Technicolors

I have always enjoyed plants and gardening in Puerto Rico has been very very fun indeed! When we walk through the jungle to go to caves we see things that are houseplants in the US, and any little snippet of anything I take from along the road or in the jungle usually grows into something wonderful. Fast! These heliconias were near an abandoned house on our road. When the flowers appeared shortly after we moved here, I went and dug up a few rhizomes for the yard. Even though it has only been a year...here they are, loads of flowers just hanging and inviting humming birds for lunch.



The Angel's Trumpet I found on the side of the road as well. The arm-length blooms smell heavenly and the flowers start out yellow and turn orange as they age. It is just a stick plant (not yet a tree) but still has had 8 or 10 flowers already! I haven't gotten any parch (passion fruit) which surprises me, but at least I am getting some flowers (below).

Everything seems to be blooming or fruiting right now - the lettuce has bolted but I have replanted and have many flowers and lot of fruit to harvest while I wait for it to grow.

A Meteorite hibiscus.

Ylang-ylang is the coolest looking, best smelling flower EVER! How can you beat the leg-long heliconias though - fake colors and flowers that last for several months! Gardening in PR...a good thing.

Orchids and a Pitahaya

We've got orchids hanging in baskets under the Maria Tree and a couple of them are blooming! This one had a couple sprays like this one (they are at the end but nice anyway).


This is the first time I have seen this large one bloom. For an orchid this is a pretty large flower!

A friend just gave us this orchid this weekend - believe it or not it is vanilla bean - the kind you cook with! I don't know what I thought the plant would look like, but I didn't realize that vanilla is an orchid! I haven't decided where to train it - probably just on the Maria Tree branch (one that isn't covered in Philodendron).

What is this thing a photo of? When we got here there was barbed wire along the driveway fencing off what is now guineo/papaya land . We didn't like all the fencing and wanted to put the bottom area to use so we took it down. There were however a couple of these super heavy and immovable cement posts. Hmmm, what can I do with those? They look weird. So I have planted a Pitahaya (dragon fruit) and am training it up the post and then will connect the two posts with some sort of structure for it. The dragon fruit is a cactus that produces flowers over 2 feet across!!! The fruit is kind of cool as well. I have only had it dried but this plant has cool factor! Do a web search on it and take a look at the fruit and flowers - way way cool!