Tag Archives: spring

Six on Saturday – Treats in the Trees

South Florida gardens provide some interesting treats from trees. I was looking up during my garden tour this morning and took note of the flowers and fruits on the trees. Some are treats for me, others for birds and bees. To see more SOS garden treats visit Jim’s blog, Garden Ruminations.

The Thai dessert mangoes are tantalizing to me. Every morning I walk out to see if they are changing color yet. This morning I noted a slight peach haze on the one on the far right. I’m waiting with baited breath.

I like palm flowers. Talk about different. These are Dwarf Pygmy Date Palms (Phoenix roebellini) flowers. They need a male and female tree to produce dates and I have one, so no go on dates in the garden.

Another palm flower. The Christmas Palm or Adonidia merrillii. Most people cut these off so they don’t have to deal with the fruit. I use them in flower arrangements and enjoy the fruit. It looks like Christmas ornaments.

Flowers on the White Geiger tree (Cordia boissieri). I enjoy this little tree, though it is a puzzle to prune.

Fruit on the White Geiger tree. These eventually turn into good sized white berries and the varmints eat them all. I am told they are edible but not tasty.

The Gumbo Limbo (Bursea simarouba) is currently the bee magnet in the front garden. The entire tree is buzzing with bees pollinating the flowers.

Happy Gardening!!

Six on Saturday – Fruits and Flowers

My garden tour this morning revealed some progress in the fruit area and a few late season flowers. It has been a dry and sunny week that left me puzzling over how much to water the mangoes. If they are watered too much it affects the quality of the fruit and vice versa. A dilemma that rain solves. They have shed a few fruits, but this is normal. I went from about 50 fruit down to possibly 20, which is okay. It is a bit difficult to deal with 50!

Glenn Mango coming along. These flowered magnificently and then powdery mildew set in causing much of the fruit to drop. I expect to eat these in about a month, they flowered at the end of January.

Finally! A good crop of Rangpur limes coming along. These won’t be edible until December.

New to the garden – Australian Finger Limes. These won’t be ready for years! I need to read up on these to determine what to do with them. They look a bit like jalapenos when ripe and are relatively rare. The foliage is much smaller than conventional limes.

A surprise Snapdragon in my pot of basil. I did not have any snaps this year, so this is a reseed from last year. I love garden surprises like this.

The Lotusleaf Begonia (B. nelumbifolia) is flowering luxuriantly, despite getting very little water. These form large tubers and I suppose that is what sustains them.

The annual sighting of a Ruddy Daggerwing butterfly. These host on Strangler Figs, I have a huge tree beside my house and it seems odd I only see one every year.

That’s all from South Florida. I will be contemplating butterfly and mango dilemmas later. Until then, follow this link to Jim’s blog for Saturday morning garden tours around the world.