The Little Tree That Could

Verawood tree (Bulnesia arborea) The city planted this tree last summer. During the dry winter and spring they watered it at least two times a week. The watering is much less expensive then losing the young trees.

A Guava Flower From Guavonia

Before we were a city the area was farm land. The guava was a major crop. And the guava jelly was well known and northerners knew us for the jelly. If you Google 'Guavonia' you will get Coral Gables.

I Can't Grow Tulips, But I Do Pretty Well

Blood lilies are my answer to a Dutch spring garden. I can't grow tulips but Blood lilies will do very nice, thank you.
Click here to see a close view of one stem.
Click here to see more of the lilies.

The First Lotus Flower Of The Season

I Like The House, I Like The Lions, But.....

I even like the people that live there. I have to ask them about the hats.

Poinciana Place Has A Poinciana

Poinciana Place went 50 years without a poinciana tree. Now this young tree will give meaning to the name Poinciana Place.

Villa Alegria

Recently the this house was named a home of joy (or jubilation). In the 20's 6 or 8 houses were given names, such as Blue Gables, Seven Oaks, and Poinciana Place.

Peacock Ginger / Kaempferia roscoeana

The peacock ginger is showing up its peacock like leaves. By late summer the leaves will be a regular green. The flowers will continue until cold weather.


The rhizomes of this plant pops up all over my garden. This one is the lawn. It gets cut along with the grass and it never can produce a full leaf, but it manages to put up a nice flower.

The Glenn Mango Is The First To Be Picked

It's nice to see a large crop in your backyard.

But it's better to see ripe fruit in your kitchen.

Plumeria Or Frangipani It's Still beautiful

Keno is the clonal name. We have had 5 days of rain and little blue in the sky. We need the water after 6 months of no rain. People are wondering if our lost water had to come back in one week. The rain gives the flowers something that city water or well water just can't do. The orange color is not a common color in a plumeria.
I now have a movie clip about plumeria

A Silver Bluff In The Montgomery Garden

This stone spine runs from Palm Beach to Homestead. Most of this ridge is not visible. Coral Gables sits on this rock. Our house is 11 feet above the waterline. In south Florida that's high land. This beautiful bluff is in a private home, but a large silver bluff can be seen in Coconut Grove.

Arenga australasica

The Montgomery garden has a large collection of palms. This Arenga has a striking color that makes it stand out. It can get as high as 35 feet and 20 feet across.

We Waited 6 Months For The Rain

The winter and spring has been very dry this year. That changed last night and now this morning the clouds still linger. I had to drive in the storm with little light and plenty of rain. Most of the time you could only see part of the road. It was like a Disney ride but not safe.

This is my water gage. We had about 5 inches of rain.

Brassavola digbyana

This is as fuzzy as they come.

Coral Gables Venetian Pool

Last October the pool was closed for repairs. It opened this last Friday, only two weeks late. The Red Cross taught me how to swim here in the 40s. The lessons were free. Back then a good swim cost five cents for children. What can you get for a nickel today?