Sea Grapes & Orchidariums

One thing I really liked about Miami was how GREEN it felt. Everywhere you turned, there were tons of cool tropical plants and flowers. On our first trip out into town to South Beach, I immediately noticed a tree with large, round, vividly green leaves that I couldn’t remember seeing before — but in Miami, they were EVERYWHERE.

See?  The state park where we visited the lighthouse?  The paths were lined with them.

And they were above Jose’s head at the News Cafe in South Beach where we ate lunch.   I asked our waiter what they were called, and he replied that they are Sea Grape trees!  You can actually eat the grape, although he said it’s pretty bitter and doesn’t taste very good.  I wondered why I had never seen them in Houston, since our climate is pretty similar to Miami.

But alas, my plans of planting sea grape trees all over my yard may be foiled — it is not a frost-tolerant plant, and though Houston is hot and humid most of the year, we do get the occasional frost in January and February.  I did find a couple references in online forums to people who grow them successfully in this area, so it’s apparently possible, but they take extra care in the winter when it gets cold.

So on to my next plan!  The Vizcaya estate had an “orchidarium” next to the house that was full of hanging baskets of orchids.  I loooove orchids, despite my inability to get them to flower more than once.  (It’s also possible I may just be too impatient to wait for them to bloom again.)  I told Jose that I NEED an orchidarium in our house now.

It was cool to see the roots just hanging free.  Once again, the Houston climate is more than warm and humid enough for orchids, and I could just bring them inside during the winter.  This is an idea that could actually work!