The Green Bag

Now that Central Florida has finally had some rain (thanks to Tropical Storm Alberto), I worked in the south bed of the main entrance to the complex yesterday. Five months of near-drought conditions did a number on the Pentas, and I replaced some of the plants. It's nice to have color there again.

I was doing some weeding and trimming of other plantings in the bed, as well. Finishing the trimming of the Norfolk Pine (which was about 4-1/2 feet tall when it was planted four to five years ago, and stands at well over twenty feet now), I turned around and gasped as I viewed the plant in front of me. What I had assumed to be just another palm that I wasn't able to identify was standing about three feet high, with a perfectly formed pineapple growing from the center! I just stood there with my mouth hanging open, not believing what I was seeing.

For whatever reason, the entrance beds had been totally torn up six years ago when all of the other landscaping was removed around the older buildings, in preparation for the rehabilitation of those buildings to correct the damage that had resulted from a termite infestation. The guy who had ordered the destruction of these relatively remote entrance beds made that decicision for reasons no one seems to know. One of the first things I did when I became president of the Association's Board of Directors was to get the beds planted "on the cheap." Most of the plantings, including the Norfolk Pine, were donated by owners/residents or taken from the landscaped beds around the three newer buildings, i.e., the low-growing palmettos were thinned, with the removed plants being transplanted into the entrance beds. There are dwarf azaleas, hibiscus, palmettos, a beautiful big palm plant, the Norfolk Pine, a split-leaf philodendren, bromeliads, amaryllis, chinese ferns - and some plants for which I have yet to find names. I had purchased and planted the Pentas to add some year-round color. And I thought this amazing pineapple plant was, as I said, just another palm-type plant that I hadn't identified. It appears there is another pineapple plant in the opposite bed, and possibly two others, as well (these three plants aren't as far along on the maturation curve, if they actually are pineapple plants).

I showed Allen and Darren the plant when they stopped by today. The pineapple is very green, and about the size of two very large oranges or two very small grapefruits stacked one atop the other.

Actually, I fervently hope no one else has noticed this! If I can keep it my secret, Allen and I will enjoy the ripest possible pineapple when we harvest it. Now I just need to borrow a machete!