The Plant Party Continues

First, let me say this about the USF Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Fair: I showed remarkable restraint.


In fact, I kept thinking after I returned home on Saturday that I really hadn't bought very much and should certainly go back.


The Native Plant Society area is always packed --
 lots of interest in our tough and tenacious native plants.



I am proud to say (and my husband was relieved to hear) that I actually came in UNDER the $100 allotment I allocated myself. In fact, I only spent $80. So, that means I am surely entitled to spent that extra $20 on some other garden-related item in the future, right?


Is there anything more beautiful than an orchid?



I prepared a list of what I needed, and I stuck to that list. Almost. There was that one epidendrum orchid (only $8 -- how could I resist?) and the adorable miniature succulents for my dish gardens. And one vendor had flax lily for sale at such a low price, just $2 a plant, that I grabbed three just to fill in my flax lily bed.

A sampling of adorable cacti and succulents,
 perfect for dish gardens.

But otherwise, I stuck to the list. I bought two more muhly grasses from the native plant vendors, but couldn't find rouge plant or royal or cinnamon ferns, natives also on my list for my shady areas. I found two more of the Neoregilia "Orange Crush" bromeliads, so I now have a nice small bed of five. And I purchased a gorgeous big cast-iron plant -- another great addition to my shade beds. Also purchased some chenille plants, also on my list, which I use as a groundcover in the back yard. A few narrow-leaved sunflowers for the wildflower garden I have started (which also features ironweed, milkweed and blue-eyed grass), and my day was done.



Heck, I should get a booth next year and sell salvias.
They come up like weeds in my garden!



Then I had to plant them all, PLUS the 50 caladium bulbs that I ordered after reading Meems' Hoe and Shovel blog about her visit to the Caladium Nursery! Good thing our grass-free landscape really is proving to be low maintenance, because I don't have time for maintenance with all this planting I'm doing!

I thought there were even more vendors at this year's USF Sale than last year, and more buyers too! My friend Sue and I had to wait in a very long line on Saturday morning just to get in, but it was so worth it. We had fun in line talking to the other garden enthusiasts, most of us equipped with our handy-dandy rolling garden carts with which to haul around our booty. The sale itself was a plant lover's paradise, with everything from herbs to plumerias to exotic fruit trees. This is absolutely one of my favorite events of the year and, if you haven't ever been, put it on your April 2012 calendar now.

Now, I've got to get back to planting...

A Heckuva Plant Party

I took a day off work Friday to drive down to Sarasota to attend my first Tropiflora Spring Plant Festival. Tropiflora is the independent nursery from which I've been mail ordering miniature plants for dish gardens and a few tillandsias (air plants).



Orchid lover's paradise!

 OMG! This festival was to a plant lover what being locked in a Godiva chocolate shop overnight would be to a chocoholic. Tropiflora sells exotics and tropicals from all over the world. I had no idea how big the nursery is, or the tremendous variety of plants they offer. Plus, an additional two dozen or so vendors were there selling plants as well as garden art, garden supplies and even garden furniture.


The "Bargain Tents," where I picked up some
plants for my dish gardens for as little as $1


Orchids, ferns, bromeliads, succulents. It was fascinating just to browse the incredible assortment of plants.


Racks of bromeliads



This is a huge sale and very well-known in the Sarasota area, apparently, but it was all new and wonderful to me. 

I knew I was in trouble when a nice lady leaving the sale gave me the large garden cart she had been using to haul her treasures to her car.

Actually, I managed to restrain myself. I am really trying to utilize more natives in my yard, so I kept the plant buying to a minimum because I am saving my money for the USF Plant Fair this weekend. 



The angel wing begonia in its new home



But I couldn't resist a huge, gorgeous potted angel wing begonia with delicate white flowers, and a trio of eyecatching compact bromeliads called Neoregilia 'Orange Crush" -- with striking green striped foliage with a vivid flame-red center. Red is the primary color in my front yard landscape, and I knew these would provide a nice splash of color underneath my very shady oak tree. I checked with the bromeliad experts (Tropiflora had very knowledgeable staff and volunteers stationed in each plant tent ) and sure enough, this brom is supposed to hold its color in shade and stay fairly compact with minimal spreading. That is important to me because Rick and I removed about 100 bromeliads from our yard during the Great Landscape Makeover last year to reduce pockets of standing water that could harbor mosquito larvae. Those 100 bromeliads came from just two plants I put in the yard about 12 years ago! Naturally, my husband reminded me of this when I returned home with the three adorable little Orange Crush broms.



