Tag Archives: South Florida Gardening

Six on Saturday – Garden Friends

Saturday is upon us once again and I have taken a tour of my garden to see what’s new. I have some new and some old friends. First up, Fiona the greyhound, sitting in the so called dirt in my garden. Fiona likes to keep me company by sunning in the native sand in the garden. It amazes me that anything will grow in this stuff, yet it does.

Mrs. Cardinal’s eggs hatched this week, there are 3 chicks. Mr. Cardinal has been observed helping out by guarding the nest.

I have been observing the smaller lizards in the garden eating bad bugs! This one had a palmetto bug (gigantic Florida cockroach) in its mouth earlier in the day. Now he or she is hanging around on an orchid leaf. This is a brown anole.

The butterflies are coming out in droves. I put together a butterfly feeding plate and put it in the garden area I am reworking. The idea behind this is to put very ripe fruit in the plate and it will attract groups of butterflies to sip the nectar. I tried this with (I think) too ripe fruit and only got fruit flies. Sigh.

A new friend I am hoping hangs around. The ‘Gartenmeister’ Fuchsia is flowering. Wow! I think it needs to be potted up. I am planning on bringing this inside when the summer heat sets in.

People ask me from time to time if I have house plants, since my garden is full of house plants! This is my only one and at this point, an old friend – it has survived for over a year, for me this is amazing. It is a Pink Star Calathea or Prayer Plant and it does pray! The stems go straight up at night.

That is all from South Florida this Saturday. To take more garden tours follow the link to garden ruminations

Happy Spring!!

In a Vase on Monday – Hip, Heirloom Hippeastrum

I found my heirloom ‘Red Lion’ Hippeastrum in flower this week. Given their inevitable association with Christmas, I tried to make a modern, hip arrangement that did not reflect the holidays. These bulbs came from my father in law, Glenn, who had an incredibly intense in and out of the closet scheduling scheme for getting the bulbs to rebloom – after a few years of holiday flowers he would plant them in the garden. These have always lived outside here and are a rare bulb that hangs around in my garden. Glenn has been gone for almost twenty years, so I wonder how old these bulbs are?!

The Hipsters:

I love a little chartreuse and grey in the garden. This is an unnamed coleus in chartreuse and what I think is a Graptosedum succulent. I am hoping the coleus will root. If you look closely the cotton ball I stuffed into the bottom of the Hippeastrum stem is visible. I did this with the flower upside down and it burped when placed in the vase. I have read that filling the stem with water and putting a cotton ball in the end will make the flower last longer. The experiment is on!

Glenn’s Red Lion Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) – I am certain he would not know what a Hippeastrum is. The chartreuse umbels are flowers from culinary dill. I like to eat the foliage, but the seeds don’t really tempt me. The green foliage is a palm seedling of some sort. There is a nice herbal scent surrounding the vase. The container is a heavy crystal vase that was a gift.

I hope everyone is enjoying spring by now and I am looking forward to watching weird shadows with the solar eclipse on Monday afternoon. Thanks to Cathy for hosting IAVOM, to see more vases follow the link ramblinginthegarden and read the comments section.

Six on Saturday – Cardinals and Roses

My garden tour this Saturday included visiting Mrs. Cardinal, who is still sitting in her nest and checking out the flowers on my Desert Roses. Having grown up gardening in the Deep South, a bastion of summer humidity, I have never grown real roses as fungus and I just don’t get along. In South Florida, Desert Roses (Adenium obesum) can be easily grown in containers and thrive on benign neglect. At long last, I have roses.

Mrs. Cardinal in position:

Desert Rose in pink:

Desert Rose in red:

These plants are from the desert of the Arabian peninsula and are considered succulents. The trunks can take unusual forms. They prefer dry conditions and rarely need water. I have enjoyed these plants in containers, they are evergreen, have interesting forms and flower regularly. They are available in many colors and some people collect them. I prune mine occasionally and water and fertilize if it crosses my mind. Mostly they sit in the blazing full sun and bask.

That’s it from South Florida this week. We are enjoying a cool, dry spell of spring weather and it is a beautiful day. I need to get outside!

To see more SOS posts, visit Jim’s blog, Garden Ruminations and follow the links in the comments section.

In a Vase on Monday – Eggcentric

I put this vase together on Easter Sunday, adding a crystal egg that I inherited from my mother, not quite realizing it would reflect the colors of the flowers when a sunbeam appeared. This egg adds to my surprise of finding a nest of robins eggs on Saturday, making it an Eggcentric weekend.

My vase morphed into a colored layer confection by accident, which is the usual course of events on Sunday. Here is the base layer.

