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Janes Scenic Drive Ramble | Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park
Zebra longwing butterfly, Heliconius charithonia A weedy but beautiful native, Bidens alba. Firebush, Hamelia patens Northern needleaf bromeliad, Tillandsia balbisiana On our last day of our swamping trek through Fakahatchee Strand back in early March, I spent most of the morning hanging out at the parking area on Janes Scenic Drive at the East Main Tram gate. Chris was going out into the swamp with a few of the others that morning and I was not up for another morning in the swamp. I was still dealing with some mild morning sickness and general malaise at that time and preferred to just soak in the time spent at the cabin…
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Star Gazing
Somehow these lilies have evaded the deer this season. I’m not sure how or why, but they did. They tempted me for days with their buds, slowly swelling and then opening up to the beauty that they are. My mom was visiting over the weekend and commented that they looked like Stargazer lilies to which I replied that I didn’t really know. You know how it is with plant tags, they end up next to the plant right when you get the plant in the ground and then before long the tag is missing and you have no idea what the plant is. But Mom was right. I Googled ‘Stargazer…
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Gladiolus Season
Ok, so the main gladiolus season really was about two weeks ago however there was one plant that just finished blooming and another is about to be my late bloomer in the garden. Like usual though, I’m a little slow in getting around to documenting what’s occurring most currently in the garden. First up is the species plant, the Gladiolus dalenii (you can see last year’s bloom here): Next was a lovely lavender-pink bloomer: And most recently this brilliant red bloomer: One thing I need to do is relocate the gladiolus that I have currently planted near our front porch. They aren’t deep enough for one, and really they should…
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100 Happy Days: Days 16-23
Day 16: Forgot to take a photo. I had one in mind but Chris went to bed too early for me to do it so I didn’t get around to it. Note to self: take photos early in the day. Day 17: The gardenia bush is blooming its head off right now. In the evening the smell wafts up to the front garden from the back porch where the gardenia is located. Day 18: Harvested a decent amount of tomatoes to nosh on daily. Not enough to can yet. Day 19: Did some gardening in the vegetable garden. Chris was able to finish about half of the perimeter herb beds…
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Ionopsis utricularioides | Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park
I’m digging through the last of the Florida photos from March and have several orchids I want to share with you, this species being one of them. This is a tiny, epipyhytic orchid with small purple flowers resembling the purple utricularia, a species of carnivorous plant that lives in the water, hence the species part of its name. There’s some other interesting information about this orchid in the Dade chapter of the Florida Native Plane Society’s newsletter here if you scroll down about 3/4 of the way. It’s a sweet little orchid that is easily passed by if you aren’t looking for it.
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100 Happy Days: Days 8-15
Day 8: Pulled all of the lettuce for the season. Day 9: Harvested the first tomato of the season, a Tomande variety. Day 10: Last minute self portrait before I got into bed. We had our Bradley birth class that night and were exhausted when we got home. Day 11: Oops, I forgot to take a shot! Day 12: Blue Beauty tomatoes….looking forward to trying this new variety. Day 13: Received my issue of Taproot in the mail. I love getting this quarterly and look forward to a slow read each time. Day 14: My hard working husband busting his butt to get the closet renovated in the guest bedroom…
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Tribute To My Favorite Trails: National Trails Day 2014
Today was National Trails Day and I was unable to get out and enjoy a local trail as we were working on house related activities. I thought I’d take a few minutes and share a photo from some of my favorite hiking trails and areas over the years. The Florida Trail in Ocala National Forest…you might see a black bear! Caprock Canyon State Park, Texas The view down to the Lake of the Clouds Hut from Mt. Washington. White Mountains National Forest, New Hampshire. Appalachian Trail From the trails at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Florida On the Crosstimbers Trail. Lake Texoma, Texas From the trails at the St. Sebastian…
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Zoe’s Garden Gloves | Wordless Wednesday
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Fanciful Foxgloves
The foxglove blooms peaked back in April but I have sat on the photos for a month now. I meant to write about the wonderful blossoms that dotted the flower garden several weeks ago but time passed and other posts went up instead. It really was glorious there for awhile. We would pull up in the driveway to purple, pink, and white spires of flowers poking up from around the garden. There was definitely a cottage garden feel about the landscape. Now most of them are in seed, the stalks flopped over and the leaves slowly rotting away. The last several photos document a strange foxglove we had growing. We…
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Tomatoes: Coming Soon
Patiently waiting for dreamy delightfulness of ripe tomatoes. -ML