Clear Air? Use Indoor Plants

Celebrating National Indoor Plant Week September 15-21 is easy when you appreciate everything that plants contribute to our health.

Using plants indoors provides a number of benefits from reducing carbon dioxide from the air, reducing noise, and creating oxygen. 

NASA released a final report in 1989 on plants that could help diffuse "sick building syndrome. Reading the study was fascinating to see how the amazing results of Gerbera daisies and Pot Mums as well as Dracenas and Sanseverias.  

Read  1837156-NASA-Indoor-Plants.pdf 

Indoor Plants That Clean The Air

1.     Arrowhead Vine, Syngonium podophyllum

2.     Bamboo Palm, Chamaedorea seifritzii

3.     Bananas, dwarf, Musa oriana

4.     Chinese Evergreen, Aglaonema modestrum

5.     Dracaena ‘Janet Craig’,  Dracaena deremensis ‘Janet Craig’

6.     Dracaena, Dracaena marginata

7.     Dumb Cane, Dieffenbachia species

8.     English Ivy, Hedera helix

9.     Golden Pothos, Pothos aureus

10.  Norfolk Island Pine, Araucaria heterophylla

I enjoyed a beautiful day of pontoon boating on the St. Johns River today. We departed from Hontoon Landing on the Blue Heron River Tours

Enjoy this wonderful jigsaw puzzle of my photograph.

St Johns River Hontoon Island FL Jigsaw Puzzle Gallery - JigZone.com

Want to see the rest of our boat trip and the amazing Florida flora and fauna? Check out my photographs.

Establish Green Foundations

19th c. home of George W. Cable, The Amateur Garden

During the late 19^th century, suburban builders planted landscape plants around homes to highlight the grandeur of the property.  Frederick Law Olmstead, founder of American landscapes, advised to ‘take care of the corners, and the centers will take care of themselves.’ Installing opulent shrubs and trees around foundations not only accented homes but created the framework to showcase the architecture of a new century. 

Side view of George W. Cable's home in 1914

 After World War II, houses became less expensive and landscape packages adjusted to budgets of veteran first-time home buyers.  The next generation — baby-boomers— jumped into the middle class. The housing boom continued with smaller yards, less money for landscape budgets becoming the norm.  Today with savvy builders and 21^st century science of water and energy conservation leads the way in offering ‘green’ landscapes with their showcase homes.  But for others, the Victorian trend of installing foundation plants continues with the 20^th century artificial reality of zero-lot lines and instant landscapes.  You can easily tell the age of an instant landscaped community by the large trees, scantily grassed front yards from the lack of sunlight, and overgrown shrubs blocking the view of the doors and windows. Its five to ten years old.

Example of instant landscaping after one year.

Instant landscapes have a formula:  Pack as many colorful plants around the house as possible to give that WOW factor so you can sell the house quickly.  The buyers move in, loving the landscape, not realizing the costs and work ahead with high maintenance of pruning, pest control, and replacing stressed plants within a few years. 

The first six months is the honeymoon, landscapes look good.  But Olmstead’s advice that the centers will take care of themselves is a lie. Over the next two – three years though, the established landscapes mature and grow into their full size, requiring continual pruning to get to the door, or see out windows, or keep the trees from hitting the roof.  Mold and mildew become issues with the moisture of irrigation hitting the home and lack of air circulation from the shrubs. With bi-weekly or monthly pruning necessary to prevent shrubs and trees from taking over the home, the shrubs succumb to die-back or ‘bare-bottom syndrome’[1], leaving the shrub looking forlorn and sickly.

Bare-bottom syndrome with die-back issues. 

How do you prevent instant landscapes?

