Corks and Caladiums Celebrate Nehrling Gardens

 

 

Do you love caladiums? Do you love wine? Then May 9th is the special day for a sunset stroll on the historic Nehrling Gardens for Corks and Caladiums.  This special event will feature live music, silent auction, and Mother's Day gifts.

This is just the event to attend if you've never been to the Nehrling Gardens. Henry Nehrling is known as the "patron saint of Florida gardens" having researched and introduced over 3,000 unknown and rare plant and tree species to Florida as well as Florida's native plants to the nation.
The Nehrling Gardens have had such historical celebrities as Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, and famed horticulturists David Fairchild, creator of the Fairchild Botanical Gardens, and Liberty Hyde Bailey visit Dr. Nehrling to see his incredible collection of tropical plants.

Caladiums are one of my favorite plants for Florida shade. I can't wait to see all the different cultivars. Join me on May 9th, 5:30pm to 8:30pm in  Gotha. Tickets are $50 per person. You must be 21 to attend.

 

 

 

From Roots To Roofs

 

Orlando, FL – In Your Backyard, Central Florida’s award-winning  gardening radio show, hosted by Teresa Watkins, announced Tuesday, Sunniland Corporation as its new sponsor.

With the start of spring , Sunniland, a Florida-based company, is partnering with  In Your Backyard to  help educate and encourage Florida homeowners in growing healthy lawns and gardens while  protecting the environment.

In Your Backyard, started in 1998 and reaches listeners from Daytona Beach to Orlando and from Ocala and The Villages to Lakeland, as well as streaming  live on My790am.com on the Internet.

Sunniland fertilizers  have been sold in Florida since 1884 and are formulated specifically for Florida’s sandy soils. Sunniland products RiteGreen, Turfgro, and Sunniland-brand fertilizers can be purchased at Lowe’s, Walmart, Ace Hardware, and Home Depot,

“It’s a great  show for Florida residents who don’t know how to take care of their landscapes or what to plant”  Teresa Watkins, gardening expert and environmental consultant said. “Retirees and gardeners who work on the weekends are able to call in and get landscaping advice during the middle of the week,  which makes In Your Backyard, one of the most popular shows on WLBE’s My790.com.”

“We are proud to be the sponsor of In Your Backyard and the opportunities it brings to our company” said Larry Pressley, Sunniland Corporation’s Marketing Director.

In Your Backyard airs at 1pm to 2pm EST every Tuesday.

On this beautiful May Day, Bluebells growing wild in Scotland. Campunala rotundifolia are also native to the United States.

How to grow Virginia bluebells.

Vegetable Garden Planted

Well, its done!  Our front yard, in the unused portion of our driveway, is now home to our vegetable gardening.  Due to the large oaks and "North Carolina" themed landscape in the backyard, the front and side yard is one of our sunniest locations.

We used a pre-cut cedar raised bed product from Home Depot. At approximately $80, the raised beds were reasonably priced factoring saving time, labor, and cost versus buying the materials and sacrificing to the wood gods. We also reused our cleaned aluminum tubs and rectangular plastic containers from springtime.

We checked last season's low-volume irrigation, changing out the emitter heads for good distribution uniformity.

What are we expecting to harvest from our edible landscaping?

First bed:

• Pasillo Bajio Chile Peppers
• Cow Horn Peppers
• NuMex Joe E Parker Peppers
• Cubanelle Peppers
• Ancho/Poblano Peppers

Second bed:

• Supersweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes
• Cherokee Purple Tomatoes
• Beefsteak Tomatoes
• Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomatoes
• Grape Tomatoes (saved from the grocery bought tomatoes)

How many tomatoes does it take?  Check out how you measure your fresh tomatoes for your cooking recipes.

First Tub:

• Gourmet Baby Greens Mesclun Lettuce
• Bibb Lettuce

Second Tub:

• Bloomsdale Spinach
• Red Malabar Spinach

Rectangle container:

• Onions
• Leeks

We only used half or less of the seed packets so we will save the seeds in dry envelopes and place them in our refrigerator to keep for spring.  As the plants emerge, we will thin them out and place some in containers for our children and the neighborhood, and keep some for our table.

We have to wait about ten days to see any green shoots! Will be taking photos from sprouting through harvesting.  Let us know how your vegetable gardening is doing.  We'll post your photos.

Transplanting Easter Lilies In Your Backyard

A wonderful hostess gift for Easter is a basket of Easter lilies.  Gracing the table as a centerpiece or as a welcome at the front door, Easter lilies are easy to put into your garden after the holiday.  Easter lilies are non-native bulbs which typically bloom after Easter, but are planted in the fall and grown in the right conditions by greenhouses and nurseries to open early for the spring season.

To enjoy in your home, make sure that you cut off the yellow anthers in the center of the fragrant flower so that the pollen doesn't get on the flowers, your nose, or on tablecloths and furniture.  Older blooms may be cut off  so that the unopened blooms will take center stage. Remove the foil wrapping around the pot so that the container has proper drainage. Leaving it on can cause the lily to rot and the water can be a source for mosquito larvae if the lily is outside.

Easter lilies will transplant nicely in your Florida yard just like many other bulbs. After all the blooms are finished, select a full sun location with rich, organic soil.  If you have sandy soils, amend the garden bed as wide as possible with equal parts of top soil, peat moss, and manure, or compost.  Place the bulb with soil intact into the hole.  Water well and then sprinkle a slow release fertilizer for blooming flowers.  Mulch and water on consistant basis.  It will go dormant, so don't forget about it.  Fertilize every three to six months, depending on the slow-release fertilizer rate. You will see the lilies start to emerge in late January or February.  They will bloom later than commercial Easter lilies, so don't be surprised if your lilies bloom in May or June.

