Week of April 14

With a couple of 90 degree days already in the record books, maybe summer has actually reached the Florida garden. The warmth has certainly brought out a new group of SPRING FLOWERS to add color and interest.  Two arrivals to our front yard are the Society Garlic and the Asian Iris.  Both are very heat and drought tolerant.  The garlic is an often pungent bulb plant with clusters of dainty blue flowers.  The African iris have fine white blooms which hover like butterflies and on closer examination have beautiful yellow, lavender, and black markings.  Another early entry is copper canyon daisy that return every spring to back corner of the garden.  They give clusters of bright yellow flowers on low growing plants.  A new addition this year is a blue salvia planted next to the lanai.  These dark blue spikes attract loads of bees and butterflies for us to watch from the pool. The most unusual flower in the spring garden is on the three massive cut-leaf philodendrons that grow in both front and back yards.  They have a foot long blossom with a pure white stamen coming out of a green sheath.  Joyce reminds me they were an erotic favorite of the artist, Georgia O’Keefe.  You never know what you will find on a morning walk in our garden.