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Merry Christmas to all!

Blooms Day December 2011

Its December, when my blooms are at their peak, while the Northern gardens are winding down

Above: zinnia from Baker Creek seeds and red purslane. I love red flowers. I think that is the favourite bloom color of many Caribbean gardeners. However my erythrina (immortelle) trees have wasp galls and my red hibiscus succumbed to mealybugs

Above: another of my favourite flowers, bougainvillea. I want  every color!

The big show is put on by Cassia alata, also known as Candlestick Tree and Candelabra Bush. Blooming for the first time. I grew these from seeds I collected in Barbados a couple years ago.

Must have been a rather pious person to look at this and call it candlestick tree or candelabra bush

Rather than, uh, some other kind of tree

 Bee Action

Rudely interrupted

 Soft, pillowy tree morning glory 

 Fuchsia purslane, known in the Caribbean as "jump up and kiss me"

Pink Pride of Barbados, from seeds collected in the Botanic gardens in Guyana.

Yellow oleander


Check out Carol's May Dream Gardens for blooms around the US and world. 

The rock garden rocks!

One year later and the rock garden has taken off beyond expectations. Indeed there is very little rock left visible!

Above: Agave desmetianna, indigenous pillar cactus and red berry shrub, date palm and kalanchoe

 Agave beaulariana, with spineless prickly pear and blooming kalanchoe flapjack

In the center is aloe maculata in bud. Other plants in pic include sea grape, Aloe arborescens, and Sansevieria

 Agave taken from wild (possibly karatto) in front of yucca aloifolia

Almost all the plants in the rock garden were free-grown from seeds, cuttings/offsets or taken from the bush 

kalanchoe "donkey ears" in bloom

 I love this pretty blue agave (with red Russelia equisetiformis) though I don't know its name

 Cactus in bloom. This one is spineless and the young pads are edible

another view of the agave

mini rock garden on porch (:

Seedpods and Blooms Mauritius

 Some interesting seedpods on these trees at Domaine Les Pailles, I do not know what type of tree it is.

 Behind a friend's house these on the side of a gorge these agave like plants were blooming

 Anyone knows what these are?

 You can see some of the water in the gorge

 Beautiful backyard views

Mauritius: flower market, sugar cane juice and sculptures

The flower market at Quatre Bornes with lovely fresh local grown blooms

 waxy anthurium lilies-these last a couple weeks

 pretty white lilies

 hollyhocks?

 got me some of these geberas at US 50 cents each

 friendly flower vendor

pink lilies at US$3.50 per bunch

Now, onto the Caudon waterfront:

 a picture perfect cart of sugar cane

 squeezing the juice

another view of the cart

Also at Caudon, great facial sculptures. The ones in the first photo are by the artist Pem. I think also the second but not sure.

Agave update

A update on the large agaves that were put into the ground. All are doing quite well. This one (was not labelled, any ID assistance will be appreciated) is so pretty

This one was taken from the wild, I believe it is A karatto. They can get really huge, like 6 feet wide

Perfectly symmetrical. Another "freebie" found self sown in a friend's garden . Possibly A. Angustifolia

Powder blue A Beauleriana Jacobi

Agave desmettiana

Steely blue upright leaves on huge agave. (A. Americana?) Or something else?