In white, Lotusleaf Begonia (Begonia nelumbifolia), I like to cut these even though they shed a lot, they will produce chartreuse seedheads while in a Vase. Pink flowers are Dianthus “wedon’treallyknow”.

The top layer:

Lighter blue flowers are a hybrid Plumbago auriculata, “Imperial Blue”, I think. Blue spikes are “Mystic Blue” Salvia, these got buggy and experienced a Chelsea chop after the vase was completed. The second chop for the salvia in about six months. I am interested to see how it fares. My go to Asian Ferns complete the vase. The vase is a historic florist vase that has been hanging around the house.

That is all from springy, sunny South Florida. Visit Cathy’s blog, ramblinginthegarden to view an array of vases from gardeners around the world.

Happy Gardening!!

Heliconias for South Florida

Looking to add some tropical vibe to your garden? Look no further than one of my favorite tropical plants, Heliconias. Heliconias come in many different varieties, two of the most common and easiest types to grow in South Florida’s Zone 10 are Parrot flowers and Lobster claw Heliconias.

Meet the Lobster claw Heliconia (Heliconia rostrata). Featuring large, shiny banana-like foliage and thick stems that support large hanging bracts of red and yellow flowers it is difficult to picture a more tropical plant. They originated in rainforests of South and Central America as understory plants. It is written that the flowers evolved to this shape to attract tropical hummingbirds to pollinate them. In my garden, the hummingbirds aren’t around at the same time as the flowers, so I am guessing this is a phenomena that happens much further south.

While some Lobster claw Heliconia can grow to 15 feet tall, these are usually more tropical types in an actual rainforest. The plants grown in Zone 10 are usually smaller and can be damaged with an extraordinarily cold snap.

Lobsterclaw Heliconia are easily grown in a partial shade setting with ample moisture. They like rich, well drained soil and benefit from compost in the planting hole and mulch. I grow them in my garden on the north side of the house under the edge of the roof. They are very happy and provide cut flowers in the summer.

This is a smaller Lobsterclaw Heliconia in my garden. I enjoy cutting these for smaller vases.

Here is a parrot for the garden. Heliconia psittacorum AKA the Parrot flower. I would characterize this as a tropical flowering perennial. They are leafy, grow about two feet tall, enjoy a moist, part shade environment and can spread like mad if happy. I have had these produce flowers almost every month of the year. I believe they slow down with extremes in weather (drought, heat, cold). Below is the “Lady Di” Parrot flower.

This is another long lasting cut flower. I have a few in a vase by my front door.

In a Vase on Monday – Sculptural Elements

This week my garden is sporting many different types of flowers, from classic cottage style to over the top tropical weirdness. I decided to simplify and cut a few Heliconias accented with the buds of a succulent. It is a bit calm in the face of the exuberance of spring.

March is proving to be its usual windy, showery self, so a quick garden tour and a few snips was a good thing this Sunday morning. I used one of my mother’s heirloom vases to set off the simple flower selection.

Heliconias are one of my favorite tropical flowers, last a week in a vase and are very easy to grow. These are Heliconia psittacorum “Lady Di” in red, and “Choconiana” in orange. They have a mind of their own and tend to grow and flower under shrubs, which is annoying if you want to see them or cut them.

This is a bit of Senecio barbertonicus, in bud. The flowers look like the promise of an aster that never quite makes it into a yellow daisy, followed by a pseudo dandelion. Pretty weird, but I do love the foliage and the fact these can be left laying around the garden for weeks and are unfazed as long as they are replanted.

That’s all from my garden this Monday, to see more vases visit Cathy’s blog and follow the links in the comments.

Happy Gardening!!

Six on Saturday – New for Spring

Spring plant shopping is irresistible for most gardeners. Buying a few new things for containers, resupplying herbs and shopping around my own garden for new finds was on the SOS agenda for the week. Here is what I found around the garden this Saturday morning.

The updated herb container on my front porch. I have been looking for thyme this winter and finally found some English thyme. I can’t recall having English, but it probably won’t last the summer. The pink Dianthus won’t either, but I will enjoy them while they last and hopefully the rosemary in the back of the container will take over, if we don’t eat it all first.

A new mixed container. This is purple agastache, white calibracoa, silver helichrysum, and chartreuse coleus (or whatever they call it nowadays) I am not sure which is the thriller or filler – the agastache or coleus.

One of the orchids from last week is just opening.

At long last, flowers on the Catalina Avocado! Seven years in the garden.

I haven’t seen these in a while. Flowers on the Aechmea ‘burgundy’ Bromeliad. I can never figure out what inspires bromeliads to flower.

