April

In Bloom

This beautiful jacaranda at 1219 49 St. N. creates a gorgeous picture against the turquoise house, emphasized with a white picket fence.  The owners were very clever to plant a schefflera behind it to give a pleasing bushy green background, like ferns in an arrangement of roses. The jac has been in full bloom all over town for three weeks now, and purple carpets of dropped blooms have already begun to decorate lawns.

2021

Done: Weeding. Bamboo trimmed. Small path laid in backyard. 

Note to self: Don't panic! Sea grapes are shedding their leaves everywhere!

To do: Propagate blue salvia mystic spires and dill? and pink   .. Get more gaura. Plant peanuts 105 days till harvest. 

In bloom: Gerbera daisies-- just divided them, hope they make it; blue salvia, but only in planters; petunias -- didn't get enough this year, they didn't really thrive; yellow lantana; blue daze very gorgeous; angelonia seems to be coming back ok; bush daisies really happy; bougainvillea still going at it.

Back

Looks like I'll have a full bed of gallardia! 

2020 - Month of Coronavirus
Front:

Blue salvia bed was dug up, just as it was in full bloom, when Benjamin Franklin Plumbers repiped the house. It's starting to come back though.

Gerbera Daisies have been super gorgeous, but next year (if they don't survive) don't let them develop root rot! They're hard to water because of their big leaves -- better to plant them.

Mexican heather is such a necessity.  Love it, so easy, so pretty.

Trying to grow milkweed, very hard to start. Three plants out of three dozen attempts.

Begonias planted. Who knows?

Started & planted native porterweed. Makes a nice ground cover near oak tree.

Mini mums bought cheaply last year are still blooming!

PETUNIAS are a big hit. I love them more than pansies now.  So bright, so cheerful, so longlasting.  More petunias, please.  The ones I bought last October are still going strong.

Varieted sansevieria looks great, going strong.

Heather & rosemary both ok.

Yellow lantana in bloom, and spreading.

Fig tree just barely there.

Bougainvillea still blooming

Bush daisies still working it.

Back

Orchids, ground orchids, day lilies, caladiums are doing well.

Gallardia is fantastically beautiful. I only trim it back when all the seeds are off. I've planted celosia on the other side of the path, and it looks like it might take, in which case the path will be really beautiful.

  

2019

Went to a talk given by the Florida Native Plants people and got an earful.  So now I plan on uprooting my invasives and replacing them with Florida Natives and Florida Friendlies.  I knew Mexican petunias were on the bad list, but I didn't know that about sword ferns.  I won't miss them.  And asparagus fern! I love asparagus fern! I've never had any luck with foxtail fern instead. The porterweed has to go; luckily I've located the native on my walks and can sneak some cuttings.

What's in bloom:

bougainvillea started up in Nov. & won't quit.

bush daisy isn't looking very bushy, but great contrast

Staking the ground orchids seems to help

Orchids!  Next time add food in late Feb

Sweet little mimosa

New planting of vinca. Improvement over old scraggly stock

Ganges primrose just won't quit. Started in Nov.

2016

Serena Angelonia
Red Sensation Cordyline, which may well take over the pot completely. Note: a year later, I can't remember it at all.

Add to this beauty the daylilies by the back door and the caladiums, which have just now started to pop up.

Greenthumb 2012 Picks: Peppermint and Alcea

Sucker!  I bought an orchid, a small peppermint, and a giant alcea -- Vietnamese  hollyhock -- at Greenthumb last week!  Sound like the beginning of a bad joke?

The reason why peppermint doesn't grow for me in Fla is because the air temp is too hot for it!  It's like my husband Marty!  It wants to go to North Carolina during the summer.  I'll try putting it in a nice pot and keeping it in my kitchen for the duration. Bethia can grow it in a pot in her backyard, but her backyard has that giant oak tree lowering the air temp by 10 degrees.

And that gorgeous alcea?  I was wary when Robby looked at it sadly and said, "Oh, we killed ours."  Many of the buds have turned brown and dropped off and a few of the leaves. It's supposed to grow in full sun all over the US, but when they say that, they aren't talking about Florida full sun in my experience.  It's supposed to be drought tolerant but it needs to be watered twice a week, which in Florida is not drought tolerant. Update: alcea is dead as a doornail.

The orchid? Unbelievably gorgeous. People look at it and say, "Is that real?"


What have I learned from this?  The orchid came out of a local nursery. I have bought less than healthy plants from local nurseries before, but usually local nurseries don't specialize in bizarre and delicate  foreign refugees.

2011

Day lilies started blooming in the side garden in the backyard.  The ones in front are still just in bud.  What a welcome they give every morning!

December

Cut back purple fountain grass
2019

Update: Fig tree doing OK, pansies from October are looking overworked, and I have no respect for polka dot plants. Ganges primrose is everywhere, I've moved hibiscus to a pot and it's looking okay in a feeble sort of way. I still see butterflies on the Jamaican porterweed, but the native is doing okay too.  As long as the butterflies enjoy the Jamaican so much, I won't root it all out. Bougainvillea is gorgeous, climbing up the sea grapes.  

Tasks: 

• Circle the ganges primrose with a whip and a chain, keep them in beds, mulch around if necessary

New plantings:

The fig tree is struggling, down to one healthy leaf.  I can only hope it's hibernating.

I bought yellow and purple pansies, and a white polka dot plant.

In bloom: 

That beautiful and reliable Ganges primrose.  Invasive though it may be (although it still hasn't made the Undesirable List) its blue flowers still enticing bees to its mounded beds.  

The hibiscus in front of me finally began blooming.  I suppose whatever had been eating the buds died in the chillier weather, and now I'm getting a bloom or so every day.

A little bloom on the blue porterweed.  

Bougainvillea is blooming but a little ragged.  I cut it back; it wants to grow up in the sea grapes.

Disasters:
The tenting hit the succulents hard, even the ones that were not under the tent.  We just had a devastating wind but everything stood up to it very well. 

Propagating: 
polka dot plants
indoor herb garden