Category Archives: treasure coast gardening

Six on Saturday – High Summer Rising

June has actually been very pleasant, all things considered. I am suspicious July will not be, the wet blanket of sweaty humidity has arrived and the second tropical storm of the season is predicted to form next week. High Summer in South Florida has arrived. The good news, we get great tropical fruit and flowers. The bad news, we have to leave the air conditioning to see them. For a grand summer (or in some cases winter) garden tour follow this link GardenRuminations to Jim’s blog and visit the comments.

I am picking mangoes every morning. So many that I have started freezing them and giving them away. I’m currently waiting for a ripe one to make mango blackberry pie. There are 3 different types of mango here – Nam Doc Mai, Thai dessert mangoes, long and green; Pickering mangoes are peach colored; one Glenn mango in the top middle. Mangoes should be picked as they start to change color and easily come off the tree and then ripened on the counter.

Tropical or Florida Gardenias (Tabernaemontana diviricata) are loving the summer heat and rain.

Turkey Tangle Frog Fruit (Phyla nodiflora) “lawn” is flourishing and flowering.

Sea Grapes (Coccoloba uvifera), a native tree that seemingly will grow anywhere is making tons of fruit and dropping it everywhere. I like the tree, but wish someone would come up with a fruitless one. This is food for wildlife, the fruit is edible and I am told it tastes like figs – but, it is mostly seed. One of my numerous greyhounds was the only household member to enjoy it.

Silver Urn Bromeliad (Aechmea fasciata) is almost in full bloom.

That is all from South Florida this Saturday. I went out and looked at the weeds, plucked a few, and came back inside.

Happy Gardening!!

Six on Saturday – Porch Views

It’s Saturday morning, as I was finishing my coffee hatching plans for my SOS post it started pouring down rain! After checking my trusty (ha!) weather app on my phone, it was suggested this was going on for quite a while. So, this Saturday we have views of what can be seen in my garden from the front and back porch without getting too wet.

The kitchen seemed like a good place to start. This is my first Thai dessert mango of the year (Nam Doc Mai). It is not quite ripe. It should have a fully developed peach color and floral fragrance before peeling and eating. I am finding it is a bit of a trick to pick and ripen the perfect mango. Sometimes they fall off the tree and it is okay, sometimes not. If picked too soon they don’t ripen at all.

Mango blueberry upside down cakes (pineapple as well) These are made with Glenn mangos from my other tree.

I am still at work on the Coleus tree. I pruned it back again this week. I think it might need a harder prune to develop a nicer top.

Turkey Tangle Frog Fruit (Phlya nodiflora) lawn is finally growing in. ‘Bossa Nova’ Neoregelia bromeliads in the foreground.

I have been waiting for this flower. Grown from seed. This is a Zin Master Zinnia. I thought it was going to be bigger! The plants are just huge and beautiful.

King of Siam Croton (Codieum varigatum). A new addition to the garden this spring, finally showing its coral spots.

That is my Six for this Saturday. Visit Jim at Garden Ruminations to see more SOS posts. I will be in the kitchen contemplating more mango desserts.

In a Vase on Monday – Summer Brew

I put this vase together on Father’s Day, so it was very appropriate to use one of my parents wedding gifts as a vase this week. My parents married in 1950, I think these teapots must have been popular at the time. I remember this teapot sitting on the kitchen counter very frequently as my mother used it to brew tea for iced tea year round. A pink plastic pitcher of iced tea was a constant presence in my childhood. If you grew up in the Deep South, iced tea is the beverage of choice for lunch and dinner (or if you are really Southern, lunch is called dinner and dinner is supper)

The flowers in this vase wouldn’t make a tasty brew. I am fairly certain the Tropical Gardenias are toxic, but it might smell pretty good.

A closer view:

I have accepted a few (guffaw) wild grape vines as a fact of life in my garden. These are muscadines (Vitis rotundifolia) I think it would take a small thermonuclear device to get rid of all of them and then I would have to start over. Not happening. So I cut a few here and there, add some to a vase, make a wreath and feed wildlife. The Gardenias are Tropical or Florida Gardenias (Tabernaemontana diviricata); our massive rain event this week produced a wonderful flush of flowers.

