A Real May Day--Finally!

I finally made it down to the patio garden. It was bump, bump, bump down the stairs with the brace forcing my left leg straight ahead. But it was worth it! The pink azalea was blooming surrounded by flowering blue ajuga. A variegated hosta was completely unfurled. The poppy leaves were swaying in the breeze. But best of all were the 'Big Smile' tulips.

Their petals roll over like big lips as they mature.

You can't help but smile, they look so funny.

Happy Spring, finally!

Love the color palette of Spring!

Garden Man Goes Solo

I have fallen and broken my tibial plateau.

No weight-bearing for 6 weeks.

I'm using crutches, a walker and a travel wheelchair to get around.

My Garden Man is on his own this Spring.

He started edging and mulching the beds around the house this weekend.

The only part of the garden beds I can see is from the front door.

The red tulips have lasted a long time with the cold weather we've had so far.

The 'Ogon' Spirea looks wonderful this year.

It must like the wet, cool days also.

The rhododendron just bloomed today.

The daffodils are gone, but the tulips" bloom on"

at the side of the house next door.

Happy May Day!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Mother's Day!

The hummingbirds are back!

A neighbor spotted a Baltimore Oriole, too!

Last Garden Visit in Florida

One more trip to a State Park and National Historic Site at Koreshan in Estero, near Fort Myers. It doesn't seem like a place to see a botanical garden, but the site of this historic community is surprising in many ways.

The Sunken Gardens

The Rustic Bridge

The White Bridge

The Koreshans planted many sub-tropical plants including a Monkey Puzzle tree

and an African sausage tree, but we didn't see them.

Could this be one of the two?

Another Trip to The Edison Gardens in Spring

On our third trip with visitors to the Edison Gardens, I saw many more plants in bloom than I had in January and February.

The pergola connecting the two houses was covered with vines.

And from the shrubs below, more blooms.

Around the corner of the wide porch, I spied this scene.

And leaving the gardens, I noticed this spider orchid blooming.

Spring Scents and Scenes in Florida Landscapes

Rounding the corner of the carports at my sister's condo in Naples, I smelled them before I saw them.

Jasmine!

We later visited Lakes Park in Fort Myers. There is a lovely Fragrance Garden there.

We were met by this plant, which was a kind of lily.

And nearby, another Lily in a different shade.

This one was brilliant orange against the large, textured leaves.

A bromeliad in bloom

Passion flower vine on an arbor

African Iris

 Chenille Plant

It's enjoyable to stroll around a park near water 

and enjoy looking at plants you've never seen before.

Sad Story of a Butterfly

The three Monarch caterpillars I brought home on a butterfly plant from The Edison Home and Gardens Sale in Fort Myers a few weeks ago, surprised me by eating almost the whole plant and growing round and fat and attractive with their yellow, black and white stripes.

Maybe too attractive!

First, I was missing one. Then two more disappeared. I looked all over for them or their cocoons for a couple of days.  One afternoon, we backed out of the garage to find a white egret in the front bed near the butterfly plant, looking all around and not even caring that we were nearby in a moving car on the driveway.

Poor caterpillars! Never to be Monarch butterflies!

Selby Botanical Garden in Sarasot

We visited this lovely garden today on our way back from Tampa.

We enjoyed the Koi in the pond

and the watearfall.

The garden was in the midst of a tribute to Paul Gauguin's trips to Tahiti.

The plants were tropical--Bird of Paradise, for example.

And banana plants, too.

We imagined ourselves in Tahiti, but the temperatures

were in the 70s--and not as tropical as we've been experiencing.

It was a really pleasant day to explore a rainforest, a bamboo grove,

a fern garden and coconut palm groves along Sarasota Bay.

The orchids and bromeliads were incredible.

This botanical garden is famous for its epiphytes,

plants that grow on other plants 

without harming them.