invasive plant in my garden. I am certain these were planted for their lovely berries and frighteningly quick growth habit. There are now untold zillions of these growing wild while we try to get rid of them. I may have saved the planet from 60 with this vase. Sigh. The purple foliage is ‘Purple Prince’ Alternanthera – planted as an annual color some years ago these appear intermittently growing from crevices in paving stones. Red flowers are Shrimp Plants (Justicia brandegeana) – my neighbor gave me one about ten years ago and it keeps going on. The trimmed palm frond, another seedling Cabbage Palm (Palmetto Sabal). Cream colored flower spikes are Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa), a gift from an unknown benefactor I have been diligently trying to propagate (no results). Long grey foliage at the neck of the bottle is a native air plant (Tillandsia spp). This is a relative of Spanish Moss and just appears. No idea why.

The ending of another year is always a good time for reflection. The unanswerable questions are a bit troublesome. I plan to enjoy whatever gifts the universe has to offer.

Thanks to Cathy for hosting. Follow this link RamblingintheGarden to see more vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Holiday Cheer?!

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My garden still offers holiday surprises. Gardenias in December? Who would have thought and there it is. Seasonal berries are just turning red in time for the holidays which is somewhat normal. Both of the red flowers bloom off and on year round, so they are just celebrating rain, as am I!

I think of November as a rainy month. This year it was bone dry until last Thursday, Thanksgiving. I added the precipitation to the list of things I was thankful for. Here is our fairly typical American Thanksgiving dinner. I am a Southerner, so we have the side dish cornbread dressing, not stuffing.

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Turkey, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes and cranberry relish. The meat and starch elements are appropriately drenched in gravy.

Followed by, you guessed it, pumpkin pie.

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Back to the vase, the flamingo is a Christmas ornament gifted to me by my mother, celebrating my college mascot.

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The white flowers are Tropical Gardenias (Tabernaemontana diviricata); red bell shaped flowers are Firecracker Plant (Russelia equisetformis); red, yellow and orange flowers are Parrotflowers (Heliconia psittacorum); the berries are from the evil invasive Brazilian Pepper (Schinus terebinthifolia)

Thanks to Cathy at RamblingintheGarden for hosting this garden meme. Follow the link to see more vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Tempest in a Teapot

It seems like there is a lot going on in my Blue Willow teapot this Monday.The Parrotflowers are flying, the Juba Bush is swaying and the Zinnias are celebrating their escape from the leaf cutting bees. A lone palm frond holds it all together.

The height of hurricane season has passed, yay! It’s not time to celebrate quite yet as we still have the wind down until the end of November. October is usually more active in the Gulf of Mexico (yep, not changing the name on my blog) I usually start my sigh of relief in mid October and start cleaning the screen porch and setting up the outdoor furniture for winter. We had permanent accordion shutters put on our windows last week so we can be storm ready in a short period of time. That will probably prevent storms for a while!

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The cream colored flowers are from the Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa). This is a lightly fragrant native wildflower that has a mind of its own and shows up uninvited. I have no idea how to propagate it, but somehow ended up with a spectacular plant beside my porch. It’s named after a Caribbean dance – the Juba as the plant sways gracefully in the wind. The Parrotflower (Heliconia psittacorum) flower when it rains and I have difficulty resisting cutting them, so here they are. The trimmed palm frond is from a Sabal Palm (Palmetto Sabal)

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The stalwart Giant Benary Zinnias. We have leaf cutting bees here and they seem to love the zinnias, the bees are even eating the flowers. This is new to me, the flower eating. I’m going to keep watching to see what happens.

That is all from my garden this Monday. Visit Cathy at RamblinintheGarden to join in the fun or view more vases.

Six on Saturday – Future Fruit

Saturday morning finds me in the garden taking pictures to share with the SOS gang that meets at Jim’s Blog Garden Ruminations on a weekly basis. Follow the link to tour other gardens.

I have been planting fruit trees this week. It is hard not to want to grow tropical fruit if you live in South Florida. My collection continues to grow.

Citrus fruit, especially oranges, has taken a beating from the Asian citrus psyllid. This insect carries the citrus greening disease. This disease basically makes the fruit inedible and then causes the tree to die, affecting the phloem.

I attended a lecture that included a new variety of mandarin orange, Sugar Belle and a protective device to keep the insects off the tree until it was six feet tall. This variety of citrus is resistant to the psyllid. Here is the tree just planted. I have not installed the cover yet.

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I was directed to plant the tree directly in the sand, then water and fertilize the heck out of it. It took a while to get the tree hydrated, but it looks pretty good now so I am going to install the cover.

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This is a Nemesis Papaya, the name sounds a bit scary. I think it is resistant to nematodes and that is the reason for the name. Papayas bear fruit quickly and the trees don’t last but a few years. I have had several and the fruit is worth it. It already has buds and it takes about four months to get fruit. I am hoping it will self pollinate. This is a hermaphrodite variety, most Papayas are male or female and it can be a trial to get the right two from seed.

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Papaya buds. Fingers crossed.

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A very nice surprise. The yellow dragonfruit actually set fruit! I have had this for years and many flowers but this is the first fruit. Fingers crossed again.

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The Rangpur lime was plagued by lizards trying to suck the juice out of the fruit during our hot and very dry month of August. I had about 50 limes and am down to 10. Still hoping for pies in December.

This is a Red Jaboticaba, a nice little shrub from Brazil. These produce a grape like fruit on the trunk. I am not sure how long I have had this, but am still waiting for the fruit! These also are available in tree form and are quite a sight. Clusters of grapes attached to the trunk in swirling patterns. Brazilians make wine from this fruit.

That’s all from my garden this morning. Be advised I am shopping for late season mango trees..Kent or Keitt, any opinions?