Tag Archives: IAVOM

In a Vase on Monday – Parrots and Poinsettias

Here’s another set of strange bedfellows from my garden. I would consider this an unlikely combination anywhere but South Florida. The parrots are Parrotflowers (Heliconia psittacorum) and the poinsettias are a native Floridian Euphorbia called Florida Poinsettia (Euphorbia cyathophora). I like the little bits of red on the foliage accenting the colors of the flowers.

I have tried growing the usual Christmas poinsettia in the garden and failed. The Florida version is a wildflower that appears from time to time. Having read up on it a bit I should probably pull them out. It seems they are one of those perverse plants that is hard to grow from seed if you want it – but a prolific reseeder if you don’t. If I don’t act soon the next thing could be a mowed poinsettia lawn for the holidays. Not a festive look.

A closer view:

The Parrotflowers are orange and red and yellow. The orange ones are Heliconia psittacorum “Choconiana”; the reds H. psittacorum “Lady Di”. These are very tropical and did not appreciate the 30 degree temperatures in January and are just recovering. The flowers are smaller than usual for some reason. Yellow spikes are from the Thyrallis (Galphimia gracilis) shrub.

The Florida Poinsettia foliage. Another common name for this is Fire on the Mountain. Where they found the mountains in Florida we will never know.

That is all from sweltering South Florida.

Many thanks to Cathy at http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting this weekly meme. Follow the link to see more vases from gardens around the world.

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Mystic Muscadines

It is somewhat of a mystery where all the @#! muscadines came from behind my house. The grapes are bitter, have huge seeds and the vines can grow 10 or 15 feet during the summer and once you start pulling it is impossible to find the end of them. I had these at my house in Atlanta and it took a few years to find them all but – I won. This time I am not so sure. So, every summer I have grapes in a vase or two. I love the chartreuse color of the unripe grapes. The vases have not reduced the vines, though it would be wonderful if they did! I need a large grapevine basket or wreath making business.

The Mystic here is the blue spike in the back of the arrangement. I love these. Mystic Spires Salvia. Amazingly long lived for South Florida, one has been flowering since March 2021. I realized I needed one more and then pulled myself back from planting anything in July.

Closer views:

The unripe grapes of the Muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia). This is a native grape to a large portion of the southern and eastern US, there are some varieties that are good to eat or used in making wine. The white bracts are Miss Alice Bougainvillea flowers. Orange and sage green flowers are from Soap Aloe (Aloe saponaria).

The spires of the Mystic Spires Salvia accented with foliage from Varigated Flax Lilies (Dianella tasmanica)

I have been baking with Thai dessert mangoes harvested from my tree this afternoon. I ended up with four ripe mangoes and decided to make vanilla cupcakes with mango filling topped with mango buttercream. Not to worry, these are actually vegan, not terribly unhealthy in the scheme of life and very good.

That is all from South Florida this week. No, I am not considering cake decorating classes.

Thanks to Cathy at http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting. Follow the link to see more vases…

In a Vase on Monday – Lobster, Asparagus & Rose`

Lobster with a side of asparagus and a glass of rose` sounds like a rocking dinner. A large quantity of melted butter would be necessary for this gastronomic delight and another side dish, roasted potatoes, I think. Hmmm. Well, this vase is not for dinner, though the conceptual components are there and the rock was necessary to hold the plants in place.

I know summer is in full force when the Heliconias start to flower and the solstice was their day. There are flowers still opening and this is really the best Heliconia year to date. I am guessing the vast rain fall helped. These flowers are so dramatic they need little embellishment, kind of like lobster.

The flowers:

The Lobsterclaw Heliconia (Heliconia rostrata). These are planted outside my Living Room windows to give a rainforest vibe to the view. This is sort of a large, leafy plant but very linear and easy to see through so I have enjoyed the view.

The Asparagus Fern accents the Heliconia and is held in place by the rock. The vase is a rose` bottle from a dreadful bottle of rose` I bought from Aldi based on an internet rave review. The last rave review I ever bought wine from, though I have enjoyed the bottle as a vase.

The rock:

The rock. My father was a geology professor who loved crystals and especially tourmaline and quartz. This is black tourmaline and a quartz crystal likely found somewhere in North Georgia where I am from.

It is closing in on dinnertime in South Florida and I am wishing for the above ingredients! No such luck this week

Thanks to Cathy for hosting IAVOM, to see more vases follow this link http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Tropical Depression or not

Among my vases this one is not particularly exotic, though it has some tropical elements. I have been meaning to use this green cream pitcher as a vase for a while. It belonged to my mother, who got it from her mother. My mother was always miffed with me that I could not tell the difference between depression glass and pressed glass. I have an inkling this is pressed glass, though I could be remembering my mother pressing her lips together in frustration as I misidentified another piece of glass!

