Week of October 6

The heat and dryness of the long summer persisted through September at our Florida home.  It is a real art to maintain flowering plants, the color they bring, and the food they supply our butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. We rely on some bushes like the fire bush, pentas, lantana, salvias and orange zest cestrum  to just keep going from spring until frost.  The fire spikes add bright red spikes on the end of their branches.  Others only bloom in this later period.  Most prominent are the gingers.  The lovely white butterfly gingers put up white blooms which seem to hover above the shiny leaves.  Curcuma or hidden cone gingers make clumps of blooms a couple of feet off the ground.  Pine cone gingers put out large red and green cone structures which produce small red flowers.  Red gingers have a plume if red petals from which yellow flowers emerge.  Finally, an enigma is a plant we added to the shade garden because of the texture of its leaves.  It did poorly for several years, barely surviving.  This year it grew 6 feet tall and gave out the most beautiful blue blossoms.  We have long forgotten its name (Tiberion?)!  Soon, the cool weather will give everything a rest, including the gardeners.