Who could resist these showy little bromeliads?



I also bought a few miniature plants for my dish garden, and some new tillandsias to replace the ones the squirrels ate after Rick and I created an elaborate framework of fishing line and eye hooks to artistically place them along the trunk of our majestic oak tree in the front yard. The very next day the tillandsias were gone. Not scattered on the ground around the tree, but gone! disappeared! and the fishing line severed. A wildlife biologist friend told me placing those tillandsias on that oak was like giving those tree rats a meal at a 4-star French bistro.

I've learned my lesson. My new tiilandsias are going to be anchored to driftwood and suspended from the side of our detached shed, where the squirrels can't get them. Theoretically.

Even though I really don't need many more plants in my landscape, the Tropiflora excursion reminded me of how inspiring and just plan fun it can be to spend a day with beautiful plants and like-minded plant lovers. I'm already getting excited about the USF Plant Sale -- my wish list is ready!

Who else is going to the USF Fest?





Something Old, Something New

This Spring, our first with our completely new landscape, is teaching me that plants I thought were "goners" were really just hibernating over the winter. 

Among the plants that I thought had kicked the bucket were my St. Bernard's lilies, an ornamental grasslike clumping plant with delicate little white flowers that gracefully sway with in the breeze. The plants died back severely over the winter, and I was resigned to having to replace them when, lo and behold, they sprang back to life almost overnight! They are now lush, full and flowering again. I love how carefree they are and how great they look planted in a mass.

I recently read on Rick Brown's Florida Friendly Plant website (www. floridafriendlyplants.com) that I should actually cut the St. Bernard's lilies back to the ground every other year. Duh! I guess I need to do a little bit more homework before prematurely writing obits for any more of my plants.

Speaking of homework, I pledged to myself that I would NOT make any more impulse plant purchases once we finished our landscape makeover. After all, it was my impulsive nature that caused all my gardening problems to begin with! Now that I understand and truly appreciate the "right plant, right place" mantra, I swore I would never again buy a strange plant I didn't know anything about just because it was pretty.

Oops. I ignored my own advice.

But, in this case, I think I may have stumbled on a winner.

I intended to buy only a few more bulbine to fill in my bulbine bed during a recent trip to my local independent nursery. Really, I did.

But this lovely fernlike plant with lacelike red blossoms caught my eye. And when the nursery owner told me the plant was extremely hardy and drought-tolerant, I was hopelessly infatuated. I had to buy one.

The nursery owner told me the name and it sounded to me like "Arkillia." Upon returning home and hopping on the Internet, (what did we do before Google?) I finally matched the name with the plant. It's achillea, the Latin name for yarrow plants, and my particular hybrid is called Achillea 'Paprika.'

Apparently common yarrow can be invasive in parts of the country, but the hybrids get high marks for their low-maintenance and vivid, long-lasting blooms.

I planted my Achillea in a container and placed it on my deck in full sun, where it is very happy. I recently dead-headed the spent blooms and more are forming. Looks like it will continue to put on a show. Do any of you have experience with this plant? The nursery told me they would be getting a hybrid with yellow flowers shortly, maybe the one I found online called "Coronation Gold?"

I'd like to find more of the 'Paprika' and plant it in a mixed bed with coneflowers or orange cosmos. I'm a sucker for a pretty face -- though I promise next time I'll do my research before I buy!


What plants have you bought on impulse (come on, admit it, I know you have!) that turned out to be faithful friends? And what impulse buys turned out to be just plain old mistakes?

An Unexpected Gift

While surveying my butterfly garden last weekend to assess where I will place the new plants I hope to buy at the upcoming USF Spring Plant Sale (April 2-3, mark your calendars!), I noticed my remaining milkweed -- which had been rapidly growing after winter -- was looking decidely shorter. Peering at the plants, I was surprised to see a plump monarch caterpillar munching away on the leaves. Then, three more on another milkweed!

