I Love the June Flamboyant Trees of Ambergris Caye

June is a month of mangos and flowering trees – especially on mainland Belize. The trees flower in the most amazing shades from pale pink to shocking yellow. And on the mainland, trees are bursting with mangos. It’s like a dream…

Here, on Ambergris Caye, an island made of sand, coral and rock, things are a bit less lush…but my favorite tree of all is blooming. Amazing bursts of yellow, peach and dark orange. I can’t stop taking photos…and gathering seeds from the Flamboyant Trees. These trees makes HUGE pods filled with rattling seeds…and it’s time for me to get to work.

My plan? To be a sort of neighborhood Johnny Appleseed with this beautiful tree. (Though Becky Flamboyant sounds a bit too…exotic dancer.)

Inspired by the seedling we planted in our own yard just about two years ago.

The internet tells me that it takes the flamboyant tree, planted from seed, 5 to 12 years to show her first bloom.

But our seed (planted in November of 2021) flowered for the first time this year. On a tree that is almost 20 feet tall. We are pretty certain that burying our best girl Elsie underneath the 4 foot sapling gave it that extra boost.

Ok…lemme just get to the pictures. Our first flower…

The tree gave us quite a scare this spring – flamboyants shed every single leaf in the beginning of the dry season.

Here are some others around town and the island.

A pretty sign down south about 2 miles

Gorgeous Victoria House Resort has about a dozen huge beauties. Many are packed with clusters of our island native orchid – the cowhorn orchid. The orchid grows in dense mangroves and reaches its long (many feet long) stem out once a year and produces a bunch of delicate flowers.

I snagged my first pod from this beautiful, almost-red tree.

The next two pods (at least a foot and a half in length) came from an older tree by the Parish Hall in town. A lovely peach.

That’s what’s making me happy this week – I hope you are enjoying your weekend and taking a minute to enjoy the flowers.

I’ve got planting to do…