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Ug. It's so cold and miserable here, that nice, sunny (minus two days) Florida weather already seems like a million years away. I'm actually looking at the photos I took and feeling that it didn't even happen. It's making it a bit difficult to compose this entry.
The above photo was taken on the University campus shortly after arriving in Gainesville. The trees were heavy with Spanish moss and other epiphytic plants. That was probably the most exciting part of the trip! That and the fact that everything was so lush and green. For the first few days I just couldn't get over the fact that the stuff was everywhere, filling trees and littering the ground... but by the third day it was old news and I was looking to discover something new.
Plants I saw the most:
Sago Palm
Azalea -- the day we arrived they were all in bloom. By the next day they were all dying.
Southern Magnolia trees -- no flowers sadly
Bottlebrush (Callistemon)
Crinum Lily (Plumbago auriculata) -- Delicious smelling flower.
Ginger
Oranges and other citrus
Staghorn fern -- I saw a house that had tons of HUGE staghorn balls hanging from several trees in their backyard. My dream yard!
Banana
various unknown palms (especially that low growing, scruffy kind)
Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) - a native that was often growing in empty lots
Holly
Sadly I did not see one carnivorous plant anywhere. Whenever I was in a swampy area I looked along the shore-line, albeit not closely as I was kind of freaked out about alligators.
An interesting fact I discovered about Florida -- there doesn't seem to be much of what I would call "soil". Florida is all sand. I was shocked to discover that even inland, hours away from the ocean or a beach, everything is sand. Walking down the street... sand. Underneath the grass... sand. I even saw crazy bright orange coloured sand. It looked like orange crayon. One of the students at the University informed me that Georgia is all clay and Florida is all sand. Crazy! I am much more enlightened about what is possible with Florida gardening based on that fact alone. Although I'll take the trials and tribulations of sand over the trials of freezing my ass off any day thank you very much!
posted at 07:26 PM
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