Choice Morsels

  Garden Pic of the Day: Snake Iris Here in Northwest Florida, the end of January spells the end of winter and the beginning of spring! Everything is starting to "wake-up." Leaf buds line my rose stems and my Snake Iris has just started blooming! Here's an excellent shot of one of the 3 first blooms! It's a unique looking Iris, miniature in size, with deep purple outer petals and lime-ish inner petals. It occupies a container out front.

Last week, one winter day when was warmish and muggy after a rain, I found this "Stinkhorn" Fungus in my flower bed that's along the walkway to the front door.  Also known as Column Stinkhorn or more amusingly, as "Dead Man's Fingers." Stinkhorns have emit a smelly odor to attract flies and so on, who then brush against spores and carry them off--that's how it reproduces.  They are quite unique---though I don't put my nose up close!   Last week we had our first hard freeze--everything except this Alyssum and the Broccoli in my raised garden got freeze-fried.  I was out of town right then, so unfortunately I wasn't able to cover my Salvia or anything. But amazingly, this Alyssum carries on!

Today's Garden Pic is a close up of Asparagus fern in seasonal red & green! Check out all those berries! (Birds can eat them. Not for people.)  

This shot is out along my front walk: Purple Shamrocks, Dusty Miller in the background, Shasta Daisy greens to the bottom left and directly behind the strawberry pot & shamrocks are the tall spikes of my Siberian iris.  

I have two containers of Red Salvia brightening up my December! This one near the front door and one on the back patio I see out the sliding glass door! Actually, I took this shot in November and more Salvia has popped up both containers and come to bloom as well, so there's a lot more! When the blossoms turn brown, I break them off and put them on the soil in the container, so any seeds can grow.  Temps have been down around 36F degrees at night, but that doesn't bother the Salvia, Vinca or Alyssum. If temps do threaten to freeze, I'll cover the Salvia and that usually works pretty well. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas & also a Happy New Year!  

 This is my Maple Tree in my back yard: Actually, it's reasonably pretty this year. The trick to good fall color in deciduous trees is it has to get cold gradually. If cold comes on too suddenly, the change is swift and leaves fall too quick for a good showing of color and that's true regardless of location. Here in Northwest Florida, there are plenty of deciduous trees mixed in among the evergreen pines, magnolia trees & live oaks: Maples, Pecan Trees, Cypress, Sycamore, Scrub Oaks and all of them color as the weather cools between November & December. Pecan Trees turn a brilliant yellow. Cypress range from burnt to ruddy orange. Scrub Oaks turn a deep red tone. Anyone with a Japanese Maple gets burgundy. This Maple is called a "Florida Maple" or a "Florida Sugar Maple." It's a wild tree that was already established on the property when we built our house.

This is front yard boarder the lays along my property line with my neighbor. It's looked this pretty until just yesterday, when it got a little cold over night that put a dent in the Mexican Heather and some of the white Vinca, but the Marigolds persist. (Those are their solar flamingo lights, which look pretty at night.) And this is a shot of my front bed by the mailbox: That pretty light green plant with the magenta blossoms is a 4'Oclock called "Limelight." This is a fresh growth that sprang up in late September, I think. Here in Florida, 4'Clocks are perennial.  There are actually 3 of them in this bed; this one is the largest.