Wednesday, August 2, 2023

'Tropical Weather for Tropical Plants


 It's been a hot summer in Central Florida (like everywhere else) and we've had plenty of rain. Yesterday, we got two inches of this in about 20 minutes. Driving west, we hit the rain about three miles east on our way home. By the time we got home, coaxed the dogs out of the car and into the house, and got dried off enough to check the total, we were already a smidge over two inches. Damn! No wonder Karen had to carry the  dogs the 20' from the driveway into the house. There haven't been a lot of rains over two inches but it's rained at least 4 days out of 7 for the last two months. 

We grow a lot of plants on ~quarter acre: Florida natives, scrub natives, southwestern plants, xerics from around the world (we have 7 month without any significant rain), and in spite of those parenthetical dry months, we grow lots of jungle tropicals because we both love them. Bananas, heliconias, gingers, random epiphytes, and a gaggle of one-offs. They love this weather, that is, steamy with regular rain. 


This Blue Java banana is ecstatic. The clump is 5 years old and we haven't had this wet a summer since it was planted

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