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Plumbago and Tutti Frutti in front,
then tall green palmy plant goes in living room,
more garden plants in back, palm around corner
and the butterflies have already come! |
Below is a list of what Cristian says he is planting tomorrow. Click the linked name to see photos of what it looks like and the ones delivered today are in these photos here, though not all delivered yet. This will be a hummingbird and butterfly garden. Lots of photo ops!
Blue Plumbago – a flowering hedge along bottom of concrete wall under the orange vines (photo at right)
Tutti Frutti (a variety of Lantana) – a row of mixed colors of flowers along the sidewalk (in photo at right, on the left side, shorter – yellow, pink, orange, red)
Palma Roja (Red Palm) – a brightly colored bamboo-like palm with red, yellow & green trunks, going at the end of back sidewalk as an anchor to the far end of my garden and to block view of street (see palm photo below).
Maraca (Shampoo Ginger) – a really cool tropical flower (rare and it may take a while for him to find one but he will even if he has to take it from his uncle’s yard he says). He is really working hard to please me and have a perfect garden for butterflies and hummingbirds.
Red Ginger – a red flowering tropical plant (photo below) – There are other varieties of Ginger
but not sure if I’m getting one of the others. I’m hoping for a Torch Ginger, my favorite.
Heliconia – truly tropical and comes in many varieties (1 delivered today, see photo below – a different variety is coming tomorrow he says) This is often associated with Hawaii, but native here.
Petunia – well, I guess every garden needs a “filler” 🙂 (not delivered yet)
Palmetto – already here in the ground, see bottom photo
Aloe Vera – already here, something the landlord plants on all of his properties – I have 2 and may end up putting them in pots if Cristian can’t work them into the garden plan.
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Red Palm at end of sidewalk in back
not shown in above photo. It will block
the street from my garden and anchor it. |
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| One variety of Red Ginger. I may get another. |
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One variety of Heliconia and I will get at
least one other variety he says. |
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Palmetto, the only plant here now. Don’t think it was watered during dry season.
I’ll take better care of it. |
You can probably tell that I’m very excited about getting my dream tropical garden this quickly, just a week after moving in. Of course tomorrow I will be showing you the completed masterpiece, I think I will call it my “Humming Garden” or in Spanish “Jardín del Tarareo ” You can walk through and either hum a tune or watch for butterflies and hummingbirds! 🙂 Pura Vida!
Some might ask why I didn’t save money and plant it all myself and get even more joy from totally creating it myself? Several reasons:
1) I don’t have a car or truck, so we are talking many trips to and from La Garita where the nurseries are located at $50-$60+ per taxi round trip. It could possibly cost me more doing it myself!
2) It is the beginning of the rainy season and it needs to be done right now along with a lot of other things I need to do like get the stuff I shipped out of storage and make photos! 🙂
3) The professionals do a better job in this case and at what I consider a very good price compared to the states. This kind of labor is cheap here. And I would not have known about some of these flowers or where to get them for a while.
4) I don’t have the garden tools, which would be another expense and the side of this hill is rocky, another challenge I’m letting the professionals handle.
5) I’m retired and enjoying life and consider using the cheap labor a wiser choice at this time.
So I won’t go on a guilt trip for not doing it myself! (Even though I enjoy gardening.) Of course I will probably add another plant or two occasionally, and look what a great start I’m getting in a new house! I’ll be showing more of the house in coming posts including the already landscaped yards, but today and tomorrow it’s the new butterfly & hummingbird garden or
Humming Garden!