• Use landscape plantings that allow for mature growth.  Take the full width of a plant and divide it by half.  If a tree grows 30 feet wide, plant it at least 20 feet away from house or overhead wires.  Hedge shrubs that will reach 6 feet wide within two years, plant three feet apart.
• Do not cram perennials and ornamental shrubs together for the instant look.   Instead, plant more perennials and ornamentals appropriately, and then use seasonal annuals, containers, and hanging baskets to provide more color. 
• Pruning foundation plants should not be necessary.  We shouldn’t put plants in to cut them unless it’s a formal landscape, a standard specimen, or a formal topiary.  If a window ledge is three feet up from the ground, then use a shrub that will only grow to three feet or grow very slowly, so that pruning is an annual landscape chore.
• Install foundation plants at least two feet away from the foundation or outside of the roof line.  This will allow the foundation plants to receive rainfall, and therefore cut supplemental irrigation, but also keep the soil at the foundation dry.  Keeping the rootball moisture away around the home will also maintain the integrity of termiticide barrier, reducing susceptibility to termites. 
• Shrubs should have three to four inches of mulch on top of the root ball, leaving the trunk flare visible but only use one to two inches of mulch around the foundation of the home. This will allow the moisture to dry around the house, again providing more termite protection.

How do you know how big a shrub or tree will get? A great landscape database to help determine appropriate size of shrubs and trees is the St Johns WaterManagement District’s Waterwise Landscapes website.   


Correct landscape installation 2008

Same landscape 3 years later.

Green builders want to provide better landscapes that will look great upon installation, are fabulous a year later, and within five years, look natural as if it had always been there.  Green landscapes mean lower upfront landscape budget costs for the builder, getting more bang for your buck while selling the benefits of less maintenance, lower water bills, for the home buyer, resulting in a quicker home sale!  

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[1] My label for shrubs that have no foliage at their base due to being pruned incorrectly. 

 

Teresa Watkins, horticulturist, landscape designer, and environmental consultant is a Florida Water Star certifier, and a member of the USGBC-LEED Technical Advisory Group. Watkins is also host of the award-winning gardening radio show “In Your Backyard” heard on www.My790am.com every Tuesday at 1:00pm. You can contact or send questions to Teresa at www.she-consulting.com.

Tropical Nursery is Paradise For Gardeners



What a gardner's treasure trove! The Community Garden Center is a must visit and visit often resource. Marvin and Terri Pinder, 2nd generation growers just don't sell perennials, ornamental shrubs, tropical fruit trees, herbs, and vegetables, the Pinder's educate by example, living and growing everything they would love to have in their landscape. Visit Pinder's Nursery at 5500 Sw Martin Hwy, Palm City  (772) 781-8085.

 

Pennisetum purpurea 'Princess Caroline'

Sun-loving bromeliad hanging basket.

Coleus 'Redhead'

Succulent Container Garden

Plant-filled Victorian Terrarium keeps caterpillars happy.

Plants from the ground to the sky.

Thousands of plants, flowers, herbs, fruit trees, and garden accessories.

Floriferous front entry.

I can't believe how wonderful the ambiance was at Pinder's Nursery! Marvin and Terry and their staff are enthusiastic and gardening experts to help anyone who wants to create their own outdoor living room or edible Paradise. If you're in the area, please stop by. I guarantee that you'll leave with a wonderful plant or two.

They even have fairies wandering among the plants.  Will post those photos as soon as I'm sure the fairies don't mind. Click to see all of the Pinder Nursery photographs.

Mother Nature's Cosmetic Peels

I love to get facials and using an exfoliating cream works wonders. It seems Mother Nature likes to get in touch with her feminine side as well and show off her lovely reddish-orange bark as well. 

Called exfoliation, the peeling of bark from trees can be occur normally to healthy trees or as a result of stress and cause decline.

Semi-dwarf Acoma Crape Myrtle

Tree species that normally peel their bark are birches, crape myrtles, Drake elms, paperbark maples, and sycamores.  The bark peels off, usually starting in the second or third year, at the end of its blooming period during late summer to early fall. Colorful smooth bark adds another dimension of interest to your landscape. The striking red orange tree trunk stands out against your evergreen shrubs and trees.



