Tag Archives: six on saturday

Six on Saturday – Winter Color

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200131154349825_cover

This is a Blushing Bromeliad (Neoregelia carolinae); they only blush in winter the rest of the year the foliage is solid green.

Here is another Bromeliad – the Hallelujah Billbergia, it’s flowers  are red, white and blue later in the year and are quite a sight with the purple spotted foliage. The green coloration comes out in winter.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200131154304310_cover

The fruit of Candy Portea Bromeliad, it flowers in the fall, the fruit is purple at first and later turns white. The foliage is also purple, so this is a striking plant.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200131154235943_cover

Real fruit in the form of a pole bean. I love fresh green beans and am looking forward to this.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200131153528481_cover

Seedheads on a Sweet Begonia (Begonia odorata ‘Alba’). I like the seeds as well as the flowers and use them in arrangements.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200131153951475_cover

It has been a surprisingly rainy dry season and here is the proof – a Rain Lily.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200131153816132_cover

That is my Six for this Saturday, for more photos of six things from gardens around the world, go to host blog, here is the link.The Propagator

Six on Saturday – New Things

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200124160828649_cover

I have some new things in my garden, flowers, foliage, fruit and non-toxic weedkiller. My Six for this Saturday.

Above, a  Texas Plume Vintage Rose Mix Celosia flower. I started these from seed last fall, the colors in the mix are Burgundy, Chartreuse and this – I suppose it is pink? I have not had Celosia in this garden, though it seems it is becoming popular. I will be interested to see how long it lasts.

The flower of a Guzmania Bromeliad just opening. I would love to know the variety of this one, it flowers every winter.

00000img_00000_burst20200124101306321_cover

Winter brings  color to Bromeliad foliage. These are aptly named Painted Fingernail Aechmea.

img_20200124_160539

Color on new growth of Southern Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium darrowii). This is a native Florida blueberry, I doubt it will bear fruit as it struggles in my sandy soil.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200124160633451_cover

The fruit is setting on the Nam Doc Mai Mango. This is a Thai Dessert Mango and very tasty. Last year I did not have any as it was too windy for the flowers to pollinate.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200124101046354_cover

I discovered a non-toxic weedkiller that works like Glyphosate, which I refuse to use in my garden. My pathways will look a lot better now. This new weedkiller is EcoMIGHT http://ecomight.com/ and is peppermint oil based. Here is a lovely dead weed.

00000img_00000_burst20200122153638760_cover

That’s my Six for this Saturday. To see other gardeners take on Six on Saturday, follow  this link to  Visit the Propagator!!

Happy Gardening.

Six on Saturday – Too Windy

00000img_00000_burst20200111101024436_cover.jpg

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.

img_20200111_100555

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.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200111101008445_cover

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

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200111101410743_cover

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

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200111100928114_cover

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.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20200111101050340_cover

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.

Six on Saturday – New Year’s Projects

For 2020, I decided to add more vegetables to the garden, containers to my screen porch and fix an ongoing drainage problem.

img_20200101_124151

See all  the sand on the porch? I am adding a walkway and a wall to hopefully capture most of it. I have planted the pots with vegetable seeds – lettuce, spinach and  root vegetables.

The walkway under construction, landscape fabric filled with drainage gravel will go under the area where most of the water flows.img_20200104_095639

A concrete mermaid will be added  along with crushed shell and stone in front of the pots to help with drainage. Here is the mermaid, I call her me-maid as I have grey hair and brown eyes, considering adding glasses. And  fixing her arm, oops

img_20200104_095250

 

Replanted pots on the screen porch: A Fireball  Neoregelia Bromeliad, Flapjack Kalanchoe and Boston Fern. All transplanted from the garden.

 

img_20200104_095730

Another pot. The dark Bromeliad is Luca Neoregelia, the green one is Super Fireball, a bit of Asian Sword Fern and Wandering Jew (Transcandentia zebrina) More garden transplants.

img_20200104_095725

Papaya seedlings grown from the fruit of my tree. Papaya trees grow fast and don’t last long so you need back up trees for continous Papayas.

img_20200104_095423

That’s my New Year’s SOS, join the Saturday fun at  http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.

Happy New Year and  Happy Gardening.

Six on Saturday – Fruits and Flowers

20170304_140011.jpg

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.

20161130_095020

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.

img_20191228_092859

Zinnia of unknown origin. In December.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191228093114521_cover

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.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191228092540632_cover

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

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191228084000909_cover

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

Six on Saturday – Gifts from the Garden

img_20191221_084837

It’s  time for Six on Saturday. Six pictures of anything interesting from your garden.

Just in time for Christmas the garden is gifting me with some wonderful things. Above, finally a nearly ripe Papaya.

Below, green beans and radishes:

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191214164145845_cover

In honor of the holidays, a few red flowers are blooming. The weather is dreadful today,  howling wind and rain, so pictures were taken inside.

This is Nodding Hibiscus (Hibiscus malvaviscus)

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191201153744562_cover-1

Red Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana)

00100lportrait_00100_burst20191013163634634_cover

The garden provided plenty of Blanchetiana flowers (and foliage) to make this wreath.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191220124823831_cover

And a greyhound to watch over the front porch:

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191220132202744_cover

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

For more Six on Saturday posts go to http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com

Six on Saturday – The Deluge

img_20191213_093746

One day this week we had 4 or 5 inches of rain,  this wheelbarrow full of water is from that storm. The crushed shell residue is from my work on the cleaning and touching up the pathways in my garden.

