Finally, but briefly, but sweetly

When the ground orchids on either side of our front steps started languishing last year, we hauled our butts out to Mama's, way up on Rockland Key, and got some Tahitian gardenias for the left side, and some bromeliads for the right. It took until this summer -- they had a few blooms when I was here -- for the gardenias to get down to the business of flowering, and they've been dribbling them out since.

The blossoms, maybe 2 inches across, only last a day or so, but you can smell them from the middle of the street.