Hey ya'll so glad you could make it....just love having you stop by!
How's everything with you? I hope life is treating you nicely and the rough spots are easily smoothed over with time. Truth be told I've had a hard time getting back into the swing of things since my Dad passed away in January of this year. Cleaning out his house is surprisingly overwhelming and seems like I get no where....the man had soooooooo much stuff! Three amoires, two china cabinets, twenty table/floor lamps, clothes galore, loads of knick-knacks and so much more, oyi! When I'm there it is hard to fathom the reality of the task...I find myself saying things like "Dad loves that shirt" or "he will be so happy to see the garage organized" or I find myself not sitting in his chair because I'm expecting him to walk in the room and sit down. But above all of those inner talkings there is always one singular moment that pulls on my heart...EVERYTIME and I mean everytime we would walk in the door, he would say "helloooooo?" Because he was usually in another room but could hear the door chime. Eventhough he knew who was walking in the door..."hellloooo". Now when I walk in the house I still say "hellooooo" but then tear up because the silence answers back instead.
Give me a sec, let me just wipe my eyes cause I'm getting all foggy over here and can't see if I have any typos.
Ok move on to happier things to talk about, am I right!?! So here's whats been going in the garden and around town. First let me tell you the most exciting of all news!!! My friend and I were hanging out at our house, cooking, chatting, sipping cocktails, etc. She hadn't been here in a while so I was showing her some of the new additions in the garden. And there on my cotton candy berry tree (muntingia calabura), beaming bright neon iridescent blue in the sunlight was this little black blue and tomato red butterfly. It looked like someone electrified it due to it's brilliant color blue. As we were admiring this lil' beauty, we start seeing them all over the tree. Well wouldn't you know...it's the elusive and somewhat rare atala butterfly! I know right!?! Incredible!!! I literally almost lost my mind...psst a little secret...I feel so special....is that bad? I mean to see one is pretty cool but to have about 10 of them hanging out in your garden...wellll jah it's pretty freaking amazing! Here's some pics.
Some of you may or may not know the history of this little butterfly. Atala (eumaeus atala) is pronounced 'ah-tail-uh' and is the largest in its family of the hairstreaks. Its wing span is about 1 1/2 inches long. Back in the early days of Florida, circa late 1800's-early 1900's, these butterflies were so numerous they were considered pests. Around the mid 1900's (mid 1930's- early 1960's) they were thought to be extinct since no one had seen one. The atala's decline was thought to be because of two major events happening at the same time in the early 1900's. The building boom of Florida and the Native American's relying on coonties as part of their diet. I honestly believe the former being the majority of the reason. The removal of the native scrub land habitat where it lived was eradicated for housing and retail development on such a scale that was unprecedented in Florida at that time. Sadly it still continues to this day. The atala needs the coontie cycad (zamia integrifolia) to lay it's eggs on and nourish the baby caterpillar's with the leaves as their food. With that gone so was the atala.....until one day in 1979 someone found a small colony existing on Key Biscayne. Since then the push for their survival has been very successful. Now the atala butterflies live from the Florida Keys all the way up to Indian River County. All of these butterfly colonies are thought to be from the original lone colony on the Key. They also live in the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Bahamas where apparently their numbers were never in any threat. Though there are certain colonies in the west coast of Florida that are ephemeral, meaning they come and go. It's scary how fast the west coast of Florida is developing and eradicating the native habitat so we may see another decline of species real soon unless we stop this madness. Miam-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties seem to have the most permanent colonies. Hopefully our new colony will be too!
But wait it gets better, I thought maybe our nextdoor neighbor would have some too because they have some really large coonties in their front yard. Uhmmm, it blew my mind how many there were at their house! The ones at our house must have originated from their house. Here's some pic's from their yard of the atala butterflies and the caterpillar's on the coontie.
If you want to take a last-of-the-summer road trip or live near by Fort Pierce, their state park has an atala colony that is quite prominent this time of year. It's the Fort Pierce Inlet State Park at 905 Shorewinds Drive. Check it out though remember, all species of plants and animals are federally protected in state parks. So look but no touching or foraging please.
Take a picture, it'll last longer...hee hee.
Really not much has been happening this summer, the vegetable garden has struggled due to my neglect and the heat, I'm finally getting back to getting our ignored landscape under control (gosh it's embarrassing) and will be working in our veggie garden to get that ready for fall and winter's plantings.
Here are a few plants I acquired earlier this year:
mango 'coconut cream', pink guava, fig 'LSU purple', snowbank 'white' blackberry and baby slash pine trees from Walmart of all places.
With the rains we have been getting just recently, our Jamaican capers are super happy with the hugest seed pods I seen so far, hanging all over them. Some already popped open like the Pilsbury dough rolls and some are almost ready to burst their bright red sticky seeded insides out for the birds to eat.
