Newest bloom: Evita’s Rose

We are constantly on the lookout for new plants, trees and flowers. It seems that most of the viveros have all the same common plants: trinitarias, hibiscus, bromelias, orchids, citrus, avocados. What they don’t have are heliconias, gingers, plumerias and all the exotic fruit trees. We are currently on the lookout for durian, Australian finger lime, and reina de las flores (this is a common tree, but for some reason we have a hard time finding it for sale).

Also looking for Rainbow Eucalyptus like this one seen on the side of the road

At the last pulguero in San Sebastian we had a good score! We found another Ylang Ylang tree (the fragrance is so divine, it is used in Chanel No 5), an achiote tree (a natural food dye for the color red and very cool looking fruit), a huge Tibochino espiga and a Raffy palm (that’s what the vendor called it). At Jardines Eneida we also found some new trees like a Cordia, Saman and mamayito (lemon drop mangosteen).

The meadow area after a good mow -we need to mow about every 2 weeks now that it’s raining so much

I also found this nepenthes pitcher plant that reminded me of well…you know

All the rain has brought out the mushrooms

And so we bought some garden art to commemorate them


Rainy days at the cabin. Notice the new railings!

Still not sure if we want to put rails on the bridge though

The mosquitos come out a lot more in the rain, so we put a mosquito net on Aeden’s play pen outside, that he promptly pulled down 🙂

He’s our little farmer so we did an impromtu photo shoot with him

Our little red is getting so big! 9 months now

Aeden’s 9 month video update

In order to find the heliconias and ginger varieties we want, we have to find direct vendors. The rhizomes don’t do super well in pots for long periods of time, so they have to be directly transplanted as soon as possible into the ground. They also need a lot of space and water, that the average home gardener can’t often provide (hence why they are not commonly found in the stores around here). Well, I found someone online who specializes in them! Not only did Carlos sell us some amazing rhizomes, he also delivered them from San German and helped us identify many of our wild species. We hung out for quite a while and got to know him pretty well. We scored some plants, but even more importantly a new friend who is as geeked out about botanicals as we are! He is a student at the University in Mayaguez and knows a TON about plants.

With Carlos and the new plants

We’ve also been busy delivering flowers to friends/businesses like these that are on the way to Karibe Kombucha and Ocean State of Mind

Other than that we have been going out and having fun enjoying the scenes around the island.

In Aguada, Puerto Rico

This guy was buying sugarcane from a neighbor

At the Sunday Farmer’s market a basket maker made me a crown. I was the reina de las flores for a day! 🙂

Man on a bicycle at the airfield in Aguadilla