The word florida in Spanish means “flowery.” So what better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in south Florida than with a celebration of my local flowers? Well, unfortunately, this year’s crop from the flowering trees has been pretty slow. My tabebuia tree didn’t give us anything like the golden explosion it gave last year. All the other tabebuias I saw were in fine fettle, so I’m wondering what happened to that tree. The flowering season is pretty much over for it, too; I don’t expect much more out of that tree.
The real showstopper on the property is of course the Royal Poinciana. I’ve already written about the problems that tree is facing. But since we got nearly 5 inches of rain at the end of April, things have stopped looking quite as dire. A month ago, I wasn’t even sure we’d get any sort of growth onthe tree—leaf, bud, or flower. But now, take a look:
Seeing that much life waiting to flower forth among the bare and hollow branches is fairly encouraging. Any major display probably won’t be for a few days or weeks, though.
Last year, of course, the tree was in full bloom on Cinco de Mayo, as were many of the other poincianas in town:
This year, though, as I drive around town, I’m not seeing any poincianas in full display (unlike those darn show-off tabebuias!), so I’m thinking that part of the problem could be that the local poinciana flowering season has been a bit delayed. All the structural problems of our tree still exist, of course, but with the tree in leaf it seems so much less discouraging.
What can you do except keep looking up and hoping?
Cheers!