Tag Archives: the shrub queen

Six on Saturday – December Flowers

Welcome to my South Florida garden via Six on Saturday. It seems counterintuitive to feature flowers so late in the year in the Northern Hemisphere. However, this far south, when the weather moderates it is like late spring climate-wise and some of the “normal” summer flowers are in bloom here.

My first African Marigold, probably in decades. These came in a cutting flower seed mix I tried just to see what would grow.

Zinnias, I have been enjoying these as cut flowers for a couple of weeks.

More Zinnias, these are ‘Green Envy’.

Sweet 100 tomatoes, just about ready to pick.

On a more tropical note, the Dombeya wallachii has just started to flower. I can hear the bees buzzing as I approach the plant. Someone aptly described the fragrance of the flowers as cake batter.

The whole Dombeya. At 15 feet tall, this should be spectacular soon.

That is my six this winter Saturday. To see more posts, visit http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com

Happy Gardening and Happy Holidays!

In a Vase on Monday – Sunspots

This is Helianthus annuus uno. My first sunflower ever. I fell in love with sunflowers after seeing fields of them during a summer spent in Italy when I was in college. For some reason, I have never grown any. Probably did not want to stake them. This one is ‘Sunspot Dwarf’, a two foot tall plant advertised to have 10″ wide flowers, the flower is not quite that big nor is the plant that tall. However, I am growing them in December in South Florida, so who really knows. I am, nonetheless, thrilled to have and cut them.

I bought seed this fall from Sow True Seed https://sowtrueseed.com/ in Asheville, North Carolina. Their packages read that they are committed to supporting a sovereign seed system. I had to look that one up. I am in favor of non GMO anything. Here is the definition:

The farmer’s right to breed and exchange diverse open source seeds which can be saved and which are not patented, genetically modified, owned or controlled by emerging seed giants.

Further instructions are on the seed packages as to how to save the seed. Fascinating, though, I will probably cut all these sunflowers. I cut this one and left it in the grow bag to see if side shoots will produce more flowers. Gardening, the constant experiment.

A closer view:

Along with the sunflower are zinnias from the bag garden. I have a Cactus Mix and Pink Cactus. I am not sure where the pink one came from. The green ones are from ‘Green Envy’ Zinnias I have growing in a hot color bed in my front garden.

The foliage view:

Green foliage is Asian Sword Fern. The red varigated leaves are from an unnamed Ti Plant (Cordyline fruticosa). There are a zillion varieties of these floating around South Florida. My favorite name is Twisted Sister, I picked this one up at a Master Gardeners sale for a few dollars. My favorite kind of plant.

Thanks to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting IAVOM. To see more vases, follow the link to her blog.

Happy Gardening.

Six on Saturday – Bees and Bags

Welcome to SOS, December 11, 2021 edition. It is warm and sunny in South Florida and the birds, bees and flowers are enjoying the blue skies. So is the gardener. Though it could be a little cooler (83 F today), are we ever happy with the weather? I am joining Jon at http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com with the SOS crowd linking to his blog. Follow the link for more garden fun.

I had to share my Malaysian Orchid in full bloom today. This is an amazing sight and the bees are enjoying the flowers. I finally got a picture of the elusive green orchid bee.

This is a very active, flitting bee. I stood and waited to take the picture. These bees are native to Central and South American and are thought to have been introduced to Florida in 2003 via a nest in a wood pallet from Mexico. There are a fair number in my garden.

The bag garden is producing cut flowers and vegetables for me this week. We have been eating green beans, radishes and tomatoes – it is time to plant a second crop of radishes and beans. I am rooting tomato suckers for a later crop of tomatoes. Here is a sunflower and below, the Cactus Zinnias.

The Papaya decapitated last spring is flowering again. The flowers so far are female, they are usually self pollinating hermaphrodite flowers – so, it will be interesting to see if it is self limiting the fruit production due to the pruning.

The hard cane dendrobium orchid I installed in a Gumbo LImbo tree has started budding. I am wondering how long this will take to flower???

That’s all from my garden this week.

Happy Gardening.

