Tag Archives: Vero Beach

Snakes and Flowers!

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Just quickie odds-and-ends today with no particular theme. :)

Over the weekend, we saw THIS guy hiding in a narrow space between the driveway and garage door:

Pantherophis guttatus

After running around in circles and screaming like crazy-women, Maggie and I talked to local people and did a bit of Google research. I feel confident we’re sharing the garage with Pantherophis guttatus aka Eastern Corn Snake.  I raked it to the sideyard twice, (to where I previously herded the moles! ha! food source!)  but it keeps returning to this exact spot!  Wierd, right?

The gardens are popping with color on a daily basis:

Rear Cutting Garden, 4/24/13

The first “Red Sun” Sunflower opened this morning from seeds planted in January. Now look at the orange/red amaryllis behind it.  Today I noticed a second flowerscape  poking through the soil. :)  I like this development; last year it only produced one.

The next photo shows an unfurled white peace lily spadix (the first of the season!) behind a fully opened phalaenopsis last seen in March. Both seem happy with the bright filtered light at the base of the bauhinia tree.

Peace Lily Spadix and Phalaenopsis, 4/23/13

Each winter I make “mystery containers” by sprinkling unknown, left over seeds into random pots.  I’m not sure what else is growing here, but I recognize some portulaca:

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A few of my recently planted lily bulbs have opened, like this red dwarf variety.

Carpet lily, 4/17/13

and this year old Ruby Spider Hemerocallis:

Ruby Spider Daylily, 4/18/13

I was very lucky to catch this next little gem, just before sundown on Monday, 4/22/13. Not only are Dietes Bicolor flowers short-lived, they’re rarely fully open AND for a very brief span of time:

Dietes Bicolor, Fortnight Lily, 4/22/13

I hope you’re all enjoying this wonderful season as much as I am!

Until next time….

:) :) :)

Wordless Wednesday: April 17, 2013

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Another glorious Mead Amaryllis opened this week:

Mead Amaryllis, 4/16/2013

This sunny image reflects my INCREDIBLE HAPPINESS today!  My mother had a totally unexpected,  emergency open heart surgery on Monday.  (We were shocked and terrified!)  Two days post-surgery, she’s up in a chair, eating, and ready to leave ICU!

:)

Until next time……

:) :) :)

Crinum Lilies, Hibiscus, and Invasive Pest Awareness Month!

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Crinum lilies are tough, low maintenance plants that bloom prolifically on lengthy, succulent stalks. In Zones 9 and up, they typically flower from early spring through midsummer and sporadically during the rest of the year. I noticed the cluster below on Easter Sunday while we were Brunching (yet again :!: it’s the BEST!) at Disney Vero Beach Resort.  Even when their flowers have withered, Crinums create an architectural focal point in the landscape.

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While exploring the Disney Resort’s grounds, I ran across a group of signs I’d missed on previous occasions.  Clever advertising, yeah?

Disney Vero Beach Resort, 3/31/13

 Following the sign towards the beach, I passed this pretty hibiscus lined road:

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Here’s a close-up view of a fully opened flower:

Hibiscus, Disney Vero Beach Resort, 3/31/13

As you can see from the foliage and blooms, this is a very healthy specimen: not all hibiscus have been this lucky

In June, 1992, an invasive insect known as Pink Hibiscus Mealybug was discovered in Broward County, Florida and has continued spreading upwards throughout the state.

The Pink Hibiscus Mealybug (PHM) sucks juices from its host plant, injecting toxic saliva as it feeds. This process leads to the malformation of leaves and fruit, as well as stunted leaves and terminal (tip) growth, which is commonly called “bunchy top.”  PHM affects species beyond ornamentals.  The list is staggering:  citrus, avocado, fig, guava, mango, and sugarcane; vegetable crops including asparagus, beans, beets, cabbage, peanuts, pigeon pea, cucumber, lettuce, pepper, pumpkin, and tomato.  Even forest trees are at risk of harboring this hungry pest!

With this in mind, the USDA has declared April, Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month. Invasive pests and diseases are non-native species that cause – or are likely to cause – harm to the economy, the environment or human health. The USDA stresses that the more people know about hungry pests, the more they can do to stop them.

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  Go to www.HungryPests.com to learn more, and get involved on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hungrypests.

Until next time….

:) :) :)

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Wordless Wednesday: April 3, 2013

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The first flowers of Spring, 2013 arrived this week like friends returned from a spa vacation.  Amaryllis was so eager to show-off her good health and beauty, I felt obliged to take a picture: :)

Amaryllis, 4/2/13

Today she was joined by her pretentious Ranchero neighbor, a reseeded perennial who insists we call her  ”Centaurea.”  :roll:

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To me, she’ll always be Batchy B! ;)

Until next time……

smileygardening21

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Happy Easter! The Weekly View: Tillandsia Utriculata on 3/30/13

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Just a quick post to wish everyone a Happy Easter!

What a beautiful day to be alive in Vero Beach: blue skies, no humidity, sun, sun, sun….AND….it’s the first day I’ve woken up pain free in weeks! :) :)    Thank you for the prayers and well wishes you’ve sent my way.  I FIRMLY BELIEVE in the power of prayer and positive thinking, although I fell short in both departments when anxiety got the better of me.

Yowzaa!! Can you fathom this?

T.Utriculata, 3/30/13

Our favorite Tillie flowerscape is now 20″ long?!   We’ve had precious little rain this month, but evidently airplants get enough from the local humidity to keep them going!.

