Good morning from the garden.  Well, sort of.

This morning I thought I would share a few of the tropical flowers I came across while in Puerto Vallarta a week ago, like this one …

Is that a Bird of Paradise?  I believe it is, but I’m used to seeing the variety that has a purple and orange flower, and this one is red and orange instead.

As I mentioned last week, my sister was invited along on the trip to Mexico that we took with my neighbor nnK’s family this year.  It was nice having her along because she is more of a morning person.  We got up early every morning and took a walk around the neighborhood before everyone else got up for breakfast.

We saw lots of lovely flowers during our walks, like this pretty pink one.

I’m pretty sure that’s a bougainvillea, but I’d never seen one in that color before.

I’m used to the white ones, or the typical bright magenta colored ones.

I think if I was planning my own tropical garden I’d go for the more subtle pale pink variety.

I saw a few hibiscus, which I think of a classic tropical flower.

When I first started gardening in Minnesota, it was hard to find hibiscus hardy enough for our climate.  I did a little research online while writing this post and discovered that a hibiscus hardy to zone 5 was developed in the 1950’s, and a grower in Japan started hybridizing other hardy hibiscus in the 70’s and 80’s.  These days you can find lots of options for hibiscus that are hardy to zone 4, including the Summerific line from Proven Winners.

Personally I find them too tropical looking for my cottage style garden, so I’ve never been tempted to grow them.

I wouldn’t classify all of the plants I saw in Mexico as tropical, for example there were these gorgeous blue hydrangeas.

I’m fairly sure that those plants are just temporarily tucked into that flower bed though.  They were probably forced to bloom in a greenhouse, and when the blooms are done, they’ll pull them out and put something else in that spot.

I saw quite a few flowers that I didn’t recognize at all, like this pretty little one.

The flower has an orchid-like appearance, but it’s growing on a vine.  Aside from a variety of orchid that grows on a vine and has yellow flowers, I couldn’t find any info online about any other vining orchids.  Maybe you know what this flower is?  If so, leave me a comment.

I also had no idea what this next flower was, but that combination of red and white petals really caught my eye.

So I did a bit of googling and I think it’s a Bleeding Heart Vine, or Clerodendrum thomsoniae.  It’s only hardy to zone 9, so it won’t be making its way into my garden any time soon.

I also saw some old favorites of mine at our resort including the Blue Sky Vine, or Thunbergia grandiflora.

And this year they also had a white version, Thunbergia grandiflora ‘Alba’.

They also had a few water lilies that were lovely.

Water lily?  or maybe these are Lotus?  I’m not really sure.

We did spot one other rare sight on our morning walk in Puerto Vallarta that you don’t find here in Minnesota anymore.

A pay phone!  I haven’t seen one of these in ages.

Now that I’m back in Minnesota, I won’t be spotting pay phones or tropical flowers on my morning walks … or much color of any kind really.

Unless you count the vivid green of the moss on this stump.

Or the occasional bright red berry.

But that’s ok.  We have a different kind of beauty here in the winter, not as flamboyant, but lovely in a more subtle sort of way.

And I’m OK with that.  How about you?