In Celebration of Spring

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of the singing of birds is come,

and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,

and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell.

~Song of Solomon 2:11-13a (KJV) 

Another Reason to Grow Bottlebrush

I have often spoken of what great nectar plants Callistemon species are for the hummingbirds.  Indeed, without the blooms on my bottlebrushes every winter, I'm not sure I'd even have hummingbirds year-round here in my garden.  Lately, I've been sitting on a chair underneath one of the bottlebrushes in hopes of catching one of the shy, quick-flitting creatures.  Wow, I really don't ever seem to have luck catching a hummer with my camera.  One day recently, I actually caught a Palm Warbler sipping nectar from them, though.  And guess what?  Today, I caught yet another warbler with a sweet tooth!

The Marvelous Month of March

It rained all night.  And this morning, we are still enjoying the downpour.  Oh, how I love a rainy day!  I had breakfast on the front porch this morning, watching the rain fall and the hummingbirds flit back and forth to sip from bottlebrush blooms.  It was a bit on the chilly side, but I knew I was going to love this day anyway.  The rain is much needed here at PITV, especially since we have just put in several new plants. 

Wonders of Winter

On this beautiful Saturday morning, my camera's attention was drawn toward some winter wonders that I have in my garden.  Fortunately, while the perennials and tropicals sleep in the ground, a few beauties utilize this season of the year to do their thing.

Meander on a Misty Morn

Were I called on to define, very briefly,

the term art, I should call it

"the reproduction of what the senses perceive

 in nature through the veil of the mist."

~Edgar Allan Poe

Gentle January

With a cold and frigid December...one for the record books actually...I had really dreaded what January might have in store.  But in the end, it was such a soft, gentle January, as January's go, with so many spring-like days to enjoy.  Today, there is evidence that the garden has begun springing back to life.  There are little leaflets peeping out of the ground beneath dead branches of pentas and clerodendrum.  Brightly colored foliage is rising out of the stems of the crinums and bananas.  If February holds out for us, and it does look promising, I do think we shall have a splendid and floriferous Easter this year.  (It's been a while!)

Dotting my i(so)'s and Covering my ti's

The other day, I received a book in the mail that my husband had ordered along with my new dSLR, a Nikon d7000.  The book was specifically published to go along with this camera, but it turns out it is more of a photography-class-in-a-book than a how-to-use-this-camera-book.  As a result, I am now trying to challenge myself on a creative level and attempting to figure out all of this photo terminology.

What Remains

After three devastating December freezes, I searched my garden today for what blooms might remain.  It was no surprise for me to see the usual suspects still shining brightly: bottlebrushes, roses, thryallis.  The red cestrums and gerbera daisies were still lighting things up as well.  Of course, they hate our summers here, so it is good that they can take a little cold.  I'm quite pleased to find the newly acquired Chinese Hat Plant still strutting its stuff.  I bought it from a local backyard plant sale, but I still worried a bit about its cold hardiness, and wasn't sure if it would get killed to the ground and then come back in spring, or if it would be evergreen.  Oh, and one of PITV's toughest-ever plants, the Spathiphyllums, are still holding out....they're pretty much the only white left in this now-brown garden punctuated with occasional bursts of green, red, and pink.  Very Christmas-y, huh?

My Garden, My Teacher

You are teaching me so much about life, Dear Garden.

Garden Walk on the Eve of a Freeze

We shall see how this garden looks in 24 hours. 
This is just a quick post to pay my last respects to a few beauties.

Blogaholics Anonymous

Hello, my name is Floridagirl, and I am a blogaholic.

Glimpses of Glory in a Garden

"...the whole earth is full of his glory." 

~Isaiah 6:3

This weekend, I witnessed glimpses of glory in my garden.  It has thrown me into a fitful state of rhyme this afternoon, so please, please, pardon the poetry.  Some days, I just can't help myself.

My Favorites...This Month! (September 2010)

Susan of Simply Susan! asks us to share our current favorites each month, but I've found the further we travel from winter, the harder this task becomes.  I do think there must be hundreds of plant species in my garden.  Some day, I will have to catalog the lot of them.  It is unbelievable how many plant babies I can cram in this tiny space.  Problem is, nearly everything looks great right now, and of course, I love 'em all, so it's hard to narrow the faves down to a reasonable number.  Well, I'll give it a go anyway:

Come, walk with me.

Come, walk with me.

Starbursts and Fireworks!

In celebration of the Fourth of July, I have searched out my garden for festive explosions.  Here's what I found:

MGB April: Bouquet of Rampant Blooms

A couple months ago, I didn't even know what a meme was.  Now I find myself joining them left and right.  (For those who don't know, a meme is just a copycat post.)  The newest meme I've discovered is the Monthly Garden Bouquet, hosted by Noelle of Ramblings from a Desert Garden.  Now, before you panic, don't worry, for this meme is not for showing off fancy bouquets like you find at the florist or the grocery store cooler.  These are freshly picked bouquets straight from the garden.   

mad with joy

People from a planet without flowers...

Winter Winners in a Zone 9 Garden

Yes, I have planted far too many tropical plants in my yard. The brown wasteland in wake of the recent "Arctic Blast" is testament to my Zone 9 gardening blunders. But, once again, I have searched my garden today for plants that didn't just survive, but are shining in this wintry garden.




The classic conifer is given a subtropical twist in the Bunya-Bunya Tree (Araucaria bidwillii). A native of Australia, the Bunya-Bunya thrives in my Zone 9 Central Florida garden. It is a tree that grows to massive proportions in its native environ. This tree was honored by aboriginal Australians in annual festivals to celebrate the ripening of the nuts that come from its enormous coconut-shaped cone.

This evergreen Autumn Fern is a bright splash of green in a bed where caladiums and gingers have gone to sleep for the winter.

The knockout roses were unfazed by our "Arctic Blast" and are loaded with buds. This is Rosa 'Radtko.'

Not real sure if this Aechmea bromeliad is cold-tolerant, since it hid under a blanket and a beach towel for the past week and a half. It has a scape rising up, so I had to protect it just in case!

The Neoregelia bromeliads all survived these frigid temperatures. Those under tree cover were not protected.

'Red Ruffles' Azalea is Florida-friendly and offers splashes of color in a winter garden. Just really slow growing, though. This is growing in the shade of an old oak tree.

This was my first year growing Indian Blanketflowers. I wasn't sure if they would go dormant at the first sign of cold or what, but they are still green and lush after our worst winter in years.

Camellias are clearly the stars of my winter garden. I look forward to their bloom every year, with their 4- to 6-inch layered blooms and sweet-tea-like scent. Above is Camellia japonica 'Kramer's Supreme'; below is Camellia x williamsii 'Blue Danube.'

The African Iris buds dropped and flopped all week, but the plants are still all intact and green.

The Florida Cracker Rose ('Louis Philippe') is one of my favorite garden plants. The ones in my garden have been evergreen and everblooming (in flushes) since I planted them years ago. Definitely a winter winner!

Another Australian native, Bottlebrush thrives in our Zone 9 environment, throwing off its giant red blooms year-round. Above is stiff bottlebrush. I also have a weeping bottlebrush tree.