They start to bloom sometime in June with little clusters here and there which keep multiplying and multiplying, next thing you know it's an explosion of shocking pink that...well literally...stops traffic. When we first moved in their height was just to the top of the first floor windows and frankly I had no clue what they were. These funky little spread out trunks with branches full of round little leaves and clusters of some kind of berries at the end. Then the little berries started to bloom, I saw the first and second cluster of tiny hot pink flowers forming cones...hm mm, something's familiar. Then it hit me! I ran in the house and immediately called my mother...."MOM, WE HAVE JUPITER!!!!!!!"
When I was a little girl in Cuba we had bunches of them. Most I remember were purple, which I think is their most known color, and there were or was a light yellow. There was a big white one by my grandmother's bedroom window. I remember staring at those large trees with the big clusters of tiny flowers and I couldn't get enough of them, especially the pale yellow. My mom, aunt and grandmother would go on and on about the Jupiters (hoopeeter) and then we moved to Miami and I never saw them again. Out of sight out of mind. They grow all over the Carolinas and Texas but not Miami. So imagine my pure 7 year old delight when I figured out that those guys in my front yard were...JUPITER!!!!!!
They've grown quite a bit since we've been here, almost as tall as the house as evidenced above. We're always saying we're going to trim them but then we look out our bedroom window,
and the TV room window,
the living room,
and as I'm walking from the front yard to the side yard,
in a sea of pink cotton candy! It's blinding but I'll take it for a while. Even though,
I see everything through pink colored glasses.
They are so beautiful. Very special--don't trim them!
ReplyDeleteOK, I'll tell Frank you said that.
ReplyDelete