Ulmus parvifolia 'Drake' Elm

Bark can split from receiving too much rain or being overwatered. This can happen to citrus trees, who like their feet dry, when they are irrigated too often, but that is not the same thing as exfoliation.

When you see peeling, there's no need to do anything to the tree. The bark will come off as the tree is ready.  Enjoy the beauty of exfoliation - it does wonders for Mother Nature's complexion.

Evidence of Native Bees





Pink Knock Out Roses

You can easily notice a friendly visit from a native pollinator, the leafcutter bee.  Identifying which species is harder since there are nine different species endemic to Florida.

 

Good news is that leafcutter bees are beneficial as pollinators for crops such as commercial blueberries and vegetables.  In residential landscapes, inviting ornamental plants with thin leaves such as bougainvillea, roses, and redbud trees are more susceptible to the leafcutter.  The visible damage of circular cuts on the outside edges of leaves will be used to build up their nests and usually will not harm the plants, but this non-aggressive bee species can sometimes nest in hollow rose canes, causing the rose to decline. 

 

Credits: David Almquist and David Serrano, University of Florida.

 

Red Knock Out Roses

 

 

 

 To learn more about leafcutter bees and management on leafcutter bees.

What Do They Have In Common?

Q. What do the following have in common?

Globe, Argyle, Athens, Avon, Bath, Belfast, Belgrade, Bremen, Bristol, Calais, Cambridge, Canton, Carthage, Damascus, Derby, Dover, Frankfort, Freeport, Ghent, Hamlin, Leeds, Limerick, Lisbon, Madrid, Manchester, Moscow, Naples, Newcastle, Oxford, Palermo, Rome, Stockholm, Troy, Verona, Vienna, Buffalo, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Fairbanks, Jacksonville, Ketchum, Long Beach, Monticello, Salem, Williamsburg, Virginia, China, Denmark, Egypt, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Poland, Scotland, Siberia, and finally, Eden, Purgatory, Sodom, and Promised Land.
 

A. First person to respond on this blog with the correct answer will receive a packet of 25 glassine seed-saving envelopes from one of my favorite garden entrepreneurs, the Seed Keeper Company.

I'll post the answer on Wednesday. 

50 Shades of Green

House nearing end of construction, last minute decisions, counting dollars, finishing details, and getting ready for the final C.O, is stress to the extreme.  Sound familiar?  Multiply that stress by one hundred with the builder having to submit the necessary particulars on a check-off application when the house is being certified “green.”   I recently overheard a builder blurt out in frustration “there’s many shades of green” when an explanation of what the criteria for landscape certification meant and why his choices were unable to be used.  While there are many green certification programs, there is only one type of “green,” and that is following the selected green organizations’ program criteria correctly.  Green certification takes organization, preparation, commitment, and knowledge of what benefits green certification provides both the builder and his client.  If proper steps are taken from beginning to end, green certification doesn’t have to be an arduous ordeal.

Conversations about what is really green and the much easier greenwashing[1] takes place mainly among researchers, green certifiers, and environmental standards organizations such as United States Green Building Council,  National Green Building Program,  EPA’s Water Sense, Sustainable Sites, and their affiliate state organizations like Florida Green Build Council.  In Florida, the University of Florida oversees the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods program, while the St Johns River Water Management District and other districts’ green certification program, FloridaWater Star certifies new and renovated homes on best water-conserving principles.  Home buyers trust the builder to provide correct information on the best products for their lifestyle and the right certification program.  Builders, who don’t believe that green certification is beneficial to their clients, won’t be able to sell it to them. It will either result in greenwashing or a lost opportunity to provide a truly sustainable product.

Green building is not only about the construction process, inside and out, but includes the property; from the first site survey and shovel in the ground, to final grading and landscape and irrigation installation.  For the best results and less stress, certifying the home and the landscape should be decided upon during the budget negotiations and before the construction begins, so that the application process can be completed successfully easier and within budget. Using a green-certified landscape architect or landscape designer from the beginning is a wise decision for the builder and the homeowner. 

