Category Archives: treasure coast gardening

In a Vase on Monday – Muhly & Juba Dance

I love a little Muhly Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) in the fall. The mix of Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa) and Muhly swaying in the ocean breeze gives me gardening goosebumps. Our very rainy September gave all the wildflowers a boost and the garden is enjoying a late season extravaganza with very happy pollinators cruising the flowers. As these things go we are having a very dry October and now I am hoping for rain!

The Muhly and Juba:

Muhly Grass is in pink in the background joined by off white Juba Bush. The word Juba is a dance move in the Caribbean that involves swaying hips. The Juba Bush is a native wildflower that appears and plants itself where happy. I have found it impossible to propagate, and am happy to find it when it decides to make an appearance. It is perennial and can grow 3 or 4 feet tall. I suppose birds are responsible for the Juba. Another gardening mystery to ponder. The Muhly has a similar modus operandi and I have some odd drifts in the garden.

Other flowers in the photo:

The deep blue flowers with coarse stems are Porterweed (Stachytarpheta jamaicaensis); the pale blue spikes with lavendar foliage are Vitex trifolia, some call this California Lilac. It is remarkably hardy. Darker purple foliage is Purple Queen (Transcandentia pallida) another great indestructible.

The lower level:

The lower levels in this vase are the wallflowers, the kind that don’t dance. Front and center is the last Purple Prince Zinnia of the season; viney pink flowers are from the Coral Love Vine (Antigonon leptopus); white spikes are Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea). The vase is a family heirloom made by the Ute Indian tribe.

I am hoping to dance a lot of weeds out of the garden this week. The rains provided nourishment for a tangle of Muscandines and Inch Plants. I am not sure we have ever had as much rain in late summer and was surprised by the volume of unwelcome growth in the garden. I have determined Muscandines are offensive!

Thanks to Cathy for hosting, visit her at ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com to visit other gardens via vase.

Happy Gardening!!

Six on Saturday – Clear Sunny Days

My garden tour this Saturday morning was punctuated with an overgrowth of weeds, some plants attaining a size I did not know was possible, fall fruits and wild flowers …and, at long last, clear blue sunny skies with low humidity. Ahh. To join other SOSers on garden tours around the world visit our host, Jim at this link http://gardenruminations.co.uk

One of my fall favorites, Muhly Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) is just starting to flower. These usually bloom around the first week of September, so they are late this year. The flowering schedule for a lot of plants was off this year, some sooner than normal, some later.

Another fall fav is the Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa). This wildflower is named after a Caribbean dance called the Juba because of the way they sway in the wind.

The birds are enjoying the berries in the garden. This is called Wild Coffee (Psychotria nervosa) – it is a Florida native shrub, great for butterflies and pollinators. The berries look like coffee, but do not have caffeine.

More late color in the garden. I usually have Beautyberry (Calliocarpa americana) by the first week of September and here it is finally showing some purple.

October is optimal Dahlia planting season in South Florida. For fun, I bought some end of season, cheap tubers, having had virtually no luck with Dahlias in the past. The tubers were wrapped in plastic and kept in the refrigerator for a couple of months and released into the garden this week. I planted the tubers and went out the following morning to find a varmint had dug them up, ate one, and left the others beside the holes they were planted in?! A gourmet, Dahlia intolerant varmint?

I replanted the tubers and added another found slung in front of bed (I am not sure if I forgot to plant it, or the varmints were at it again). Then, I covered the whole thing with a hardware cloth barrier. Take that, varmints!

The experiment continues. I found a bit of tuber on the front porch this morning. I am sure this time it was not me.

That is all from South Florida this sunny Saturday. The Dahlia adventure will be updated. I am now dithering about watering the tubers, though rot is unlikely in the sand.

Happy Gardening!!!

Six on Saturday – Hoomid

The most outstanding feature of my weekly garden tour – extreme humidity. The plants, house and even the doors and windows are dripping rivulets of water. Not a good gardening day. Next week is predicted to bring blessed relief from the soggy environment I keep finding myself in. To see other, less sweaty garden tours visit Jim at http://gardenruminations.co.uk

Reflections and the view outside this morning. The humidity was 80%, it is creeping downward through as the day goes on.

