Colorful Landscapes for Central Florida Snowbirds

Snowbirds
 

One of the great benefits of living in the Sunshine State is that you can have something blooming in your yard 365 days out of the year. At a recent builder and home expo where I was promoting my gardening radio show, In Your Backyard, I met June, a lovely northern six-months-out-of-the-year resident who expressed her frustration that she “didn’t know what to plant and my landscape blooms after I leave.” She explained that ‘My husband and I only live here in the winter and we never get to enjoy the plants that bloom in my yard after we go back north.”  I felt her pain. Buying a beautiful winter home that has a landscape already selected for you helps from having to make more decisions, but for gardeners who don’t know anything about tropical plants, they soon realize that they don’t have what they want – a  colorful landscape that bursts with flowers while they are living in Florida.  She asked me to email her a list of flowering perennials and shrubs that bloom during the fall and winter that she could plant in her yard.  So as I was diligently writing to her, I thought to myself, this is an issue that I know concerns many other snowbirds, I mean seasonal residents, so here’s my ‘Welcome to La Florida – Place of Flowers’[1] tips on gardening in Central Florida.

There are five gardening zones in Florida, zones 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.   The northern panhandle or LA (Lower Alabama as we long-timers refer to it) is zone 8. Currently, zone 8 goes from the Georgia state line and down as far as Gainesville.  This area could possibly have temperatures reach 10 degrees every year depending on the severity of the winter. Gardeners across Florida’s zone 8 will see between 400 to 700 chill hours each year.  

 

Chill Hours in Florida.
Courtesy of The University of Florida Institute of Agricultural Services

 

A chill hour is a measurement of time where the temperature stays between 45 to 32 degrees or colder. Zones 9a, 9b, and 10 are considered “subtropical” because this area has between 200 to 400 chill hours each winter.  Florida's subtropical area ranges from Ocala to Lake Okeechobee and from Daytona Beach to Tampa. Below Lake Okeechobee are zones 11 and 12 and considered to be South Florida with a tropical climate. Very rarely does South Florida get freezing temperatures, although in my lifetime, it’s snowed in Central Florida and has occasionally reached South Florida in 1977, 1986, 1996, 2003, 2008, and 2010.[2] 

With this realization that we do have winter here in Florida, it’s good for new residents to remember to watch the weather forecast at the beginning of the week to look for cold fronts coming across the country. If it reaches Florida, there will be storms, possibility of tornados, and rain. After the rain, temperatures will dip, possibly into the freezing range.  Despite this winter advisory, you can plant shrubs and trees nearly every day of the year. Although if there is a chance of freezing in your area within a few days when you want to plant, wait till the temperatures warm up…three days, usually doesn’t last longer. Remember, this is Florida.  And at least here in Florida, even when it’s cold, the sun still shines.

But on to planting colorful landscapes! One of the easiest tips that I can provide for northern gardeners is that ‘what you plant at home during the summer, will grow here easily in the winter.’  All your spring and summer annuals, like delphiniums, pansies, and geraniums, will grow nicely from November through April.  

Petunias

 

Foxglove

You can bring annual seed packets down with you or buy them here in late fall, or look in the nurseries mid-October for 4” transplants to appear.  If we are having a warm fall, the timing may be delayed for a few weeks but should be in the stores by November.  These plants will last till the heat of the summer, and sometimes if you deadhead them, like alyssum, or pluck the spent flower buds of petunias, they will last several seasons.

Tropical flowering shrubs such as angel trumpets, hibiscus, Princess flower, can get zapped by a freeze, but if they have been established for a few years, they should come back.  Hardier shrubs like azaleas, camellias, roses, and White Candles, Whitfieldia elongata, handle the winter time bravely without any trouble at all.

 

Double peach hibiscus

 

Princess Flower, Tibouchina

When you see the list of flowering plants, you’ll notice that there are many choices of annuals. Buying a lot of annuals can be expensive to replace each year.  It’s less maintenance intensive and cheaper to have a good foundation of evergreen shrubs and perennials in your landscape and plant with a few annuals underneath your shrubs. Filling planters and pots with annuals at your mailbox, front door or around your patio will also add color.

 

Before you leave to go home in late spring, you should make sure the annuals are removed, replaced with summer annuals, or deadheaded. Trim the spent blooms of your perennials and shrubs and  remulch your garden beds. This will prevent weeds from taking hold and causing more work in the fall.

Because of the colder temperatures, drier weather, and slower growth patterns, problems that you can see in the landscape usually happen after you’ve gone back home. Here are a few things to consider:

1. Most winter and early spring-blooming shrubs won’t bloom properly if cut too frequently, don’t prune azaleas, loropetalums, or spring-blooming shrubs after the month of June.

