Tag Archives: the shrub queen

In a Vase on Monday – New Summer Favorite

I am a fairly recent convert to Zinnia lover. It all started with a pack of Green Envy seed planted a few years ago to satisfy my desire for chartreuse cut flowers. I let the Envy go to seed and ended up with a new generation of greenish beige zinnias no one would envy so I bought some new seed. These are Zin Master Zinnias. They are living proof open pollinated seeds are what they are. These were advertised as a mixture of sizes, shapes and colors. The plants are prolific, all about three feet tall, and produce enough flowers that I cut a Vase every other day. The colors and flower size are the only things that are mixed.

My feelings are not mixed. These zinnias are my new summer favorites. For some reason, I have never grown zinnias in summer. I have them in containers – the ones that get the full brunt of South Florida summer sun are producing the most flowers. I am in awe and fully intend to grow more. Stay tuned.

A closer view:

The flowers are Zin Master Zinnias; purple foliage is Purple Prince Alternanthera; A bit of chartreuse coleus and some Asian Sword Ferns complete the vase. The crystal vase was a gift from my dearly departed brother.

I just found a few bags of seed starting potting mix on my front porch….fall zinnias should be appearing in a couple of months. And a few other things.

Thanks to Cathy for hosting IAVOM. Follow this link RamblingintheGarden to her blog to see more vases.

Six on Saturday – Formations

Tropical Depression Four formed over Cuba this week, my phone tells me it is 365 miles away. I could feel the wind and caught the scent of the ocean in the air first thing this morning. The storm is headed for the West coast of Florida, so here on the East coast we should get ‘some rain’. It is already pouring down and the weather guessers are madly issuing proclamations. A social media search for the Weather Channel host is usually the best indicator of where the storm will hit. The Jim Cantore effect. I haven’t seen him yet.

I think a dragonfruit formed in my garden this week. This is much more exciting than a tropical storm. For more SOS garden tours, follow this link to Jim’s blog.

The dragonfruit bud. These are a night blooming cactus native to Central America. They are also called Pitaya. This one has been sort of languishing in the garden for several years. Last year I had one flower and no fruit. This year, three flowers and perhaps one fruit!

The flower. These last for one night and must be viewed early in the morning.

The (fingers crossed) fruit. The others turned completely yellow or brown.

One that didn’t make it.

More local avocados:

I’m still enjoying zinnias daily. This red one is a favorite.

Happy Saturday gardening to all!

In a Vase on Monday – BananaRama

A simple summertime vase of tropical flowers. Step back and it looks like bunches of bananas. Or, depending on your flight of fancy, a flock of parrots. This is a mason jar filled with Heliconia psittacorum, common name, Parrotflowers. A favorite perennial in tropical gardens, these can run rampant when in their happy place – at my house beside the front porch suits them perfectly.

A closer view of the Heliconias accented with their own foliage. I covered the rim of the mason jar with a band of varigated bromeliad foliage – channeling my mother “because it just looked tacky.”

That’s all from the doldrums of summer dog days in South Florida. To view more temperate vases follow this link to Cathy’s garden.

Happy Gardening!

Six on Saturday – Discoveries

My Saturday morning garden tours always bring a few surprises, happy and sad. I discovered my first Avocado! And I missed some bromeliad flowers. Oops. I found a few other things along the way to share with my fellow SOSers. Follow this link GardenRuminations to visit Jim’s blog for a Saturday morning world garden tour.

TaDa, the avocado. This is a Cuban or Catalina Avocado, a pebble textured, green skinned avocado. It should be the size and shape of a football (the American kind) when ripe towards the end of the year. Fingers crossed I get to eat it.. A friend grew this from seed and bought the seedling to me in 2016 – it takes a while to get fruit. A rare self pollinating, true to seed avocado, these are native to Cuba.

These are summer Florida avocados my neighbor picked at a friend’s house. This type is the result of many crosses between Central American avocados and available in several skin colors. The black ones are especially good. Guacamole is in my future. Food forests do exist!

Fruit on the White Geiger tree, These eventually turn white and are enjoyed by wildlife. Supposedly edible, but not tasty.

Another invasive lizard. The red headed Agama. UGH.

The Bridal Bouquet Plumeria (Plumeria pudica) hedge is flowering.

One of the most reliable summer flowering perennials in my garden. The Firecracker plant (Russelia equisetiformis)

That’s all from South Florida. Rain dances shall begin shortly.

In a Vase on Monday – Summer Bromance

My husband may be wondering about my summer bromance (probably not). July is prime time for a Vase of my favorite summer bromeliad flowers, Aechmea miniata. To say this is a striking flower is a bit of an understatement. The flower is a nearly foot long panicle composed of what looks like red hot cinnamon candies accented with cobalt blue tips, it is a sight to behold. The plant has deep olive leaves with purple backsides and thrives in dry shade. I love it. Definite bromance here.

The plant in the garden:

A closer view:

An overhead view. The foliage accents are trimmed palm fronds from Sabal Palm seedlings (Palmetto sabal). The vase was repurposed from the florist.

Happy Summer Monday to all. To see more vases, follow this link RITG to visit Cathy.

Six on Saturday – Sirius Things

The dog days of summer are definitely here. Sirius, the dog star, is reportedly in the sky July 3 – August 11 this year. Dog days last a bit longer in South Florida – through September at least. My dog, Fiona the greyhound, is enjoying baking in the sand until it gets too hot, then she looks puzzled. I am puzzled by how much she enjoys this!

