Taking Care of Nature

 

Well, first of all. living in Florida does have it's advantages when it come to growing some plants.  As you can see from the photo's we have a wide assortment growing at our home.  It's also nice because I've started adding plants to my ebay site, if anybody's interested.....http://stores.ebay.com/AllAboutYouCollectibles

 

It's odd because up in New York I used to have to bring all my houseplants in for fall. thankfully I had alot of windows with sunlight streaming in.  Down here, they built this place with an overhang to naturally shade the interior rooms so I get no sun at all in my windows...almost every plant I bring in dies.  Except, of course, the cast iron snake plant - which I think has a life that will last beyond mine.

It's nice to be able to walk outside and feel that you are in a green jungle setting...with an occasional Peacock strolling by!

I used to grow Wandering Jew in a hanging basket...here, I have a virtual carpet of it....covering a good portion of my yard with vibrant greens & purples as it grows.   Another one is the Marble Queen Pothos...a household favorite from years ago....down here it grows along the ground trailing up to the trees & heads upward growing ever bigger leaves.  Really pretty.

Another plant that attaches itself to the trees is a Night Blooming Cereus...it is a form of cactus but it grows up to tremendous heights.  Ours is up about 50' now & aiming higher.  It only blooms for a very short time and in the middle of the night, but oh my goodness...what beauty is in that bloom!  The last time I witnessed the blooms it was 4 am in the morning we were out with flashlights until we came to the tree.  The white flowers were actually glowing they lit the area up...we turned off the flashlights and just enjoyed the sight.  They were gone by morning.

I used to work for a place called Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg...it still exists but the city is running now not the original owners.   We had a lady who wanted to donate a huge plant called Amorphophallus Rivieri Durieu....it's one of those plants that had a huge stinky flower before it grows it's foliage.

Well, the owners of the Gardens did want anything that smelled bad..so I was told I could take it home......well, ten years later..it is a very interesting plant.   It sends up a phallic like inflorescence that grows into an umbrella like tree with beautiful foliage with unusual mottled green & white trunk.   It's a strange plant in that it first pops up in very early spring...grows gloriously until the first hint of cold weather...it totally collapses - it's a sight!  Some of these stand 5' tall and when they pass out it's strange.  With our hot summers, I always look forward to them passing out....makes hubby mad because he wants them to stand up and not fall.

Anyway I spent over two hours today just watering.  I had that jingle going through my head....."How does your Garden Grow?"