Tag Archives: Silver Urn Bromeliad

Six on Saturday – High Summer Rising

June has actually been very pleasant, all things considered. I am suspicious July will not be, the wet blanket of sweaty humidity has arrived and the second tropical storm of the season is predicted to form next week. High Summer in South Florida has arrived. The good news, we get great tropical fruit and flowers. The bad news, we have to leave the air conditioning to see them. For a grand summer (or in some cases winter) garden tour follow this link GardenRuminations to Jim’s blog and visit the comments.

I am picking mangoes every morning. So many that I have started freezing them and giving them away. I’m currently waiting for a ripe one to make mango blackberry pie. There are 3 different types of mango here – Nam Doc Mai, Thai dessert mangoes, long and green; Pickering mangoes are peach colored; one Glenn mango in the top middle. Mangoes should be picked as they start to change color and easily come off the tree and then ripened on the counter.

Tropical or Florida Gardenias (Tabernaemontana diviricata) are loving the summer heat and rain.

Turkey Tangle Frog Fruit (Phyla nodiflora) “lawn” is flourishing and flowering.

Sea Grapes (Coccoloba uvifera), a native tree that seemingly will grow anywhere is making tons of fruit and dropping it everywhere. I like the tree, but wish someone would come up with a fruitless one. This is food for wildlife, the fruit is edible and I am told it tastes like figs – but, it is mostly seed. One of my numerous greyhounds was the only household member to enjoy it.

Silver Urn Bromeliad (Aechmea fasciata) is almost in full bloom.

That is all from South Florida this Saturday. I went out and looked at the weeds, plucked a few, and came back inside.

Happy Gardening!!

Six on Saturday – After the Deluge

South Florida has been featured in the news this week for its first tropical weather of the season. Miami and environs received 20 inches of rain in some areas and are still drying out. More rain is expected this weekend. I live in the far north of South Florida and realized I had left a bucket out in the front garden before the deluge started. After checking it out I found we had almost nine inches of rain this week. The first thing to pop are the weeds and mosquitoes!

The garden greedily gobbled up the water and the plants are a new shade of green this Saturday, some of the more tropical plants started flowering and setting buds. We have had a very dry spring so the rain was welcome. It is too bad there is no means to adjust the water flow from above.

Coontie Palms (Zamia integrifolia) recovering from butterfly hosting duties. The rare Atala butterfly lays eggs and grows caterpillars on this plant almost exclusively. These were eaten to the ground during the spring and have recovered nicely. Super Fireball Neoregelias in front of the photo are a bit scorched from the dry spring, they are usually red or green. I hope they recover. Fortunately, there are a zillion of these lurking in the back garden. The varigated shrubs in the background are Java White Copper leaf (Acalphya wilkesiana). Grassy plants are Rain Lilies.

Alcantarea odorata bromeliad gaining its glaucous foliage. This is a big, full sun bromeliad that eventually reaches 3 feet wide and tall, they are sage green and look like they have been dusted in confectioners sugar. A statement plant if you are into that lingo. I am trying to decide about underplanting it with purple verbena or orange groundcover orchids. A friend sent me an offset two or three years ago and it is finally taking off.

More bromeliads, this is a big mixed container. The purple foliage is Neoregelia ‘Luca’; the grey foliage with a bud coming on is Silver Urn (Aechmea fasciata)

Mexican Bush Honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) is a reliable summer bloomer. This is the first flush.

Coral Plant (Jatropha multifida) starting its summer season.

Gopher tortoise visiting my front porch for a vegetarian snack. Any plant that hangs over the side is fair game. It took me a while to figure out what was eating the basil. This guy must not be Italian as he leaves the oregano alone.

That is all from South Florida this Saturday. For a worldwide SOS garden tour follow this link http://garden ruminations.co.uk to visit Jim’s blog.

Happy Gardening!!!