No Beetles In This Octopus's Garden

 By Teresa Watkins

There is a great Beatles song, 'Octopus's Garden' that suggests a perfect theme for your summer beach gardening scene.  What better way to bring the ocean into your own backyard -- whether you live in Miami, Florida or Miami, Oklahoma -- than to have a landscape that whisks you down under the sea to Neptune’s tidal garden when your eyes behold it … and you don’t even need to worry about the salt spray or getting sunburned!

      On a recent visit to the Discovery Gardens at the UF/IFASLake County Extension Discovery Gardens, I was thrilled to see an ‘Ocean Reef’ Children’s garden. The three bedding plants used to inspire the school children’s imaginations got my creative energies whirling and I thought, “What a great theme!”  As I left on my own summer vacation, Mother Nature’s stream of consciousness seemed to flow everywhere I looked. For example, the HGTV newsletter arrived with a wonderful article on how to design a beachfront garden with salt-tolerant plant selections.  But how does that help a land-locked sea dog gardener like you? If you don’t have a beautiful beachfront landscape yet you yearn to lie on a beach towel and catch the rays in your own underwater paradise, put a conch shell to your ear and read on.

       Here are some suggestions to help you create your own “Octopus’s Garden.” I’ve selected a variety of flowers, shrubbery, trees, and groundcovers guided by Poseidon and maritime-sounding common names to invoke our undersea theme. How many do you recognize? Remember to make sure the sunlight, soil, zone hardiness, and moisture conditions are right for your own backyard before buying and installing any of these plants.

Flowers and Shrubs

Anemones, Anemone coronaria, also known as windflowers, are members of the buttercup family. But the sea anemones (get it?) are creatures whose brightly colored shapes and cluster of tentacles outwardly resemble terrestrial flowers. In your beach garden, anemones are flowering bulbs that will bloom in the spring and summer and like sunny areas in northern climes and partial shade in the South.  Shrimp plants, Justicia brandegeana is a good choice – put a few of these lovely flowers close to the Bar-bee. Bright yellow, greyish-green, or red flowers, these plants love the sun and are great butterfly and hummingbird attractors.

Shrimp Plant

     Use Coral bells, Heuchera spp., Coralbush, Jatropha multifida, Coral bean, Erythrina herbacea for Zones 7 through 9, and Coralberry, Symphoricarpos orbiculatus, for cooler climates up through Zone 3 --- all of whose common names smack delightfully of Poseidon’s reefs.  If you want to conjure images of being underwater, plant the Celosia argentea, var. cristata, a member of the amaranth family which is reminiscent of brain coral which boasts great colors and is very effective in tidal waves of mass plantings across your ocean, or I mean garden bed. Vines that continue the coral theme include coral vine, Antigonon leptopus, and the popular, fragrant coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens.   

    This Pencil cactus, looks just like the Bamboo coral under the sea. 

 Large ornamental shrubs can be used such as the Sea Grape, Coccoloba uvifera. It is a natural for the beach look, where it loves sandy soils and salt air. Other large shrubs include beach elder, Iva imbricate, Sea lavender, and Sea rosemary, Argusia gnaphalodes.

Shells are a given in an oceanfront garden, so how about the Shell flower, Moluccella laevis?  It’s also known as Bells of Ireland and Molucca Balm because it was originally thought to be a native of the Molucca Islands. These lovely, chartreuse, biennial flowers love the sun or partial shade and thrive in Florida up through Zone 4.  Another shell that should be on your “beach” is the Shell ginger, Alpina zerumbet. Growing beautifully in shade, the  tropical variegated foliage with large, colorful flowers, is hardy into Zone 8 and must be allowed to survive two winters in order to blossom.

Shell ginger

 Crotons, Codiaeum variegatum, look divine in your garden and can remind you of colorful, exotic, underwater grasses, and sea urchins. Varieties like Mammy, Gold Dust, Johanna Coppinger, Dreadlock, Piecrust, and Banana leaf. Check crotons out and see which one transports you underwater.

Croton spp. 

       Looking for still more flowers and shrubs appropriate for your Octopus’s garden? Try the daisy sea oxeye, Borrichia frutescens, the sea holly, Eryngium alpinum, the tropical lobster claw, Heliconia bihai, or the pearl lanceleaf, Anthurium scandens.  

If you are fortunate to have an island bay [translation: water garden] in your backyard, make sure you have eel grass, Vallisneria neotropicalis, native in most parts of the United States, but can also be found at aquarium stores.

Dracenas sp. Blue agave, Agave americana, and Bird's Nest ferns, Asplenium spp.

Botanical bonus points for Fishtail ferns, Nephrolepis falcata

Groundcovers

Succulents and cacti can be an incredible choice for your backyard beach if you select carefully your locations. Starfish Cactus, or Starfish Plant, Stapelia gigantea, has an incredible stellar flower that reminds your guests of a starfish. Its’ long stems remind you of a real green octopus. All the Stapelia species would work in a marine theme.

