Rain in the am, clear blue bowl of a sky in the afternoon. Mid 80's, breezy. The bamboo is rustling, leaves are waving. So nice to have a break from the humid rainy days of late.
I tend to focus on begonias. Although some of them can grow well in the sun and rain, others need coddling. Of course, the youngsters always need special care.
But terrace gardening must be about finding plants as tough and beautiful as possible. Plants that can be grown in 6 or more hours of hot south Florida sun, wind and rain. Now I haven't gone through a hurricane yet so I can't speak to that kind of challenge.
Who are some of the winners so far on my terrace?
Plumeria-- loves sun, can take a drought, and bloom time seems to be pretty much non-stop, though the hot summer sun has really kicked it into high bloom (along with some of mommy's little helpers 20-10-10 fertilizer).
Bamboo-- I'm growing Buddha belly, it grows slowly, is low growing with a thick umbra. The sections of the culms are bulbous, they remind me of the bell of an English horn. Don’t forget to feed her... it wants a lot of nitrogen... once again I use a 20-10-10, but I think it really responds to the gallons of miracle gro I dowse it with, slightly diluted. I have 5 culms sticking their pointy snouts out of the ground. They are moving slowly though, I guess for the best. At some point, hopefully not for a few years, it will bust out of its beautiful big pot.
Bougainvillea—of course. Keep it in as much sun as possible. Keep it in a tight pot. I feed mine every few weeks with Bougain, supposedly especially formulated with micronutrients. It seems to work well. The purple bougie is markedly more floriferous than the magenta. The rain has brought some nice greening of the magenta which has been pretty skeletal until now.
More later, as dear Jack used to say
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