What I have been working on though are my orchids...yes I'mmm baaaack with my orchid obsession. I found an old school grower in Homestead who grows the old school phalaenopsis's with the huge floppy leafs and very long sprays of large flowers. But he mainly grows cattleya orchids, you know the kind of classic cattleya's with huge flowers, ruffled edges and incredibly perfumey. OMG so amazing! It's hard to find orchid growers still growing their own crosses of species. Many of them order flasks of hybrids to grow and sell which isn't a bad thing but the art of orchid crossing I feel is not being passed down to a next generation. It's really sad there are such small numbers of young ones getting involved to continue growing these amazing plants. I'll be posting the pictures of some of these in my next post for you to see. But in the meantime here's a couple to wet your appetite!
Well folks, that's about all for now...I'll do much better in consistently posting from here on out. I promise. Thank you for sticking around today and looking forward to seeing you again! Stay hydrated and be good to each other and our planet, it's the only home we have.
Happy Gardening and Best Wishes,
Sheri B.
XOXO
Give me a sec, let me just wipe my eyes cause I'm getting all foggy over here and can't see if I have any typos.
Ok move on to happier things to talk about, am I right!?! So here's whats been going in the garden and around town. First let me tell you the most exciting of all news!!! My friend and I were hanging out at our house, cooking, chatting, sipping cocktails, etc. She hadn't been here in a while so I was showing her some of the new additions in the garden. And there on my cotton candy berry tree (muntingia calabura), beaming bright neon iridescent blue in the sunlight was this little black blue and tomato red butterfly. It looked like someone electrified it due to it's brilliant color blue. As we were admiring this lil' beauty, we start seeing them all over the tree. Well wouldn't you know...it's the elusive and somewhat rare atala butterfly! I know right!?! Incredible!!! I literally almost lost my mind...psst a little secret...I feel so special....is that bad? I mean to see one is pretty cool but to have about 10 of them hanging out in your garden...wellll jah it's pretty freaking amazing! Here's some pics.
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| This atala butterfly I found at my friend Ms. Joyce's house a few months ago, look how brilliant that blue is! |
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| The atala's will hang out on the leaves in the shade of the cotton candy berry tree for hours. It's wild, I've never seen butterflies sit still for that long. |
But wait it gets better, I thought maybe our nextdoor neighbor would have some too because they have some really large coonties in their front yard. Uhmmm, it blew my mind how many there were at their house! The ones at our house must have originated from their house. Here's some pic's from their yard of the atala butterflies and the caterpillar's on the coontie.
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| These are the atala's eggs on the coontie plant. |
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| A bunch of atala chrysalis on the coonties. |
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| The atala butterfly on a tall flowering plant my neighbor has growing. |
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| Believe it or not I have no idea what this flowering plant is that my neighbor has growing in their yard. It's not an annual but grows all year round and has been there for at least four years. But the atala's love it. |
If you want to take a last-of-the-summer road trip or live near by Fort Pierce, their state park has an atala colony that is quite prominent this time of year. It's the Fort Pierce Inlet State Park at 905 Shorewinds Drive. Check it out though remember, all species of plants and animals are federally protected in state parks. So look but no touching or foraging please.
Take a picture, it'll last longer...hee hee.
Really not much has been happening this summer, the vegetable garden has struggled due to my neglect and the heat, I'm finally getting back to getting our ignored landscape under control (gosh it's embarrassing) and will be working in our veggie garden to get that ready for fall and winter's plantings.
Here are a few plants I acquired earlier this year:
mango 'coconut cream', pink guava, fig 'LSU purple', snowbank 'white' blackberry and baby slash pine trees from Walmart of all places.
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| This is my 'LSU purple' fig, it's absolutely by far the most delicious fig I have eaten to date! If you find one in your travels I highly recommend purchasing it, especially if you like figs! |
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| These are my two snowbank 'white' blackberry plants. I was so nervous they would literally shrivel up to nothing in our seriously hot and humid summer but I planted them in a temporary spot next to my hose in part sun/part shade and so far so good. They have super sharp thorns everywhere so I'm thrilled about that but I'm very excited to see what they produce! |
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| Our Jamaican capers in bloom it drives the bees and butterflies crazy with excitement for the nectar the flowers provide. |
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| See how full the Jamaican caper shrubs are? They make great privacy hedges! |
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| Aren't these just the coolest looking seed pods!?! |
What I have been working on though are my orchids...yes I'mmm baaaack with my orchid obsession. I found an old school grower in Homestead who grows the old school phalaenopsis's with the huge floppy leafs and very long sprays of large flowers. But he mainly grows cattleya orchids, you know the kind of classic cattleya's with huge flowers, ruffled edges and incredibly perfumey. OMG so amazing! It's hard to find orchid growers still growing their own crosses of species. Many of them order flasks of hybrids to grow and sell which isn't a bad thing but the art of orchid crossing I feel is not being passed down to a next generation. It's really sad there are such small numbers of young ones getting involved to continue growing these amazing plants. I'll be posting the pictures of some of these in my next post for you to see. But in the meantime here's a couple to wet your appetite!
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| This phalaenopsis flowers started a deep dark purple/pink color and the older it got the lighter the flowers became, changing color over time. |
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| This is another one of the phalaenopsis's and these flowers are on the same orchid! How'bout dat!?! |
Happy Gardening and Best Wishes,
Sheri B.
XOXO
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