Below you can see the cleaner part at the bottom of the photo is the new shell, well water irrigation has been staining the shell rust, and I have redone the irrigation so it doesn’t spray on the walkways – the rain helped by compacting the shell.

 

img_20191213_095417

The rain also made this fungus open and let loose their spores. We called these puffrooms when I was a child. And stomped on them.

00000img_00000_burst20191213095505817_cover

I had to tie the Snow Peas up.

img_20191213_095748

The rain also gave me some flowers: Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans)

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191213095343329_cover

And a new flush on the Porterweed (Stachytarpeta jamacaensis)

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191116083407155_cover

A little rain can be a good thing, it has been fairly dry here lately. I just looked at the weather radar, more storms on the way!

That’s the six from my garden this Saturday.

To see more Six on Saturday posts,  go to http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com

Happy Gardening. Stay dry.

Six on Saturday – Waiting

It’s Saturday morning and time for The Propagators garden meme featuring six items of interest from your garden. For more interesting sixes, follow this link SIXES

I  think Tom Petty said ‘The waiting is the hardest part’. If there is one thing gardening teaches you it is patience. Our weather has cooled a bit and this slows everything down. Here are six things from my garden that I am waiting for:

The Dombeya,  I  had the buds in last weeks post,  they are tormenting me by just getting bigger and staying green. This uber tropical small tree should be covered in pink hydrangea like flowers soon.

img_20191206_143357Green Beans, not quite big enough  to eat:

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191206142939664_cover

Radishes, again not quite big enough to eat:

00000img_00000_burst20191206143140856_cover

Tomatoes, every so slowly turning red:

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191206142959061_cover

Papayas refusing to turn yellow or doing so at the moment a hungry bird flys by. These must have yellow streaks before  picking or they never get ripe.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191206143034935_cover

Lastly, fancy Zinnias grown from seed (Macrenia),  these are supposed to be an excellent cut flower – double and 3 inches across bronzy orange with scarlet tips. Waiting to see the flowers!

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191206143117027_cover

That’s six from my garden. Happy Gardening.

Six on Saturday – Walking the Dogs

img_20191130_090747

I walk my greyhounds frequently, they like to walk around the neighborhood and my garden. Here are some of  the plants we have encountered recently. Some are not to be sniffed by dogs or people. Above  is one of those plants, a Blue Agave (Agave tequilana) grown by a friend and gifted to me, this is the plant that tequila is made from and is very spiny with spines  on the leaf  tips.

Here’s another sharp plant,  my neighbor’s Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa). A poisonous plant with thorns, paradoxically having edible fruit and gardenia scented  flowers.

img_20191130_090715

Another Agave, not quite as sharp as the Blue one. This one is a Sisal Agave (Agave sisalana) – yes, where Sisal for rugs, ropes, etc. comes from. This is on a vacant lot on our walk and is shooting up a  bloom stalk that is at least 10 feet tall and not showing a bud yet. Somewhere south of here an enterprising soul started a Sisal plantation, the Sisal reseeded and took over an island in the Florida Keys and has blown seeds all the way to my neighborhood.

img_20191130_090657

Another sharp  plant, the Soap Aloe (Aloe saponaria). These can be used  to make  shampoo and are foamy if the leaves are snapped. After reading about these, I decided against the shampoo as it seems most people are allergic to it.

20170621_110336

The Autograph Tree (Clusia rosea), waiting to be planted – one of  the potted orphans that lurk in everyones garden, not sharp at all.

img_20191130_091059

Buds on the Dombeya (Dombeya wallachi). This is a pink tropical Hydrangea tree, if you can imagine that – and  they bloom in December! I walk by everyday looking for flowers.

img_20191130_091122

Happy gardening!

To see more Six on Saturday posts featuring six items of interest from gardens around the  world go to: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/

Six on Saturday – Florida Style Fall

I am enjoying the cool, sunny weather in the garden. This time of year in South Florida is perfect gardening weather, temperatures in the 70s and low humidity. I have redone my front porch containers with Bromeliads, succulents, annuals, and herbs.

Below is a new plant to me, Dwarf Chenille Plant, it is draped over a tall pot with a striped Bromeliad behind it.

 

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191122144030357_cover

This container has herbs, Dill,  Columnar Greek Basil, and Genovese Basil. I grew the Basils from seed and have Blue Spice Basil for butterflies.

img_20191122_144013

The succulents in the Strawberry pot are just getting going. They are Flapjack Kalanchoes, a Graptosedum and Gold Sedum. A real pain to water, I found this pot by the side of the road and the plants are cuttings from my garden.

img_20191122_143945

A Guzmania Bromeliad produced a seed head in another container, I  have not had this happen before and can’t quite tell where the seeds are.

00100lrportrait_00100_burst20191122171025856_cover

My neighbor’s Rangpur Lime tree is loaded with fruit, the basket of limes is from her garden. A  pie may be in my future.

img_20191122_144340

This is a Mangrove tree growing on a riverbank down the street from my house. The roots help hold the soil on the banks of the Indian River and prevent erosion.

img_20191118_122303

To see more Six on Saturday posts- go to www. thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.

 

Happy Gardening