It is Saturday again and I am sharing what is happening in my garden with the SOS gang that meets weekly at Jim’s blog. Follow the link to find other garden tours in the comments section.

My garden revealed some interesting moth related events this Saturday. Some moths I am happy to see, others. Not so much. The tropical plants seem to be revving up for the coming spring season. It’s good to see some different flowers coming along.

This is the result of a Sphinx moth laying eggs on a papaya leaf. These moths produce caterpillars called papaya hornworms, a relative of tomato hornworms and just as destructive. A caterpillar was born and started chowing on the foliage, then a braconid wasp happened by and laid eggs inside the caterpillar. The wasp larvae proceeds to eat the caterpillar. These wasps are beneficial and I am happy to see them in the garden as I get to have papayas instead of the caterpillars.

I posted a photo of Miss Alice Bougainvillea a couple of weeks ago looking puny. She got worse and I could not figure out what was going on. Any little bit of foliage was promptly eaten, but I couldn’t see any bugs. A little research revealed there is something called Bougainvillea loopers, caterpillars from another moth that are the culprit. It seems these moths fly at night and lay their eggs on unsuspecting plants. And they like light. I had an uplight on the vine to show if off at night. Oops. One dose of Neem spray, removal of the offending light fixture and some fertilizer with iron and Miss Alice is looking much happier.

A few tropical flowers are coming out. The Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) is not quite in full bloom. I usually have these in February, so they are a little late.

Lotusleaf Begonia (Begonia nelumbifolia) is starting to flower again. These can get 2 or 3 feet tall and I love them for their tropical texture. They reportedly grow in roadside ditches in Mexico, so they are pretty tough.

Succulents are also flowering. This is the mystery graptosedum.

This is Senecio barbertonicus, it has all kinds of weird common names. The flowers in this photo represent the full spectrum – buds to a little bit of yellow to sort of dandelions. I have propagated several of these and have been planting them in the garden – this is not recommended by the succulent continuum as they might get too much rain. So far, so good is all I can say and they don’t miss irrigation at all. Our well died about two years ago and I have been going irrigation free since. The St Augustine lawn is gone and I have been concentrating on drought tolerant plants.

That is all from South Florida this Saturday. Happy Early Spring!