What's Blooming In Your Backyard?

Love this time of year in the garden. Flowers still blooming with summer's last heat while you can almost feel autumn approaching.

At my neighbors, blue vines are uplifting color with the polite 'Heavenly Blue' morning glory vine and the impressive Sky vine.



'Heavenly Blue' Morning Glory, Ipomoea violata



Blooms open every morning in the full sun and last several days.




Flowers open up deep blue, then deepen until purple in the afternoon.

Sky vine, 'Thunbergia laurelfolia'



Sky vines bloom in sun or partial shade.

While morning glories are subdued by the winter cold, Sky vines can get out of control so be careful where you plant them or keep them under a watchful eye. I have seen them cover a house roof in very little time.  Glad it's at the neighbor's house so I can enjoy their beautiful blue flowers.

I have periwinkles, roses, dancing ladies are just popping up, and this striking Ixora  'Maui' which loves the sun and shade under our oak tree.

 Ixoras love acidic soils, full sun to partial shade, and really do thrive on neglect. No pest problems to speak of, so easy maintenance.  Ixoras can grow to ten feet tall but doesn't need to be pruned often.  Ixoras provides the perfect tropical look to your backyard.  Ask your local garden nursery for this beautiful flowering shrub.

If you love the  jewel tones of fuschia purple, add the Florida native, Beautyberry to your yard. Callicarpa americana, is an ornamental shrub that reaches six to ten feet naturally, has small white flowers and delivers on excitement with the edible purple berries in the fall. Low maintenance, loves sun or shade.



Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana

Burpee has the heirloom 'Heavenly Blue' morning glory seeds, Top Tropical nursery has the Sky vine, and check out the Florida Association of Native Nurseries,  or on Twitter: @FANN, for nurseries that sell beautyberries.

Teresa Watkins is a garden expert, landscape designer, and the host of her own gardening radio show, In Your Backyard, heard every week at 1pm EST on Tuesdays at www.My790am.com.  

Ms. Teresa,

I'd like to have some of the seeds you offered on last Tuesday's program 22 May, 2012.

Also, do you know a natural bug deterrent to enjoy outdoor backyard. I've read that rosemary is a good deck/patio plant.

Thanks for your show, In Your Backyard.

Linnett

Linnett,

Please send me your home address so I can send the rain lily seeds, too.

There really is no vegetative bug deterrent for mosquitos. Rosemary has flowers that can attract bees so I don't see it as a "bug deterrent." But rosemary is a wonderful fragrant plant for a deck container. Mosquitos need water to lay eggs, so I would make sure there is no standing water anywhere in your backyard vicinity. including bird baths, mulch, gutters, pots, children's toys. DEET is an excellent, safe product to repel mosquitos.

Mosquito myths

Mosquito repellents

Thank you for writing and listening to the show!

Teresa

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.

Starting Seeds

A great way to enjoy your favorite vegetables and flowers is to save the seeds to plant again. The process is easy and economical.  Tomatoes are ideal for learning how to save seeds. 

You will need:

• Your favorite ripe tomato
• Glass jars or container to soak seeds in
• Paper towel or coffee maker liner
• Seed packets or plain paper envelopes (great way to recycle old opened envelopes)

Always allow the tomato to fully ripen before trying to harvest seeds.

• Cut the tomatoes in half at the equator (widthways).

• Carefully scoop out the jelly and seeds out of the pulp center and place in jar.  If done gently, you can still eat the tomato.

• Add water to the jar.

• Cover jar with plastic and make a slit in the top of the plastic to allow for transpiration of the seeds. This will enable the seeds to ferment which will help the seeds separate from the jelly and also help destroy any diseases that the seeds may have.

• Now place jar in sunny window (60 to 75 degrees) for three to four days. 

Come back in three days and let's see how the tomato seeds are doing!

Great Seed Catalogs

Here are some of my favorite free seed catalogs:

• Abundant Life Seeds: Certified organic and biodynamic seeds. OMRI listed fertilizers and pest controls.  Out of 2011 Catalogs but get on their list for the 2012 catalogs.
• Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds: Open-pollinated pure seeds1400 heirloom garden variety from the largest seed grower in the United States.  Family owned, the seeds are descended from original 19th century seeds. Jere Gettle and his wife Emilee created an authentic pioneer village called Bakersville.Their most recent project is the restoration and preservation of the Wethersfield, Connecticut landmark, Comstock, Ferre & Company, the oldest continuously operating seed company in New England. The Gettle family is featured prominently in the colorful and interesting catalog.
• Botanical Interests: Family owned. Organic seeds. Guaranteed untreated seed germination.
• Bountiful Gardens:  Certified organic. Rare and unusual varieties. Medicinal herbs. Super-nutrition varieties.
• Brent and Becky's Bulbs: Perennial bulbs and seeds.
• Burpee:  One of the oldest seed catalogs in the United States. Vegetable, perennial, and organic seeds.  Great website with gardening videos and information on growing vegetables.  

Enjoy seed catalog artwork? The Smithsonian has an online database of original seed catalog artwork to enjoy. Take a look at them here.

Growing your own vegetables is easy and satisfying.  It can also save money by reducing grocery bills and not having to work out at the gym.

Vegetable Gardening Planted!

This Saturday was our family vegetable gardening project. Our grandchildren helped us prepared raised containers with some new vegetable seeds from the international Sakata Seed.   It's going to be a learning project for Jaxon and Mackenah to see how fast the vegetables grow and mark their progress on a calendar and graph.

Because of all the shade from old oaks in our backyard, we planted the vegetables in  full sun in our long driveway and border garden. We planted:

• 'Touchstone Gold' beets 
• 'Red Bull' bell peppers
• 'Tasty Green' burpless cucumbers
• 'Vulcan' lettuce
• 'Da Vinci' melons
• 'Jalafuego' peppers
• 'Hijinks' pumpkins - 2011 All American Selection
• 'Tyee' spinach
• 'Solid Gold' cherry tomatoes
• 'Sweet Hearts' grape tomatoes
• 'Sweet Million' cherry  tomatoes
• 'Sweet Treat' tomatoes

We also planted onions, garlic, strawberries, and nasturtiums.  Jaxon and Mackenah wrote the names of each plant on the label tags, along with Saturday's date and the approximate date of harvesting.

We'll let you know how they progress, but I was very impressed with the seed quality. I am anticipating a great harvest with enough vegetables and fruit to share with the whole neighborhood. 

You can see more of Sakata's Vegetable Seeds online - click here.  But if you would like to get these wonderful vegetable seeds, you have to order from their distributors here.  Check them out!

Free Park Seed Wholesale Catalog