Conquering the beast

This weekend I tried to conquer the beast, my Aechmea Blanchetiana bromeliad.  Those of you that follow this blog know that I have a obsession with bromeliads, this one has gotten away from me.  The container where I planted the original plant is cracking from the number of pups growing from the bottom.  I been thinking about dividing the beast, but the spines on the leaves are lethal, they take no prisoners, I have the scrapes on my arms to prove it.  I was able saved several pops to be planted some where else in the garden, 

This was a good time to clean up the other bromeliads in my front yard.

The front yard is recovering nicely after it was destroy by hurricane Irma

The powterpuff tree is blooming again, not as strong as before but I had to cut it back after the hurricane.

The blue daze flowers are a favorite of bees and they look great early in the morning

Other blooms from the garden.

We are in the middle of our dry season, a perfect time for all my bougainvilleas in containers to bloom. 

Cup of Gold flowers

I never get tired of of taking their pictures of my Hibiscus flowers (my favorite)

Angel's of trumpets flowers

Bees are pollinating my mango flowers, looks like is going to be a good mango season.

Only two mango survived from the early December blooms 

This knight anole was photographed in my brunfelsia bush.  These lizards are not native and can be aggressive to our native and smaller lizards. 

The changing garden, time to move the containers

I don't know how many plants in containers I have, but I can tell you there are many.  My favorite task in the garden, is moving the containers around, it gives the garden a new and fresh perspective.    Sometimes all a plant that is not doing well needs is a new location with a different view.   Yesterday, I fertilized and added fresh soil to many of my large containers and move some to different locations.  

My Key Lime tree is full of flowers, this is the second time this year, last time none of the flowers survived.

More mango flowers, this time both trees have flowers.  One of the trees have a few small mangoes from the blooms in December.

This is the Dragon-fruit plant growing in my Plumeria tree, is getting so big but there is nothing I can do about it.. 

 The end of the season for the Brunfelsia flowers (today, yesterday and tomorrow flowers)

I almost missed the flowers from my Starburst tree.  This tree was hit hard by hurricane Irma, the only surviving branches on the tree face my neighbor's yard.

New fountain, new look.  The bricks on this court yard need a good pressure clean at least, twice a year.   

I end my post with a picture of Prairie Warbler, a regular winter visitor to my garden.

2018 a year of change

2017 was not an easy year for me, consequently the garden was not a priority for my time.  One of my New Year's resolution is to spend more time cultivating my little piece of paradise.  I started this week, I hope to make many changes that I will share with all of you.   

In my previous post I wrote that I was taking a time off from my vegetable garden.  The lady of the house (and cook) asked me to reconsider.  This weekend I planted a small kitchen garden, we have rosemary. oregano, basil, cilantro, cherry tomatoes, Swiss chard and chives.

This was a good time to rearrange all my containers behind the house.  

My collection of cactus and succulents did not fair well last year.  Too much rain was not a good formula for these plants. Yesterday I took out the ones that didn't make it.

This new water fountain was a Christmas gift.  It now seats in my patio in full view from inside my house.

Stag horn plants were one of my Dad's favorite plants, he had them allover his garden, this one in my backyard came from his garden.  My father passed away on December 27, after 104 years of a life well lived. He was a gentle soul, a plant whisper, a nature lover, a good husband, a great father and an even better grandfather.  I will never be able to look at theses plants again without thinking of him. 

Puttering around the garden

We had a cool sunny morning in South Florida today, a perfect day to putter around the garden with no particular task in mind.  I have not been around the garden much lately, this is the first day in weeks that I am home for the day.  Is fun to discover so many surprises, the brunfelsia tree is full of flowers ready for the Christmas season. 

This is one of my favorite bougainvillea plants, the orange color is so bright.

Not many brumeliad flowers this late in the season, most of the brumeliads flower during the summer season.

I don't remember how this plant got to my garden, I believe it is a weed by the way it grows everywhere.  The combination of the white flowers and the dark leaves are outstanding.  (need help with the name)

I found these beauties in a tree in the backyard.  I like to plant orchids in trees and sometimes I forget they are there.

The first and only star fruit from my tree, my wife is excited.

One of my mango trees is full of flowers.  This tree always flowers early, but this year is very early.  I hope we don't have a day with lower temperatures and frost.

This side of the garden does not get much sun during the winter months.  Today I found the garden beds full of Spanish needle weeds, I pulled most of them but left a few for the bees.