Wet air blowing in off the sea

Soft cloudy light with a playful westerly breeze. Sat outside for dinner, and the rain began lightly blowing into a nice drink for the garden by nightfall.  

and far away

Winter nears

Late autumn evening zone10b



Love is a mini bracted thing

No futzing around with this good boy. Food, water and sun; Let the form of the plant grow as it will.

I LOVE orange colored bougainvillea

10-52-10

Watered blooming plants with Miracle Gro Bloom Booster. The orange and coral bougainvilleas are really going at it. Moved the climbing philo against interior wall, It's sending out it's clinging tendrils and I want to see if and how it will go the shady wall under the portico.

I would like to pull out the large plumeria and plant another palm with a mass of wart ferns around it. I think the warts are clingers that would be very interesting on the wall if they would, very least they'll form an interesting mound of fern.

A plethora

¿Cuál es tu favorito?

Gibby's ghost

The increasing shortness of the coming winter days has cut sharply into my time on the terrace, however my pruning shears found time to cut sharply into the solanum macranthum yesterday. I think they must get some sadistic pleasure in cutting back so hard. The potato tree demands great respect when handling as it's barbs are serious and will pierce if given a chance. I cut the trunk(s) into 6-8" pieces. I want to dry them and try planting them as a plumeria.. I haven't heard of that being best practices for propagating but I wasn't able to find much info at all about growing the potato from cuttings. I have grown it before from cuttings, though it seemed to take quite a while to plant.

Finally had time to water everyone in deeply. Fertilized with fish emulsion the orange, bamboo, jasmine and one of the macho ferns.The wonderful philodendron that J Durko had yanked off a tree and gave me, has been getting burned in the winter sun (which stares straight at us now that it is lower in the southern sky). I gave it a few months to see if it was simply getting acclimated but it's clear they are understory plants that probably perform in slightly shadowed light. I would like to empty a large pot that I had a large plumeria in and plant the climbing philo and some wart fern and put it under the portico roof, as was done with the night blooming cereus. Perhaps it would grow up the wall and onto ceiling? or it may take to having it's top cut and sending up other shoots that would spread out over the wall. Too much work to do that today. We have a 4 day holiday weekend coming up, maybe that will inspire me.

Visualize world peace and a botanic garden for Broward County-- specifically, visualize the botanic garden being on the piece of land where Gibby's steak house used to be. You needn't have gone there for the visualization to be effective. Though they had THE BEST fresh bread, cesar salad with an overpowering amount of garlic and anchovies (yum) meat was good, but the strawberry shortcake was unbelievable, and they gave you a nice big piece. It was an old school steak house. Now, it would make the perfect spot for a public garden, canopied with tropical hardwoods, understoried with ferns, begonias, philodendrons, orchids, palms.  Of course, I will be dead by the time it is fully grown in but what a nice bit of love to leave behind. Visualize the garden please.

Chores

Spot watered. Laying off the fertilizer. I lost two new canes of the coccinea as it has been cooler and wet that past few days. They began to rot at the bottom of the cane. I removed them. The larger, woodier canes seemed fine. I was told to be careful of overwatering this one, I see why. 

The orange and coral colored bougainvillea are just busting out all over. The purple bougies has suffered from defoliation in the past few weeks. mmm..  

The palm at the end of the mind

Something has burned my croton slightly. The leaves have lost their deep green lustre. I think I might have dowsed them with the bloom booster. the knockout amount of phosphate probably responsible. I've got to be more careful!!

Palm Saturday

Started the day watering here and there. The bougainvillea leaves are getting eaten by moths (I'm assuming--I see them flitting around in the early am and late pm) drenched them with some systemic pesticide. The potato, blooming right nicely, is getting too tall, and leggy. I am loathe to cut it back now as the warm growing season is passing into sunny but cooler. Not sure how it will grow back. May have to do it anyway. 8' with a canopy on a 10' wide terrace is to be reckoned with. (terrace is 10' x 35'). '

Planted palm today. It sits up higher in the pot than in the busted 5gal paint can. Might be too big, a good experiment. Made a run to Home Depot for more potting soil. Did a circle around palm section. A $16 foxtail palm caught my eye. Slapped it in a light blue pot. Bought some mulch too and went around doing some much needed mulching.

Needed to make room for the palm experiment, the 12' plumeria got the ax-- at least down below this year's growth. Again, we'll see how things grow in as we slide into winter. The winter solstice is coming up.

The fading light

The early darkness of late fall leaves me no time in the garden after the commute back from work.  I recently bought some MiracleGro 10-52-10 bloom booster with which I'm drenching the blooming plants in the am. It's gotten slightly cooler, tonight we're in the mid  60's but the days have been clear and beautiful.

Trailer park trash (this garden's new treasure)

 Discovered this handsome wench at a condemned trailer park nearby. It's was planted in a 5 gal paint can filled with sand (parched) which the roots had exploded. Until planting, i've wrapped it in a garbage bag into which i've poured in some chelated palm food water to hydrate it. The lower fronds have a rusty yellowing. This stray needs some food.

 

 I've wanted a palm on the terrace for some time. I'll be able to secure it near handrail where it will live, replacing the large plumeria. The canopy is too large to be against the wall of the building. Palms, of course, are one of the most wind tolerant plants there are, so blow wind blow. The serrated fronds might do right nicely in providing some dappled sun for begonias.  

 

 

It ain't a floridian terrace without no palm. i've made it.

 

I went to my pot source the next day for a handsome, more suitable home. $150 but nice looking. Pots of a larger size are expensive, fiberglass aren't much cheaper and I wanted a nice looking, heavy, glazed pot with nice big drainage holes. It will offer plenty of room for the debutante to grow into. I'll give the root ball, which has irregular strands of roots flailing about into a neat, though not too tight of a ball. I'll have to figure out a way to stabilize the plant until it grows in enough to support itself. Unlike the pottings i'm used to, this is top-heavy and there'll be a learning curve.

 

 

  25 gal? I'll post when the planting is done.

 

A few days catching up to do

It's been sunny and hot here. Beaten by work, I've had to scramble to water selectively-- I have been using the water can of late. Bamboo of course needs water every 2 days or The potato tree is striking with bouquets of bluish-lavender, papery flowers, but it requires at least a 3 L can a day, blah blah. The bougainvillea also are quite thirsty. It's a wive's tale that bougies like poor, dry soil.They like water, nice soil, pesticide as moth love them and of course sun. They don't seem to mind being in the same pot for years. One bougie I have, has minitature magenta bracts and a 5" diameter trunk. It's several years old, planted in a 3gal pot and can stay there for a few more years as per Richard Lyons, who has a very special nursery in Homestead.

Anyway... They have closed a 4 acre trailer park (in the middle of eastern Fort Lauderdale, fairly nice real estate). My friend Adrian went prowling through in my Prius on the dirt roads that intersect the place. I came across a Christmas palm that was bursting out of a 5 gal  bucket. About 12-15' high, we crammed it into the back hauled it onto the terrace. It looks FABULOUS.  Went out to Flamingo Road nursery and bought a 25-30 glazed post, the glaze is  bleached, rust stained tan of various shades. Haven't potted yet. I'll post pics as soon as the sun goes down enough for pics.

Naptime. More later.

Try a little tenderness

Only time and energy to keep most everyone watered and fed.  A lot of blooming out of bougainvillea, pandora vine, plumeria, some shy blooming by begonias and gardenia. There is plenty of rich, full leafiness around the walls. Creeping fig is beginning to cover several walls. etc. life goes on and on.