Tag Archives: South Florida Gardening

In a Vase on Monday – Torched!

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At long last our dry spell was broken last week. Locals swear that those of us who live on the limestone ridge (the highest point on the East Coast of Florida) are in the doughnut hole – a place where rain goes around us. Sometimes I believe this. This summer it has been true, the rain just wasn’t quite getting here. The garden gratefully soaked up all the moisture from the sky and promptly asked for more. This afternoon is looking quite promising for a rain shower. Things are looking a bit torched around here, so it seems a perfect time to introduce the Flaming Torch Bromeliad.

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Meet the Flaming Torch (Billbergia pyramidalis). These are very aptly named, when the sun hits them just right, they look exactly like that. Another common name is Hurricane or Foolproof plant. The peak of hurricane season is September 6th, so I can get that. As far as being foolproof, I have killed a number of these following directions that they grow in full sun. This is not true. Those planted in full sun were torched!

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The rest of the arrangement has Zinnias, in pink and orange. Firebush (Hamelia patens) is orange tubular flowers. Dark foliage and pale yellow flowers are from Bronze or Copper Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare). The vase is a non heirloom florist vessel from somewhere..

That is all from my garden this morning. To see more vases, visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden

Really looking forward to FALL!!

In a Vase on Monday – Summer Berries

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It is still dry and scorching in my garden. Even the enormous Hurricane Erin seems to be keeping the precipitation to herself. She is forecast to pass about 550 miles away from me, the further the better. Fall berries have been forming in the garden. I have been baking, watching the birds enjoy it and cut a few sprigs for my Monday vase.

Last week I had Beautyberries in my vase. Native Floridians tend to be the only people who really enjoy the fruit, using it in desserts and for jam and jelly. I have been told many times the berries don’t taste like much, so I finally nibbled a few. It’s true, an astringent, peppery flavor emerged when I tried it. Then I cooked some down to juice, added sugar and a very nice berry flavor emerged. Voila! Lemon Beautyberry cupcakes:

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The berries in my vase this week are from the Gumbo Limbo tree (Bursera simaruba). These berries are best left for the birds, who love them. The numerous seedlings around my garden will attest to that.

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Firebush (Hamelia patens) in orange tubular flowers and red and yellow “Lady Di” Heliconias (Heliconia psittacorum) round out the plant palette.

Visit Cathy’s blog RamblingintheGarden to see more late summer vases.

In a Vase on Monday – Beauty and Some Beasts

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I was in the mood for a cottagey vase this week and set out to find some less tropically mad flowers. Spell check seems to think cottagey is not a word. While roses are out of the question (I choose not to torment myself) I like cottage garden flowers and always have some zinnias going. The heat dome frying my garden finally dissipated and it actually rained!! Hopes were high for some new flowers. I found some beauties and some beasts.

The beauties in the vase are the Zinnias and Beautyberry. I selected seeds last year hoping to get orange and pink Zinnias and here they are! The Beautyberry (Calliocarpa americana) intrigues me. I had this shrub in my garden 600 miles north of here and it refused to grow in the sun and did not produce berries until November. In Florida, I have berries in August, it thrives in full sun and happily lives in sugar sand. It is a head scratcher. Oh, Copper Fennel is also a beauty. This one lives through July (a major accomplishment) and is flowering in August!

The beasts are the ferns and the daisies. The ferns are the invasive Asian Sword Ferns (Nephrolepis brownii) I’ll admit to liking these, pulling them out by the bag and enjoying a few swords in vases from time to time. They aren’t too beastly in the sugar sand, but I can imagine with unlimited water things could get ugly. The other beast is Bidens alba, ironically a valued native pollinator flower – it produces so many seeds it is difficult to keep in one place. The butterflies do love it.

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The Zinnias with a bit of purple Beautyberry and chartruese Fennel flowers.

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The beastly Asian Sword Ferns and white Bidens alba.

I am dreaming of cooler weather and some more rain.

Visit Cathy at Ramblinginthegarden by following the link where more vases full of weekly garden treasures can be found.

In a Vase on Monday – Tropical Fantasy

I recently acquired some fabric called Tropical Fantasy. It features animals lurking in palm trees and giant teapots. I believe this vase fits quite well into that theme. Many bromeliad flowers are the embodiment of a tropical fantasy. I get a head shaking moment every now and then in the garden and ask myself “is that a flower or what?”

Our rainy season is taking a long holiday from precipitation. Scorched is the new normal as temperatures have been over 90 (32C) for the past few weeks. The good news is the humidity dropped. The bad news is this is making the orchids very unhappy. I can’t get enough water on them and have had to pull some up to get them out of the sun. I can’t recall ever having crispy brown orchids.

The components:

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This is the appropriately named “Fantasia” Aechmea Bromeliad. The foliage is a sawtooth edged silvery grey with pink undertones, pretty fantastic.

