Cool temperatures and clear skies brought enjoyment to even the most mundane of gardening chores. Florida Fall colors greeted me as I moved around tending to trimming and weeding. The red berries of the native rouge plant, Rivina humilis, are so prolific they make up for the spots of fungus on the leaves left by the incessant rains of last month.
Tillandsias enjoyed all that rain and are now showing off their fall colors. These have to be the easiest plants to care for in my garden.
The red firespike, Odontonema strictum, is at the height of its glory. The fact that freezing temperatures kill it back is actually a good thing. Winter weather keeps this monster from taking over the whole garden. It always grows back quickly as soon as the ground warms in spring and is ready for late summer blooms that last until that first frost occurs.
Opening its blooms right on time for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season, is the Christmas cassia, Cassia bicapsularis. When all the yellow blossoms are open this little tree is quite a spectacular sight.
One of the gardening chores urgently needed was righting the sweet almond bush, Aloysia virgata, which had been blown sideways during a recent windstorm. While propping and staking it, I decided to trim it up into a one-trunked tree. Hopefully, that won't prove to be too much for it to handle all at one time.
These sweet smelling flowers are present all year but in the spring and fall they are more abundant. The more this little tree is trimmed the more it produces its sweet perfume.
Nothing is better than a delightful day in the garden!
