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!)

November Stars

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  In this little piece of Florida in which I live, November is prime garden time!  So is December.  I understand from weather records, that it has frosted this time of the year before, but I've yet to witness it (knock on wood!).  The great thing about year's end is that all of the tropicals have been rebounding from last winter's frost all year, and are at their biggest, fullest, and bloomiest right now.  : )   So here it is, my recap of November faves:

GBBD: November 15, 2010

It's time for the worldwide Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted the 15th of each month at May Dreams Garden.  A bloom meme is quite overwhelming for me in November, which is one of the peak bloom months in my garden.  But I don't have room for dozens of photos, so I must pick and choose the best.  Oh, it's so hard!

Plant of the Month: November 2010

Floss Silk Tree

Ceiba speciosa

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

Oh, glorious month of October!  Such a month of ambivalent feelings for me.  I am always quite saddened to see the crapes shedding leaves, and caladiums and curcumas slipping into the ground for winter's rest.  Yet I am thrilled to see those special blooms of autumn reveal their beautiful faces!  It's almost like having a second spring.  So today, I share my favorites for October, the splendid month of autumn:

Weekend Review

The Festival's a Bust...

Well, my plans for a special weekend morphed into something different.  My goal for the weekend was to attend my first ever Caladium Festival in Lake Placid, Florida.  I'd always wanted to go, and it's not so very far away, but somehow in its 20 years of existence, I've never actually been.  I've read tales of glorious fields of caladiums "that can only be compared to the tulip fields of Holland"...verbiage that certainly has tempted me. 

What's Going on in the Garden?

Join me on a walkthrough in my garden today, where springy thoughts abound!

I love birds.  I love cardinals.  Aren't they just the quintessential songbird?  They delight us year-round with their delightful chirps, and the garden just wouldn't be the same without them.  But, tell me, what would you do if a cardinal pair decided to build a nest in your entry portico? 

Through Fresh Eyes

In winter, especially weirdly cold ones like this year, I find myself not wanting to venture outside into the garden. It's just too depressing. The lawn is almost completely brown, and most of my trees and large shrubs are either leafless or covered in ugly brown leaves. So, lately, I have been using psychology on myself...trying to look at the few survivors with a fresh perspective...a new outlook. Here's what I saw in my walk this morning.



This is one of my favorite trees...the Floss-Silk Tree, or Ceiba speciosa. It is a native of Central and South America and grows quite well in Florida. Usually, it has a lush green canopy, and in the fall, it is covered with enormous pink flowers. Right now, however, this tree is completely bare. Making matters worse, I think the branches have some cold damage and will need severe pruning. But look how glorious the trunk is!!! I've always noticed the bright green skin and the sculptural, thumb-sized thorns on the Ceiba trunk. But today, ignoring all the bareness, I zoomed way-in on the thorns and noticed the unusual rings and coloring on them.

The bottlebrushes are standouts in the garden and easily recognized for their unusual blooms. But how often do we really appreciate what creates that strange bloom. Here is a close-up of a new "bud" on the bottlebrush. The stamens are crazy and curly when they first emerge. Slowly, they unravel to become the poker-straight stamens that gives the bottlebrush its familiar look.

This is a tiny little moth I found this morning. The White Ermine Moth (Spilosoma virginica) is only about an inch long. I am quite guilty of ignoring little creatures in my garden, especially when it comes to the butterflies and moths. The larger species get all the attention! But when you zoom in, you realize what a beautiful creature you might miss by ignoring the little guys. I just love its furry head and thorax!

This is a close-up of a flower on the Purple Shrimp Plant (Justicia Scheidweileri). This plant is really only grown for the deep-green, striped leaves and very striking, magenta-colored bracts. We gardeners typically don't notice or appreciate shrimp plant flowers. They are so teeny-tiny. So I'm giving this purple flower some attention today. It's actually kind of pretty.

I snapped photos of a rose and a cabbage in separate parts of the garden today. When I uploaded them, it struck me how similar these two very-different plants actually are in form. For some reason, I never noticed before.

*************