This next pic says “Happy Easter” better than I could say with 1001 words!

Larkspur, 3/30/13

I hope you all have a fabulous day!

Until next time…..

:) :) :)

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Wordless Wednesday: March 20, 2013

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With Easter only 11 days away, I think it’s the perfect time for a bunny photo!

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These little, round marsh rabbits are a common sight at Jaycee Beach; not surprising since females begin breeding at nine months and reproduce several times a year!

Litters consist of 4-5 young born in fur-lined nests on the ground. The babies are weaned in less than 3 weeks when they start eating tender green plants and clover. :)

Adult marsh rabbits are approximately 15″ long, with small hindlegs and feet that facilitate swimming among the local coastal islands. When on land, they prefer walking over hopping.

If you arrived here via my blog’s home page you may have noticed the badge for National Wildlife Week.   I highly recommend visiting their site and  getting involved with their tree planting initiative, Branch Out For Wildlife.

Until next time……

:) :) :)

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

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There are so many ways to illustrate home and much of this blog is devoted to that context.  I’ve written of home in terms of loved ones,  physical places, and states of mind.

At its most basic, home is a sanctuary. Today I”ll show you local places and events where the welcome mat is always out and makes me feel at home:

1. My mother’s house:

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2. Ivana’s House

Ivana's Garden

3. Among the Master Gardeners:

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3. Seaside Grille

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4. The Beach (this is Humiston Beach another local beach we frequent)

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5, The Oceanside Farmers’ Market (across from Humiston Beach)

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6. Beachside at Humiston Park

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7. My backyard:

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“What we call a home is merely any place that succeeds in making more consistently available to us the important truths which the wider world ignores, or which our distracted and irresolute selves have trouble holding onto.”

 

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Wordless Wednesday: February 13, 2013

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While pulling weeds at Hallstrom Wildflower Garden yesterday, I noticed bright pink flowers where none had been the week before. The Bauhinia Blakeana tree is starting to bloom! :)

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Among the 200+ Bauhinia varieties, 4 are common in Florida and very hard to tell apart. You’ve seen the Bauhinia Purpurea in my rear yard, and with the exception of flower color, it looks much like B. Blakeana.  Here’s a straight-on view of the entire Hallstrom tree :

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B. Blakeana is a sterile hybrid about which much has been written.. If you’d like to learn more about the tree’s origin and parentage click this link at the American Journal of Botany.

For everyone up North :arrow: Hang tight: your wildflowers are coming :!:

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Until next time…..

:) THINK SPRING :)

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Hallstrom House Wildflower Demonstration Garden

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Florida Master Gardeners are volunteers trained by the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.  Upon certification, our mission is twofold: provide county residents with research-based gardening information; network within the community to develop programs encouraging good stewardship of the environment.  If that all sounds like vague, P.R.  hoohah don’t worry….Let me introdude you to the Hallstrom House Wildflower Demonstration Garden. a project that illustrates this networking concept to a “T”:

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This brick Victorian residence was built in 1918 by Axel Hallstrom, a successful Swedish agriculturalist and citrus pioneer. In 1999, his daughter Ruth–who’d been born in the house and lived there her entire life– bequeathed it the Indian River County Historical Society for the sole purpose of historic preservation. Over the next ten years, the interior was completely restored, but little had been done to upgrade the grounds.

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Enter Master Gardener Robin Pelensky, a professional Landscape Architect looking to give back.

Robin wrote a proposal for a La Florida micro-grant with hopes of showcasing the beauty and variety of Florida’s native plants while demonstrating their use in the conventional landscape at Hallstrom House. She was awarded a $500 certificate to purchase Florida native wildflower seeds or plants (but not both.) . After chosing a mix of 50 different seeds from Florida’s Wildflower Seed Co-op, Robin and a group of MG volunteers got to work laying the new garden.

Since planting day (11/4/12) our weather has been uncharacteristically rainy, flushing the seeds to unintended places! :eek:   What was once a garden path is allready impinged by a newly-sprouting meadow! Look closely: you’ll see many white plant markers around which a path was meant to meander. :)

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Yesterday, we started re-clearing, pulling up weeds, seeds, and errant grass:

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The rain wasn’t ALL bad, though!  See that clump of beach sunflower at the bottom of the photo?  That’s a lot of growth in a few months time. The same is true for this partridge pea which will soon bear pretty yellow flowers:

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Another seed group doing quite well is Flaveria Linnearis, common name Yellow Top, for its tall flat florets that are so attractive to bees:

Yellow top aka Flaveria Linnearis, Hallstrom House Garden 1/29/13 By the time I left, a good-sized section of path was cleared near the entrance:

Garden Path, Hallstrom House, 1/29/13

Across the driveway there’s a beautiful stand of bamboo; behind the bamboo is an African Tulip Tree whose flowers have dropped and scattered. I couldn’t resist placing one near new growth at the base of the trunk:

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When open, these blossoms are insanely beautiful. Next Tuesday I’m working at Hallstrom again….you just KNOW I’ll be scouting a sucker or cutting! :)

Until next time…..

:) :)

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Wordless Wednesday: January 16, 2013

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50 Tsunami Hazard signs have recently popped up along Vero’s  A1A beaches.

Tsunami Warning Signage, Vero Beach, 1/12/13

But are they necessary or another waste of Federal taxpayer money?

Click this short news video to help you decide AND see one of my fave spots, The Driftwood! :)

Until next time…..

:) :) :)

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