I assume that these are the progeny of a monarch that overwintered in Mexico, though it seems a bit early for the migrants to have reached Florida. Have any of you had monarchs in your garden yet?


Checking today, all the caterpillars have crawled off to make their jeweled green chrysalis cases (I haven't found them yet, but I'll keep looking), and all my milkweed has been completely stripped. Sigh. As a flower-lover, I hate seeing the naked stubs, but I love being able to provide for the butterflies even more. Looks like I'll be shopping for milkweed plants too, since I'll be getting more monarchs before these plants recover. 


Hopefully, I'll have some plants flower long enough to bear seeds so I can harvest those for a sustainable supply.


I noticed that my passionvine is just now starting to recover from the winter. Fritillary food in the making!

Spring's Early Arrival

Just as winter arrived early this year, so apparently has Spring. It began to creep into my yard about two weeks ago, and now it is revving up a little more each day. I have never been so excited to see a new growing season because this is our first after completing our Bay-Friendly Landscape Makeover. Plants which have now been in the ground close to a year should be well established, and ready to rock n' roll!

Every day I wander around the yard for a few minutes to see what's growing and blooming. I do a little weeding and pruning, and Rick blows the still-falling leaves from our pathways back to the mulched beds, but those are the only yard chores we have. The grass-free landscape is indeed proving to be as low-maintenance as we hoped. Now time spent in my yard is a delightul choice, rather than mandatory drudgery.



Flax lilies and bulbine

Bulbine bloom

My trusty bulbines made it through winter with flying colors -- and now they ARE flying their colors! I have both the yellow and the orange bulbines and they are exploding with blooms. I am totally in love with this plant and recommend it constantly to friends.

Hot on their heels were my native viburnums, Big Walter (Walter's viburnum) and the Little Walters (dwarf "Mrs. Schiller's" variety). All are draped in their dainty, lacy white flowers. What a spectacular show!



Big Walter (Walter's Viburnum)

 

Little Walter, our Dwarf Walter's (Mrs. Schiller's) Viburnum



My Shoal Creek Chaste tree, a deciduous shrub that spent all winter completely leafless, already has begun popping out leaves. In fact, it is producing leaves a full month earlier than last year when I planted it.



My patio pink lemon tree is covered in fragrant blossoms. I like to sit by it and just inhale the magical perfume.






Majestic Beauty hawthorne tree



And I am eagerly awaiting the first pink blossoms opening on my Yedda ("Majestic Beauty") hawthorne, an unusual tree-form Indian hawthorne that all my neighbors admire.

Our native beautyberry is shooting out new green growth at a rapid pace as well.


I can't wait to get home every day and see what is sprouting.



Perfect temperatures, bluebird skies, growing plants everywhere. It's the best time of year!

What are your favorite gardening signs of spring?


View of our back yard







Winter Garden Amusements

The second unseasonably cold winter in a row is testing the patience of every gardener I know, and getting us all to think about COLD-HARDY as well as drought-hardy plants for our Florida yards. Our Bay-Friendly landscape is holding up very well so far and the winter is giving us a great opportunity to see which plants do well in near- or below-freezing temperatures, and which don't. This will help us make some modifications this Spring so that we truly have an all-weather landscape that doesn't require major replanting each year. After all, reducing the amount of time we spend on lawn maintenance was a major motivation for our landscape makeover.



Not quite in time for Christmas, but this cactus beauty a friend
gave me last year is putting on a January show.



I can truly say that the foundational plants in our landscape -- the small trees, shrubs and groundcovers -- are sailing through the cold, with the exception of the firebush and the wild coffee in the back yard. The firebush, especially, has been really whacked by the cold but there are still green branches at the base of the plant so I know it will bounce back. The wild coffee has plenty of green left so it will recover too. The other backyard natives -- the coonties, anise shrubs and muhly grass -- are totally unphased, as we expected. I can't say enough about the non-native, but Florida-tough bulbine, flax lilies and liriope. "Winter? What winter?" appears to be their attitude. The bulbine just keeps blooming.