Some plants are enjoying the onslaught. This is a ‘Jill’ Neoregelia Bromeliad pup climbing a palm trunk.

‘Bridal Bouquet’ Frangipani (Plumeria pudica) is soaking up the moisture and still flowering. These are unusual in that they are considered semi evergreen and the shape of the foliage is different from other Frangipani.

Yellow Allamanda (Allamanda catharitica) is running rampant. Vines can be a little scary in South Florida.

My first tomato seedling. The weather has been good for seed germination, although I did get a bit of dog vomit fungus in some of the pots.

Buds on the Soap Aloe (Aloe saponaria). These succulents seem almost architectural to me. One would think they would rot with all the moisture, but they are reveling in it and flowering like mad. I think this shows how sharp the drainage is in sugar sand.

That’s all from the swamp this Saturday. Wishing everyone some crisp Autumnal days. I am awaiting the end of soggy.

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Lady Di was a Firecracker

My mother used to refer to spirited women she admired as “Firecrackers”. This is probably some sort of weirdness from the Deep South, but an apt description of many women who capture the imagination of the world. I think Diana, Princess of Wales qualifies.

What does this have to do with my vase this Monday? Well, we have Lady Di Heliconias and Firecracker plants together in the vase. The flowers have a kind of spirited pow going on as well.

The seemingly perpetual rain the last week of September inspired some serious late season flowering on most of the Salvia in the garden. I am waiting for a bumper crop of seedlings. The pure white Tropical Red Salvia was too luxuriant to resist and I cut quite a bit to add to the vase.

A closer view:

The “Lady Di” Heliconia (Heliconia psittacorum) in red and yellow; the red bells are Firecracker Plant (Russelia equisetiformis). The Russelia is amazingly drought tolerant and I love the unusual foliage texture. The rain seems to have encouraged the flowering, I have never seen quite a show like this.

Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) occurs in several colors; surprising to me is that pure white is my favorite. The spike foliage is from the fronds of Sabal Palm (Palmetto sabal). Russelia foliage is in the background. The vase is a thrift store find.

The precipitation onslaught has finally slowed. We are getting some nice rains for growing new plants and I hope to get the rest of them out and established before the inevitable dry season sets in a month or so.

Thanks to Cathy for hosting IAVOM for weeks and weeks and years now! Follow this link to her blog to see creations from other gardeners – http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com

Six on Saturday – Floridian Fall

It’s Saturday again and time to join the worldwide garden blogging community to share six items of interest from the garden. Follow this link to Jim’s blog http://gardenruminiations.co.uk to check out what fall fun other gardeners are sharing.

South Florida does not have what I would consider normal signs of fall, just symptoms. The air is cooler in the morning and a few plants produce colorful berries. The most significant sign is it is comfortable to work outside again, but only early or late in the day. It has finally stopped raining constantly ! I have been able to plant some of the perennials I bought and replant those little pots with seeds and cuttings for more plants.

The berries. These are the fruits of the Christmas Palm (Adonidia merrilli) By Christmas they will be completely red and resemble ornaments for the tree.

Another sign of cooler weather. Turk’s cap Hibiscus (Malvaviscus penduliflorus). These just seem to appear in the garden. I enjoy the flowers and cut them to hang over the edge of vases. Floridians call these Nodding Hibiscus. I guess there are hats like this in Turkey?

Atala butterflies are back in garden. These are the caterpillars consuming their only host plant, the Coontie cycad (Zamia integrifolia). I hope to get some butterfly pictures, Atalas have a fluorescent orange body with black wings streaked with turquoise.

Mulching the bromeliad beds with the leaning greyhound standing guard. Straightening the statuary is next on the list. The bromeliads were moved last spring and have been established over the summer.

