Florida native plants

www.pinellasnativeplants.org

Recommended here, and from UK research: 75% native, 25% non.  https://www.pennlive.com/gardening/2015/10/save_the_pollinators_its_not_a.html

Wildflowers

Bidens Alba

Nothing attracts more butterflies and bees than a simple white flower called bidens alba.

Also called romerillo, beggar’s tick, Spanish needle or monkey’s lice, this Florida native wildflower is the third most reliable source of nectar for pollinators in our state. There would be many starving bees and butterflies if not for the bidens family of flowers. 

Tasselflower So glad to learn their name.

Spiderwort.  What an ugly name.  It must be because of the root system, which is octopus like and impossible to eradicate. The advantages of never mowing my lawn, I've got plenty of it.  It is a beautiful blue though.

Dandelion. So shoot me, but I think of it as a wildflower and not a weed.  

Flax harbingers the spring, shooting up everywhere.

Coastal plain hawkseed (who thinks up these names?) or dandelion? 

May

2021

Fertilize: Organic/natural fertilizers often use alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, or fish emulsion to provide nitrogen; bone meal or rock phosphate to provide phosphorus; and kelp meal or granite meal to provide potassium. 

• Nitrogen (N): Promotes lush foliage growth
• Phosphorus or Phosphate (P): Promotes blooming and fruit formation
• Potassium or Potash (K): Develops healthy root systems

2020

What a month! Thanks to Bethia Marie's new gardening zeal, I've been to three new nurseries and she's bought me many beautiful new plants! My front yard looks like a crazy quilt of flowers and my backyard is starting to shape up.

First outing after coronavirus to Willow Tree:

passion vine, passiflora incarnata

purple fountain grass

cosmos -- so frilly and pretty. GET THESE NEXT YEAR
zinnias -- not blooming yet

5/14 Marty helped me plant the purple fountain grass today. Still not sure about where to put the passion vine. The Virginia creeper is so happy on the fence, but then, it would be, it's an uninvited guest.

5/19 Went to Sweet Bay Nursery with Bethia, just lovely.  

Bahama Cassia: 3 to 9 feet, 3 to 5 in sun, fall flowering, drought tolerant, sandy soil OK.

Bee Balm

5/29 Bethia's generosity and new gardening schemes sure are great for my garden. Many new plants. Very purple vincas, never saw anything like them.

Gazania. Helped her put in her front garden yesterday. Many plantings, cocoplum bushes, cassia, firebush, firecracker, etc. etc.  She only likes yellows, reds, oranges. Absolutely no pinks.  Funny because I don't like reds. 

5/30 Finished off the bed by the garage: cranberry hibiscus (still very small), purple fountain grass, whiskers deep rose gaura, and then a couple little iresine to finish off.  Kind of good.  

2019

Since it only rained once while we were away, the yard wasn't too too awful, just pretty awful.  Much weeding to be done, and of course it's very hot by 11:00, but luckily my winter habit of lolling around in the morning was broken while we were overseas with much to see so that I can now easily hop out of bed and head out of doors to put in a few hours.

Cheltenham was full of parks with beds of tulips just at their best.  So when I come home to find the caladiums in full leaf, I'm very happy. 

Thinking of weedeating front yard to tidy things up and keep ganges primrose down. They've been blooming nonstop since November. I keep waiting for them to calm down so I can clip them and it's just not happening.  
To-Do list when coming home from England.

• visit the garden up the street at about 6th Avenue and 38th street for ideas
• visit Wilcox nursery and buy buy buy.  Cassia to replace the spindly plants in front yard. 5/15 bought Florida porterweed, maypop passion vine, gallardia, two pots of yellow cutleaf coneflower
• work on your beds
• propagate the Persian shield -- it's a perennial and looks great with the Ganges. done 5/13
• dig up the asparagus fern and other invasives