Six on Saturday – The Advent of Humidity

It’s Saturday morning yet again. My morning tour found the more tropical members of my garden mob basking in humidity and unlike me, embracing it. The weather app on my phone had the audacity to state it was going to be six degrees colder today and 90 F. This is not colder.

Mother’s Day is tomorrow in the US. In South Florida, this is the bitter end of snowbird season and generally the advent of humidity. Coincidental? I think not. Join the international Six on Saturday garden tour at Jim’s blog, Garden Ruminations by following the link.

Dendrobium orchids installed in my Cuban avocado tree are putting out new growth after suffering with spider mites when the humidity was lower.

Flowers on the succulent shrub, Devil’s Backbone (Euphorbia tithymaloides). A native of Florida and indestructible in the right place, this one lives in partial shade and unirrigated sugar sand. It was a surprise to me that people keep these as houseplants.

Angel’s Trumpet (Brugsmania). I planted this about six months ago, not certain it would grow in my garden, but here it is! The plant has tripled in size and I am hoping for flowers. I did see the mealy bugs and they were dispatched to the great beyond after I took the picture.

Blue Daze Evolvulus. I have been wondering forever what inspires these to bloom. Possibly trimming, fertilizer and the onset of humidity? This is a sulky evergreen groundcover here.

I decided to tree form this massive coleus as it had overrun its under plantings. Has anyone else tried this?

Maybe the trunk needs to be a bit longer? I am thinking of letting the trunk gain some size and then pinching the new growth on top to make it fuller. And I have a lot of cuttings. I could start a tree form coleus farm.

That is all from my garden this Saturday. Thunderstorms are forecast and I am hoping for some rain. We are still not in the rainy season even though there is plenty of moisture in the air!

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Interlude

It was a stormy Sunday morning, I dodged rain showers while collecting flowers in the garden. April is frequently the driest month of the year in my garden, desertlike this year. I was happy to see the rain and noted the change in flowers, the spring flowers are slowing down and the summer blues are appearing. This seasonal interlude is reflected in the vase.

This is another nicely fragrant vase. I have learned to appreciate basil flowers in arrangements this winter. Cutting the flowers adds a nice touch to vases and invigorates the plants to produce more foliage. I read recently that it is a good idea to cook with the flowers, but have not tried it. Dill flowers add another herbal note blending with spicy Dianthus and Agastache fragrance.

A closer view. The purple flowers are Agastache, which surprises me by growing here and seemingly in everyone else’s garden. This is my first year with them and they are in a container happily flowering. The smaller pink flowers are Heirloom Pentas (Penta lanceolata), which are common here and are a short lived perennial, usually available in pink, white and red and an excellent butterfly plant. The bigger pink flowers are Giant Dianthus, a cool season annual, beginning to bow out. Blue flowers are Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) a very common trailing shrub that just keeps creeping along and will grow up into trees. White spikes are basil flowers and chartreuse flowers are dill flowers. The silver goblet vase (with ample patina) is another odd heirloom from my mother. It leaks like a sieve and has to have a repurposed yogurt container inside to hold water.

I’m hoping for more rain this week and the outlook is promising. Unfortunately, rain brings humidity. On the bright side, the orchids will love it even if I don’t.

Visit our intrepid hostess, Cathy at ramblinginthegarden to see more vases.

Six on Saturday – Learning Curves

My Saturday morning garden tour found a few more learning curves to navigate. Living this far south in the US is much different from a gardening (and other) standpoints. As a gardener I find it interesting and frustrating at the same time. It amazes me what will and won’t grow here. More water or less? Always a dilemma. I found some successes this morning. To see more garden tours and visit other SOS gardens follow this link to Jim’s blog.

The Schlomburkgia orchid in the Gumbo Limbo tree is flowering. This one makes a stiff 6 foot long stem that is actually kind of hard to see as the flowers end up straight overhead. Here is the base.

Growing orchids in trees is one of the amazing things about South Florida gardening. Once established they are relatively carefree. Water in the dry winter and enjoy flowers in summer.

Dancing Lady Oncidium orchids are taking well in the Sabal Palm boots. I hope these are the beginning of a spray of orchids. Hope springs eternal.

I was advised by the nursery I bought these Chicken Gizzard (Iresine herbstii) to plant them in full sun. This one is in partial shade as I did not believe them.

The other Chicken Gizzard plant, placed per directions and starting to fry. Full sun in South Florida is a whole different thing.