Confusion happens when builders and homeowners don’t understand the numerous benefits and selling points of a certified landscape and irrigation; and start cutting their expenses at the cost of high maintenance and expensive water bills.  Green certification means the best management practices and certified products have been used and there will be financial savings, lower maintenance, and a smart responsibility to the environment, in their client’s future. 

Gone are the days (or at least they should be) where the homeowner is not given a choice on an efficient irrigation system that will cost more upfront but will save the homeowner thousands of dollars but are offered a more expensive energy-saving appliance that will save them $120 a year over the lifetime of the product.  With monthly water and irrigation bills of $200 to $500 becoming commonplace nationwide, why wouldn’t a builder give their clients the option of purchasing a water-efficient landscape and irrigation package? Needlessly paying thousands of dollars over a five to ten year period in water bills? Now that is torture to me.

Builders should partner with certified landscape designers and landscape architects who will provide timely advice and information on best management practices and green landscaping. They will be able to explain how to use the eco-friendly principles to benefit the builder and the homeowners. With current statutes like Florida-friendly landscaping, green certification is only a prelude to future smart building practices in Florida. Certified landscaping and irrigation will allow for more sustainable growth, more satisfied clients, and  help the builder to be on the best sellers’ list for years to come.  

See the Vision House 2008's certified green landscape three years later.
Originally published in From The Ground Up, Building Inspirations Magazine, July 2013.

Teresa Watkins, horticulturist, landscape designer, and environmental consultant. Watkinsalso hosts of the award-winning gardening radio show “In Your Backyard” heard on www.My790am.com  every Tuesday at 1:00pm.  You can contact or send questions to Teresa at www.she-consulting.com.

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[1] A superficial or insincere display of concern for the environment that is shown by an organization.  www.WordReference.com

Cast Irons Not In A Good Light

Driving in Winter Park, I noticed a sad situation.  These cast iron plants, Aspidistra elatior, were burning up with the heat.  They were not new plants and I wondered why they were scorched.  I stopped my car to try and solve the mystery. 

 

The garden bed was filled with mondo grass, cast irons, and bromeliads, all shade loving plants.  With the heat of the summer sun, the future does not bode well for these easy-care groundcovers for areas that don't get sunlight.

 

 

Turning to view the sidewalk and entire front yard, the answer was right there.  A live oak, obviously an older tree, rotting and in danger of falling onto cars or the sidewalk had been removed. 

 

 

Although the bromeliads are a variety that can with time adjust to sunlight, for the landscape's health, low water use, and continued easy maintenance, the mondo grass and cast irons should be removed from the area and replaced with either turf, sun-loving shrubs, or groundcovers. Mystery solved but will the plants survive?  I'll check on them in a few weeks to see what happens.

Don't Try This At Home

Caveat: My anecdote today has more than a few garden-variety lessons and plant tips. Please don't try this at home unless you are willing to do it correctly.

My husband stopped by Habitat for Humanity ReStore off Orange Blossom Trail yesterday on his way home from work.  The minute he got home, he couldn't wait to tell me about the twenty-some plants available that had been donated to Habitat for Humanity by a local nursery.  They were beautiful 10 gallon and 35 gallon camellias.  What? Landscape plants at Habitat for Humanity? Expensive 10gal and 35gal camellia standards at Habitat for Humanity?  I wanted one...or two...or three.

We stopped by a day later and as we pulled into the parking lot, my husband said, "Oh they're gone already." I knew it! I should have dropped everything and went yesterday to get them!  All we saw were these huge nursery pots and nothing in them.  Well almost nothing, just potting soil.

