Greetings Growers & Lovers of Green Things

The Tropical Grower welcomes you to the online version of Our Garden. Check out our What’s Bloomn’ slideshow featuring last week’s flowers, cruz the latest topics at the Blog Page for information, enjoy the Photos, or just check out what’s happening this week in Garden Dirt. While we are Growing Tropical, growing is for everyone, and we’re here to share the green.

Garden Dirt

March 2, 2026

Spring! Finally

While I should say Tropical Spring, My Aunt reported Daffodils in the mid-west last week.  We miss Daffodils.  My Sister said the Northeast was still blanketed in snow.  So, Spring for some.  Woo-Hiss.  LOL!  If you’re still waiting for the weather to turn, it’s coming.  Hang in there.  Try sprouting some seeds or cuttings inside.  We like the kitchen window.  There’s usually green rooting things and ripening fruit there.

We survived our last cold snap relatively unscathed, but we never hit freezing.  Luckily, the warmer of the 2 nights was the windy one.  And, despite all my fears, Spring continued right along almost as if the last cold snap hadn’t happened.  Except for the Corn, even covered, the original sprouts died.  The 2nd round of replacement seedlings survived just fine.  I guess we’re replanting all the Corn.  Dang.  Not too bad for an extra chilly Dry Season.

It’s an exciting time, watching all the green things wake up.  Even in the Tropical Growing Zones, green things go dormant, or mostly so, in the dry season with less sunlight.  We lose leaves off some of the big trees.  Things get a little crispy without water.  But it’s very rare that the world looks completely crumbly and brown like up north.  Usually, only after storms.  This year is different.  The naked shrubs and trees are sprouting leaves everywhere, waking up.  Bare bulbs are sending up flower stalks.  It’s Spring, and it looks like it out there.  Can’t say it’s anything but a joy to watch, even with all the brown stuff.

Around Our Garden

Looking around, it was difficult to find a place to start.  All the brown crumbly stuff still hanging-on to the sprouting stuff.  The weeds.  The dead leaves all over the ground, again.  Or, my favorite, the Coconut tree shedding giant palm fronds, offering a super bridge from the ground all the way up to the ripening fruit.  We lost most of the baby fruit and 1 of the 3 bunches of not quite ready fruit.  Dang.  Raccoons.  Not a fan.

If you’re not familiar with the children’s book ‘Alexander and the Horrible Terrible No Good Very Bad Day’, you should read it.  Every child should read it.  Adults too.  I’d gone out to start the walking path around the Coconut tree and found it mangled.  And, the day got worse from there.  LOL!  We got the tree fixed, the path edged-in and leveled, so the end result was good.  Hopefully, in the next month or so, we’ll have a new fully connected walking path.  My Mom is in training for her Australia trip, after all.

There was also more hacking at the Dragon Fruit Cactus with scale and fighting weeds.  You would think the cold snaps would freeze the weeds, but no.  They’re the greenest things in Our Garden.  LOL!  Not really.  Things really started waking up last week, including the Giant Elephant Ear Philodendrons.  The cold melted them.  But, early one morning, we found new ginormous baby leaves reaching for the sun.  Woo-Hoo!  So happy to have them back.  We can see the neighbors.

Harvest

Well, there were some Coconuts the raccoons didn’t get to.  Not ripe enough for fruit, they were drained for the Coconut Water.  And, there was a random Key Lime.  Not complaining, more surprised.  We had not seen it in the tree.  So, weird finding it laying there.  My Mom brought in a Cabbage, and I grabbed a Turnip and some Broccoli.        

We also got the fishing line strung in the Florida Peach Tree, just in time, as the little baby peaches are starting to pop out.  And, the winter birds are here.  The fishing line is temporary, to keep the birds away from the peaches.  It’s supposed to make it difficult for them to see where to land.  It’s an old beach trick, and it seems to work.  I’ll admit, I got a bit carried away with the line this year, but I want Peaches.  LOL!

If the Peach tree wasn’t recovering from bugs, I’d hit it with some super bloom fertilizer.  Don’t want to over-tax it.  We did notice the Orange tree was starting to bud out.  It will be getting some super bloom along with the Palmogranite, Wisteria and Lemon.  The rest will be getting their yearly neutral fertilizer dose in the next week or 2.  

Flowers

The White Hong Kong Orchid from Dawson’s tree got the feature this week.  The delicate white petals seem more like wings fluttering high up there in the tree.  So pretty.  They catch the light in bright shining burst of white.  The blooms emerge in lines, climbing the branches, and in clusters.  It’s always a show.

The Aloe tried to bloom last week.  We found at least 3 buds which were immediately removed.  We do not want them to go to seed and die.  We want it to grow and spread.  The Red Amaryllis looked magnificent with more bud spikes popping up everywhere.  And, the Cosmos is starting to attract the pollinators.  Butterflies and Bees, Oh my!  Enjoy!

Check out What’s Bloomn’ slideshow for more flowers or visit Garden Dirt Diary to catch up on what’s been going on around Our Garden.