My neighbor decided to build a Coral rock wall on my property for some reason. He had to move it over, not to worry, this guy could bench press a Volkswagen. Now I have a little planter I am working on filling up.

Last, but not least, the Nam Doc Mai mangoes are starting to blush, I am so ready to eat one! Frozen mangoes from Aldi are just not the same.

That’s all from my garden this Saturday morning. I am looking forward to seeing what everybody has going on in theirs.

Happy Gardening!!

In a Vase on Monday – Dillicious

Dill is a cool season herb in South Florida. I usually have several plants in pots, this year I have really enjoyed the dill and there is no foliage left to eat! Long Island Mammoth Dill is my favorite variety, the current plant is producing seed heads and I have been enjoying them in flower arrangements and will save some seed for next year. I usually don’t like the seed for eating but have recently learned to make sandwich bread, so I am going to give a dill seed loaf a try. Everything else I made from this plant has been Dillicious. Including this herbal sweet scented concoction in my mother’s crystal rose bowl.

My dillicious vase this week includes:

Fireworks in this vase are from dill seed heads and flowers in chartreuse and orange tubular flowers from the Firebush (Hamelia patens)

Another delicious flower appealing to a different sense is the white Tropical Gardenia (Tabernaemontana divaricata). These flowers lend a heavenly scent to the garden at night. They are sometimes called the Pinwheel Gardenia, there is a flatter flowering variety that looks more like a pinwheel.

That’s all from SoFla this week. To traverse distant gardens and visit via vase follow this link to Cathy’s blog.

Happy Gardening.

Six on Saturday – Tropics Rising

I’m joining the SOS crew this Saturday following my morning garden tour. April and May are our driest months and it’s windy as well. The garden is crying out for water and it is difficult to apply enough. I let some things go dormant (grass!) and try to keep the fruit trees and flowers flush for my own selfish reasons. This morning I noted the usual summer suspects are starting to show their colors. Visit Jim’s blog Garden Ruminations to find more tours.

The first Frangipani (Plumeria spp) of the season. These are just starting to flower and put out foliage. They reach their full, scented glory with the onset of the rainy season. This is an unnamed variety I bought several years ago, 8-10 feet tall now. Currently one flower, eight leaves and the rest is sticks.

This is a Florida or Tropical Gardenia (Tabernaemontana diviricata). These are, oddly to me, a deciduous Gardenia. They flower all summer. The scent is much more subtle than G. jasminoides, more detectable at night.

‘Little Harv’ Aechmea Bromeliad flowers. Little Harv is not that little, he is at least three feet tall and probably hangs around for a month.

‘Hallelujah’ Billbergia Bromeliad showing summer color. The whites and greens become more pronounced and then an odd red, white and blue flower that resembles curling ribbon appears. I wonder where these things come from sometimes.

A White Geiger (Cordia boissieri) tree I have been working on. I think about 75% of the top was removed. These grow very oddly with crossing branches galore and produce shoots about every four inches. I have a feeling I am not finished with the pruning.

Florida native Sunshine Mimosa (Mimosa strigillosa). This is a drought tolerant groundcover with interesting flowers.

That’s all from South Florida. The rain dance starts soon.

In a Vase on Monday – Foreign Affairs

All of the plants in the vase this week are, to me, foreign versions of common plants grown further north. The pink and white flowers are Desert Roses, from the deserts of Africa and the Arabian peninsula and a succulent to boot. White and green flowers are from a tropical Begonia that shoots up flowers about three feet tall and then we have the giant Dianthus. Tropical foreigners from my garden.

Desert Roses (Adenium obesum) are a mad thing. This is a red one frying on the pavement and finding its happy place. It doesn’t look much like a typical rose bush.

The Begonia in the arrangement is Lotusleaf. Definitely the biggest Begonia I have ever seen. It is a common roadside plant in Central America and pretty indestructible once established in my garden.

A closer view.

Draping over the edge of the vase, Desert Rose (Adenium obesum); green seed heads and white, frothy flowers are from Lotusleaf Begonia (Begonia nelumbifolia); pink flowers are Giant Dianthus; chartreuse leaves are a coleus of some sort, and the deep green foliage in back is from a Lady Palm (Rhapis excelsa). The vase is a thrift store find.

We are transitioning into warmer weather here with the weather guessers trumpeting dire warnings about a violent hurricane season. After a while I realized they really have no idea.I am still planting a few new things, tempting fate!

