Tag Archives: Amelia Grant

In a Vase on Monday – Bromeliad Cachepot

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I decided to do something different this week. This is a pot of Bromeliad cuttings from my garden. The cuttings are in a 1 gallon nursery container double potted inside the cachepot. These Bromeliads are so bulletproof they are planted in old dried out potting soil and sand, a very well drained mix that will serve them well for months to come.

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Here is one of the cuttings, a Super Fireball Neoreglia, wonderful groundcover and hard to kill. One of my favorites. It grows almost on a runner (actually a stolon), the mother plant (on the left) dies and generally makes two or three pups like this one. The mother plant is cut off and  thrown away, I always feel bad about this. The roots are left intact and placed inside the nursery container.

Super Fireball Neoregelia in the garden, cold weather makes the red and peach coloration come out, these are closer to green in summer.

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Another  view:

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The cachepot is Portmerion, bought years ago on an antiqueing mission with my mother. The pot is a favorite of mine, but I rarely have houseplants as I have a strong tendency to kill them. The Bromeliads should last for months and root into the pot.

From above:

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These are all Neoregelia Bromeliads, grown primarily for foliage. The flowers are not very exciting. I know two of the four varieties – there are 3500 types of Bromeliads and I lost track of some or never knew the name ( i.e. bought at a garage sale for 5 bucks) The bigger chartruese plant with the red center (the center turns red with cooler weather) is a Blushing Bromeliad (Neoregelia carolinae). The Burgundy with green center and no spots is Super Fireball, the spotted ones I have not a clue the species. The grey plant in the foreground is a succulent – a Graptosedum of some kind that a friend gave to me, they enjoy the same soil conditions and I have a few in containers with Bromeliads on the porches at my house. Spanish moss is used for fill in the edges (and hide the black plastic nursery pot) is also a Bromeliad (Tillandsia usneoides)

Happy Gardening!

For more vases from around the world, visit Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com.

In a Vase on Monday – Holiday Upcycle

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The  upcycle is the vase itself. Made from dried remnants of my front door Christmas wreath.  Here is the wreath in its previous life. The green bands are Blanchetiana Bromeliad foliage wrapped around the wreath and tied with jute. When I took this down the flowers had dried to brown and the bands were curly and retained their color. I saved them because I thought they might make an interesting addition to a vase. Instead, I covered a plastic water bottle with the curled leaves and made a vase.

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The flowers are a bright mix designed to counter any winter blues. Low temperatures in the 40s (F) are forecast this week, appalling weather to anyone Floridized (living in Florida for over 5 years, blood completely thins out). We might have to wear long pants and  (gasp)  turn on the heat. A closer view of  the vase:

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Another view of  the flowers:

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The yellow daisies are Beach Sunflowers (Helianthus debilis), a year round bloomer. The red and yellow daisies are Gallardia (Gallardia pulchella), another year round bloomer. Both are native and absurdly easy to grow. The pink flower is an unknown Zinnia. Deep pink and chartreuse spikes are Texas Vintage Rose Mix Celosia from Floret, I may really like these. I think they need cutting back, so here they are. Peachy and red spikes are from Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea). The more beige spikes are Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa) and funky stems with a bit of blue are Blue Porterweed (Stachytarpeta jamaicaensis), white daisies are another native Spanish Needles (Bidens alba).

I am really enjoying my winter garden this year and just planted another round of vegetable seeds. Hoping for more Zinnias and Celosia before the heat sets in.

Happy Gardening and thanks to Cathy at https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com/ for hosting. For more vases, visit Cathy’s blog.

In a Vase on Monday – Not Summer Blues

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January in South Florida is not summer, it just seems like it today. The air conditioning is running; despite the fact this is the dry season, rain showers are making above 80 degrees (F) weather steamy and not conducive to gardening. My reward is flowers and vegetables in the garden. I have ripe tomatoes and Papayas; my second planting of green beans and first lettuces and spinach have come up. Some interesting flowers are also gracing the garden.

The Blue Willow teapot is a favorite of mine, bought with my mother on a long ago antiquing adventure (she referred to this as ‘Going to the junk store’).

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Zinnias grown from seed continue to boggle my mind – not sure what they are at all. These are much bigger than those in the smaller vase and have longer stems. I’ve added pink and green Dombeya (Dombeya wallachii) flowers. The green are the buds, the Dombeya itself is huge and I don’t mind cutting some buds, though I feel the bees would disagree. The flowers have an amazing honey fragrance and I have never seen as many bees on a plant. A closer view:

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The white flowers are Sweet Begonias (Begonia odorata ‘Alba’), another subtly fragrant flower and the spikes are seedheads from Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea)

This vase, another ‘junk store’ find has Dombeyas and Zinnias, just the shorter-stemmed version. The green seed heads are from the Sweet Begonia. I like the seeds as well as the flowers.

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I have both vases in my foyer; the Dombeyas tend to be ephemeral in vases, not lasting more than a day. The fragrance from the combination of Dombeyas and Sweet Begonias is ethereal, I can imagine angels in flight leaving this scent. Worth every moment and curing the Not Summer Blues. Back outside tomorrow.

Six on Saturday – Too Windy

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I have a Florida Box Turtle family in my garden, this one was scurrying (as fast as a turtle can scurry) away from me as I snapped the picture.