We parked and went up the ramp to ask about the camellias.  As we walked up, we noticed there was an old, dinged up, white, van.  Full of plants.  I thought to myself, those look like ligustrums crammed in between the two sets of backseats from the floor to the ceiling and over the seats.  No, they were camellias.  Hmmm, they must have bought the last two or three camellias. 

A worker came out of the open front entrance and started shaking her head. 'They were supposed to take the pots and soil, too,' she said perturbed.  I asked if they were all gone and if they really were 10gal and 35 gal camellia standards.  She nodded yes.  Dangit, I wanted one!  She was not a happy camper since they did not have any way to dispose of huge amount of soil or the leftover pots.

I went inside to see the price and saw on their chalkboard that they were selling them at $35 for the 10gal and the 35gal for $55.  What????  The size and quality of the camellias I would estimate at a retail nursery would have been $50 - $70 for each of the 10 gallon camellias and around $150 for each 35 gallon camellia standard.  The HOH prices were unbelievable and they were sold.

I continued to talk to the employee about the camellias and found out that whoever bought the camellias was supposed to take the entire soil and pots with them.  The camellias had been ripped out of their pots. HOH doesn't have the means to take care of landscaping, especially plants the size of small trees or clean up a messy parking lot.

I then noticed right next to the soil-filled pots, a van crammed full of ALL of the camellia standards from floor to ceiling. They had forced all 21 - 22 large camellias into this vehicle on top of each other without the rootballs!

A woman approached us and in faulty English with a thick Caribbean accent said that she and her husband had bought the plants (she didn't know what they were called) for her son's front yard and didn't have any way to get the entire nursery pots and trees home.  The woman and her husband were driving to Wedgewood, a community outside of Cocoa Beach with them. Both the employee and I thought out loud without thinking. "They're not going to make it."  She looked confused and asked what we meant. I began asking her specific questions about her yard. (Gardeners out there will know what I mean...)

• Do you have full sun or shade?   (Full sun)
• Do you have sandy soils or acidic soils?  (Sand, near Cocoa Beach)
• Do you have an irrigation system?  (No)

Oh, dear.  This woman had bought all of the camellias and ripped them out of their pots with hardly any roots, stuffed them in an un-airconditioned van on top of each other and had to drive  about two hours home and the plants weren't going to get in the ground today!

Camellias, whether they are japonica or sasanquas, on a good day, nicely established in their pots, and planted correctly, need:

• Full or partial shade
• Acidic soils
• Amended with lots of organic material soils
• Lots of water to get established.
• Mid-to no salt tolerance.
• Planted in the fall and winter.

These camellias were going to be planted in poor sandy soil, in full sun, with no irrigation, and only a partial root system with possible salt spray and/or saltwater in the middle of summer.  And I bet the unknowing homeowner will plant them with fertilizer.

What will probably happen to the camellias is that overnight and for the next two weeks, they will lose all their leaves and buds. It won't be a pretty sight and the homeowner will probably think they are dead and throw them all away.

The cost?!! This couple might have spent over a thousand to thirteen hundred dollars for these beauties! I say might because I didn't ask HOH if they gave her a cut rate since she was supposed to take all of them and soil and pots at one time.  But HOH usually dont cut their rates because they have everything at such a low price already.  Still, even if the 22 plants cost her $30 apiece, that means $660.  And these camellias don't have a good chance at making it.  And I wanted one....

The woman asked me to write instructions on the back of a worn half envelope for her son.  She was taking the mistakes of what her and her husband had done calmly.  I would have been crying.  Maybe she didn't understand what she had done or what the HOH employee and I were telling her so that the plants would survive.

Water is going to be critical if these camellias are to survive. They will need 30 gallons or more every day for at least two to three weeks in our Florida summer heat, if  there is no rain.

So here's my tips for buying plants. 

• Know the name of the plant.  Write it down.  Research it.
• Know what a specific plant needs to survive.
• What the sunlight, soil moisture, pH conditions it needs.
• Have the conditions the plant needs to survive or create it with right locations, soil amendments, watering care, and fertilizer after it's established.
• Make sure the weather/seasonal temperatures are not stressful if you don't have automatic irrigation on the plant.  Fall is a better time to plant camellias.

