Category Archives: Florida

Six on Saturday – Recovering for the New Year

I did not post last week as, for the first time in my blogging history, it was too cold to go outside. Most of Florida experienced the coldest Christmas in 30 years. On the Treasure Coast we had temperatures in the mid 30s (close to 0 C) with a cold north wind coming off the Atlantic. Ordinarily our average low is 40 F (4.4 C).

Above is a Mammey Croton, these are notoriously cold sensitive and true to form, it is dropping leaves. Advice on this is to leave it alone and they will grow back with warmer weather. It had not occurred to me to cover it. The orchids I thought about covering, but didn’t are fine as is another Croton. This one may get a bit more wind.

Below is Miss Alice Bougainvillea, burned by the cold, and currently ‘snowing’ white bracts. This is already coming back nicely.

I am fortunate to have gotten off to a late start on planting seeds. Earlier in December, I planted tomatoes, peppers, basil, sunflowers, papayas, Chinese forget me nots and a few types of zinnias. The plants were just getting big enough to pot up when the cold hit. They spent a few days in the bathtub of our guest bathroom. I was surprised to see some cold damage on the zinnia seedlings and grew some pink slime mold on the surface of the potting mix. This pink stuff had me scratching my head for a bit, did I lose a Pepto Bismol tablet somehow? An internet search revealed the pink slime mold, I have only seen the dog vomit version of this in shades of yellow.

The seedlings. I have Lost Marbles, Black Cherry and Sweet 100 tomatoes and two red bell pepper plants. I gave up on big tomatoes a few years ago and usually have bumper crops of cherry tomatoes. Lost Marbles is a good name for this past year! I am letting these recover a bit before potting them up, hoping for Valentine’s tomatoes.

More seedlings. The zinnias seem to be recovering, though I lost several. I think a cast iron bathtub on the north wall might be colder that I thought it would be. The three seedlings in the second row are papayas grown from two Mexican Papayas we ate this fall. (I have been making Papaya Coconut cupcakes). It takes about a year to get fruit from a seedling if you get a hermaphrodite plant (with self pollinating flowers) Time will tell on these papaya seedlings; they can be male, female or hermaphrodite.

An unusual sight, but not around here. I took my dog to the vet (a neighbor’s Rottweiler bit her! she is doing well). Near the vet’s office is the former estate of Frances Langford, a movie star from fifty years ago. She kept a flock of peacocks and their descendants are still around today. There were about twenty of them, hens and peacocks. Not a great picture, but I always enjoy seeing them. Fiona the greyhound was puzzled.

That is my six from warmer South Florida. It is 84 F (28 C) today and I am grateful for the warmth. To see more posts, visit our host, Jim at gardenruminations.co.uk

Happy New Year and Happy Gardening!!

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In a Vase on Monday – Sharing Sunshine

The Winter Solstice passed last week, days are slowly getting longer and more sunshine is on the way. I thought I should share some Florida sunshine with a brightly colored mix from my garden. I have noticed the wildflowers in my garden germinate late in the year – which should have given me a clue years ago about when to grow cut flowers. I am guilty of reading and following directions on seed packages….again. South Florida reigns peculiar over American horticulture.

It is difficult to find a sunnier group of flowers. All were grown from seed started in September (some named and some in a cutting garden mix) and currently flourishing (with the exception of Nigella, not sure about that) in containers. I am wondering how long the Zinnias will last. Here is a photo of a seedling from the cutting mix I cannot identify.

Any thoughts? It is not a Hollyhock. That was not included in the mix.

Some closer views:

Yellow Sunflowers are ‘Dwarf Sunspot’. Green Zinnias are ‘Green Envy’; purple tubes are from Mona Lavendar Plectranthus. Pink Zinnia is from an Etsy purchase ‘Cactus Mix’. Here is a close up of the Zinnia, I love the stamens (I think?)

The other side:

Pink Zinnia and the very different green one are from the ‘Cactus Mix’. The African Marigolds are from the cutting seed mix with the mystery seedling. The big leaf forming the wave hugging the flowers is a big ‘Java White’ Copperleaf (Acalphya wilkesiana). The leaf is 6 inches long and across. It rolled over naturally.