I enjoy the small details in the garden that thrive in summer. Native Portulacas pop up everywhere. I keep some and pull many of them out as they are prolific reseeders. This one is called Kiss Me Quick (Portulaca pilosa)

Heliconias, true to their name, enjoy the heat. This is Heliconia psittacorum.

Our native Salvias (Salvia coccinea) flower readily with just a little water.

The Chicken Gizzard plant (Iresine herbstii) is showing its colors. I am wondering if I should cut it back.

The Zin Master Zinnias have been providing cut flowers twice a week. I have been enjoying these by the kitchen sink. Bringing the garden indoors is a Sirius pleasure.

That’s all from my garden this Saturday. To join the worldwide garden tour visit Jim at Garden Ruminations.

Happy Gardening!!

IAVOM Everything is Coming Up – Zinnias

People do grow roses in South Florida. I just don’t have the stomach for it, imagining the black spot and fungal diseases is sufficient, thank you, no. I need plants that will beat the heat and humidity. The Zin Master Zinnias are in fine form this summer. I am cutting a few every day and admiring how long they last in a Vase. About a week.

Given the broad range of colors in the zinnias; I decided a simple treatment was best. A grey vase found at a thrift store filled with a rubber band secured bouquet of zinnias and a few sprigs of my inexhaustible supply of the invasive Asian Sword Fern.

The stars:

The zinnias definitely like to be outside more than I do!

To see more vases visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden.

Happy Gardening!

Six on Saturday – Mixed Feelings

This Saturday morning my tour brought up a few things in the garden I have mixed feelings about and a few love/hate relationships. I’m starting with love going to mixed and ending with hate. For more, likely less emotional SOS garden tours, follow this link GardenRuminations to visit our host, Jim.

I love Cattleya orchids peeking out of a tree trunk.

I love the new Dendrobium orchids establishing in my Gumbo Limbo tree. These produce flowers in spring.

Loving the ever expanding group of Rain Lilies (Zephyrantes rosea)

It’s safe to say I have mixed feelings about vines, especially this one. Meet Yellow Allamanda (Allamanda cathartica). Sure, it’s pretty, but also a rampant thug. It forms tubers like potatoes (very toxic). I may pull it out with my SUV this winter. I say that every year.

Soap Aloe (Aloe saponaria) is a nice architectural plant that grows a little too well and needs to be thinned. It’s oh, so sharp. Hmmm.

Yes, I hate these. Yellow Agama lizards. There is also a rainbow version running around the garden, red and blue. These are African lizards introduced by the exotic pet trade and they have become invasive. Up to a foot long, they eat native lizards and stake out my butterfly plants for fine dining. There are sometimes packs of them, they scuttle away on the path as I walk through the garden – like a horror movie. EEk!

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Zen, Zin & Min

I am enjoying my new crop of zinnias – ‘Zin Master’, planted in big terracotta pots. I have been cutting most of the flowers in hopes of getting actual long stemmed zinnias – something that has always eluded me, my zinnias are always very short in stature. These are the longest stems I have ever grown and have a wiry appearance that I like. I visualized this vase as a Zen Ikebanaesque arrangement with winding stems of zinnias intertwined with the Min – Miniata Bromeliads. It was not to be, the glass frog serving as a base was not up to the challenge of the weight of the flowers. I had to add rocks on top of the frog to keep everything upright. I ended up not having a very Zen flower experience at all. It is what it is. A soup bowl filled with flowers.

The Zin – ‘Zin Master’ Zinnias grown from seed started around the first of May. I am enjoying the color mix, but thought I would get some different types of zinnias. I guess these are semi-double something. I bought some Cactus Mix seeds this week to spice things up. I am not quite sure what will happen in mid July with seed starting. Always an adventure.

The Min. These are Miniata Bromeliads (Aechmea miniata). A reliable summer flowering shade perennial, if one can think of bromeliads as perennials. The tropical plants always twist my mind a bit in sorting out what they are – house plants, perennials, epiphytes, plain weird? The big green leaves in the back are from a coleus and the vase is actually a soup bowl.

That is all from South Florida this Monday. I’ll be seeking further garden Zen from Zinnias this week. Follow the link to visit Cathy at RamblingintheGarden and see what’s appearing in other vases this week. Or soup bowls.

Six on Saturday – Summer Delights

My garden walk-around this morning produced photos of a few garden delights that followed me to the kitchen. I picked the last of the Thai dessert mangoes and am down to eight ripening on the counter. I have also been making desserts, plotting desserts, making salsa and chopping and freezing bags of fruit. The Zin Master Zinnias have been beautiful producing flowers and really attractive plants. I have had a vase of these by the kitchen sink for a couple of weeks. For an international garden walk-around experience visit Jim’s blog, Garden Ruminations and follow the links in the comments section.

This weeks mango dessert. Mango-Blackberry Coffeecake. Nice and not too sweet.

The bitter end of the mango harvest. These are all Thai dessert mangoes, Nam Doc Mai. I think the reason these are not found in grocery stores very often is they go from not ripe to emergency chop and freeze in a matter of hours. The one on top is hitting the emergency point.

We are still in the kitchen. Admiring the Zin Master Zinnias. Thanks to SOS, I now know how long it takes from seed to flower. About two months.

Foliage on Zin Master Zinnias. I have cut all the flowers!

Back to the Bromeliad garden for some July fireworks. These are very reliable July bloomers. Aechmea miniata Bromeliads.

Another hot summer flower, Firebush (Hamelia patens var patens) I have grown to love orange in the garden since moving to Florida.

More fruit, Rangpur limes coming along. These are orange when ripe and the juiciest limes I have ever encountered. There are at least 50 on the tree and these are very perishable, so I could be having another freezer festival late this year.

Happy Summer Gardening!!