The box of perennials I planted last week has been refilled with fresh soil and planted with Senecio and Turkeytangle Frogfruit cuttings. Senecio is the succulent. The Frogfruit is to fill in my slowly growing lawn replacement. Seeds for dill, basil and tomatoes were planted. I bought some thyme seed, but did not realize how long it takes to germinate (28 days) and decided to buy a plant.

This is not a regular fall event, a fairly rare sight actually. One misty afternoon this week I walked outside and spied a double rainbow.

Still looking for that pot of gold to buy more plants.

Happy Gardening.

Six on Saturday – Progress

Since I have been complaining about the lack of rain – we have had the complete opposite this week. South Florida’s classic humidity skyrocketed again followed by daily showers and thunderstorms have been the weather theme this week. I have made some progress on my new beds, they are well watered and establishing, but it is slow going due to the weather.

The lawn replacement is installed and I am hopeful this works. It is hard to express how done I am with St. Augustine turfgrass. Ugh. There is a bit next to the edge of this paver parking pad that needs planting to keep the soil from washing and undermining the pavers. It was turfgrass for several years, we tried two different kinds, then weeds and now I have installed a new groundcover..Tada!

Samantha Liriope, an Liriope muscari variety that has pink flowers, stays low and reportedly grows in Zone 10 in full sun. That remains to be seen. Most Liriope is not good this far south or in the full sun of South Florida. This looks shady now, but gets full fry at mid-day.

The front bed is under renovation. I planted New Gold Lantana and Ice Plant (Delosperma cooperi) in the mulch and am planning to add Goldstrum Rudbeckia behind the rocks in the Salvia border. I have killed every last Rudbeckia I have tried here. They usually succumb to white mold of some sort. My hope is these will be winter annuals at least.

A few surprises appeared in the garden this week. Semi progress. The yellow Pitaya or Dragonfruit finally flowered and started to set fruit. I wish I had seen the flower, this is a spectacular night blooming cactus. Unfortunately, the whole thing disappeared. The yellow Dragonfruit is supposed to be very good.

I have been trying for years to get this Coral Vine (Antigonon leptopus) to climb the fence. It sulked, slowly creeping on the ground. Imagine my surprise when it was inspired to reach the fence.

A new color of Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) appeared in the garden this week. I like this color and hope it hangs around. These can have seedling varieties from white to red, orange, coral and pink.

More to go:

Hopefully the rain will slow a bit next week and I can get the rest of the plants in the ground.

Thanks to Jim at http://gardenruminations.co.uk for hosting Six on Saturday. To see progress in gardens across the world follow the link.

Six on Saturday – New for Fall

The Fall Equinox has provided us with some blessed relief from the heat and humidity. A high of 83 degrees F (28 C) is very meaningful. My Saturday morning garden tour found some new things in the garden.

To see more SOS Equinox garden tours visit Jim at http://gardenruminiation.co.uk

After seemingly waiting for a few months, I was finally rewarded with a decent Envy Zinnia.

I like to use locally sourced materials in my garden, we added a new shell and salt finished stepping stone walkway and repaired our slightly washed out shell driveway this week. A closer view below:

The driveway repair. I had the shell drive put in about 10 years ago. As it is used the shells get squashed into sand and begin to wash away, leaving me chasing my driveway down the street. The size of the new shells breaks up the force of the rain water keeping the shells in place. These break up and smooth into a more even surface as the driveway is used.

Much to my delight, I found I still had an active wholesale account with a grower! So I went a little crazy. This bed is prepped for the addition of New Gold Lantana and Ice Plant.

Another driveway erosion correction under construction. I found some Zone 10 recommended Dwarf Lirope called Samantha on the growers website. I will be installing the new plants as soon as possible as these arrive bare root. This paver parking pad has a small concrete edging holding it in place and needs some additional support from a planting to keep it stable. As you can see summer weeds are awful in Florida.

That’s all from South Florida. I will be pulling weeds in anticipation of new plants.

Happy Gardening!!