As always, thank you to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting In a Vase on Monday. To see more posts, follow the link.

Happy Monday!

In A Vase on Monday – Summer G’s

 

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Summer began on Thursday here, complete with thunderstorms and wet blanket of humidity slapping me in the face when traveling from air conditioned space to the great, sweaty outdoors. Summer flowers are a consolation for the weather.

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The G’s are Gardenias and Gallardias, the Tropical Gardenias are stalwarts in my garden. They thrive under dreadful conditions and supply flowers off and on all summer long. The plant is probably ten feet tall and I struggle to reach the flowers, having jettisoned more than one across the vegetable garden by letting go of a long branch too quickly. Oddly enough, the buds last a really long time in the vase, but the flowers don’t. I love the graceful lines of the buds, when hanging over (and around) the side of a contrasting vase, the summer garden is looking fine indoors.

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The first G is Florida (or Tropical) Gardenias (Tabernaemontana divaricata), semi deciduous, in my experience and not particularly hardy to frost. The other G is Gallardia (Gallardia pulchella), a native wildflower I have been trying to establish in the Pollinator Garden. The third plant in the vase is a Penta lanceolata, a plant known to serve as a nectar plant for butterflies. I have noticed the butterflies sipping on the flowers, hoping for offspring.

Speaking of pollinators, they are back for summer – these are caterpillars of Gulf fritillary butterflies chowing down on my ‘Lady Margaret’ Passionflower vine. Lady Margaret has been perverse in her unwillingness to flower in my garden, so I don’t mind if the Gulf fritallaries eat her up.

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Here are the Gulf Frittilaries from last year. I hope to get better pictures this year,

 

 

The Mulchmeister

20190110_151300I could be the Mulchmeister, given the love/ hate relationship with mulch that I have nurtured for years. I love the appearance mulch gives the garden – a soothing blanket of hopefully brownish material, tucking all the plants in for good growth, saving water and helping keep weeds at bay.

Unfortunately, I hate to mulch. Below is the usual result of me buying 5 bags of bark mulch. After 3, I can’t deal with schlepping the bags around anymore and it stays in the garden so long the plastic bags are rendered rust colored from the iron in the well water. And the weeds! Arggh. Florida Jurassic weeds. Oddly, the bark is still fresh as a daisy inside the bag – making me wonder what is on the stuff and in the vegetables I grow?

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I am learning to love again with an old friend, pinestraw. Some call it pine needles, naturally shed by Pine trees! A good thing and more sustainable than chopping down and chopping up trees to use for mulch. It occurred to me to seek out pinestraw as I was working on a project in Atlanta, using pinestraw as mulch. For some reason, pinestraw is very uncommon in South Florida-even though it is harvested in North Florida.

I began the search and after a bit of asking around was gifted with 10 bags of QuickStraw, just in time for Christmas. Compressed and bagged for storage, I can move these around easily and am not ending up covered in mulch.

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I scraped the Jurassic weeds off, put down some brown woven (the key to long lasting fabric) weed control fabric and mulched with the QuickStraw.

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Ahhh, cozy plants, just waiting for everything to grow together.

In A Vase on Monday – Maximum Minimalism

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Maximum minimalism seems a contradiction in terms. I was planning to call this Deconstructed Corsage, due to the Gardenia and Orchids. Shortly before I started writing the post, my husband came in and said ‘minimalism’. I countered ‘”it can’t be, too many different things in the vase”. Upon further reflection, there is something minimal about this arrangement, despite the use of six different plants. I think it is the long lines of the vase and Muhly Grass blending all the elements making it appear to be one plant. One spectacularly unusual plant.

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Fall has been slow to arrive here, there are some 50 degree low temperatures forecast this week. The temperature this afternoon was less than Autumnal, 86 degrees (feels like 95), 97% humidity. I will believe Fall is here when I see or feel it! The flowers on the Muhly Grass are a better indicator of the season than the weather.

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Plants in the arrangement from the top, Muhly Grass (Muhlbergia capillaris), ‘Cabernet’ Spathoglottis Orchids, ‘Hallelujah’ Bromeliad foliage behind the orchid, striped purple leaves are from Transcandentia zebrina, white flowers are Tropical Gardenia (Tabernaemontana divericata) and Sweet Begonias (Begonia odorata). The vase is a thrift shop find.

