Tag Archives: Juba Bush

In a Vase on Monday – Tempest in a Teapot

It seems like there is a lot going on in my Blue Willow teapot this Monday.The Parrotflowers are flying, the Juba Bush is swaying and the Zinnias are celebrating their escape from the leaf cutting bees. A lone palm frond holds it all together.

The height of hurricane season has passed, yay! It’s not time to celebrate quite yet as we still have the wind down until the end of November. October is usually more active in the Gulf of Mexico (yep, not changing the name on my blog) I usually start my sigh of relief in mid October and start cleaning the screen porch and setting up the outdoor furniture for winter. We had permanent accordion shutters put on our windows last week so we can be storm ready in a short period of time. That will probably prevent storms for a while!

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The cream colored flowers are from the Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa). This is a lightly fragrant native wildflower that has a mind of its own and shows up uninvited. I have no idea how to propagate it, but somehow ended up with a spectacular plant beside my porch. It’s named after a Caribbean dance – the Juba as the plant sways gracefully in the wind. The Parrotflower (Heliconia psittacorum) flower when it rains and I have difficulty resisting cutting them, so here they are. The trimmed palm frond is from a Sabal Palm (Palmetto Sabal)

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The stalwart Giant Benary Zinnias. We have leaf cutting bees here and they seem to love the zinnias, the bees are even eating the flowers. This is new to me, the flower eating. I’m going to keep watching to see what happens.

That is all from my garden this Monday. Visit Cathy at RamblinintheGarden to join in the fun or view more vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Jubilation

One way or another October always makes me happy. Bar hurricanes from that statement. The weather cools and this month marks my return to gardening. I spent Sunday morning in the garden dodging rain showers and toweling Fiona the Greyhound off every time we had to run back into the house.

There are seemingly millions of sticks scattered throughout the garden from the glancing blow of Hurricane Milton. It doesn’t seem like I have enough trees to have produced all of these sticks. They can’t really be raked up, so I have been picking them up one by one. Sisyphus would have loved it.

Some of my favorite native plants flower in the fall. The Juba Bush is one that causes jubilation as does Muhly Grass, both lending their fluffy pastel brilliance to this vase. I cut a handful of blooms and plonked them into my Ute tribe vase, swirled them around and viola!

Closer views:

The Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa) is the creamy white flower. It has a wonderful fragrance and is a good cut flower. The plant, being native, has a mind of its own and will only grow where it decides to. I leave it in the middle of pathways, etc. as I enjoy the flower. Here’s the full story from George Rogers at Treasure Coast Natives if you want to read up on Juba Bush. The peach flower is Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) wearing fall colors; a bit of Pink Muhly Grass (Muhlenbergia capillaries)

It’s hard to see these blue flowers in the vase – ‘Sapphire Showers’ Duranta (Duranta repens); they rarely flower – so I plucked a few to enjoy in the house. The white daisies are another native, Bidens alba, I pull and cut these at will – they never go away and will happily grow with no attention whatsoever.

That’s all from my garden this Monday. I hope to be back in the garden with Sisyphus, clearing up the sticks. Follow this link to visit Cathy and see more vases in the comments – RamblingintheGarden

Six on Saturday – Post Hurricane

Maybe I should say Hurricane Post. It is inevitable when a hurricane hits Florida I hear from a lot of people who are wondering if we are okay. Which is great, I am glad people think of me. This particular hurricane, Helene, hit the opposite coast of Florida with devastating results and is still continuing to wreak havoc two days later. In my garden, about 8 dried palm fronds came down. The storm passed about 2 or 300 miles to our west, the wind field was huge and we were barely on the edge of it. There was a fairly consistent 25 mph wind Thursday and Friday with a few downpours from the outer bands of the storm, but that was about it. The garden is intact and well watered.

On to Six, to see more SOS gardens, undoubtedly hurricane free, visit Jim at GardenRuminations

Turkeytangle Frogfruit:

Several people have asked to see this, so here it is. I removed our icky lawn (a term I use loosely) and replaced it with an evergreen wildflower called TTFF (Phyla nodiflora). These are a bit difficult to source, so I bought a blob online and propagated the cuttings. This is the “lawn” last year.

I cleared the area by hand and then installed rooted cuttings. Much trial and error, hand weeding and head scratching ensued. I read somewhere to install the cuttings in toilet paper tubes and tried it. This seemed like a reasonable plan – the raccoons thought it was so fun they pulled out all the tubes, and ate the cuttings. Replanted without tubes and that worked. My now curated evergreen weed, uh, wild flower lawn. I think this is more groundcover than lawn.

The curated weeds are still growing in and host three types of butterflies. I have only seen one type, White Peacocks, but there are usually 4 or 5 flying around the TTFF. A closer view.

The White Peacock.

Gardening season is not quite here in South Florida, but I do have a couple of interesting volunteers.

This is a Primrose (Ludwigia) of some sort. They just appear and I like them here and there.

One of my favorite fall flowers, the Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa). Another plant that appears and cannot be grown where it doesn’t want to be. These are fragrant and dance in the wind. It amazes me that anything grows in the grey sand.

That is all from my garden this Saturday. Here is hoping Juracan (Caribbean God of Hurricanes) is done with us for the season.

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!!

In a Vase on Monday – Juba – lation

My favorite cool season flowers are starting to show their colors. One is the Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa). I am jubilant that the Juba Bush has reappeared. I thought it was gone. This is a native wildflower that I mistook for Amaranthus and left it in the garden only to discover its wonderful chartreuse to creamy white flowers. Juba is the name of an African dance that was imported into the Caribbean where these wildflowers are also native. The dance involves a lot of hip movement and swaying – the plant’s movement in the wind reportedly mimics this?! I wish this grew under my Gumbo Limbo tree, that would be perfect.

The Juba Bush. It is the creamy white flower; ‘Lady Di’ Heliconia is in the background.

The other fall indicator is the red Nodding Hibiscus (Malvaviscus penduliflorus) at the base of the vase. This is another volunteer that I have embraced as I love the flowers. Like many Hibiscus (it is a relative and Mallow family member) the shrub is rangy and not particularly attractive. For me, the flowers make it worthwhile and I enjoy them all winter. It also needs no supplemental water and the leaf cutting bees love it.

The Nodding Hibiscus:

The rest of the vase:

The orange flower is a ‘Choconiana’ Heliconia (Heliconia psittacorum); white daisies are the native Spanish Needles (Bidens alba); ferns are the evil invasive, Asian Sword Ferns. I keep the Sword Ferns at bay by using them in vases.

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

Happy Gardening…