Florida – named La Florida, or ‘place of flowers’, by Juan Ponce de Leon when he landed near St. Augustine in 1513. Florida is known for our flora, and for the fact that you can always find lush plants growing and flowers blooming, year round. St. Petersburg, situated as far south as we are in the state, has pretty much never-ending color from all of the various types of flowers that grow here. As you drive around the city, you see gardens in bloom everywhere – in homeowners’ front yards, in landscaping for office complexes, on school grounds, and in parks. There’s even a City of St. Petersburg Rose Garden on 16th Street North.
But what’s fun to me, and what really proves how hospitable our climate is for growing things, is when I discover something wild growing, something completely untended, but beautiful. It happens all over the city – you just have to look for it. I spotted these wild Poinsettias growing just a few feet from Boca Ciega Bay, in Jungle Prada Park. There were lots of them, growing in and among the rocks and other shore plants. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a wild Poinsettia – I’m used to the ones that only bloom in December. But I learned that this wild variety, which typically blooms from June through September, grows from Virginia down to the bottom of the Florida peninsula.
Wild Poinsettias
