So this is what May looks like!

Although moderate drought conditions still exist in Indian River County, the Vero Beach area set a few records last month for daily rainfall amounts.  As the old adage goes, April showers bring May flowers; nowhere is this more evident than in the gardens of Small house!

View from the Screened Porch

Of all the plants I’ve grown or bought, lilies are my favorites. When we lived up north, our front yard was covered with any pink variety I could find, like this asiatic/trumpet hybrid:

Lily “Scarlet Delight”

Of three Scarlet Delight bulbs I planted last November, this one matured much quicker than the others; both are still in the foliage stage, and will (hopefully!) show buds by the end of the month. 🙂

Also in November, I planted 3 Blackberry Lily bulbs, whose tall, sword-shaped foliage you see in the lily area picture, next to Scarlet Delight.  Although they don’t look the part, blackberry lilies are members of the Iris family.  With foliage so strong and healthy, I’m expecting great things from these bulbs!  Pictures to follow, of course! 😉

The nicest garden surprise this month arrived two days ago when a Dietes Bicolor bud began to open:

Dietes Bicolor,  colloquially known as  “Butterfly Flags”  are also a form of Iris. The classmate who gave me this Apostle Plant  gave me two huge D. Bicolor clumps on Graduation Day. I had no idea how delicate and pretty they’d become! 🙂  Wow!

Another huge shock was a Caladium flower scape appearing overnight among the leaves:

Some growers feel the emergence of caladium flowers impedes the plant’s leaf growth, and suggest snipping them the second you see one forming. 😮 I haven’t found diminished leaf development to be a problem but that may be a function of my tropical zone; your experience may differ! Nevertheless, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen a caladium flower in my lifetime—NO WAY would I nip one in the bud (so to speak!)

If you haven’t noticed my recent “Flower of the Month” (Opuntia Humifusa,) here’s another glimpse: a different prickly pear bloom is just about to open:

Sadly, the amaryllis in the background are the last ones standing. The rest went to seed at the end of April, and I collected what I could to plant for next year! More on that in a future post!

Remember how terrible my orange tree looked a few months back?  Big changes there, and I’m so happy about it!  Take a look:

Lookin’ good…..

….and feelin’ fine!

In addition to using Keyplex, and a round of fertilizing while the flowers were setting, I placed 4 Jobe’s organic fertilizer spikes (for all trees) around the drip line, approximately 3 weeks ago.  I think that last effort was the clincher, and my lawn agrees!

You can easily tell where I pounded each spike! 🙂   And because there’s a section where the drip line of the orange tree intersects  that of the Hong Kong Orchid look what happened there:

“What have you done to me, crazy lady!?!?”

🙂  Creepy!!!  Blooming 6 months out of season, and ONLY in the “spiked” section! Creepy again! 😉

So there you have it…One week into May and it’s a veritable Garden of Eden!  I’m definitely enjoying every minute of it!!  🙂

Until next time….

Related articles

• How Do Your Gardens grow? (eclecticmissy.wordpress.com)
• The Sweetest surprise (renovinc.wordpress.com)
• Joy Comes in the Morning… (aoibhinngrainne.org)
• Blooming Thursday: Lemondrops and Sage (gardeningnirvana.wordpress.com)
• Sowing and Reaping (curtissannmatlock.com)

• Caladium
• Citrus Trees
• Dietes Bicolor
• Florida
• Gardening
• Indian River County Florida
• Opuntia Humifusa
• Vero Beach Florida