I still think this would make a good corsage.

A Home for a Lonely Christmas Tree

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I am not quick about getting the Christmas decorations up. Anyone who knows me is aware I detest fake, silk or faux plants. So, the wreath on my front door is always real and never hangs around very long. South Florida is not kind to cut foliage hanging outdoors in the sun. This particular wreath is hanging in sling with a bottle of water holding Saw Palmetto, dried Bromeliad flowers, Brazilian Pepperberries, Frazier Fir and a dried miniature Pineapple.

I try to remember to buy a Christmas tree on Monday as fresh trees are delivered on Monday and the least amount of time spent broiling in the sun on an asphalt parking lot the better. This year it slipped my mind and I managed to wait until the Monday before Christmas. Oops, no fresh trees and what was left over was well, less than optimum. I sorted through the Frazier Firs marveling that the needles were still bending and not brown at all. Then decided to see if anything else appealed to me to use as a tree. Podocarpus and Palms are just too far afield to use as a Christmas tree.

Back I went to the Frazier Firs, finding one in reasonably good shape and looking a bit forlorn I was checking for a price tag. Not one to be found. I went inside and asked the cashier who replied ‘they’re free, we are trying to get rid of them’

Minutes later I was dragging the tree through the parking lot and a lady stopped to help me. I told her about it and she was off to the Christmas tree tent. Hopefully all the trees found homes.

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Merry Christmas!

In A Vase on Monday-Chrismukkah

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This year Christmas Eve and the first day of Hanukkah fall on December 24, the media have christened the date Chrismukkah, which I suppose sounds better than Hanukmas.

In honor of the season and Chrismukkah, I have done two arrangements, one in Christmas colors, red and green and another in traditional Hanukkah colors, blue, white and silver. Being perpetually and cursedly curious, I wondered about the origin of the color schemes.

According to Cambridge University the Christmas color scheme could go back to the Celts who used a red and green tree to mark boundaries. Here is the link, Who color coded Christmas. More research tells me the Hanukkah colors are based on the Israeli flag, why blue.

Now that we know the origins of the colors, here is the Hanukkah arrangement. The silver goblet is an heirloom from my mother’s collection and the flowers are in blue and white – Pom-Pom Asters (inspired by Cathy, our hostess) I started some seed in September and now have blue, white and perhaps pink Pom-Pom Asters, who knew they would grow in Florida in the winter.? The Asters are thriving, but alas, so far my other IOVOM flowers, the Cactus Zinnias are a disappointment. Another inspiration, White Italian Sunflowers are going, but they are showing signs of mildew, time will tell. The other blue members of this arrangement are Evolvulous, Blue Daze the annual peeking out here and there. The White Begonias are Sweet Begonias, a perennial here, the silver flowers are from Flapjack Kalanchoes. Deep plum foliage along the edges is from Purple Oxalis, from my neighbor. I think this plant may be the common thread between all of us. Asian Sword Ferns provide a bit of green.

 

Here is the Christmas arrangement, the original thought that it looked sort of non tropical. Then, the white Bridal Veil Plumeria is a bit difficult to explain. The dark green Yew is Japanese Yew, Podocarpus macrophyllus. Unabashedly tropical as are the red berries of the Brazilian Pepper, outlawed years ago as invasive, but determined to stay around, it is sold as Pink Peppercorn the world over and I have not eaten one of the berries near my house, but many birds have – and on the Brazilian Peppers go, The red striped foliage is from Martin Bromeliads and the ferny foliage is Copper Fennel. I think I have cut more of this than we have eaten, though it is tasty. The vase is an old Brandy snifter from my husbands ‘flaming things in a glass phase’. Go figure. Drinking flaming liquids is not my area of interest.

So, there we go. Happy Holidays to all.

In A Vase on Monday – Tropical Zen

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Much to my surprise, the day after Hurricane Matthew grazed our beach I was picking up debris and found the native Spider Lilies had sent up buds. A few days later, the flowers appeared.

