Pink hibiscus

     This stunning hibiscus is one of two new varieties we've just added to the growing collection at False Bluff.

There are mosquito nets...

     ...and then there are mosquito nets.
     For years we've used the mosquito nets that drape from a central point. You probably know which ones I mean...they so contribute to the idyllic look of a bedroom in the tropics. Problem is they don't work very well because the holes of the mesh are way too big and some of the seasonal bugs that live at False Bluff go right through them. We don't have those tiny insects all year, but when it's their season the old fashioned nets just don't keep them out.

     Last trip we discovered a new and better mosquito net. These keep out everything but the breezes. They are suspended from four points instead of one central point... and they come in a rainbow of colors.

la entrada

     The entrance to False Bluff is our way of welcoming guests and so the plan is to make it both beautiful and inviting. We began to line it with these yellow flowered bushes which grow wild here. They thrive in certain location...like the plant below right outside the kitchen window.

     But one place they don't thrive is along the walkway which is closer than the house is to the Caribbean. Along the walkway they are just too exposed to the constant salty breeze. They struggle even to survive and sure don't extend the welcome I want.

     So, we're replacing them with this red hibiscus which doesn't seem to mind being so close to the sea. The hibiscus are just going in now while we have rain. Not the biggest or showiest blossom but once they're massed along the walkway their color will put on quite be a show.

     This gives only a hint of how a continuous sweep of red hibiscus will look along one side of the main walkway (and the picture also gives a pretty good idea of the incredible growth of some of the coconut trees we've planted).

orchid nursery

     Orchids grow all over the place down here.  The plants, in flower or not, are easiest to see while traveling up or down the canal in or out of False Bluff like the one below.  And we've collected a few varieties.

     The plants are placed in half-coconut-shells filled with a mixture of dirt and rotting grass and are then attached to the leeward side of a tree right outside the kitchen.

     One orchid is in bud.