New Blooms

These are new blooms for our yard. The first is my Maui black magic elephant ear plant. Surprisingly, the flower also has a juicy scent, reminiscent of a cantaloupe or sweet melon. The second is one of Scott's ti leaf plants. Two great surprises for us as we tended to our flower beds today!

There were some other not so nice surprises. The same white gluey fungus that caused three hibiscuses to lose all of their leaves this year has now taken over one of my yellow plumeria trees in the pool cage. I used soapy water in a spray bottle and sprayed down the whole tree, then followed it with the hose spray. My other plumerias, I have in the ground along the back of the house, have an orange growth on the under part of the leaves. They are blooming really well so I hope this orange fungus doesn't affect that. The white fungus was causing the other plumeria to bloom distorted flowers or killed the flowers before they could bloom.

My white gingers and variegated gingers are struggling with the strong sunlight. Their leaves get burn marks on the edges of their leaves. On bright days (99% of days in Florida) the white gingers look pretty sad. Their leaves and blossoms droop down. But as soon as the sun goes down they perk up. Going for a swim or sitting in the hot tub after dark also allows us to enjoy their beautiful fragrance. I think I should have planted the sea grape and tuberose bulbs where I currently have all of the gingers. The sea grape and tuberose are currently in an area that gets sun until around noon time, they are on the east side of the house. I'm not sure if it's worth the work though to do all of that re-arranging! The sea grape are getting very tall and look great.