Pink flowers in the vase are the bitter end of the winter annual Giant Dianthus. I am puzzling over what to do with it. Put it in a shady place and hope for a miracle or consign it to the compost heap? It is a dilemma. Light blue flowers are Blue Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata); deep blue spikes are Mystic Blue Salvia, the spikes are oddly shorter due to dry weather earlier in the summer. A few sprigs of chartreuse coleus and fuzzy grey Licorice Plant (Helichrysum) add color.

Thanks to Cathy at RamblingintheGarden for hosting this weekly event. Follow the link and find more vase enthusiasts from around the world.

Happy Gardening!!

Six on Saturday – After the Deluge

South Florida has been featured in the news this week for its first tropical weather of the season. Miami and environs received 20 inches of rain in some areas and are still drying out. More rain is expected this weekend. I live in the far north of South Florida and realized I had left a bucket out in the front garden before the deluge started. After checking it out I found we had almost nine inches of rain this week. The first thing to pop are the weeds and mosquitoes!

The garden greedily gobbled up the water and the plants are a new shade of green this Saturday, some of the more tropical plants started flowering and setting buds. We have had a very dry spring so the rain was welcome. It is too bad there is no means to adjust the water flow from above.

Coontie Palms (Zamia integrifolia) recovering from butterfly hosting duties. The rare Atala butterfly lays eggs and grows caterpillars on this plant almost exclusively. These were eaten to the ground during the spring and have recovered nicely. Super Fireball Neoregelias in front of the photo are a bit scorched from the dry spring, they are usually red or green. I hope they recover. Fortunately, there are a zillion of these lurking in the back garden. The varigated shrubs in the background are Java White Copper leaf (Acalphya wilkesiana). Grassy plants are Rain Lilies.

Alcantarea odorata bromeliad gaining its glaucous foliage. This is a big, full sun bromeliad that eventually reaches 3 feet wide and tall, they are sage green and look like they have been dusted in confectioners sugar. A statement plant if you are into that lingo. I am trying to decide about underplanting it with purple verbena or orange groundcover orchids. A friend sent me an offset two or three years ago and it is finally taking off.

More bromeliads, this is a big mixed container. The purple foliage is Neoregelia ‘Luca’; the grey foliage with a bud coming on is Silver Urn (Aechmea fasciata)

Mexican Bush Honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) is a reliable summer bloomer. This is the first flush.

Coral Plant (Jatropha multifida) starting its summer season.

Gopher tortoise visiting my front porch for a vegetarian snack. Any plant that hangs over the side is fair game. It took me a while to figure out what was eating the basil. This guy must not be Italian as he leaves the oregano alone.

That is all from South Florida this Saturday. For a worldwide SOS garden tour follow this link http://garden ruminations.co.uk to visit Jim’s blog.

Happy Gardening!!!

Six on Saturday – June Things

I looked back to last year and noted my first mango! was picked on June 2. We are a few days behind this year, but I am thrilled to introduce the first victim of my serrate knife – to be chopped, pureed and made into a Mango Key Lime pie this afternoon! This is a Glenn mango, flavor profile sweet and peachy with hints of citrus. Ha! just like wine speak, I think they taste coconutty.

The indestructible Red Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana) is starting back up. This is another amazing plant, dump it in sugar sand, forget about it, and it still keeps going.

Another great summer red (not wine again) is the Petunia exserta. These are sort of viney and meandering through the White Flame Salvia.

The orchids I placed in trees are establishing nicely and loving the humidity (unlike me). This is an unnamed Dendrobium in a Catalina (or Cuban) Avocado.

I tried a new mix of open pollinated Zinnia seeds for summer. These are called Zin Master Mix and I am more than curious about what I am going to get here. The plants are gorgeous (I thought they were going to die) I have a bunch of these plants and was planning to try some in the ground, but we have been overrun by Marsh Rabbits this year and they find the Zinnias to be an extreme delicacy. Another gardening dilemma. These rabbits are so confident they build nests inside the fence with a greyhound! These are in a big pot with a chartreuse Coleus and under planted with Blue Scaveola. No idea what color Zinnias are. Hope it works.

The Marsh Rabbit – looking for Zinnias in all the wrong places.