2. In Central Florida the last freeze date is around March 15th. Try not to cut your  frost-damaged plants till the end of February. Pruning after a freeze will encourage new growth which will be more susceptible to freezes. During the warmer months, don't prune after October. This will allow plants to harden off before the first freeze of the year.

3. It can freeze as early as October, but usually we’ll see it in late November, first part of December. A general rule of thumb is that we can wear shorts on Christmas Day,[3] but either a week before or a week after, Florida will see a major freeze.

4. When temperatures are averaging 60 degrees or colder, which means temperatures in the 70’s during the daytime and 40’s at night, you only need to irrigate your turfgrass once every 7 – 10 days.

5. Fertilize flowering plants, shrubs, and young trees with slow-release fertilizer in the fall when you arrive and then  in late spring just before you leave to go back North.

6. It's so disappointing to come back in the fall to a dead or weedy landscape. Make sure your irrigation system is working correctly when you arrive and before you leave in the spring. Get a family member or neighbor to check on your irrigation system during the summer to make sure it's not watering the street and it's working correctly while you’re away. 

7. Fruit trees are a great way to have spring flowers. You can grow apples, peaches, pears, plums, nectarines, and many other varieties of fruits with low-chill hour varieties specifically grown for Florida’s winter. Check out the University of Florida’s list of fruit trees for Florida.

8. Citrus trees have been devastated by citrus greening disease. Up to 70% of Florida’s citrus are affected with Huanglongbing (HLB). [4] They are not recommended at this time for Florida landscapes.

You can have color in blooming annuals perennials, ornamental shrubs, spring-flowering trees, and variegated or rainbow-colored foliage.  My list of flowering plants below will start you on your way. But to ensure that your plants will survive in your landscape, assess your property for the sunlight conditions, soil moisture, and the pH of your garden beds before choosing your plants. If you’re new to Florida or a snowbird, a great tool to help you decide what plants will grow in your landscape is the St Johns River Water Management District’s Waterwise Landscape Database. The SJRWMD Waterwise Landscape Frequently Asked Questions will help you understand how to use it and provides more information on landscaping in Florida.

With all your choices of flowers and blooming shrubs and trees in Central Florida, your landscape can be as creative and colorful as you like.  Living in our lush subtropical climate doesn’t mean you will miss the trees’ fall foliage, the change of seasons, or that you can’t have a kaleidoscope of blossoms while you are enjoying our Florida weather.  Remember: while you love to dig in the dirt, you never have to shovel sunshine here. Welcome to beautiful La Florida.

Read my entire list of winter-flowering annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees for Central Florida.

Would you like more Florida gardening tips? Send me your email address and I'll send Teresa's 2014 Garden Reminders to you.

 

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Teresa Watkins, a horticulturist, landscape designer, and environmental consultant, also hosts  the award-winning gardening radio show “In Your Backyard” heard on www.My790am.com  every Tuesday at 1:00pm EST. 

Big thanks and H/T to Avalon Holding Group for allowing use of their Snowbird graphics.

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[1] Exploring Florida. University of South Florida.

[2] Snow in Florida

[3] The Christmas Day Freeze December 23 – 26,1989

[4]The Packer  

Are You Ready For Some Winter?

In Florida, we can always wear shorts on Christmas Day, but we must not forget that we have a winter season. In the Sunshine State, our winter arrives with a cold front either in the two weeks before Christmas or within the following two weeks after the New Year. With the La Nina weather pattern this year, Central Florida's coldest temperatures so far will occur tonight and Tuesday night. Is your landscape ready for freezing temperatures?

• Make sure your plants are hydrated before a freeze.
• Do not run sprinklers systems during freeze.
• Use frost blankets or large boxes to keep plants insulated.
• If using anything other than frost blankets, ensure that the material is not touching the plants' foliage.
• If boxes, sheets, or other material is used, it must be removed each morning and replaced before sundown.
• Don’t overwater palm trees before or after a freeze.
• If palms are damaged - use a copper fungicide as soon as possible.
• Healthier plants and palms survive winter better.

While meteorologists are predicting a mild winter, this only means that we won't be seeing many freezing nights. Make sure you have frost blankets on hand for those tender tropical plants.  If any plant damage is noticeable, try to resist the urge to prune plant vigorously until until mid-February. 

Am I Blue?