There is a 90 percent chance of a tropical depression forming in the Atlantic this week. Of course, it is headed my way. I am going to hope for rain and continue to enjoy the flowers, with or without depression glass.

The flowers:

Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) in pinks; ‘White Flame’ Salvia in white, and ‘Mystic Spires’ Salvia in blue. The purple spikes are Arabian Lilac (Vitex trifolia). I like the Arabian Lilac though it is growing into an odd flat shrub. More pruning fun for me.

Brown Eyed Girl Sunflowers are still going, though they are seeking some shade by growing over the edge of the container.This seems strange, sunflowers avoiding the sun? The small yellow spikes are flowers of Java White Copperleaf (Acalypha wilkesiana ‘Java White’). More garden mysteries to contemplate.

That is all from my garden this Monday. Thank you to Cathy for hosting IAVOM. To see more vases visit Cathy at http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com.

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Graptosalvia

Rest assured that the spell check did not like that word I made up, Graptosalvia. It still doesn’t, and would not even hazard a guess at what I was trying to type. Grapto for the grey graptosedum and salvia for the flowers.

The wildflowers in my garden have responded wonderfully to my haphazard fertilizing a couple of months ago followed by lavish rain showers over the past couple of weeks. I have never seen them so big or so green. Another home run for time release fertilizer. Osmocote may be the secret for gardening on sugar sand. The succulents, graptosedum and friends, are also enjoying the heat and food. I never do anything special to the succulents and they just keep multiplying..the instructions I read on the internet for succulents boggle my mind.

The contents:

The funky foliage in the vase – two cuttings of grey graptosedum, these things tend to shed leaves as they are moved, so I arranged the lost leaves into a fan at the base of the vase. The spiky green foliage is a frond from a palm seedling stuffed between the flower stems to make them stand up straight. It looks deceptively like a spike dracaena.

The flowers:

In red, white and pink spikes, Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea); yellow flowers are Thyrallis (Galphimia gracilis), this is one of my favorite summer flowering shrubs. It would probably be taller if I did not like to cut the flowers. There are a few white spikes of Sweet Almond Bush (Aloysia virgata) and I managed to cut the Gallardias (Gallardia pulchella) off the bottom of the picture. The vase is a leftover florist vase from ..who knows where, but the perfect size.

Happy Summer Monday to all and thanks to Cathy at http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting IAVOM. Follow the link to see more vases..

In a Vase on Monday – Plumb Wonderful

I am very pleased with my Plumbago shrubs this year, they have burst forth with a display of flowers like no other. Why this happened is another mystery of the gardening universe. They inhabit the “hell strip” – a dry area between the street and my driveway. There is no irrigation, I am pretty sure I forgot about the fertilizer and they are growing under some good sized trees. Yet they prosper. My neighbor gave me the original shrub about 10 years ago, offspring of the one her grandmother planted in the 60’s. I added a darker blue variety last year and that is what I have in the vase.

The two Plumbagos, the darker one on the left. The lighter blue one is at least eight feet wide and five feet tall.

A closer view of the vase:

I was taught in my college perennial garden design class (by a very old school design professor) that the classic Southern (the Southeastern US) summer color scheme for a garden is yellow, blue and white. I decided against the yellow in favor of grey green. I am pretty sure my professor wouldn’t consider Florida part of the south, so he is probably not spinning in his grave over the lack of yellow. The only yellow in the garden currently is daisies and the shape of the flower needed to provide some contrast as all the other flowers are daisy shaped.

The gray green flowers are the buds of the Adonidia Palm (Adonidia veitchii). The flowers eventually open, turn nearly white and then produce bright red fruit. The white flowers and glossy green foliage belong to the Tropical Gardenia (Tabernaemontana divaricata). The vase was a thrift store find I have enjoyed immensely. It is my favorite for the Gardenias as they lounge over the side so well.

That’s all from my simmering summer South Florida garden. Thanks to Cathy at http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting. To see more vases follow the link.

Happy Gardening!

In a Vase on Monday – Mystic Flame and Fire

The title of this post sounds like a Harry Potter book with wizards and witches – but it is just a combination of the names of the plants in the vase. I admit to wondering where plant breeders come up with these names sometimes..oh, magic.

Only a little magic in the garden this week, though I am enjoying the late spring weather and some rain showers keeping the plants happy. I am (as usual) almost (key word) finished for the season, waiting for the heat to set in and gardening to slow down. I have less than 10 tomatoes left on my plants and the plants are lurching into decrepitude just in time to be tossed out. Almost all the spring flowers have burned out – a few dianthus left, the snapdragons are toast and ranunculus a distant memory. Oddly, my latest batch of zinnias is really sluggish, despite what seemingly should be good zinnia weather. This gardener needs a little zinnia magic.

