Summer hits hard and early in South Florida. Wilton Manors is about five miles from the beach, so it traditionally has gotten a light ocean breeze, but tall buildings and hot asphalt that connect the Island City to the sea have blocked our traditional coastal breezes.
The heavy humidity and heat have a beautiful payoff: flowers.
Because I took a mini vacation to Naples (including a detour to Everglades City) to visit family, today’s blog simply features some flowers from my yard. So here are some glimpses of some of the best parts of Florida without the bugs, heat and humidity.
The photo with the vintage sundial has an unnamed orchid, probably a leftover from a box store’s clearance rack, adorning it.. The original sundial was found in a local trash pile and then replaced after it weathered; it’s a duplicate of a the one outside of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ historic home in Cross Creek, FL near the University of Florida in north Florida.
The rose may have a name, but I don’t know it. It’s underappreciated in my yard because it’s not native.
The last orchid is the star of this show. It came with our house more than 40 years ago. It’s called a cow horn orchid and it smells like chocolate. There are two versions of this particular orchid: the native version which has a musky smell, according to AI, and a more glamourous larger orchid that smells like chocolate. This version smells chocolate-y, but it looks like photos of the endangered Florida wild orchid.
So enjoy this tour of one rose and two orchids minus mosquitoes.
It smells like chocolate!