That is all from my garden this Saturday morning. To tour other SOS gardens, visit Jim’s blog, GardenRuminations and follow the links in the comments. I will be hopping into the kitchen to bake.

In a Vase on Monday – In a Pickle

I had my heart set on a linear arrangement to display my first Lobsterclaw Heliconia of the season. The problem – my linear vase broke in the dishwasher. I was in a Pickle, until my dilemma was solved by, of all things, a Pickle jar. My husband is a compulsive jar saver so the perfect vase was soon in hand and fortunately covered in label glue. This made it very easy to roll a bromeliad leaf around it and tie it up with raffia.

The Lobsterclaw Heliconia is definitely a harbinger of summer. We have had some very hot alternating with very pleasant days and no rain. I finished mulching the gardens this morning as it seemed like possibly the last cool morning for a while. My cool and everyone else’s are probably entirely different things!

The Lobsterclaw Heliconia (Heliconia rostrata) is hanging around with two red Nodding Hibiscus (Malvaviscus arboreus) and a few leaves from Mammey Croton (Codieum varigatum)

The linear aspect of this arrangement is enhanced with foliage from Blanchetiana Bromeliad (Aechmea blanchetiana) – this is wrapped around the pickle jar and leaf leftovers I decided to pop in to hold the Heliconia upright. The ferns are Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata)

Hoping for rain in my garden this week! To see more vases, visit Cathy at ramblinginthegarden.

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Sayonara Spring

Memorial Day marks the beginning of summer in the US and that is today. I am reluctantly bidding Sayonara to spring and battening down for the summer months. The summertime blues (and purples) came right on time to the garden.

Afternoon thunderstorms have already been making their presence known. These are a double edged sword, I am grateful for the rain quenching the thirst of the garden – however, the growth of warm season weeds has been astounding. My paver driveway is already studded with Horseweed (Arghh) and the Johnson’s Grass is peppering the beds. These tropical weeds have the ability to produce a zillion seeds and the highest fertility rate of any known plant. The roots on these weeds have a peculiar ability to grip sand and can only be pulled right after a rain. Time for battle.

Front and center are Tropical Gardenias (Tabernaemontana diviricata), I have difficulty resisting these when cutting flowers, and here they are again. Lavender spikes with purple backed foliage are Arabian Lilac (Vitex trifolia). I think these get a bad rap here for being weedy and invasive. I planted one and still have one. They do have an odd growth habit I have not conquered. A few stems of the white version of Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) are in the middle.

Adding a deeper blue vibe to the vase in blue spikes are Mystic Blue Salvia. The white spikes are Sweet Almond Bush (Aloysia virgata); purple striped foliage is Inch Plant (Transcandentia zebrina) – I think this grows an inch a minute in summer and another battle to wage soon.

My compost pile should expect some new additions! No seedy weeds, though.

Follow this link RamblingintheGarden to visit Cathy’s blog and travel the world’s gardens through vases linked to her post.

Six on Saturday – Not Hogwarts

Some Six on Saturday garden tours make me feel like there should be a garden wizard around the corner or behind the shrubbery. It has started raining again and the tropical creeping has started. I was contemplating my Strangler Fig and the cactus that produces Dragonfruit (there must be a wizard here somewhere!) winding its way around my fence. To see more magical SOS garden tours, visit Jim’s blog by following this link – garden ruminations.

The Dragon fruit (Hylocereus megalanthus). This is a night blooming cactus, a yellow flowered variety that is supposed to produce a fruit that is lemon sorbet flavored. It flowered last year, but produced no fruit. I am finding the fruit producing plants here will often flower for the first time and not produce and then the next year flower and produce fruit. Fingers crossed! It has been so long since I bought this I had forgotten about the lemon sorbet flavor. Thai dessert mango tree in background.

We had our rather magnificent Strangler Fig (Ficus aurea) pruned. Talk about a Harry Potter tree! These are quite interesting and don’t really strangle anything. It is amazing how quickly they can grow – 15-20 foot long branches (4-6 inch diameter) were trimmed back to the trunk from our roof line. I think it has been a year and a half since it was last pruned.

Fruit from the Strangler Fig. These are edible, but only wildlife enjoy them. And I think about a million of them fall to the ground. This is followed by fruit flies who are followed by birds. Wildlife enjoys this tree. It is also larval host to the Ruddy Daggerwing butterfly.

