Crape Murder Is Not Bliss

Bliss is pruning your shrubs and trees correctly. Pruning isn't hard - it just takes forethought and understanding what you want to accomplish.  To prevent stress and diseases, make sure all pruning tools are sterile and kept sharp.

UF/IFAS Pruning Landscape Trees and Shrubs

UF/IFAS Crapemyrtle Pruning

UF/IFAS Pruning Palms

UF/IFAS Pruning Ornamental Grasses

Deadheading Perennials

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

How to grow Virginia bluebells.

Leu Gardens Plant Sale Spectacular

The annual spring plant sale at Leu Gardens, in Orlando, never fails to be spectacular.  We went with wagon in hand looking for a plant we couldn't live without.  Hundreds of people were there, scooping up plants as fast as they could because if you blinked, someone might buy the plant you were looking at.  On sale were tropical fruit trees, ferns,  succulents, roses, herbs, orchids, flowering tropical and subtropical shrubs and trees, and many more types of plants.

We were able to get nice international variety of herbs:  African blue basil, French thyme, Spanish lavender, dill fenneleaf, pennyroyal, lemon-scented thyme, chives, extra triple curled parsley, and Foresteri rosemary ,that I'm going to add to flowering containers, while Tony found 'Window Box Roma' tomatoes, cubanelles, serrano 'del Sol', and banana peppers for his raised vegetable beds.

I was going to be stalwart and not buy anything else, but I eventually succumbed to getting Kangaroo Paws, Macropidia fulginosa,  an unusual Australian  xeric native in full bloom and a lovely  'Green Velvet' Alocasia, Alocasia frydeck. 

Kangaroo Paws

My determination to not buy any more plants was easy to keep under control through most of my search until I came to the Orlando Area Rose Historical Society's booth.  Antique roses are great to grow in Florida with very low maintenance, no pest - no disease issues. Depending on the variety, they can bloom over and over again all year round.  Reading the sign's descriptions, one caught my eye:  "Heavily fragrant, long-lasting pink cabbage roses." I fell for the 'Duchesse de Babrant' tea rose.  Into the wagon it went with my other terrestrial indulgences.

Another unique find was a bamboo obelisk that folded up easily.  Tony was adamant that the $15 cost was a bargain for all the details, material, and labor involved in making it.  We'll use it to allow our beans to grow up.  

Unusual plants and finds were the 'Mammalaria plumosa' and Episcia  cupreata 'Pink Brocade' hanging baskets, terrariums with fluttering butterfly devices, pvc bird garden accents and wrought iron plant holders.

Great start to our spring garden.



Episcia cupreata 'Pink Brocade'




Mamallaria plumosa



www.huntcountryiron.com

All three wrought iron pot holders are connected at bottom.

PVC Pelican and heron garden art

Leu Gardens Plant Sale Vendors

Pyranees Campanula Bellflower

Pyranean bellflower, Campanula speciosa is native to the Spanish Pyranees. Learn more about this beautiful endemic spring-blooming perennial that can handle the mountains' altitude at 5,000' feet above sea level. See more here.

Pyrenean Bellflower Jigsaw Puzzle

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



Making Up For Lost Rain

The rains finally came and are expected to be here all week with 50% chance through Friday! My flowers and plants soaked in the wetness and look very satisfied this morning.  Turning off my microirrigation system to take advantage of Mother Nature, the moisture will definitely help the fertilizing I did over the weekend.

Above you can see my oak leaf hydrangea, spirea, and dwarf pomegranate tree glistening in the rain.

Springtime Is Here

In another week, my Formosa azaleas will be blooming beautifully. Temperatures are in the low 80's, 50's at night, 79% humidity. No rain forecasted.  Spring is here.

Azaleas for Florida

In Your Backyard: "April's Colorful Annuals"

Usually in April, Florida gardeners have a short spring before jumping directly into summertime temperatures. This year spring's cooler mornings have lingered and our dry season has been non-existant. I love this time of year and that it is lasting longer is nice.

All your shrubs should have leaves emerging, making it a little easier to see if which plants really didn't recover from the freezes. My variegated hibiscus and vitex agnus-castus survived nicely.



If you haven't pruned your plants back, you still have a few more weeks to cut them back before the stems start to bulk out and become woody. Cut out all the dead branches and if needed a third of the growth to shape.

Annuals to plant this time of year for three to six months of color include:

Ageratum, Cosmos,gazania, gaillardia, gerbera, globe amaranth, hollyhocks, impatiens, marigold, Mexican sunflower, moonflower, morning glories, nierembergia, portulaca, purslane, salvia, sunflower, torenia, verbena, and zinnias.

For less work in the garden but great oomph, place containers and hanging baskets filled with annuals and tropicals in strategic locations along pathways to create points of interest, and to add height and depth.

Place tall tropicals in the center of your container, with another fuller annual along the front and sideviews, adding a different annual, ivy, or groundcover to spill over the sides. Make the taller plant at least two-thirds of your container height for good balance. Make sure that you water container gardens on a regular basis as the temperatures rise. Watering your containers every day in summer is not unusual, which is the reason you should have just a few containers - not an entire yard of annuals.

Here are some great examples of container gardens for your yard. These photographs were taken in 2007 at EPCOT, the ultimate gardening experience during their International Flower and Garden Festival. Notice the color combinations! Don't be afraid to experiment before you buy your annuals. Place them in pots or on the floor together to get an idea of what they will look like in your own container. Don't be afraid to move them around.