NEVER:

• (Do not) Pull a plant out of its rootball or out of the soil the roots are planted in.  Pot or not.
• (Do not) Think you can handwater a shocked plant (recently dug up and roots cut) enough. 
• (Do not) Plant, or transplant, prune heavily, and fertilize at the same time. Wait until you see new growth and you'll know the plant is happy enough and established to handle the stress of fertilizer.
• (Do not) Cut both the roots and foliage at the same time.  Too much stress. See the previous tip about new growth.  That's when you can prune the foliage.

TIPS:

• Yes, sometimes Habitat for Humanity ReStores get landscaping donations.  Stop in on a regular basis and see what they have!
• Habitat for Humanity ReStores are great places to find inexpensive pots and china to repurpose for plants that you give as presents.  Most people donate sets of cups, bowls, or plates when they get a crack in them, break or lose one.  A set of three unbroken and in perfect condition cups will make an excellent size for threesome of matched pots of herbs for a windowsill. 

• I'm planning to use the three Renaissance-themed coffee cups for little bonsai 4-inch rosemary or olive trees. The cracked herb soup bowl will make a gorgeous saucer underneath a planted pot on my front porch.  The large round cup will make an excellent mini-planter of indoor plants for an office desk or for a windowsill African violet get-well gift. The cost of all six pieces? $4.00 and your donation is going for a good cause! I even left the bowl's 'Minnie Pearl' price tag for 50 cents on.

It's always a serendipitious moment when you find a bargain or great plants at a cheap price.  But don't waste them just because you are getting a bargain.  Make wise landscaping decisions and you'll have a beautiful landscape and more money to buy more great plants.

P.S.

I'll post the Renaissance cups when I get them planted.

Bonsai Superstars

Breathtaking! I have always wanted to have the patience and the space (as funny as that sounds) to create bonsai works of art. They are fascinating to me. The eclectic environmental blog, WebEcoist highlights tree art with bonsai superstars, such as Masahiko Kimura, Ben Oki, Lindsey Bebb, Quinquan Zhao, world famous for his penjing (miniature landscapes that combine bonsai with soil, foliage, and rock), Robert Steven and John Naka, dec His most recognizable work, Goshin, resides at the US National Arboretum. It consists of 11 impossibly straight juniper trees.



Bonsai award winning artist Masahiko Kimura creates a new masterpiece in under ten minutes:

Creating A Florida Cottage Garden

This is an article I wrote and published on ICanGarden.com Aug 2007, that I've updated and added new landscape photographs. Enjoy.

College Park, Orlando Florida Cottage Garden

     Whether you are a gardener or not, strolling along a meandering pathway through fragrant rainbow-bannered flowerbeds, dappled with ‘out of the ordinary’ ornamental surprises around various twists and turns, is one of the most delightful experiences anyone can have. Texture, variety, fragrance, color and serendipitous opportunities in English cottage gardens provide a memorable and soulful experience for the neophyte green thumb and expert landscaper alike.

     A beginning gardener can be overwhelmed and only imagine the hard labors that the cottage gardener went through while designing. The Master Gardener knows how many hours and years of sweat and preparation it took to eventually produce such an exquisite yet chaotic fantasy-filled garden. Cottage gardens first appeared as necessary areas on farms to grow herbs and vegetables for individual tenants who worked the vast farms. As the peasant began to rent or  own their land, the natural extension of planting flowers and adding beauty also extended to the cottage’s surrounding foundation.  European cottage gardens have an aesthetic appeal that to most people it looks like every plant, flower, and visiting creature just happened to appear on its’ own naturally. The gardens seem to just sprung up without any apparent design and happen to thrive in cooler climates; but with a little research and planning on your own zone and microclimates, you too can have a beautiful, simple, low maintenance cottage garden in Florida. 
 

