Sunday Plantings

My brother, Dennis was kind enough to help me plant the red ginger that my aunt gave us last week. He is not only a fabulous artist but a terrific gardener as well.


He looked around the small space and thought at first that he would plant two circles of ginger plants. He used flour to mark the circles that he'd have to cut out of the sod. After staring at the small space a bit longer, he changed his mind.



While Art and I went off to get some compost, Dennis sifted the soil. Why? I don't know.... but he did.

Then he added the compost to the soil.



Now we'll just have to wait and see how the plant does. I'm already imagining 5 foot tall spears of red flowers. Dennis says we'll have to just wait and see.












Once the ginger was planted, Dennis could concentrate on his herb garden. Dennis and my sister-in-law live in a condo so we set aside an area where he could grow his herbs. I bought him some basil plants because his family loves his pesto sauce. He's also a great cook.





We noticed that the Mickey Mouse tree we planted was blossoming but the flower was yellow. We thought it was supposed to be red.




I'm planning for this tree to grow around 6 feet tall. It may take 60 years but it's my plan.


We went for a walk around the area and found a Mickey Mouse tree with the yellow blossom. Then we noticed that the red flower that we thought was a flower was actually the seed or fruit. I'm learning all the time.

"Mickey Mouse Plant - Ochna serrulata
Five-petal yellow flowers. Once the petals fall off, the bracts turn bright red with 1 to 5 green berries. This red 'flower' stay on the plant for quite a long time for the berries to mature, turning black. At this stage, the bract and berries resemble Mickey Mouse's face.
The plant starts to bloom in 2nd or third-year, when it is not even 1 foot high."

Red Ginger

I had this bright idea that we should plant some red ginger on the side of the house so that my mom would always have flowers when she makes her visits to grave sites. Art was concerned that ginger might spread too much. "Don't worry," I said "I'm sure it won't."

We went to visit my aunt (my mother's sister) yesterday and she very kindly dug up some of her red ginger for us. She also gave us some swiss chard from her garden, turkey soup to keep us healthy and videos for my mom. We can never leave her house empty handed. Everybody should have an aunt like her. She's got boundless energy...even more than my mother which boggles my mind since I can hardly keep up with her!

I just looked up red ginger in Wikipedia and this is what I discovered:

Red Ginger (Alpinia purpurata), also called Ostrich Plume and Pink Cone Ginger, are native Malaysian plants with showy flowers on long brightly colored red bracts. They look like the bloom, but the true flower is the small white flower on top.

Its two varieties are called Jungle King and Jungle Queen. Red Ginger grows in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and many Central American nations, including Belize. It is also found in Samoa, where it is the national flower, and is locally called "teuila."

Red ginger can also be grown in South Florida since, in general, the region does not fall below freezing temperatures. It prefers partial shade and moist humid conditions, although it can tolerate full sun in some climates. It tends to like to be well watered and not left to dry out.

Ginger can also be grown as a houseplant and its cut flowers can be used in arrangements.

Ginger tends to spread. (Uhhhh ohhhhhh....)

My aunt says Poochie never listens to her. He didn't pay much attention to me either. He preferred to just sit in the shade of his little house and ignore me. Apparently, my cousin is his favorite. My cousin is the pilot who got us the tickets to AUS-NZ very, very cheap. He also helped us install our kitchen cabinets. Everybody should have a cousin like him.


Well, here's the spot where I'm putting it. I've asked my brother to help me plant it this weekend since Art is busy working on installing flooring right now. Everybody should have a brother like him, too!