I have planted some seeds for lettuces and root vegetables and wanted to plant more, but the wind has been blowing steadily about 20 mph seemingly for the last week. Here are some Arugula seedlings, they need a major thinning, I dropped the seed packet into the pot.

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Winter brings a new color to Bromeliad foliage. These are Super Fireball Neoregelias, they are green in summer and go to reds and greens during the winter.

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Winter also brings some new and different flowers, these are buds on a Dracaena reflexa.

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The New Zealand Flax Lily (Dianella) has finally started flowering. It suffered through the summer sitting on the ground without a pot. Amazing survivor.

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My one Passionfruit. I planted a Passiflora edulis vine for larval hosting of butterflies. I have seen very few butterflies on it, two flowers and one fruit. I am interested to taste the fruit; it has been ripening for at least a month and I am told you must wait until they fall off to eat them. I hope I see it before the turtle does.

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That is my Six on Saturday, for more posts go to thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com to see six items of interest from gardens all over the world.

Happy Gardening.

In a Vase on Monday – Dombeyas End the Decade

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Dombeyas fill the last vase of the decade. Ten years ago, I did not blog; I did not live in Florida and I did not know what a Dombeya was. What a difference a decade makes.

We have spent the past few weeks cooking and going to holiday parties. My husband and I enjoy cooking but we are taking a break and fortunately have leftovers. He is a great pie baker – this year making an apple, a pumpkin and a Rangpur Lime pie with fruit from my neighbor’s tree. I need to get back to the garden to work all the calories off.

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Here is a closer view:

The  pink flowers are the Dombeyas (Dombeya wallichii); the burgundy and silver striped leaves are Transcandentia zebrina, sometimes called Wandering  Jew; the silvery succulent is  the flower of a Flapjack Kalanchoe and the ferns are Boston Ferns (Nephrolepis exaltata).

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Dombeyas are sometimes called Tropical Hydrangeas though they are not related to Hydrangeas but belong to the Mallow family. Hydrangeas have their own family (Hydrangeaceae). Here is the Dombeya flower in situ. The shrub is about 9 feet tall and wide and the leaves are at least a foot wide and fuzzy. The bees love the flowers and I brought one in with the flowers. I think of them as reverse Hydrangeas since the flowers hang under the foliage.

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Happy New Year and Happy New Decade, hopefully the twenties will roar again. But, nicely and with many flowers.

A heartfelt Thank You to Cathy for hosting this wonderful weekly meme. More vases may be seen in the comments of her blog http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com.

Six on Saturday – Fruits and Flowers

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It has been a rainy and windy week in South Florida, Christmas is over and I am looking forward to a new decade in my tropical paradise. Winter brings changes to the flora and is the most enjoyable time of the year to be outdoors. We live on our screen porch, my next task is to plant some containers for the porch.

Above is a Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet), I cut these  frequently in the winter; they have a light, gingery scent and are very reliable in the garden. Other Gingers suffer in silence in my garden.

Below is a Hong Kong Orchid Tree (Bauhinia purpurea) These are common parking lot trees and produce a lot of seeds and seedlings.

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The Dombeya (Dombeya wallichii) finally opened  on Christmas Day, a wonderful gift. It is so windy it makes pictures difficult to take as the flowers swing in the wind.

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Zinnia of unknown origin. In December.

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I have three types of Mango trees in my garden, all are flowering, it is a bit early.  Here is the flower of the Glenn Mango. These are panicle flowers, if pollinated produce numerous small Mangoes.

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And  finally, my first homegrown Papaya breakfast – with honey vanilla yogurt and granola. A very satisfying end to my gardening year.

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Six on Saturday is a gardening meme hosted by The Propagator. For more posts, go to http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.

Happy New Year!!

Amelia

In a Vase on Monday – Zinnias & Indiscretions for Christmas

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My South Florida garden, being perverse as usual,  produced Zinnias for Christmas. I have been trying to figure out when to start seed for a couple of years and bought some fancy seed from Floret to try this fall. The seeds were Macarenia Zinnias – the red and gold flowers are Macarenias, most of the rest  came up from the same seed pack and are solid pinks, apricots and oranges. I actually like those better, the Macarenias look like  weird Marigolds to me.

The small tree is a European Cypress, I forwent a big Christmas tree as my younger greyhound, Fiona has been suffering from dietary indiscretions. First, I caught her trying to eat a CD?!  They are very crunchy. And then she gorged herself on Cabbage Palm berries resulting in a trip to the vet and a special diet for almost two weeks. I make an excellent canine chef and have cooked vats of rice, pumpkin and turkey for her. The food and medicine has her running laps in the backyard again. Here she is reclining on the porch.

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Some close ups of the Zinnias. I am not sure what they are at this point. Mixed Christmas surprise Zinnias. The vase is a sugar bowl; the white flowers from Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa) and Asparagus Fern greenery that just floats around in my garden until I cut it for flower arrangements.

The back side of the vase, more surprises. I  planted some other Zinnia seeds – 4 cells out of about 20.

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My older, more discreet greyhound, Alan Alda – under a past Christmas tree.

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Thanks to Cathy, at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting this weekly event. Visit her blog to find links to vases from all over the world.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah to all.