Made with Xara

Florida Flowers

Florida has flowering trees, bushes and plants.

Trees

These are the kinds of flowering trees we have in our yard now. The first is a dogwood tree. The second photo is just three of many crape myrtles we have around the yard. We have colors that go from hot pink to dark pink, white and lavendar. They are a very hardy plant and seem to live through just about every kind of temperature range. The small bush in the foreground of that photo is a shoot off the stump of a large crape myrtle tree that got diseased and died. We cut it down, but then found later in the season that the old stump was growing and actually flowered that same year. The bottom two pictures are a Japanese magnolia tree. It usually flowers before the leaves appear in the early spring.

Bushes

This is a dwarf hibiscus. This variety stays small enough to keep in a small pot.

Poinsettias grow to be quite tall and bloom for several months in the winter.

This bush is called Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. The first day the blossom is deep purple, the second day it turns to light purple and the third day it turns white.

Roses grow well here. The orange rose blooms pink on the inside and orange on the edges. The two-tone pink rose is called a knock-out rose and endures the harsh climate here a little better than some of the others.

We inherited several rose bushes when we first moved into this house. The bright red rose at the left is a climbing rose. The pink one is very tall and has really big fragrant blossoms year after year. The red and white one was a climbing rose, but we lost it a few years after we moved in. The orange rose was under a bunch of bushes, so we transplanted it into the sunshine. I guess it was the wrong thing to do because it didn’t last long after that.

This is our beautiful camelia bush. Its leaves are dark green and waxy all year round, and it blooms large pink flowers in December and January.

A neighbor down the street from us grows a lot of exotic looking plants. He gave us cuttings for each of these. The one on the left is called an angel’s trumpet, and the purple one on the right has a double bloom and is called a devil’s trumpet. The pink flower grows on a bush that grows to about 7 feet tall. The purple one only grows to about 4 feet tall. They die down in the winter and then grow new stems in the spring and summer. They bloom a few months in the summer and most of the fall and actually, we have had a warm winter, so the angel’s trumpet is blooming again this December.

Hibiscus bloom most of the year here. Our bushes are about 6 to 8 feet tall. We trim them down a couple times each year to keep them away from the eaves on the house. They are susceptible to freezing, so if we don’t cover them when there is a frost, they freeze all the leaves off. But within a couple weeks, the stems are growing new leaves.

Hydrangeas bloom well here, too. They die back in the winter, but come back strong every year.

Flowering Plants

Some crape myrtles stay small and the size of a bush.

This is called a croton. It has small white flowers when it blooms, but mainly it just has pretty leaves.

Don’t you just love flowers? Something about them makes you smile and changes your whole outlook on life. All the pretty colors just add a refreshing breath to life.

This jasmine is technically a blooming vine, but it is still so pretty when it blooms. And the fragrance is just amazing!