Not one single plant in my front yard has been more than slightly singed by the cold. Rick and I attribute this to our mighty, much-loved live oak, whose canopy provides a natural insulating blanket over almost the entire front yard. Big trees are an incredible garden asset in so many ways.



The butterfly bed in our side yard has taken the biggest hit. The full-sun exposure that is so beneficial to it in the warm months has left it very vulnerable to the cold. The pentas, salvias, cat's whiskers, mistflowers and milkweed are downright crunchy. Some will come back -- salvia could survive the apocalypse, I think -- and some will need replacing. That's OK -- I love puttering in the butterfly garden anyway.



Until the danger of frost has passed, and I can get started pruning and tidying, I am satisfying my green urges with gardening on a micro-scale: making little dish gardens for my friends out of tea cups, toothbrush holders, ramekins, bowls and other household items. I saw  these at a craft market and immediately thought, "I can do that!" Apparently lots of other people had this same thought, because there is a wealth of information about this on the Internet. I bought a diamond bit for our electric drill to drill drain holes in the ceramics, started experimenting and -- voila! -- it works.



I scour thrift shops for the ceramic items (cheap, cheap,cheap and lots of fun) and then buy miniature plants to plant in them once I have drilled the drain holes. A friend recommended a wonderful exotic nursery in Bradenton called Tropiflora (http://www.tropiflora.com/) that actually carries dwarf, miniature and terrarium plants. I order online and they ship right to my home. The plants arrive in perfect condition, all wrapped in damp newspaper. You can also buy small container plants at Lowe's and Home Depot too, but Tropiflora has some really unusual goodies. I love giving my little planters to friends as a thank you for their friendship and support.



I must give props to my husband Rick who remains incredibly tolerant of my gardening madness, and helps me with my winter garden amusements, holding the ceramics for me while I drill and even spelling me when my hands get cramped. I guess he's thinking that anything that distracts me from another, more expensive hobby of mine -- shoe shopping -- is a good thing!



A Grateful Gardener

Christmastime always makes me think of the many blessings in my life. This year, especially, I am grateful for the many friends and colleagues who have helped make my landscape makeover a reality. Gardeners are by nature a generous bunch, and I feel so thankful for the help and encouragement I've received from these special people.


Pam, a retired Extension educator who is now sharing her knowledge and passion for plants as a wonderful gardening coach, gave me two of my three rain barrels from her personal "stock." A good friend, Sue, gave me the third.


Carlos, a colleague, gave me some baby coontie plants that he grew himself, along with a chickasaw plum seedling, all of which are thriving in my yard.  I had no idea Carlos was such a gardener until he read about my yard makeover and offered me the plants. His own yard follows Florida-Friendly landscaping principles and looks great!


Kelli gave me a starter supply of spiderwort and tons of moral support. She is another colleague whose gardening prowess was unknown to me until I started on the yard transformation. Now she and I share  garden gossip all the time. Her yard, too, is a colorful mix of native and Florida-friendly plants -- with a little bit of turf too, that looks terrific.


Vicki, a longtime gardener and Neem Tree farmer,  sent me some neem oil as a "varmint deterrent" when I told her about the possum with the Midnight Munchies who dug up my beloved bed of bulbine. I sprayed the neem mixture all around the bed and it seems to have worked, because I haven't seen any ripped-up bulbine since. Vicki, a sucker for butterflies, has also been known to make emergency deliveries of milkweed to help feed the insatiable monarch caterpillars, who are literally non-stop, milkweed-devouring machines.

Master Gardener Virginia Overstreet gives gardening workshops at my local Seminole Heights Branch Library. Not only is she an incredible resource on all aspects of gardening, she also brings free plants harvested from her own yard to her workshops to give away. The blackberry lilies, crinum lilies and lady slippers in my yard are all gifts from Virginia's garden. She has inspired me to grow a few plants of my own from seed to "pass forward."


When Rick and I embarked on our Bay-Friendly Landscape makeover, I knew it would be an adventure, and it definitely has been that! What I didn't realize is that I joined a continually expanding community of people who are committed to making their own little corner of the world both beautiful and sustainable. I now know that when you create a garden, you plant more than flowers and shrubs. You sow the seeds of friendship. Merry Christmas, everyone, and best wishes for a green New Year!