With anticipated one to three inches of rain this week, I'm taking the opportunity to plant winter and spring blooming flower seeds. This year I'm going to add one of my favorite colors to my landscape.  I planted delphiniums in the back of my border garden.  Delphiniums take full sun, moderate moisture, and grow to three feet tall. The seeds will take two weeks to emerge and will bloom January through March.

Other cool season blue annuals that will thrive in Florida are lobelias, pansies, and veronica.  Blue flowering perennials and ornamental shrubs to add to your landscape include agapanthus, hydrangea, salvias, and plumbago.

Want more winter annuals to plant in your garden? Check out  Annuals Flowers for  Florida.

Florida Winter Is Driest In 80 Years

Florida set records this year in more ways than one.  Not only did we have colder temperatures earlier (November) but from October through February, it was also the driest winter in eighty years. In December, we had less than an inch of rain for the entire month, January we had 2" - 3" more than normal, and in February, there was less than an inch. March's month totals look to be below the average 3" with no rain anticipated for the next week, leaves Florida in a rainfall deficit.

The lack of hurricanes and tropicals storms last fall, and the lack of adequate rainfall this winter means that lake levels are low, wells will be running dry, and the aquifer will be low with more saltwater intrusion. 

These conditions mean that more landscapes will fail and high maintenance lawns will not survive. Reducing your fertilizing schedule, retrofit your irrigation to be efficient, watering only when your yard shows signs of stress will help your lawn manage till summer rains set in.

Inefficient irrigation system doesn't have head to head coverage.

Want more ways to drought proof your lawn? Check out the University of Florida's recommendations.

Once In A Lifetime Winter Solstice Moon

We've had two major cold fronts with freezes come through in the last four weeks and joked that it's not even winter yet. Officially, December 1st is the beginning of winter but December 21st is the longest day of the year and traditionally celebrated as the start of winter. Last night the winter solstice arrived with an unusual astronomical event not seen in four centuries. The solstice marks the day in the Earth's annual orbit where the sun at noontime is seen at the lowest point in the sky. Eclipses are not that rare but lunar eclipses happening on the exact winter solstice are extremely rare.

Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years. "Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21," says Chester. "Fortunately we won't have to wait 372 years for the next one...that will be on 2094 DEC 21."

Without a cloud in the sky, here's how the lunar eclipse was viewed in Orlando. The shadows moved very quickly.

2:12am EST

Photograph by Teresa Watkins

2:19am EST

Photograph by Teresa Watkins

More lunar eclipse links:

NASA Lunar and Solar Eclipse Site

Great animated graphic of an eclipse

Christmas Lights in a Florida Garden

What do Florida gardens look like in the winter? We usually can wear shorts on Christmas Day, so our landscapes normally look great in November and December. But this year we've been hit by fluctuating high and freezing low temperature records within the first two weeks of the month.


While my tropical November blooming Panama rose, Rondeletia leucophylla took the frost more seriously than the rest of my garden plants, the cold weather has the sycamore in its glorious fall motif while my sweetgum and other deciduous trees are bare.

When you add holiday lights to your shrubs and palms, you add heat to the surrounding plants keeping them a few degrees warmer. Here's how the Florida Botanical Gardens in Pinellas County keeps warm during this unusually chilly December. Look at everyone in their winter jackets and coats strolling along the festive pathways. You can still see the Florida Botanical Gardens holiday lights through January 2nd.

Cooler Temps In Your Backyard

NOAA have analyzed the La Nina weather patterns and are predicting Florida will have a warm, drier than average winter forecast. Rainfall during December, January, and February are normally low and temperatures will fluctuate. We didn't have any hurricanes or tropical storms so our water levels will be lower with very little chance of recovering before our dry spring. What does that mean for Florida gardeners? It means that we probably won't have to worry about losing plants from excessive freezing but homes in wild fire zones will have to be on the alert. Florida has a greater risk of wildfires this year.


How can you fireproof your landscape?

• Find out if you live in a fire-prone area.



• Keep all mulch two feet away from your house. Decomposed mulches that are wet will likely not combust but will be a source for mold, mildew, and termites.



• Don't use rubber mulch around your home.



• If you have wood entries such as decking, trellises, or benches near house, remove during winter season or replace with metal, concrete, or other noncombustible materials.



• Remove vines, hanging branches, and overgrown shrubs away from roof and entryways.



• Make sure you have clean gutters. Fall leaves, pine cones, pine needles, are flammable and pose a risk to roofs.



• Remove all dead plants and underbrush from your landscape.



• Design your landscape so that you have vertical and horizontal separation between plants. That means keeping 15 feet between trees and shrubs. If your plants all touch each other, fire can spread quicker.



• Keep all trees 30 to 50 feet away from home.