The big Begonia nelumbiifolia in flower. The flower spikes are about three feet tall. This is an impressive Begonia and forms tubers like potatoes.

That is it from my garden this Saturday. For more spring tours or maybe a fall tour from the Southern Hemisphere – visit Jim’s blog, gardenruminations and follow the links in the comments section.

Happy Spring!!

In a Vase on Monday – Sprung

Spring has definitely sprung in South Florida. I bought my self required Pink Dianthus last week and here it is springing out of this vase. This is a big green Dianthus I had never seen until last year. I was happy to find another one as they are short lived annuals at best and it will be gone by summer. These make great cut flowers and are currently residing in a pot with rosemary and thyme. I also have a pot of Bath’s Pink Dianthus that I bought mail order last year because I love the grey foliage. It has not flowered and I am wondering if that is why no one around here has ever heard of them. I do love a little Dianthus in spring.

A closer view:

The Dianthus! I am not sure what kind of Dianthus this is – the label on the pot says Dianthus. That is it. Looking around the internet it looks like Rockin Pink Magic Dianthus (Dianthus barbatus interspecific). I concur with the name, it is Rockin Pink Magic.

White Flame and Mystic Blue Salvias are still going strong and needed deadheading. I actually had to throw some flowers away. The never ending supply of invasive Asian Sword Ferns supplied some greenery to emphasize the sproing. The vase is a thrift store find I have enjoyed for years.

That’s all from South Florida. I will be on the lookout for more Dianthus flowers. Visit our intrepid hostess, Cathy’s blog by following this link to see more weekly flowers in a vase from around the world.

Six on Saturday – Orchid Palooza

Rather than touring my garden this Saturday morning, I have been installing and watering orchids in trees. A friend, who is a longtime orchid enthusiast brought me a selection of plants when we met for Thai food and plant shopping earlier this week. To join the SOS gang or see what’s going on in gardens around the world, follow the link to Jim’s Blog.

The selection:

This bucket contains Dancing Lady orchids. These are an Oncidium orchid, native to Southeast Asia, a tropical and a water lover. They can produce sprays of flowers 10 feet long. These are yellow.

This bucket contains Dendrobiums and a no name orchid that looks dead and then flowers! The no name has buds.

My tree of choice to install the orchids. This is a Sabal Palm (Palmetto sabal) that has never had the bases of its old fronds cleared off. I like the look of these palms and haven’t had them cleaned. This is called a booted Palm. The boots provide planting pockets and many people install orchids or bromeliads in them. The Asian Sword Ferns have grown up the tree by themselves – I decided to clear some off before installing the orchids.

The Dancing Ladies installed. I placed coconut coir, soaked in water, in the boots, then wedged the orchids in and secured them with jute twine. After reading how big these grow I decided to install the other orchids in different trees.

The no name ‘dead’ orchid was placed in the Gumbo Limbo tree alongside a Schlomburgkia orchid that has been in the tree for a few years. Below is the Schlomburgkia sending up buds. Maybe I should call the no name orchid ‘Zombie’

The Schlomburgkia, buds on the right side. These are native to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico and live in Mangrove swamps along the Gulf of Mexico. The flower sprays are easily six feet long with multiple pink and red orchids.

Finally, the Dendrobiums ended up in the Catalina Avocado tree and they seemed very happy.

I have no idea how long it takes for the orchids to establish and flower, but it will be interesting to watch.

Thanks to Jim for hosting Six on Saturday and Happy Spring Gardening to all!!

In a Vase on Monday – Gingerly into the Garden

I have been eyeing the Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) for at least a week, watching the buds get bigger and bigger and stubbornly not flowering. Finally, the temperature soared to 90F/32C on Saturday and evidently inspired the Shell Ginger to open up. The miniature heat wave also caused the gigantic Strangler Fig to drop its leaves, so I walked gingerly through the leaves (fall is really not a thing here and I have yet to figure out the circle of life on the leaf drop on this tree) and started to cut flowers. Then, the bottom dropped out and I was in a torrential rainfall. Likely a result of the cold front behind the heat wave. Gingers in hand, I proceeded gingerly back into the house, drenched and enjoying the fragrant bouquet.

These are such dramatic flowers, I think they are at their best simply arranged. These are in one of my old florist vases and as is with their own foliage. I trimmed a good deal of the foliage off to allow the flowers to shine. The flowers are lightly fragrant adding a subtle ginger scent to the foyer.

A close up-

The flowers always remind me of porcelain and they are quite thick. I think the trip into the garden was worthwhile. The rain cleared, the temperature dropped and it is a beautiful, blue sky day.

To see more vases, visit our hostess, Cathy at ramblinginthegarden and follow the links in the comments.