Photograph by Teresa Watkins

Check out these sea-worthy inclusions for your ocean bed:

• Agave americana
• Aptenia sp.
• Beschorneria yuccoides
• Crassula obvata
• Dudleya caespitosa
• Dyckia sp. “Burgandy Ice"
• Euphorbia lacteal
• Euphorbia trigona 
• Haworthia attentuata
• Orbea ciliata

     To cover bare patches of sand with suitable groundcovers, look for beach morning glory, Ipomoea pes-caprae, ‘Blue Pacific’ shore junipers, Juniperus conferta, (which gets double botanical points for having a real ocean in its’ name). Sea oats, Uniola paniculata, if they are available in your area — is a plant that will evoke windy seaside breezes in your Octopus garden. Sea oats are an endangered species and are federally protected, so never take them out of the wild and always buy them from a reputable native plant nursery!  Blackbeard’s ghost will haunt you forever if you do!

Trees

Spreading canopies of shade in your oceanfront landscape can include such ocean-themed habitants as crabapples, Pyrus coronaria, and crabwood, Ateramnus lucidus. The blue beech, Carpinus caroliniana, a member of the birch family, also known as American hornbeam and musclewood, is another good tree to remind us of idyllic ‘beech’ views. Blue beeches are handsome, deciduous trees with gray bark and blue green leaves. Native from Texas and Florida up through Maine.

         What’s a beachfront without palm trees? And what’s an Octopus garden without pirates?  A perfect choice is a Buccaneer palm tree, Pseudophoenix sargentii, which can be a container palm for those zones above 9 and 10.  Clustering fishtail palm, Caryota mitis, also works well in the Octopus’s garden.  

Buccaneer Palm

          You can use your shady areas for a nice tropical beach garden by using Rattlesnake plants, Calathea lancifolia, which has incredible markings on it, and the Cast Iron Apidistra, Aspidistra elatior, that suggests types of underwater grass.

Rattlesnake plant, Calathea lancifolia

Cast Iron Plant, Apidistra elatior

              If you enjoy eating fruit, your whimsical seashore can include Key limes to reference obvious geographical locations such as Key West, Key Largo and the rest of the Florida Keys, and navel oranges – all right, navel oranges are a stretch, but they succeed in two ways:  1), what do you see at the beach? Right…navels, plenty of bellybuttons, 2) is that you can’t have an ocean garden without the presence of a maritime navy – ergo, naval orange. Hey! You have to work with me here – I’m being resourceful.

            Speaking of being resourceful, even the busy or uninspired gardening enthusiast can have an Octopus’s garden. Just stick a broken boat plank sign up in your front yard with “crabgrass” on the sign to explain why you have such fitting weeds. If you really have a sense of humor, just wait ‘till Chapman’s Skeletongrass, Gymnopogon chapmanianus, finds it way to your pseudo-seaside retreat and display it with pride next to a nautical treasure chest filled with gold doubloons and Mardi Gras beads.

       Designing your maritime flower, shrub, and tree placement depends on your height, depth, and color preferences. It’s your Octopus’s garden – don’t be afraid to have contrasting colors, sizes, and leaf textures. Set out your choices in their nursery pots and move them around until you are satisfied. Don’t hesitate to stand back and look at your design from every angle, including an upper story floor or neighbor’s yard if you can.

Accessories

If you live in zones 3 through 7 and you can’t have a year-round tropical paradise, you could display your coastal plants in nautical containers that will help contribute to the ambiance of your oceanscape. Containers for beachfront yards can include various red, white, or blue plastic containers with thick hemp cord handles. Make sure you have good drainage. You can integrate oversized conch shell planters or employ unused rowboats -- either real or unused children’s toys -- to beach on your sandy berms. Plant your ornamental shrubs, flowers, and even your trees and palms in them.

       Create a post with different directional signs pointing to your favorite botanical gardens or island resorts.  Attach a seagull to the top of the sign post or hang a parrot swinging from your tree.

Photograph by Danielle Aquiline

          Plant labels can highlight the jewels of your sea garden and provide humor in setting the stage for a summer of fun. Place your labels with the common names on paper resembling torn flags under your plant selections so that the writing is easily legible from a few feet away. Making the mailman, milkman, pedestrians and neighbors laugh as they pass your house will earn you buccaneer points.

          If you have a deck or patio, wrap round poles together with thick rope to represent a pier.  Plant around the base of the poles or add a container of nautical-themed plants. Accessories will help expand and unite your ‘under the sea’ theme: lighthouses, sea shells, sand pails, shovels, umbrellas, parrots, skull and crossbones flags, Union Jack flags, model ships, marine flags, tiki torches, assorted crabs, fishing nets, fishes, and lobsters, seahorses, bamboo fencing, oars, aft and stern portions of a rowboat, round plastic life preservers, flip-flop sandals, rafts, mermaid statues, treasure chest, skeletons, cement sand castles.  Look for these items at your local craft stores, statuary businesses and catalogs, party supply stores, and boating centers.