Funky Florida Flora – Bossa Nova Bromeliad

Meet “Bossa Nova” Bromeliad. Bossa nova means new music in Portuguese and is a style of music that originated in Brazil in the late 1950s, a mixture of jazz and samba. “The Girl from Ipanema” is probably the most famous bossa nova tune, and a prodigious ear worm producer.

True Brazilians, these plants were brought to America from Brazil in 1988. This one does make me dance, just a little. It will grow in a full sun southern exposure in an area with great amounts of reflected light and no irrigation, a bit of a miracle in my world. I had not realized until last year these would grow in full sun, they had been sulking for a few years in full shade and were moved into the light during the proper season – fast approaching, November through March is bromeliad relocation time!

Botanically speaking these are Neoregelia “Bossa Nova”. A stoloniferous groundcover, they reach 12-18″ height and 24″ spread. Neoregelia bromeliads typically flower inside the cup and are planted for their foliage as the flowers are not particularly showy. It is reported to turn red around the cup before flowering. I have not noted this in my garden. Maybe this winter I will see some red coloration.

Sulking in the shade below:

Much happier in a sunnier place:

More funkiness to come! Happy Friday!

Six on Saturday – September Stars.

I took my Saturday morning stroll around the garden and picked some stars. After a remarkably wet summer, the rain spigot has been cut off. Boom, no more water from the sky. I hand watered a little, but it is not my favorite thing to do in hot weather. So, may I present the survivors who are thriving.

For a world wide SOS garden tour, visit Jim at http://gardenruminations.co.uk

Blue Porterweed (Stachytarpeta jamaicensis). This one is living in a shell walkway and I forgot about watering this area. Amazing.

Rangpur limes are still hanging in there. All two of them.

Providing a super tropical vibe is a seedling of a Chinese Fan Palm (Livingstonia chinensis). This seedling is about 8 feet tall. This is 10 or 15 years old. One thing I have learned about palms since living in Florida, they are slow growing for the most part.

The bromeliads, of course, are thriving, water or not. This is a Painted Fingernail Neoregelia coming into flower.

‘Bossa Nova’ Neoregelia putting out pups in a big pot. The mother plant is fading and will likely pass on over the winter.

Several people asked about the Senecio last week. This is the mother plant, about 30 inches tall. These produce yellow aster-like flowers.

That’s all from South Florida this Saturday. Hoping for a little rain and no cyclones!

Happy Gardening!!

Six on Saturday – Florida Weirdness

Another Saturday, another garden tour. My garden is looking a bit end of summer tattered. The rainy season abated for a week or so and we have been enjoying lower temperatures and humidity while watching the massive Hurricane Lee form in the Atlantic. Current predictions give the storm 180 mph winds. Fortunately, it is well away from me and most people, what next week holds is anyone’s guess. The current spaghetti models have it heading to Canada or New England. Here is a link to the models, I find them fascinating. https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/storminfo/

If you are in search of hurricane free garden environments to explore – visit our host Jim at http://gardenrumininations.co.uk

Invasive Agama lizards haunt my screen porch. I am not sure what they are eating, but they are always on this corner. They are about 8 inches long and either yellow or rainbow colored. I always hope something will eat them.

Lacewing eggs on my front porch. I have been watching these for a while and they don’t seem to be making any progress. Lacewings are a beneficial predator, they eat aphids, so I was hoping to see a few.

Miniature pineapples going to seed. The pineapple is shrinking and the top is getting bigger. It is time to cut the top off to propagate new plants.

The Turkey tangle frogfruit lawn is establishing oh so slowly. The plant is supposed to be 3 inches tall and like groundcover. Patience. This started from a rooted cutting.

These Envy zinnias have been sitting in bud for weeks! I am not sure what to do or why this is happening. Too much heat and not enough food?

A successful experiment. I rooted a few Senecio barbertomicus last spring and decided to see if they would live in the garden. They are known for dying if left outside during the rainy season. Both have survived and are thriving and it has been very rainy.

That’s all from sunny South Florida this Saturday.

Happy Gardening!!