On My Walk This Morning 4a

On my walk this morning, I encountered a number of colorful and

interesting flowers and plants.

Someone planted eight amaryllis bulbs around a tree, and they are gradually

all opening up.  (Someone gave me a Waxed Amaryllis for Christmas, and

it is slowly growing and opening up.  I am up to five leaves.)  In this bed,

there are two pink amaryllis and five reds of various shades.

Pink Amaryllis

Deep Red Amaryllis

Some strange things are happening, and I do not know whether it is climate change

or just that Florida weather is so mild that flowers can bloom all year long.

This is a cluster of blossoms on a low branch of a Queen Crepe Myrtle.  There were blossoms on the tips of three other low branches.  But the whole top of the tree had bloomed three months ago.

Winter Cassia / Senna.  There re many varieties of Cassia, and they bloom at

different times of the year.  There was a spectacular one, which I showed earlier,

which had bloomed further down St. Gertrude Canal.

Flowers on Winter Cassia / Senna tree.

"Pink Sorbet" Copperleaf Bush.  The Copperleaf Bush is a very versatile and

hardy bush which grows up to 6 feet high.  It comes in every color from

Himalayan Snows White to a very deep copper brown.  It is highly decorative

and looks good in any garden.

Purple Floss Silk Tree.  This is one of several flowering trees we have which bloom

in December.  This one has that swelling in he lower part of the trunk, as well as

little spokes all over the sides of the trunk.  The metal band was placed there recently

to prevent iguanas from climbing the tree; they like to eat brightly colored flowers.

Looking up into the Floss Silk Tree.

The purple and white flowers on the Floss Silk Tree; they bloom from late November

through the whole month of December.

Yellow Thryallis.  They are bright and cheerful.  Our Walgreen's used to have a large bed

of them, but has replaced them with blue Plumbago.  I was sorry to see the Thryallis go,

and so I was happy to find some bushes near my house.

Purple Pentas / Egyptian Star Flowers.  One of the buildings planted several beds

of these for winter flowering plants.  They looked very nice.

For Christmas time, each building chooses its own decorations.  This building

chose two very large pots of Yellow Chrysanthemums outside the doors, and

several poinsettias inside the lobby.

Yellow Chrysanthemums

The beautiful collection of Double Purple Ground Orchids is still flourishing.

This is in Nancy's Bed.

The area around this tree was once filled with various colors of Caladiums.  They were

all torn out by groundskeepers at some point.  But a bit of a root must have survived

in one spot and grew into this lovely plant.  They come in every color from white to

pink to red to purple to green and various mixtures.  I like them.

Yellow Oncidium Orchid.  Orchids have continued blooming on trees all year long.

Right now there are more than a dozen orchid plants hanging from trees along my path,

and there are fat swelling buds on all of them.   It is nice to have orchids blooming

on your trees all year long.