For the past few years I’ve been planting bromiliads along the path to the lake. Bromilads are air breathers rather than soil based plants with exotic, tropical looking blooms. There are literally hundreds of varieties and I probably have a dozen or so. Normally they’re considered house plants but I’ve just placed them in trees and along the path in places that just look like they need something exotic. They almost never bloom but when they do it’s spectacular and very long lasting – a bloom can last months. I walked down the path this morning and counted 7 blooms. For me that’s a world record since I’ve only ever seen one at a time – except in the nursery. Each variety has a totally different style bloom and the picture above is one I particularly like.
Another piece of garden breakthrough news – the yellow grapefruit has some brand new fruit. It bloomed as usual in March and has a few dozen nice fruits with maybe a 4†diameter. They’re starting to turn from dark green to light greenish yellow. I was blown away yesterday to spot a few brand new micro grapefruits popping out of new blossems. If they hang in, that means we should have grapefruit on into next May – a four month extension of the vodka and grapefruit season. How great is that!!
And the guava’s are ripening. I have guava trees all over the place. My neighbor planted some way back in the past. Squirrels and birds love them so it’s a scramble to get some but the critters spread the seeds which must be indigestable. Consequently I have trees sprouting all over the property. I think the only regular use for guavas is guava jelly but I’m not a jelly person so I just pop them down the hatch like eating a strawberry. I have to get them just on the early side of ripe since the critters nab them as soon as they fully ripen so they’re not quite as sweet as you might like.
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