The Mango trees near my house are in bloom and the smell is absolutely marvelous, To me, a mixture of orange blossoms and jasmine, at least if my memory serves me right! And my orchids are starting to put out shoots and in about a month they will be in bloom.
I am truly blessed with an abundance of various flowers and plants and in spite of the soil of this island being very poor, somehow these plants have managed to adapt and thrive.
So, in celebration of this time of year and all the the beauty that is putting forth, I offer these photos.
First, when I look out my kitchen window, I am greeted by the sunshine colors of this croton and, in a month, I will be dazzled with the beauty of my orchids:
This plant is a wonderful sunshine yellow and greets my eyes every morning.
Orchids on the stalk and up close!
Here's a collage of flowers I have in my yard (and it still does not cover them all). I thought putting each individual flower up would take up too much time and space so created this:
What is absolutely marvelous, when I give dinner parties I can go out in the garden and choose from so many varieties of tropical plants to make lovely arrangements. Even without any skills in arranging, the beauty comes forth.
Just a group of many flowers ---
or a simple arrangement of two types of orchids:
Flowers in full bloom are gorgeous and my favorite in my yard is what I call the Mango-colored hibiscus:
But flowers in full bloom fade fast, like the hibiscus. But even in their fading they prove to be interesting to photograph. Here is a "today" and a "tomorrow" photo:
Pineapples too have wonderful colors and appear as a "flower" before it turns into a fruit:
There is the Spanish Flag plant which has a lovely, complicated flower and the Ti Plant which blooms with simply a long stem and small white flowers:
To dress up the outside of my walls on the house, I have added this lovely plant which rewards me with a constant flowering and little work!
Plus, I have planted a garden this year where our old wood pile sat for 16 years! I don't really expect much as, in the past, getting anything to grow was too much work, too much money and, in the end, only produced too many bugs. I have only parsley, cherry tomatoes (about 20 plants at present) along with basil presently in the garden. I do have a pot of mint on the porch along with several plants of chives and parsley. These plants I have found are easy to maintain and produce a small amount of useable herbs and/or tomatoes. I have had 3 Rosemary plants but she is a fickle plant and too much water has done her in every time. But I will try again!
I also put flowers into my craft projects; some I put on envelopes or crocheted small "corsages" to attach to presents. This envelope went with a card I was asked to make to give to a couple embarking on the seas of matrimony. The "corsage" I attached to a wedding present for my Grandson went I attended his wedding a couple of years ago.
I love to play around on the computer too with photos I've taken and can got some pretty interesting results when I "embossed" a photo and changed the color scheme:
These were made from a photo of a Spider Lily which grows on the beach that I took many, many years ago.
There is such beauty in Nature, so get up out of your chair, turn off your TV and get outside and enjoy what Nature has to offer. You won't regret it.