In a Vase on Monday – Zinnia Envy

At long last my Zinnia Envy has been cured. I have been cutting the Zinnias to encourage more flowers and it seems to be working. ‘Green Envy’ Zinnias are doing well and may end up being the best of the bunch. I am encouraged enough to try Dahlias now. I have another case of plant envy that includes Dahlias.

It was an oddly overcast, showery day for winter (dry season) in South Florida. This vase lifted my spirits with its brightly colored cast of characters. I had to stop a couple of times and wait for the rain to stop before I could gather more flowers. I am constantly surprised by the quantity of flowers I can cram into a vase.

The vase is a thrift store find I have enjoyed tremendously. The neutral color shows off highly colored plants well and I like the shape.

A closer view:

Purple foliage with white flowers is ‘Purple Prince’ Alternanthera, it seems to flower in the winter, though this is a new plant to me. I sprinkled a few bits of long suffering purple Lantana from my butterfly garden. Green Zinnias are ‘Green Envy’, grown from seed. Pale pink buttons are Globe Amaranth.

Pink and peach Zinnias are from a Cactus Zinnia seed mix. Peach and orangey spike flowers are from Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea) it is not always red and I love the variety of colors.

Thanks to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting this weekly garden meme. Follow the link to see more vases.

Happy Hollydays!!

A Week in Flowers – Day Five – Heliconias

It’s the fifth episode of AWIF, spreading flowery vibes across cyberspace. Heliconias are a favorite tropical from my garden. It doesn’t get much more tropical than this.

This is a close up of Heliconia psittacorum variety “Lady Di”, I think. They make great cut flowers, spread like mad and then, sadly, decline. I put some new peach ones in this spring.

Some very well fed Lobsterclaw Heliconia (Heliconia rostrata)

A smaller version of H. rostrata.

That is all for today. Check out Cathy’s blog to see more flowery goodness. Here is the link. http://www.wordsandherbs.wordpress.com.

A Week in Flowers – Day Three – Orchids

Welcome to the third installment of A Week in Flowers. Cathy at http://www.wordsandherbs.wordpress.com invited us to share a post a day for a week of flowers in our gardens. Today I am featuring orchids from my South Florida garden – they stay outside year round here. Follow the link to find more flowers from around the world.

Fragrant white Cattleya Orchids live in a pot outside my low slung living room window. These bloom every September and I enjoy watching them and usually cut some for a vase to enjoy the flowers and fragrance up close.

Orange landscape orchids (along with Gallardia) are a fairly common sight around here. These are Epidendrums; sometimes called Ground Orchids. I had some in the garden, but they squirrels dug them up so many times they withered and passed on.

The Orchid tree, not really an Orchid, but a very pretty flower. This is Bauhinia purpurea, I think.

This Orchid tree has purple Cattleya orchids that grow on the trunk. This is my neighbor’s tree, so I see it daily when flowering. One of my favorite summer plantings.

That is all for Day Three. Happy Flower Watching!

A Week in Flowers – Day Two

I am joining Cathy at Words and Herbs for the second edition of AWIF, posting photos of floral abundance. Today, Bromeliad madness from my garden to spread some tropical warmth.

This is a Hallelujah Billbergia Bromeliad, perhaps the maddest of them all. Purple, green and white spotted foliage with red, white and blue flowers.

Another Billbergia of unknown name with a much calmer flower.

Little Harv Aechmea, a close up.

Little Harv in the garden. Little Harv is not so little and is another armored Brom. He was moved away from the walkway as I kept getting stabbed in the calf.

Last, but not least, one of my favorites, with six foot tall flowers, no less. – Aechmea blanchetiana.

Thanks to Cathy at http://www.wordsandherbs.wordpress.com for hosting. Follow the link to see more flowery pictures.

Happy Gardening or garden viewing…

In a Vase on Monday – A Mixed Bag

I am so pleased to have finally successfully grown Cactus Zinnias. Ta da!

