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

June 17, 2026

Butterflies! And Blooms!

Even with the patchy start to the Rainy Season, it’s starting to look a lot like a tropical garden out there.  Some might say paradise.  It does feel that way, the tropical part, but that’s partly due to all the growth.  Besides the hot and sticky wet, which really revs up about 9:30-10 am, the Tropical Growth is big, lush and green, distinctly tropical.  We like that in a garden, especially in Our Garden.

The Pollinators like it too.  Point yourself in any direction, and it only takes a moment or 2 before they appear, skirting the Zinnias, playing on the Golden Dewdrops.  The Bees almost make it feel crowded at times.  The Honey Bees, particularly.  They’re nice Bees.  Only occasionally do we run into one that’s an ass.  Mad for some unknown reason, but short-lived if you leave it alone for a few moments.  Mostly, we share, happily.

But it’s the Butterflies we crave.  The brief moments of utter joy fluttering through Our Garden.  My Mom commented last week at the crazy number.  So many.  Woo-Hoo!  Plan working.  It’s hard to be unhappy looking at a Butterfly, and we’ve spent years planting to attract them, sacrificing plants for their return.  Oh, and the countless Butterfly Gardens we toured.  For planning purposes, oh course.  LOL!  Last week, we even got an Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly.  Never stopped flapping its amazing wings, loving on the dill.  We believe it was laying eggs.  Woo-Hoo!  We can plant more dill.  But as always, it’s the Gulf Fritillary Butterflies in abundance.  Woo-Hoo!  And they’re so friendly.  Kinda divas, loving the photo shoots.  As long as there’s plenty of pollen.  LOL!

Around Our Garden

With all the lush new growth, there was trimming away all the dead, dying stuff.  Some of it we left in place after the last hard freeze.  We were in a drought.  Not only did some of the planties need some extra padding, but there were large screening holes.  My personal preference is to NOT look at the neighbors.  But with all the new growth, it was necessary.  It’s time for tropicals to grow.  So, the large patch of the White Birds of Paradise was #1 on the list right next to the Bougainvillea by the house.

Besides the ginormous leaves, bigger than me, there’s nothing particularly difficult about trimming the White Birds of Paradise.  Except the sun.  This time of year, the moment the sun clears the Pine Trees on the Eastern Boundary, it blasts the area.  So it usually takes a couple of mornings because I melt the moment the sun hits me.  LOL!  Seriously, no working in direct sunlight if at all possible.  The UV is up at 11.

Trimming

While we had the Pole Cutter out for the White Birds of Paradise and extra time after the sun blasted the area, the Laurel Oak Tree branches near the roof of the new shed were shed.  Don’t want anything beating on the new shingles.  The Bottle Brush tree had some dead spots, and a few of the branches from the neighbor’s Avocado tree were pushing into the Anniversary tree (Purple Hong Kong Orchid).  All in the shade, of course.  Hopefully, we’ll get some new sprouts from the cuttings.

There’s a few more minutes in the morning before sun blasts the Bougainvillea by the house, and it was completed in 1 morning.  Woo-Hoo!  Since there were some old growth branches to take down, it meant rooting for more planties.  ½ the cuttings we stuck in water, the other ½, after soaking, were planted along the inside of the tunnel on the undeveloped property to grow as part of the new living fence and screen for the road.  More Scheffelera cuttings were planted as well.  It’s a big plan.  We also worked more on trimming up the tunnel.  Gotta have light and room for the new planties to grow.  There’s only about 20 feet left to clear.  Woo-Hoo!  I’ll be happy when it’s done.

Harvest

The Harvests are going to start dwindling dramatically.  Boo-Hiss.  Even the tropical fruit we normally harvest over the summer will be missing.  We lost most of what was growing in the hard freezes.  Since it takes a year for things like the Coconuts to develop or the Banana trees to grow, we know it’s coming.  Yeah, that’s my big lip you see.  Boo-Hiss!  We love eating things we grow, but some years are like that.  Sometimes you have to wait for things you love in the garden.  It’s part of being a Grower.   Growing Tropical is no different.  We got fruit in the severe drought last year, so we’re ahead, technically.  Boo-Hiss.

We’re also watching the Veggies slowly die.  There were Tomatoes, Celery, Cabbage and Broccoli for our table.  So, it isn’t over.  It’s just getting there.  But, we’re watching some very strong Tomato replants.  So maybe we’ll get something.  LOL!  It could happen.

Flowers

The Gold Coins Dendrobium Orchids bloomed!  Woo-Hoo!  So, of course, they are the Feature.  The showers of blooms are a house favorite with their brilliant golden color.  Each about the size of an actual gold coin, they all open together down a spike, creating a spray of flowers.  Almost as if someone were throwing a handful of Gold Coins.  LOL!  We like it when things are named properly.  With their sparkle and glow, we wait for them all year.  And this year, once they spiked, we moved the 2 giant plants into the lanai so the rain couldn’t get them.  Gold Coins for weeks.  Woo-Hoo!

We also got another spike of the Purple Cattleya Orchids.  So pretty.  These are maybe in the top 5 of gorgeous blooms in Our Garden.  The Crepe Myrtle’s are back. Woo-Hoo! The Pink Rain Lilies were lighting the beds as well.  Oh, darn.  The Tiger Lilies are still going strong, and the Wildflowers are out in abundance.  It’s a Butterfly party.  Woo-Hoo!  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.