Tag Archives: white Bird of paradise

Six on Saturday – Spring Shift

It’s time for the weekly garden tour hosted by Jim at GardenRuminations Follow the link to see what is going on with gardeners around the world.

In my South Florida garden spring is rapidly shifting into summer. I’m trying to get the garden tucked in for the oncoming blast furnace of heat and humidity. The rainy season officially starts May 15, but the usual May forecast is hot and dry. I’ve decided to try some tropical vegetables. I bought long bean and winged bean seed and have Roselles coming up from seed. I will post pictures when they are coming along. As usual, I have some unusual things going on.

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Desert Roses (Adenium obesum) love the heat. These plants fry is a cast iron pot on my driveway and love it. I rarely water and throw a little liquid fertilizer on them in the spring. A gift from African deserts.

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The last White Bird of Paradise picture, I promise. These are shattering from the heat.

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Some new container plantings and a washed up mermaid were added to my front garden.

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I read up on using Purslane as a summer annual as everything I have ever tried has burned up in the full sun. Charco broiled Begonias are not pretty. My Bronze leaf Begonias will grow anywhere theory was quickly roasted in the SoFla summer. This is a named cultivar (name already lost) of a native Purslane. Despite the propaganda stating these plants do not like rich soil or water – you guessed it. The one planted in the container with rich soil and water is twice as happy as the ones in the supposed perfect gravelly soil! Unless the mermaid has magical purslane powers. Hmmm.

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Several people have asked me about this plant I use in flower arrangements. It’s the ferny thing – it’s called Asparagus Fern (Asparagus setaceus). It’s not the usual thing, it was once grown around here for use in floral arrangements. Native to Africa, it escaped cultivation (have you heard this before??) and is now invasive along with the other types of Asparagus Ferns that are common houseplants. These appeared from who knows where and grow up the stems of the Lobsterclaw Heliconias. They are thorny and pretty enough to use in floral arrangements, so that is how I control them.

This is a new plant in the garden. I realized when I bought this it was quite possible I had eclipsed horticultural norms by having pineapples and bananas in a foundation planting – is this an American term? Pineapples and now a banana are planted in front of my house. I bought this as a Red Abyssinian Banana. Having never seen one before, it doesn’t look particularly red?? Anyone have thoughts? Thank you! My husband has a near phobia of bananas, so I sought out an ornamental.

Happy Spring Gardening to all. Cheers from South Florida!

Six on Saturday – Spring Whites

It’s time for my weekly garden tour. I noticed a lot of white in my garden and decided to focus on the different types of white flowers. I realized eventually and unintentionally I like to add white to offset all the high colors in my garden. I have a lot of color – reds, oranges and purples mostly and the white adds a cooling touch to all that color.

The White Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia nicolai) is making another appearance as it is adding on layers of color as it continues opening.

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The native salvia (Salvia coccinea) is showing off in white.

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Another favorite native is Juba Bush (Iresine diffusa). These are lightly scented and make a good cut flower.

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Miss Alice Bougainvillea is making a shy return to her former glory. She was knocked back by the cold.

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White Geiger (Cordia boisserei) has been flowering for a couple of weeks. This is sometimes called Texas Olive as it is native there and produces odd, olive like fruit. The fruit is edible but oddly gelatinous and best left for wild life. My greyhound will eat it if left to his own devices.

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White and pink Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) are budding and blooming.

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That is all from South Florida this week. Gardeners here continue to do rain dances. I read it would take almost 2 feet of rain to break the drought here.

Visit Jim at garden ruminations to view more Six on Saturday garden tours.

Six on Saturday – Florida Garden Fun

I’m joining the SOS gang this week to share some recent happenings in my garden. Spring has truly sprung here and the pollen has been in full force, my sinuses cannot recall a thicker more long lasting coating of pollen. I think the February freeze inspired the oaks to flower. To travel the world via SOS – visit Jim at GardenRuminations

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Artemis blasted off over my garden on its way to the moon. My husband was squealing in the back yard. It was quite a sight. We are a few hundred miles south of Cape Canaveral.

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A totally different flight landed in the front garden. This is a Great White Egret easily four feet tall.

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The Sweet Begonias (Begonia odorata ‘Alba’) have been very sweet this spring.

I have been picking tomatoes for a week or two. Here is a lesson in open pollination. I saved seed last year thinking I would get large yellow pear tomatoes. I got some! And some much larger pink campari style tomatoes and small red cherries. Fortunately, they are all delicious.

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This is a bud on a White Bird of Paradise (Strelizia nicolai) This has been in the garden for 7 or 8 years, is at least 12 feet tall and this is the second flower! I keep going out to see if it opened yet.

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Spring snow is starting on the Hawaiian Snowbush (Breynia disticha) The foliage gets a bit whiter and then goes back to green. This is a bit of a garden thugs and difficult to pull up.

That is my garden update. I’m wondering if this is the first garden rocket in SOS?

Happy Gardening!