Garden Upgrade Photos

Day before yesterday my gardeners came with several upgrades for my garden which, like lots of my projects, started with just one flower and then, well, I kind of kept expanding it! 🙂 It started with this flower I saw at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel and liked so much, I wanted one! I sent this photo below to my gardener. He told me he could get one and then when he was here and we talked in person I “remembered a few other things” I would like for them to do when they bring the new flower. 🙂

My extras ended up being the biggest job (and expense), but I’m so glad that I got all of this done! This is where I live and I’ve slowed down a little on traveling, meaning I want my home to be a tropical paradise – my continuous vacation place! 🙂

Adding My Pagoda Flower, Clerodendron paniculatum

And well, it seems a little puny compared to the hotel’s, but it will grow! The hotel had several big ones like in the above photo, as if it were their signature flower. When Cristian (my gardener) went looking for one, he found only 5 available at that time and I got one of those! 🙂 Here it is . . .

Hopefully in a year’s time this will be as big as the hotel’s and a “showpiece” flower on the front of my lot by the street and our compound gate. You can read about this Pagoda Flower, Clerodendron paniculatum at that Wikipedia link. It is native to tropical Asia, particularly Sri Lanka, but grows well here and is supposedly all over Central America now. 🙂 A full grown plant is like a shrub that can have several of those big blooms on one plant and blooming year-around in the tropics. I’m proud of my new addition. But then I asked for a “few other things” . . .

“I need something at the end of my back sidewalk”

My “confined gardens” wrap-around two sides of my house along a tile sidewalk that ends back on the street-side at my steep front yard that had nothing attractive there. I had a large Aloe Vera plant that was okay but dying for lack of sun, so the “impact planting” I wanted at the end of the sidewalk had to be a shade plant or plants. He put one tall green plant and a bunch of blooming Bromeliads that he said would bloom year-around. I hope so. My other Bromeliads (different type) don’t bloom that much. Here’s some shots of that installation Wednesday . . .

I am very pleased with this as a fitting end to the sidewalk and worth walking all the way there to see! 🙂 And I can also see these flowers from my bedroom window! 🙂

And that was not all I asked for . . .

“Add some more plants along that back sidewalk.”

Something had died there and it never was as full as I like. They simply added two tall green shade-plants and some more Anthuriums where a few were already doing very well there in the shade. Though I asked him to put 3 of the Anthuriums in my planter box on the terrace. 🙂 See below.

“And fill this planter with small flowers.”

This is on my terrace right next to where I eat breakfast every day. And we also added some more ferns in open spaces between some of the privacy palms not pictured in this post. And that is all this time! 🙂

Wow! I really love living here! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!