By Victoria Torley

To the green hills, then the lake and the mountains beyond, coffee in hand, dog by my side. 

Just sittin’, listening to the parrots and the sound of the river. The morning is cool and the air smells of flowers. There is a hummingbird on the Sanchezia, the pollinators are busy in the flowerbed, and an oriole is singing. 

Off to the right, I spot a vine that has burst into purple blooms.

Funny I never noticed the flowers before, maybe this is its first time in bloom or perhaps it is one of those that blooms early in the morning and then closes for the day. It’s so hard to tell here, the rains come and things burst into bloom or shoot up overnight. 

It’s so hard to keep track...

Just below the deck, an avocado pit, carelessly thrown away, has grown into a small tree. Have to transplant that, but maybe later. Amazing how things you plant on purpose refuse to grow but an avocado seed just shouts for life. 

One thing mars the view ahead. The branches of my ylang ylang are bare and all the leaves are striped by leaf-cutter ants. Six naked meters of trunk and branches where the birds sit to sing and watch for hawks. Perhaps some fertilizer will help it recover? I miss the scent.

And there is a hawk, off to the left on a tall scraggly tree. He is preening, lifting a wing to fluff his feathers. It’s a great tree, taller than anything else around and sparsely leafed out so he has a great view of his hunting territory. He can have all the snakes and squirrels he can catch of course, but I hope he leaves the songbirds alone. If only something would eat the leaf-cutters...

Metric Man’s century plant is in full bloom and reaches almost to the second-story roof. He just loves strange plants. Although I can’t see them from here, I know that the coconut palm has set fruit so I guess that the palm beetles left that one alone. I found that palm nut nicely sprouted, during a walk on the lakeshore.

We were looking for pot shards and came home with a coconut plant. Funny how things work out.

Funny how things work out...  twenty years ago I wouldn’t have given a thought that I would be watching butterflies in a tropical paradise. 

Time to go collect some of those purple flowers.

Plant of the week. The Morning Glory (Ipomoea spp.) This fast-growing flowering vine is a popular mainstay in cottage-style gardens. Large heart-shaped leaves provide an attractive backdrop to funnel-shaped flowers in shades of purple, blue, pink, white, and bicolor patterns. 

Plants bloom from early summer to frost, with every single flower lasting just one day. Use this annual as screening on a trellis or arbor, or grow along a wall or fence. Easy to grow from seed.

Although not to be confused with bindweed (Convulvulous arvensis), some ornamental morning glories can self-sow readily and have also been determined to be aggressive or invasive in certain areas. 

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Find more amazing stories about gardening in Costa Rica on the Costa Rica Garden website. Regarding questions on this article, Ms. Victoria Torley, gardener columnist, can be reached by emailing victoriatorley1@gmail.com.