• Regular maintenance such as pruning and checking irrigation systems is important.

Landscape plants and their fire-resistance.

Printable Preparing a Fire-Wise Plant list.

University of Florida/IFAS provides questions to determine how fireproof is your landscape?

More fire-wise information.

Printable Important - Mobile Home Fire Safety brochure.

2007 Wildfires

"In Your Backyard" - Six More Weeks of Winter

Pennsylvania's favorite groundhog 'Puxatawny Phil' saw his shadow this morning. The old wives tale follows that there will be six more weeks of winter! But we knew that already experiencing La Nina's cold, wet rain this season. This has been the coldest, wettest Florida winter in years damaging thousands of Florida landscapes.

Puxatawny Phil has a distant cousin here in Florida that also causes landscape damage. Called the Southeastern pocket gopher, this little 10-inch rodent is the culprit behind all those 'sandy mounds' in your bahia lawns and on the side of the highways. They can be beneficial in aerating the soil but usually they are not appreciated when they eat your plant roots, bulbs, and tubers.

You can get rid of pocket gophers by trapping and killing them, but poisoning is against the law unless you have a Florida state permit. All the old wives tales of Wrigleys chewing gum and moth balls are ineffective.

Moles in your landscape can be seen as a problem, too but they are insectivores and rarely affect your plants. Seeing mounds in their St. Augustinegrass or bahiagrass lawns, homeowners are quick to blame the little creatures who just eat the grubs and insects attacking the turf.
Getting rid of moles in your landscape involves getting rid of their food souces. Check to make sure that you do not have active grubs or other insects. If you have them, spot treat the areas with a recommended pesticide. Once their food source is gone, the moles will move on to other not-so-green pastures.

More creatures that you might see meandering through your yard during dusk and early morning are racoons, rabbits, and oppossums. Our brave warrior Scotties treed this poor oppossum Sunday night. They were so proud of themselves. Thankfully, the oppossum didnt play dead and fall out of the tree.

Puxatawny Phil isn't so prescient. Here in Florida, we can always expect our last winter freezes before the middle of March - six weeks away. You can prune back your brown, freeze-dried foliage now. Some of my plants looked like they were okay for two days after the freeze, but as you can see this tropical Mamay Croton was affected severely.

Maybe spring is closer than we think? Did you see the thousands of orange-red breasted American robins come through Central Florida yesterday? Chirping and enjoying the warm drizzle, the spring-harbingers were as happy as larks. We will be talking about how to attact robins and other birds to your yard today on the show!

Call in with your garden questions! Listen live at 11:00am here.

Redbay Ambrosia Beetle threatens Florida's avocados.

Read an archived Jan-Feb-Mar Newsletter.

Juvenile Robin

Cardinal enjoying the raindrops in the pine tree!

Carrbridge In Winter

Enjoy this lovely jigsaw puzzle. The caption says that this 300-year old packhorse bridge is in Carrbridge,Scotland and it's the oldest stone bridge in the Highlands.

UK Experiencing Heaviest Snowfall In Fifty Years

The little island empire of England and Scotland, protected by the warm Gulf Stream, seems to be out of touch with the ICCP's prediction of global climate change. The Met Office for weather issued emergency warnings for the kingdom:

Forecasters predicted that more than one foot of snow could fall in less than 24 hours in most southern areas leading to widespread chaos and disruption for millions.

The residents of Hampshire and Wiltshire were expected to be the worst hit, with as much as 16 inches likely to be dumped by the end of tomorrow. Residents and commuters in London, which ground to a halt last February following heavy falls, were warned to expect a covering of several inches by the morning rush hour.

On the roads drivers were advised not to venture out unless their journey was absolutely essential, as councils warned they could run out of grit if the conditions failed to improve.

The Met Office claimed the amount of snow forecast could be the biggest single fall since the notorious winter of 1962-63, when some areas of the country were blighted by snow and ice for more than three months.

These photos are from my sister's home in Berwick St. James outside of Wiltshire, the region expected to be one of the hardest hit. Fortunate she is a champion dog breeder and trainer, because they will definitely be experiencing a cuddly three dog night.

Feed The Birds

Previously posted on January 4, 2008

With the coldest weather occuring in 25 years, I thought you might enjoy seeing these wonderful bird photos from our 2008 Christmas trip to New England ~ Teresa.

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We're up visiting family in Taunton, Massachusetts for New Year's. In typical New England winter style, we received a blanket of 8" of snow. The birds are regular diners on the patio and flew non-stop throughout the day. How many birds can you identify? Click on the title "Feed The Birds" above to see all 200+ photographs.