February 2009 Calendar Picture and Story

Thursday
Feb 9, 2012
1:22:18 PM

Welcome

Calendar Photo and Story For February 2009

It's hard to believe that the pile of leaves pictured here all came from a single tree, and that was after the lawn had been mulched weeks before.

It's the nature of live oaks to continue to drop leaves until they bloom in the spring so there will be another pile in the near future. The thing that makes the pile more significant is that, unlike their northern relatives, live oak leaves are tiny.

Still, the raking, mulching, and blowing, are a small price to pay for the joy of living amongst these evergreens. This angled shot of my parent's home and the tree that generated all the leaves shows how important it is to the house.

The rare large staghorn fern on the trunk of the tree to the right of the flag is 38 years old, over four feet in diameter, and worth hundreds of dollars. I planted it from a single sprig when I was 14 and it has been with the family ever since. The one to the left of the trunk was split from the larger some 12 years ago.

I have often heard people say that Florida has no seasonal changes and colors, but this just isn't true. Though you might need to be a native to know it, the seasons here are just as interesting, but they are different. In the autumn, when northern trees are showing their flames and dropping their leaves, many plants in Florida are blooming making this season colorful for a different reason. Now, in the heart of the winter, many plants are just getting around to losing their leaves, often blooming at the same time, like these beside our house.

Meanwhile, other plants and trees, like the wild plum, are celebrating the hopeful arrival of early spring by starting their blooming like this one in our front yard.

I'm looking forward to the April fruit those blooms will generate. The small plums are tart and perfect for making delicious jelly.

As the moss grows longer, our mostly moderate and sunny winters provide a perfect climate for a great variety of plants that include species from more northern climes, and others that only thrive in the tropics.

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