          Finding these plants may take a little work, but if you know what you’re looking for, get in your little Yellow Submarine, haul out your plant catalogs, search the Internet and with a little effort, create a treasure map and mark an X where you think you will find your plants. I’m sure you’ll be rewarded for having a little imagination and digging some treasures in your own backyard, no matter where you live. 

Octopus's Garden

(Lennon/McCartney)

Abbey Road (1969)

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade

He'd let us in, knows where we've been

In his octopus' garden in the shade.

 I'd ask my friends to come and see

An octopus' garden with me

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade.

We would be warm below the storm

In our little hideaway beneath the waves

Resting our head on the sea bed

In an octopus' garden near a cave.

We would sing and dance around

because we know we can't be found

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden in the shade.

We would shout and swim about

The coral that lies beneath the waves

(Lies beneath the ocean waves)

Oh what joy for every girl and boy

Knowing they're happy and they're safe

(Happy and they're safe).

We would be so happy you and me

No one there to tell us what to do

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus' garden with you.

Updated and originally published  August 13, 2006 
Central Florida Yards ; Neighborhoods Newsletter, and Icangarden.com

Teresa Watkins, 18-year Master Gardener, author, speaker, garden writer, landscape designer, horticulturist, and environmental consultant. Watkins also hosts the award-winning gardening radio show “In Your Backyard” on My790am.com every Tuesday at 1:00pm EST.  You can contact and read more of Teresa's posts on her website at www.she-consulting.com. 

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.

 

_________________

 

 

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.

---

[1] Exploring Florida. University of South Florida.

[2] Snow in Florida

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

[4]The Packer  

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Suggested Central Florida Plants Least Preferred By Deer

Wildlife use vegetation for a number of reasons: food, water, protection, physical and territorial behavior. A deer’s diet includes foliage, fruit (acorns), flowers and flower buds, but not necessarily all on the same plant, while young stags use the bark of small trees to “rub the velvet from their antlers and mark their area.” (Appleton, 2008) Deer like to eat plants that are young, easily accessible, over-fertilized, overwatered, pruned often, and have new growth. Deer do not like to eat plants that are odoriferous, have either grayish, leathery, or thorny foliage, or have foliage that has milky or sticky sap.

Reducing landscape damage by deer needs to be a community-wide effort. Feeding deer will only lessen their natural fear of humans and encourages them to encroach on residential areas. There are several options to keeping deer off your property. Installing seven-foot fencing will reduce chances that deer will jump onto property. Using chemical repellents are not always effective and can be expensive, foul-smelling, and need to be applied before plants are eaten and on a continuous basis.

There are no deer-proof plants. Deer eat a wide variety of flowers, grasses, shrubs and trees, but some plants are less desirable than others. Plants normally consumed by deer in the South may not be eaten by deer in northern states and inversely, with deer-damaged plant species in the North; they may not be eaten by deer in the southern states. During years with high deer population, severe weather conditions such as droughts or flooding that lessen vegetation or eradicate their usual diet, deer will eat plants not normally browsed on. Also, deer will become used to unfamiliar plant species, (like loropetalums) and graze on vegetation that for seasons were previously left uneaten.

The suggested plants are not guaranteed to be deer-proof but have been shown to be not severely affected by grazing, and should recover. Plants should be selected first by soil and sunlight conditions and then reviewed for favorability by deer.   The plant options are compiled from several older lists (1999) and updated to include newer plant species grown in Zones 8 – 11. Protect new, smaller shrubs/trees for first few years with fencing or tree shelters.

Suggested Central Florida Plants Least Preferred By Deer




References and resources:
Deer in the Urban Landscape - Texas A & M
Deer Resistant Plants - Proven Winners
Deer-Resistant Landscaping - Iowa City Government
Deer Resistant Species - Native Plant Information Network, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Ornamental plant susceptibility to damage by deer - University of Florida
Landscape Plants Rated By Deer Resistance - Rutgers University
Deer and Rabbit Resistance - University of Arizona
Northern Gardening Web - Deer Resistant Plants
Deer Images

Hardscape Made Easy

At the Spring Fever in The Garden in Winter Garden this year, I met Irwin Grossman, a wonderful, enthusiastic retiree, who wanted me to come see his backyard. He had an impressive rock landscape with dry river bed running through it and couldn't wait to show it off.  I can understand why - it is a backyard worthy of superlatives. It is an incredible amount of stone with Japanese rock garden theme. Mr. Grossman's rockscape appeals to his need for very low water use and maintenance.  Despite all the rocks, liners, artificial turf, and the lack of plants, Mr. Grossman still needs a maintenance schedule to spray herbicides for the tough weeds that invariably emerge.

While for me personally, I would like to see more shade, a water feature like a waterfall or small creek, and more plants to soften the rocks, I can appreciate the homeowner's effort, quality of work and materials, and see the beauty in the planted rugged and smooth stones. Mr. Grossman's landscape theme is called "Safe Haven" and was designed by Mr. Paul Verlander, Landscape Architecture LLC.

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