History of Easter Lilies

Easter Lily diseases

Bulbs for Florida

Deer and Rabbit Resistant Plants



Florida Marsh Rabbit



Plant Sales Galore In Your Backyard

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." ~ Albert Camus

The past week, our garden has turned another seasonal corner. Cooler nighttime temperatures in the 60's for Central Florida don't compare to International Falls, MN, lows in the 30's but its a grand feeling to open up the windows for the breezes.

October 9th is a plant extravaganza weekend! Two opportunities to find great plants for your fall garden.

Saturday at the Discovery Gardens in Tavares is the Lake County Master Gardeners Fall Plant Sale. from 9am to 1 pm. Take note that Central Florida gardeners start lining up very early to buy great bargains for their landscapes. Bring a wagon! You'll need it for everything from flowers, ornamental shrubs, to fall vegetables and herbs. It's also an opportunity to visit the 3.5 acre Discovery Gardens, located on 4.5-acres with an expanding one-acre plant evaluation area. Over twenty uniquely themed gardens can be walked and photographed. The gardens feature more than 600 different plants and also demonstrates Florida-friendly best management practices.

Location and for more information:

Lake County Extension Office
1951 Woodlea Rd.
Tavares, FL 32778
(352) 343-4101

Then head on over to Orange County, where Knox Nursery, a second-generation family nursery will have an Open House with tours from 11am to 2pm. Specializing in beautiful annuals, shrubs, trees, vegetables, and herbs, the nursery will definitely have the right plants to decorate your backyard.

Location and for more information:

Knox Nursery, Inc.
940 Avalon Road
Winter Garden, Fl 34787
407-654-1972 - 1-800-441-5669

Directions to Knox Nursery.

If you've been waiting out our summer heat, this weekend couldn't be better for buying plants! Don't miss these plant sales!

In Your Backyard: Preparation Is Critical

June 1st signals the first day of hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin. This year NOAA has issued their projections of fifteen hurricanes with eight major storms. The hurricane names will be:

1. Hurricane Alex
2. Hurricane Bonnie
3. Hurricane Colin
4. Hurricane Danielle
5. Hurricane Earl
6. Hurricane Fiona
7. Hurricane Gaston
8. Hurricane Hermine
9. Hurricane Igor
10. Hurricane Julia
11. Hurricane Karl
12. Hurricane Lisa
13. Hurricane Matthew
14. Hurricane Nicole
15. Hurricane Otto
16. Hurricane Paula
17. Hurricane Richard
18. Hurricane Shary
19. Hurricane Tomas
20. Hurricane Virginie
21. Hurricane Walter

How many will hit Florida is yet in Fate's hands. But you need to be prepared!

By June 1st, all your preparations to weather a Category 1-5 hurricane should be completed. That means that you have enough food and water to last a few days, that weather stripping and house renovations are finished, and that your landscape and yard have had a walk-through to remove anything that could damage your house or be windblown during a storm.

Have you inspected your trees? Large limbs in older trees that form a vee and deep crotch could be weak and break or mask a hollow interior that will easily uproot with strong winds. Check out any limbs hanging over homes or are growing together. Look closely for heavy limbs that hang over homes, cross or rub together.

It's important to understand that it's not just pruning a tree, or cutting off limbs that will make it safe and healthy. Cutting trees improperly can make them more dangerous in a storm or and actually reduce the life of the tree. Never try to cut large trees yourself. Always use a certified arborist.

A certified arborist is the only person who should help homeowners make a decision on what limbs to prune or if a tree should be removed. You can easily find certified arborists through the International Society of Arborculture. By inputting your zip code, city, you can find several qualified arborists in your area. If you have an arborist's name or license number, you can verify his certification and good standing.

Before hiring an arborist, it's always a good idea to get three bids so that you feel comfortable that the service is actually needed and with the cost. Professionals understand that you will be calling other arborists for bids. That's part of the business. Don't be afraid to say that you need to check them out or get other bids to price check.

The best advice is to make sure that you're planting the right tree in the first place. The University of Florida/IFAS has enough studies that they now have determined which trees are the most wind-resistant. You can read that study here. It will save a lot of work and money in protecting your home during hurricanes if you select properly for your site.

Radio Show: "In Your Backyard"

Back after fabulous opportunity on Garden Writers Association conference trip to Mt. Vernon with a 'personal indulgence' gardening detour to Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, North Carolina. I shot over 750 photographs of the stately Mt. Vernon gardens in six hours. The best photos will be up in a few days.

Safe travels for snowbird residents who are going back North. Stay in touch, you can still call with your gardening questions and listen to "In Your Backyard" on the Internet. My gardening radio show can be heard on WLBE 790AM or at WLBEradio.com Tuesdays from 11:05am to 12:00pm every week. You do need DSL high speed internet access so that the show buffers correctly.

Hurricane preparedness makes the news at the start of hurricane season June 1st through Sept 31st. Make sure your Florida landscape is ready for the gusts of wind and torrents of rain.

Gardening phone call topics included:

• How much to water and fertilizing newly transplanted palms? Once a day for the first few weeks - if no rain, then twice a week for the first six months, fertilize when you see new growth.
• The few fruit that pollinated falling from squash plants? Nematodes? Could be and could be lack of pollination. Here's some Hand-pollination techniques.
• Oleander toxicity: All parts of the plant are poisonous to touch, taste, and smell.
  Great plant to use in landscape if you don't have chewing children or chewing dogs. Make sure you use gloves and mask during any maintenance.

Time for caladiums to bloom. See great bulbs for spring and fall at Brent & Becky Heath's nursery.




Purple heart, Tradescantia pallida and Caladium spp.