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These flowers are from two different Aechmea blanchetiana bromeliads. Red stemmed flowers are from the raspberry cultivar and the yellow one is from lemon. The foliage is red or yellow tinged in these two varieties. The Blanchetiana comes in a number of colors, one called iced tea due to the foliage color. These are stunning in the sun. Foliage in the vase is prunings from Dracaena reflexa. These used to be called Pleomele, I think. The one in my garden is (or was!) about 15 feet tall. It was growing over the bottom of the roof so I trimmed it back.

That’s all from the slow simmer setting in South Florida. Thanks to Cathy for hosting our weekly vase adventure into other gardens and climates. To see more vases follow this link RamblingintheGarden.

In a Vase on Monday – Sirius Survivors

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We are deeply entrenched in the dog days of summer in my garden. Some Saharan dust meandered in and shut down our cooling clouds and showers. Every time I look at the weather it says “feels like 108 F” Surprisingly, it is much warmer further north. I feel fortunate to live close enough to the Atlantic Ocean to catch a breeze. The breezes make it less hot, not cooler!

The dog star, Sirius, rises during the hottest part of the summer. Modern definitions of the dog days of summer have them occurring from July 11-August 3. The scope must be greatly expanded for South Florida! In ancient times the dog days lasted longer. I agree with the ancient philosophers. It is hot in my garden well past the first of September.

The flowers in this vase are Sirius or even serious survivors. Thriving in sun and heat and going with or without hand watering by the fickle gardener they still shine.

The fittest:

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Some tried and true summer favorites, Gardenias and Zinnias. Gardenias are the Tropical variety that is deciduous here, Tabernaemontana diviricata. Zinnias are grown from seed I saved last year hoping for pink and orange flowers.

The tropical part:

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Orange flowers are Parrotflowers (Heliconia psittacorum Choconiana) Red flowers are Red Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana). Dark ferny foliage is Copper Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) Maybe that is not so tropical.

I inherited the vase from my mother and have enjoyed using it for years.

Visit Cathy at the link RamblingintheGarden to visit more gardens via vase.

For those wondering about Gopher Tortoises mentioned in last week’s vase post, here is one ambling up the walk to my front porch. Once he or she arrives near the potted herbs any basil hanging over the edge of the pot will be trimmed to turtle height. This turtle also enjoys charteuse Coleus and melons. A bit of an odd salad!

Six on Saturday – Summer Bromance

Saturday morning found me taking pictures in the garden yet again. I am joining in the SOS crowd flocking to Jim’s blog to share six items of interest from their gardens. Today I am featuring summer flowering bromeliads from my tropical oasis in South Florida.

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This is a Aechmea Rubens flower with a White Peacock butterfly sipping the nectar. It has been a good year for this butterfly. I have swarms of White Peacocks for some reason. I want to share what I just read on Google. Groups of butterflies can be called swarms, kaleidoscopes, or rabbles.

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Buds on a Aechmea ‘Little Harv’ bromeliad.

Another view of ‘Little Harv’. These get much taller and open, the stem is hot pink.

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This is Aechmea bracteata in full bloom. These last a long time and eventually dry to a straw color.

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Aechmea blanchetiana ‘Lemon’ shooting up flower spikes. These are three or four feet tall and will open up a bit. They remind me of crustaceans.

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Aechmea miniata bromeliad flowers. These are my favorites. Easy to grow and nice, low foliage that is not sharp.

That’s all from sweltering South Florida. We are just out of the heat dome in the Eastern US thankfully. It is much warmer further north.

Thanks to Jim for hosting.

In a Vase on Monday – The Flip Side

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After a few weeks of summer tropical vases, I decided to put together some flowers from the flip side of my garden. Not that there really is a flip side, the lines between the tropicals and the more typical garden flowers blurred long ago. Most classic cut flowers, like Zinnias and Dahlias need to be grown in containers as the sugar sand in the garden is unforgiving and perpetually dry. Sometimes I put the containers in the garden and enjoy the flowers, most times I end up with stems devoid of flowers and leave the beheaded containers with the vegetables.

Most of these flowers were cut from the garden. The zinnias are the only thing from containers. I get stunted zinnias if I try growing them in the ground – unless, the rabbits get to them first. We have an unusually high rabbit population this year. Marsh rabbits. Even more unusual and they ate the zinnia seedlings out of the pots they could reach. Here is one enjoying cantaloupe rind at the compost heap. Our local gopher tortoise has built a burrow under the compost heap and seemingly is inviting friends over for dinner. The zinnias are served as an appetizer course.

Contents from The Flip Side:

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In orange, front and center are the zinnias; yellow flowers are from the shrub, Thyrallis (Galpinia gracilis); white daisies are Bidens alba; red spikes are Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea); hot pink flowers are Coral Vine (Antigonon leptopus); purple backed leaves are Vitex trifolia; A few Asian Sword Ferns are added for a touch of green.