The Mystic Flame and Fire:

The Mystic is Mystic Spires Salvia in blue, this one has been flowering since March 2021 and has given me one new plant (from six cuttings, one survived). The Flame is White Flame Salvia, the flowers are a lot smaller since the plants were put in the ground and look more like Salvia farinacea now – it is a cross between S. farinacea and longispicata. The Fire is the Firebush (Hamelia patens), an orange flowering native shrub that will flower until cold weather comes back, usually January. Asian Sword Ferns add some greenery.

The other white flower in the vase is from the White Geiger tree (Cordia boissieri). I like the crinkled flowers and so do the Sulphur butterflies.

That is all from slow simmering South Florida this Monday. Thank you to Cathy at http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting this garden meme. Follow the link for a visit with more gardeners and vases.

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Tropical Layers

South Florida experienced yet another crazy weather day on Sunday. Rain, thunder, tornado watches and warnings. Madness. I sat with Fiona the greyhound to gauge her reaction to all the weather warnings. She slept through it. A good sign and nothing happened except more water and leaves and debris down and probably more weeds will emerge shortly.

After all this weather, I decided to cut the orchid in the Gumbo Limbo tree so I could see it before it was smashed to bits. The stems on this orchid are about four feet long, as it is installed in the crotch of the tree it is a bit difficult to see anyway. Probably 10 feet above the ground. I dashed out into the rain and clipped the orchid. So satisfying.

This is a Schomburgkia orchid. Native to the mangrove groves on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula. How it found its way here is a mystery to me. Based on its coloring, orchid, red and yellow, I decided to put it in my big red vase. My husband refers to this as the ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ vase. Hopefully, you remember the 1960s TV show about Jeannie or the Genie?

I thought some layers of tropical foliage and a bit of red would accent the vase and the orchids nicely. The red flowers are Firecracker plant (Russelia equisetiformis); the big leaf in back is a Split Leaf Philodendron (Philodendron selloum); the left green leaf is from a Lady Palm (Rhaphis excelsa); grey striped foliage is Inch Plant (Transcandentia zebrina)

Fiona on a sunnier day. Looking for sky raisins (my husband’s words again). She eats bees sometimes.

That is all from my garden this week. Hoping for sun and blue skies. To see more vases follow the link to Cathy’s blog http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com

Happy Gardening!

In a Vase on Monday – Red Lion Roars Again

The Red Lion Amaryllis in my garden is a long ago gift from my father in law, Glenn. He went through forcing bulbs every Christmas, saving them and planting them in the garden and then dividing them and after a while there was a pride of Red Lions. Glenn left us almost fifteen years ago and I still cherish this Amaryllis (he would never call it a Hippeastrum.) It refused to flower for several years, so I moved it to a sunnier spot and the Red Lion is roaring again. I was happy to bring it inside to enjoy in a Monday vase. I was even happier the lion was inside when a rollicking late afternoon thunderstorm roared through.

A closer view of the Lion:

Accompaniments to the Lion:

The white flowers are ‘Miss Alice’ Bougainvillea; orange flowers are Firebush (Hamelia patens var patens). This is a restrained plant palette for me. The vase is my favorite piece of vintage Blue Willow, a teapot from the UK.

The thunderstorms lasted longer than I thought they would – leaving 7 and a half inches of rain behind in a little more than two hours! Lots of roaring here today.

Thank you to Cathy for hosting IAVOM every week and hosting our Zoom meeting yesterday. Such fun to meet other garden bloggers. Follow this link http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com to see more vases.

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Delicate Dianthus

I have been enjoying the Giant Dianthus plants that I have been keeping on my front porch. I expected them to burn out as soon as the temperatures exceeded 80 degrees. They haven’t, surprising me with fringed flowers in shades of pink almost daily. The snapdragons are still hanging on as well. Laziness and distaste for throwing anything away that might possibly flower made me keep the snaps around. I was rewarded with a few more flowers, dwarf when compared to the earlier ones, but a nice accessory to the delicate dianthus flowers.

The vase belonged to my mother. It was her go-to container for pansies and a perfect size for the dianthus. I am wondering if this was once a jam jar, it has a very jammy vibe. This vase has some wonderful scents, basil flowers, dianthus and salvia; sweet, spicy and herbal. I am enjoying walking by.

The close up:

Giant Dianthus in pink; yellow snaps; a few sprigs of Genovese Basil flowers; ‘White Flame’ Salvia and ‘Golf Beauty’ Craspedia in yellow.

Pink snapdragons, a few sprigs of Tropical Red Salvia in white with Asian Sword Ferns and Asparagus Ferns for greenery.

This is a stuffed jam jar!

Thank you to Cathy for hosting this week (and every week) To see more vase follow this link to her blog. http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com

Happy Gardening!!