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

November 9, 2026

Chilly with Pants

It’s official, we’ve switched to pants in the mornings.  And socks.  Below 70 degrees, Brrr.   LOL!  We’re catching the tail end of the chill as the sun comes up below the Tropical Growing lines in the mornings.  LOL.  It’s actually been really nice.  The planties are happy.  We’re happy out there.  The Bees and Butterflies are happy visiting the flowers.  No sign of drought.  Good all around.

Most of the Tropicals are waving their Dry Season flags.  The large old growth Schefflera in the Cage Match is blooming.  Well, what passes for blooming.  It looks more like Corn Tassels made up of tiny alien antenna.  LOL.  The Bees love them.  You can hear the whole area buzzing as the Bees crawl all over the little antenna things.  The Bougainvillea is starting to flash bright hot pink as well, attracting the Butterflies.  The Veggies, while off to a slow start, look amazing as good as the Fall Wildflowers, and I’m starting to get that distinct feeling we’re cheating.  At growing.  Cause things look beautiful with such ease.

Around Our Garden

Despite the dainty appearance of the Schefflera flowers, the whole thing is pretty heavy.  Those are Dupes, like berries, that form after the flowers are fertilized, and they have some weight.  The flower heads, as they develop, get heavier and pull the whole branch towards the ground.  Not so great in a tunnel situation like we have going through the Cage Match.  The entrance branches started to droop.  Combined with the highly territorial Dragon Fly that kept dive bombing me as I went through, it was a bit of an obstacle course to get through in the morning.  So, we cut the edge branches, just lopped them off, flowers and all.  The Dragon Fly can live there.

They weren’t the only Schefflera getting out of control, the Box Hedge is very puffy.  Since we were focused on getting around first, there’s a nice edge right by the door, and everything else is still puffy.  It’s a good reminder going into darker mornings that we can only do what we can in the time we have.  There will be a running list.  Not sure it ever gets completely done.  LOL.  There is a joy in that.

With the food planties loving life, they needed some attention, of course.  Weedy weeds.  Bean, Cucumber, Squash, Watermelon, and Cantaloupe vines needed direction.  The Cucumber swirly grabbers keep trying to attach to the screen.  The Cantaloupe wanted to climb the Beans.  They are good problems to have, especially all the flowers.

Harvest

As mentioned previously, the Corn is most likely sparsely pollinated.  FrankenCorn.  That’s what happens when it rains for days during pollination.  Dang.  There’s nothing left to do but watch it grow, poorly.  Double Dang.  The Disappointment is offset just a bit by the crazy Cucumber vines.  With leaves the size of small plates and so many flowers it has become a Bee Haven.  Woo-Hoo!  The Palm Frond Shades have made it so happy.  The Beans in the Raised Bed next door look equally amazing with so many blooms and developing pods.  The outlook for food is very good.

The Bok Choy has reached Harvest size.  We’re starting to take the outside leaves.  Yum.  The Lima Beans we grew in the last days of summer reached their end and we took the final dried Beans.  Woo-Hoo!  And, the Key Lime tree gave us some more Limes.  Every time I pick one off the ground I wonder if it’s the last one.  Good tree.  Sorry about the drought.  There was irrigation.

Flowers

In case you missed it, we are Featuring the Cucumber flowers.  Yup, food flowers.  The 5 pointed bright yellow beauties shine golden in the morning and completely cover the vines.  How lovely.  The Bees agree as we had to work around them last week.  We’ve never had this many, and we’re going to miss the warm yellow glow as the sunlight shines through the trees in the morning.  We’re hoping the tasty Cucumbers will make it all okay, though.  LOL.

Not just 1, but 2 of the Orange Vanda Orchids grew flower spikes and opened the cute little pilots.  We love these.  The Purple Dendrobium Orchids also threw a little spike with a few tiny flowers.  The Cosmos is still going crazy and we’re enjoying the pretty glow of the Pink Rain Lilies.  Woo-Hoo!  So many blooms.  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.