Mexico City's Flowers

In our ambles through the colonias, pueblos and barrios of Mexico City, we have been focused on the important buildings, primarily the original 16th-century churches built by the Franciscans or other orders of monks, and most of all on the people and their celebrations of their traditional fiestas.

However, also being a gardener, we have taken photos of the many kinds of flowering plants, vines, shrubs and trees that lend the beauty of nature to the city's neighborhoods, particularly their plazas and the atriums of their churches. There are also many parks. So, in this time of confinement, when we cannot take ambles, we thought we would present our collection of flower photos.

Hibiscus

Southern Mexico does not really experience distinct seasons, except the "dry season" of winter to mid-spring and the "wet" season from May through September. The somewhat cooler temperatures of "winter" (daytime highs of high 60s to low 70s) are an indistinguishable blend of what, in the northern U.S. is early fall with late spring. Deciduous trees don't all lose their leaves at the same time in October. Each one has a "fall" of its leaves in a sequence between October and February, and its "spring" of new leaves within a month of the "fall". Therefore, we call this "season" "Fling", a merger of fall and spring.

Canna lily

As a result, there is no clear season for flowers, except for some that like the dry time for blooming while others like the rainy season. Thus, there is no clear order in which they bloom. Roses bloom in the midst of winter and poinsettias bloom from November through April. Hence, our presentation has no chronological order that a northern gardener would be able to display.

In any case, we hope you enjoy the flowers of Mexico City. Interestingly, many come from other tropical climates: South America, Southern Africa and Southern Asia. So the tour is also a botanical tour of these other continents!

Jacaranda  (hah-kah-RAHN-da) tree

I have placed the flowers in a Google Photo Album, Flowers of Mexico City. Clicking on the link will take you there. Then click on the first photo to enlarge it. In the upper right-hand corner is an icon consisting of the letter 'i' in a circle; clicking on it will open a sidebar of information about each flower. I have done my best to identify each one, but there are several I haven't been able to. Enjoy!

Rose