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These are probably three feet tall and quite sturdy, they appeared in my garden and I mistook them for Amaryllis, separated the bulbs and planted a long mass in my back garden. As these things sometimes go a third did well, another third are still alive and then another third didn’t really take or were eaten by the gigantic Lubber grasshoppers we have here. Still, these were a nice surprise and I decided to cut a few for a vase.

My husband’s comment was “that is really minimalist for you” – which is true, I think this vase belongs in a modern spa or a sleek black granite lobby.

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The flowers  present a bit of a design dilemma – while striking they are in my imagination tiaras for fairies and my dilemma was to cut the flowers off and use them as a short stemmed element with other flowers or emphasize the lean whorls of crowns in a simple vase. Simple won out for a tropical minimalist vase.

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The flowers are our native Spider LIly (Hymenocallis latifolia) they grow in pure sand on the back side of dunes and in hammocks. The foliage is the leaf of a Heliconia ‘Splash’ and a Split Leaf Philodendron (Philodendron selloum). A burgundy leaf from an unnamed Bromeliad anchors the stems together in the glass vase. I remember buying the vase to force Cherry and Forsythia branches in winter and could never get that to work. I think the vase was waiting for some Tropical Zen on Monday.

The View from Inside the Cone of Uncertainty

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Hurricane Matthew is currently a top story, a Category Four Hurricane wreaking havoc in the Carribean as I write. The National Weather Service has announced we are in the cone of uncertainty, currently there is a 20 percent chance of hurricane force winds where we live. Meaning put up your hurricane shutters, buy batteries and water, and hunker down.

This is the current view of my front door. The hatches have been battened. My greyhound statuary will stand sentry over my front porch regardless of what winds may blow. My real greyhounds will stay inside with me. This front door is relatively new and I am happy we have it. The majority of the house is covered with corrugated steel storm shutters installed by my husband – who is, fortunately, a very handy guy. Unfortunately, the shutters cast a sepulchral gloom over the interior of our house.

The front door was installed earlier this year, as we like a bit of light in the house. I was the designated painter and thought this sticker was kind of funny, until today:

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Not feeling like I want to know the exact definition of large missiles – but am planning to go outside in the morning and put any potential missiles into a safer place.

I decided to stock up on non perishables and water this afternoon. I could tell by the atmosphere at the grocery store that all hell was just about to break loose. Men (yes, men) were rushing through the aisles throwing anything canned into their cart. One guy was running through the front of the store, cell phone glued to his ear, saying “Oh My God, they are out of bottled water”. Well, they were not out of bottled water by a long shot, in fact, the office supply store I had just been in was selling bottled water. I am not sure I needed bottled water as we are on city water and I was assured by the guy in charge of utilities it always works during hurricanes. Better safe than sorry, so we will see what happens.

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Here is the haul from my grocery adventure. Four kinds of tuna fish, (my husband and I both hate it – I was trying to find one to love), sardines ( he made barfing noises when he saw it), Cannellini beans (OK, I aspire to be Italian and there is Rosemary in my garden), cat food (for the cat), candles ( hoping I can find matches that work), crackers (not the Florida kind) and bottled water.

Anyone for dinner?

Being the chatty Southerner I am, I asked the cashier what the most popular supplies were today. It seems canned Ravioli followed by beer, many people eschewing water for beer and others opting for Gatorade as their beverage of choice.

I am not really sure what to think of that, although they may know something I don’t. As of right now, the hurricane is supposed to pass 5o miles offshore, with a 49 mile margin of error. I think that gives us about 4 miles. Feeling a little queasy.

Until further notice, my tongue is firmly inside my cheek – unless I bite it off.

Cattleya Orchids, Finally Flowering in my Fig Tree.

 

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I have been writing about my ongoing attempt to grow Orchids in the trunk of my Strangler Fig for two years! It finally flowered!

This is a Cattleya Orchid gifted to me by my neighbor. Hers looks much better having been in place for a lot longer than mine-here are my neighbors Cattleyas just starting to flower, these are in the trunk of a Hong Kong Orchid tree.

Sometimes the best thing for a garden is time.

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I think my flower is a bit more purple. Curious. I also think I nearly killed the orchids by not watering them enough during dry weather. They were looking pretty puny a couple of months ago, then I started watering them daily or so.

Feeling very lucky today.