HummerHaven in Abita Springs, Louisiana

We are going to have a great 2024 year.

 

HummerHaven Clifton Estate in Abita Springs, Louisiana

 Our family, Walter and Olga and Mimi and Paul Clifton had owned and cared for a property in Abita Springs, Louisiana for 65 years.  After our parents, Olga Casadaban Clifton and Walter H. Clifton, Jr. passed, the estate went to Paul and Mimi Clifton. 

We then sold the estate. It had grown to 10 city blocks of property in Abita Springs, Louisiana. It went from Magnolia streets and Pine streets to Gum street. From Main street to the Abita River. This property was small when Olga and Walter were first married. It grew in size over the decades. We developed the house to be bigger and the property to be larger in scale. The out buildings were larger. The decks were installed and amounted to a few thousand square feet. The property and water features and the river were all connected by beautiful nature trails which circumvented the acreage. We planted hundreds of trees after hurricane Katrina took out 368 pine trees. We set in motion a beautiful arboretum.  

As of December 2023, the Town of Abita Springs has approved the money acquired from 2 grants, to purchase the property and to attach it to the city Parks & Recreation District. This will allow the entire estate to be held as part of land attached to a conservancy that Olga Casadaban Clifton set up before she passed away.  This estate will now be used to carry on continuing education for the citizens and the public who are interested in nature and birding and flowers and landscaping and conservation.

Snow march 13, 1992 Abita Springs, Louisiana

Agave in bloom-Santa Roasa Island-Pensacola beach-September 2023

 This was a beautiful Agave specimen in bloom spike. I was on an observational e-bike ride early in the morning and this is one of the personal homes I came upon.  This early stage Agave flower spike was about 9 feet tall. 

 

Plants with this type of bloom will create a long live bloom. Usually the blooms will be heavy with nectar. Many indiginious and migrating birds enjoy. MOths and butterflies and hummingbirds enjoy the sweet nectar from Agave.

Xerophtic plant. I am leaning to these more and more for use in landscape. They offer a wide variety of foliage colors and powerful blooms.

What is the meaning of Xerophytic?

: a plant adapted for life and growth with a limited water supply. xerophytic. ˌzir-ə-ˈfi-tik.

 

I will do more about xerophytes soon.

 

A xerophyte is a species of plant that has adaptations to survive in an environment with little liquid water. Examples are typically desert regions like the Sahara, and places in the Alps or the Arctic. Popular examples of xerophytes are cacti, pineapple and some Gymnosperm plants

Yucca rostrata

 

 Yucca rostrata

 

As one of the hardiest trunk-forming yuccas, Yucca rostrata can be grown successfully outdoors down to USDA hardiness zone 5 and is popular in many desert cities. We caught this nice specimen in a Pensacola beach,Florida home landscape. These are not utilized enough in the Southern coastal landscapes. Very drought tolerant plant. This plant does not mind coastal areas where salt is high in the ground and the rain.

Detail of the trunk

Cultivars

• 'Sapphire Skies' has powder blue foliage
  
  
  

 

 

 

Hummer Haven 2020 Composite videos of Property