My first several attempts resulted in oddly dwarf flowers that were never more than a single flower. These are doubles and the plants are very healthy with big, deep green leaves. This fall, I decided to plant cutting flowers in grow bags to see if it worked better than my futile efforts to amend the existing sugar sand in my garden. After installing bags and bags of compost, worm castings, mulch and irrigation – I still ended up with puny flowers. Here are the happy Zinnias in their bag:

The arrangement is a mixed bag of fall and winter flowers in my garden. Multi colored is probably the best way to describe it. The vase is a pottery candleholder my parents used in summer to hold citronella candles while they sat on their brick patio and drank untold gallons of dreadful Carlo Rossi Chablis. I put a pickle jar inside to hold water and flowers. The vase holds fond memories for me.

A closer view:

The green Zinnia is Green Envy, these are new to me and my garden. I have planted them with Mystic Spires Blue Salvia and am planning to add chartreuse Sedum below. Green tipped salmon flowers are Soap Aloe (Aloe saponaria); purple spikes are “Mona Lavendar” Plectranthus; salmon spikes are Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea); pale pink clovers are Globe Amaranth.

The other side:

The Cactus Zinnias are in yellow, pink, purple and salmon. Misty pink flowers are from Muhly Grass (Muhlbergia capillaris).

Thank you to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting. To see more vases follow the link.

Happy Gardening..

Six on Saturday – Seeds and Flowers

It is Saturday yet again and time to join the SOS crew in the UK and beyond. My six items of interest this week are flowers and seeds that are new to the garden. To see more SOS posts, visit http://www.thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com.

My first ever ‘Green Envy’ Zinnia. I started these from seed in September, the plants are quite healthy and I am looking forward to bigger flowers.

Buds on the Dombeya. This is a pink Tropical Hydrangea (Dombeya wallachii) and a sight to behold when in full flower. This is a tree form Hydrangea about 14 feet tall.

Seedheads forming on the Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa). I left several on the plant as someone always want to try these for fun. The seedhead eventually turns brown and may be ground and used as a coffee substitute. Not trying that, but will collect seed for next year. I cut most of the flowers and am getting a second crop of smaller flowers on some of the plants.

A new shoot on the Dragonfruit. The lawn maintenance guys mangle these every time a new shoot appears; this one wised up and went away from weed eater range. Time will tell if I ever actually harvest a Dragonfruit.

Snow Peas (mangetout in Britspeak, a new name to me) and spinach emerging in grow bag.

First green beans harvested, made me wish I had planted more bags!

The Muhly Grass (Muhlbergia caparillis) in full flower. It seemed it was taking a long time for this to get going.

Oops, make that Seven on Saturday. Oh, well.

Happy Gardening to all.

In a Vase on Monday – Gloom Buster

Gloomy is not usually a term I associate with the “dry season” in South Florida. It has been raining and overcast since the middle of last week. We Floridians are addicted to sunshine. The garden is clearly enjoying the rain and hopefully the good plants will absorb more than the weeds. Though I can see the cool season weeds germinating wantonly as I dodge the raindrops walking my greyhounds.

Our moods, needing improvement with some floral friends made me search high and low from the safety of my covered porches to spy some colorful and hopefully a little bit tropical flowers to grace my vase this Monday. All of the components of this vase were cut within a mad dash from our doors.

Another view:

Some closer views:

Purple berries are Beautyberry (Calliocarpa americana) – planted by the porch to deter mosquitoes. I think it works. Though I have no comparison. Pink cloverish flowers, some free Globe Amaranth I grew from seed I got from Etsy. Fun, but, yeah looks like clover and is a wimpy color. Not a big fan of pale pink. Darker pink wooly worms, Dwarf Chenille Plant (Acalphya pendula), just tropical fun and a great cut flower. Orange flowers, Firebush (Hamelia patens) grows near front and back doors and a perennial (ha) favorite.

White flowers are from Bridal Bouquet Frangipani (Plumeria pudica). These are slowing down though some consider them evergreen, I do not. Enjoying the slightly fragrant flowers til the bitter end (winter 2022?). Purple foliage is Alternanthera “not sure which one”

The weather seems to be clearing and I hope to be back in the garden soon.

Happy Monday and Happy Gardening to you all. Thanks to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting – please follow the link to see more vases..