The birds take the figs up into other trees, commonly Sabal Palms and deposit them in the crown of the tree. The figs germinate, take root followed by a small branch growing out of the side of the palm. These branches eventually get long enough to reach the ground and a new Strangler Fig puts roots down and grows up right beside the palm. It is common to see a palm engulfed in a Strangler Fig. Maybe it should be called an Engulfing Fig.

The leafy branch is from the Strangler Fig seedling growing out of the palm trunk.

These trees also make buttress trunks. They are growing in a bed of Snake plants, an impossible to get rid of weed here that I have embraced rather than argue with.

I have just added some Guzmania bromeliads to some pruning made planters. These trees are known for hosting epiphytic plants, so I will add more.

That’s all from my magical tropical garden this Saturday. Wishing everyone Happy Gardening.

Six on Saturday – The Advent of Humidity

It’s Saturday morning yet again. My morning tour found the more tropical members of my garden mob basking in humidity and unlike me, embracing it. The weather app on my phone had the audacity to state it was going to be six degrees colder today and 90 F. This is not colder.

Mother’s Day is tomorrow in the US. In South Florida, this is the bitter end of snowbird season and generally the advent of humidity. Coincidental? I think not. Join the international Six on Saturday garden tour at Jim’s blog, Garden Ruminations by following the link.

Dendrobium orchids installed in my Cuban avocado tree are putting out new growth after suffering with spider mites when the humidity was lower.

Flowers on the succulent shrub, Devil’s Backbone (Euphorbia tithymaloides). A native of Florida and indestructible in the right place, this one lives in partial shade and unirrigated sugar sand. It was a surprise to me that people keep these as houseplants.

Angel’s Trumpet (Brugsmania). I planted this about six months ago, not certain it would grow in my garden, but here it is! The plant has tripled in size and I am hoping for flowers. I did see the mealy bugs and they were dispatched to the great beyond after I took the picture.

Blue Daze Evolvulus. I have been wondering forever what inspires these to bloom. Possibly trimming, fertilizer and the onset of humidity? This is a sulky evergreen groundcover here.

I decided to tree form this massive coleus as it had overrun its under plantings. Has anyone else tried this?

Maybe the trunk needs to be a bit longer? I am thinking of letting the trunk gain some size and then pinching the new growth on top to make it fuller. And I have a lot of cuttings. I could start a tree form coleus farm.

That is all from my garden this Saturday. Thunderstorms are forecast and I am hoping for some rain. We are still not in the rainy season even though there is plenty of moisture in the air!

Happy Gardening!!

Six on Saturday – Learning Curves

My Saturday morning garden tour found a few more learning curves to navigate. Living this far south in the US is much different from a gardening (and other) standpoints. As a gardener I find it interesting and frustrating at the same time. It amazes me what will and won’t grow here. More water or less? Always a dilemma. I found some successes this morning. To see more garden tours and visit other SOS gardens follow this link to Jim’s blog.

The Schlomburkgia orchid in the Gumbo Limbo tree is flowering. This one makes a stiff 6 foot long stem that is actually kind of hard to see as the flowers end up straight overhead. Here is the base.

Growing orchids in trees is one of the amazing things about South Florida gardening. Once established they are relatively carefree. Water in the dry winter and enjoy flowers in summer.

Dancing Lady Oncidium orchids are taking well in the Sabal Palm boots. I hope these are the beginning of a spray of orchids. Hope springs eternal.

I was advised by the nursery I bought these Chicken Gizzard (Iresine herbstii) to plant them in full sun. This one is in partial shade as I did not believe them.

The other Chicken Gizzard plant, placed per directions and starting to fry. Full sun in South Florida is a whole different thing.

My neighbor decided to build a Coral rock wall on my property for some reason. He had to move it over, not to worry, this guy could bench press a Volkswagen. Now I have a little planter I am working on filling up.

Last, but not least, the Nam Doc Mai mangoes are starting to blush, I am so ready to eat one! Frozen mangoes from Aldi are just not the same.

That’s all from my garden this Saturday morning. I am looking forward to seeing what everybody has going on in theirs.

Happy Gardening!!