Here’s to enjoying spring and seeing a few new vases this Monday. Follow this link to visit Cathy and see the vases in the comments section.

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.

In a Vase on Monday – Chanel No. 4?

I decided to put together a small vase of spring flowers this week. The big surprise was the wonderful fragrance generated by a combination of four flowers I selected from the garden. Mmmm, I thought, I would wear this as perfume. This led me to a very ancient bottle of Chanel No. 5 my father gave me decades ago that lives on. My mother, in all her Greatest Generation glory, considered this her signature scent. It is a bit, sweet? for me. I can’t quite put my finger on it, though I did try to grow a Ylang Ylang tree in my garden, the main fragrance component of Chanel No. 5. The YY tree expired, but I don’t think this bottle of perfume has!

The purple flowers are Agastache, I have no idea what variety. These have a lemony scent and are doing quite well in a container. These are new to the garden. A few Genovese basil flowers and White Flame Salvia are adding their white flowers and herbal scents.

The Giant Dianthus in pinks adds a clove fragrance to the mix. It seems lemony, herbal, clove may be my signature scent! I love it. A few snips of purple and silver foliage from Inch Plant (Transcandentia zebrina) were added for color.

The blue glass container is an heirloom from a collection my in-laws had. I am not sure what it is. A giant shot glass?

Happy Spring Monday to all and thank you to Cathy for hosting IAVOM every week! Follow the link ramblinginthegarden to visit Cathy and see more vases.

Six on Saturday – Garden Friends

Saturday is upon us once again and I have taken a tour of my garden to see what’s new. I have some new and some old friends. First up, Fiona the greyhound, sitting in the so called dirt in my garden. Fiona likes to keep me company by sunning in the native sand in the garden. It amazes me that anything will grow in this stuff, yet it does.

Mrs. Cardinal’s eggs hatched this week, there are 3 chicks. Mr. Cardinal has been observed helping out by guarding the nest.

I have been observing the smaller lizards in the garden eating bad bugs! This one had a palmetto bug (gigantic Florida cockroach) in its mouth earlier in the day. Now he or she is hanging around on an orchid leaf. This is a brown anole.

The butterflies are coming out in droves. I put together a butterfly feeding plate and put it in the garden area I am reworking. The idea behind this is to put very ripe fruit in the plate and it will attract groups of butterflies to sip the nectar. I tried this with (I think) too ripe fruit and only got fruit flies. Sigh.

A new friend I am hoping hangs around. The ‘Gartenmeister’ Fuchsia is flowering. Wow! I think it needs to be potted up. I am planning on bringing this inside when the summer heat sets in.

People ask me from time to time if I have house plants, since my garden is full of house plants! This is my only one and at this point, an old friend – it has survived for over a year, for me this is amazing. It is a Pink Star Calathea or Prayer Plant and it does pray! The stems go straight up at night.

That is all from South Florida this Saturday. To take more garden tours follow the link to garden ruminations

Happy Spring!!

In a Vase on Monday – Hip, Heirloom Hippeastrum

I found my heirloom ‘Red Lion’ Hippeastrum in flower this week. Given their inevitable association with Christmas, I tried to make a modern, hip arrangement that did not reflect the holidays. These bulbs came from my father in law, Glenn, who had an incredibly intense in and out of the closet scheduling scheme for getting the bulbs to rebloom – after a few years of holiday flowers he would plant them in the garden. These have always lived outside here and are a rare bulb that hangs around in my garden. Glenn has been gone for almost twenty years, so I wonder how old these bulbs are?!

The Hipsters:

I love a little chartreuse and grey in the garden. This is an unnamed coleus in chartreuse and what I think is a Graptosedum succulent. I am hoping the coleus will root. If you look closely the cotton ball I stuffed into the bottom of the Hippeastrum stem is visible. I did this with the flower upside down and it burped when placed in the vase. I have read that filling the stem with water and putting a cotton ball in the end will make the flower last longer. The experiment is on!

Glenn’s Red Lion Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) – I am certain he would not know what a Hippeastrum is. The chartreuse umbels are flowers from culinary dill. I like to eat the foliage, but the seeds don’t really tempt me. The green foliage is a palm seedling of some sort. There is a nice herbal scent surrounding the vase. The container is a heavy crystal vase that was a gift.

I hope everyone is enjoying spring by now and I am looking forward to watching weird shadows with the solar eclipse on Monday afternoon. Thanks to Cathy for hosting IAVOM, to see more vases follow the link ramblinginthegarden and read the comments section.