That is all from Marsh Rabbit Central. I think the Gopher Tortoise has extended an invitation to the Eastern Cottontail Rabbits for brunch. It’s a good thing lettuce is out of season here.

To see more vases (and fewer rabbits) visit Cathy’s blog RamblingintheGarden

Six on Saturday – Summer Additions

It seems I always find a few things I want to add to the garden – in July. Not a great time for shipping plants to South Florida. I managed to control myself (a little) and bought a few new plants shipped from nearby. July can be a good time to plant things due to copious rainfall.

My garden tour this morning revealed a few other new things in the garden – one has already been eaten! Please join other SOS bloggers and their six items of interest at Jim’s Blog (Garden Ruminations) for more summer fun.

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The Yellow Dragonfruit is once again teasing me with a flower. These are pollinated by night flying bats and moths. At this point I am not sure I have any of those in the garden. Usually I get some flowers for a short (hours long) period and they fall off. I thought I would try the paint brush around the inside of the flower and then looked inside.

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The flower was loaded with insects doing more than I could ever hope for with a paintbrush. I’ll know in a week or so if there will be fruit.

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The homegrown pineapple (on the left) was harvested and devoured. These pineapples are usually much smaller than the grocery store varieties (on the right) I am not sure why because they are grown from the tops of grocery store pineapples? The fruit is sweeter and juicier than pineapples from the store. Delicious.

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These are new to the garden. I bought the cuttings of Reed Orchid (Epiprenum radicans). These can be grown in the ground here and are used as a groundcover. This one has orange flowers that look like dendrobium clusters, but they come in many colors. I put it in a terracotta pot to keep the rabbits away. It should take and creep over the sides of the pot and fill in the bed.

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Meet ‘Absolute Zero’ Crypanthus bromeliad. These are shade lovers and should have pink flowers. The common name is Earth Star. I intend to put these in the ground near the Epiprenums. After receiving the plant I realized the sun needs to go down in the sky a bit before I plant them. A little too much afternoon sun currently.

A locally grown coconut. I bought this to bake a pie, without thinking through the fact that power tools are probably needed to open it and it is the wrong kind for baking coconut. Green coconuts have coconut water and jelly. Brown coconuts have the grateable meat for pies. Sigh. Both involve screwdrivers and hammer prior to use. They can be sprouted and planted in the garden – but I am not sure which kind.

That’s all from South Florida. There is a heat advisory in effect for the next couple of days so all gardening has to be done before 9 am. I am done!

Happy Gardening

In a Vase on Monday – Primarily Tropical

It’s high Summer, damp and humid, the tropical flowers are basking in the moisture producing bountiful flowers. For some reason a lot of these flowers are red. My theory is they are red to attract hummingbirds, seemingly a major pollinator in tropical rainforests where a lot of these plants are from. I could be wrong. I was quite surprised this morning by an aggressive Gulf Fritillary butterfly trying to get a taste of my herbal scalp conditioner!

I decided to use a primary colors theme as opposed to a patriotic one. I am finding myself embarrassed and unsupportive of what is going on in my country right now. White flowers were purposely left out. All of the plants are from elsewhere.

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Red spikes are Aechmea miniata, from Brazil, surrounded by Blue Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) from South Africa.

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“Lady Di’ Heliconia (Heliconia psittacorum) flowers and foliage are in the background with a few spears of Miniature – “Lava” I think, Pineapple. Heliconias are from Central and South America. Pineapples hail from Brazil and Paraguay. The area I live in used to be home to huge pineapple plantations. I rarely run across pineapples in their natural state – extremely sharp foliage, probably four feet tall and mad colored, tiny fruit.

I think I have digressed enough! Follow this link RamblingintheGarden to visit Cathy’s blog and see what other gardeners have in their vases this Monday.

In a Vase on Monday – The Ephemeral Plonk

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The rainy season in South Florida is living up to its name. Yes, it’s rainy and the Rain Lilies are loving it. I have never had so many in bloom. I decided to cut some to enjoy in the house, knowing they don’t last very long in a Vase. I cut a few other things, all oozers of sap, then held everything upside down and made it back inside before the rain started. I managed not to get slimed by the drippy stems, shoved the entire handful into the nearest vase, separated the colors and voila!

A flower arrangement that is really temporary.

The vase roster:

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The pink flowers are Rain Lilies (Zephyranthes rubra); berries on red stems are Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). I had to stop for a minute to think about the difference between Poison Ivy and Virginia Creeper – 3 leaves versus 5. Phew.

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There was one white Tropical Gardenia (Tabernaemontana diviricata) within reach with the Arabian Lilac (Vitex trifolia) nearby. I trimmed a few branches of the Lilac, it has purple flowers. The sawtooth foliage is from the Virginia Creeper.

Happy Monday from the Land of Humidity!

Tune in to Cathy’s blog RamblingintheGarden by following this link to see more vases.