The first step in planning a cottage garden is to understand what they are. Cottage gardens are to landscapes what George Seurat’s pointillistic paintings are to art. Some artists, like Paul Signac, during Seurat’s lifetime considered his paintings ‘messy’ and complicated but his critique of his final completed artwork was that Seurat’s paintings were masterpieces. These paintings incorporated minute individual dots blending a variety of shades and colors in harmonizing sweeps to create natural compositions and display scenes or events that when viewed as a whole were stimulating and filled with energy.

English cottage garden.

 

     Cottage gardens, can look messy, weedy, chaotic on your nerves, and be hard to keep under control; but if planned correctly from the beginning, they can be breathtaking, attractive, low-maintenance, eco-friendly gardens, where earth’s creatures can feel invited, relaxed and welcomed. Cottage gardens need to be well thought out though in the planning stages as to your ultimate purpose in having it as a landscape. Whether it is attracting birds and butterflies, having a cutting garden to enjoy flowers indoors, or using your yard to have a colorful xeriscaped lawn with low-maintenance in mind, your cottage garden can have one or all these goals incorporated in one landscape design.

Florida cottage garden

     Once you have established your goals, you can begin to select the design shape and your palette of plants. Here in Florida, many new residents pine for their Northern gardens and automatically assume that they cannot have them with our tropical climate. Au contraire,  gardening enthusiasts — once you know the plant species you would like to use, then select a similar tropical zone shrub or flower to plant in its place! Take any zone landscaping design and their plant list, find those individual plant specifications of mature height, flower color, leaf texture, sun and moisture needs and then imitate those same requirements with a Florida-hardy plant. Take for example northern lilacs: Lilacs are sumptuously tall, fragrant with flowers that herald in springtime up north. Lilacs do not grow in zones 8b through 11b, but if you research Florida gardening books, or ask your favorite Florida Master Gardener, you will find that butterfly bushes, buddleia spp., resemble lilacs, come in multiple colors, and lend height to your garden beds. They are also fragrant and attract butterflies, as the name honestly implies.



Butterfly Bush, Buddleia spp. 'Lo and Behold'

 

      Another favorite Florida tree that can substitute for lilacs is the non-native crape myrtles, with dozens of colors, heights and blooming seasons. Crape myrtles love the sun, are drought tolerant once established, and need very little maintenance, not even yearly heavy pruning.



Rain lilies

Zephyranthes spp. in my yard. 

Rain lilies in my yard

       Cottage gardens in the springtime have a variety of colorful, blooming bulbs, like the beautiful crocus. Floridians can enjoy springtime blooms all summer long if they plant pink, white, or yellow rain lilies, zephyranthes spp instead.  Immediately after a rainstorm, these sweet flowers pop up without cajoling to naturalize in your landscape, having no pest problems and needing no maintenance. They truly reflect a joyful English albeit tropical cottage landscape.

      To create the flowing shapes and textures found in cottage garden designs, incorporate flowers and shrubs that easily self-seed so that the plants volunteer the next season in other areas.  Sprinkle any flowers that you deadhead throughout the seasons into beds that you would like the plants to spring up. Use specimen and foundation plantings sporadically in the center or back of any border gardens to create depth and height. A specimen planting is the use of a single shrub, tree, ornamental grass, or topiary that is striking in foliage or flower color, shapes, unusual foliage texture, and adds height such as a multi-level pruned shrub.    The longer your cottage garden is, the more specimens you can use, but remember: the smaller the garden area, frugality in the amount of specimens is better. 
 

     Cottage garden flower colors range from assorted rainbow colors or your favorite monochromatic color, such as all blue flowers and blue-hued leaves, or an all-white garden popularized by Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst Castle.  Even though the Sissinghurst ‘White Gardens’ had a singular color name, Vita employed various shades of creams, greys, and lighter green flowers and plants into the garden.

Formal cottage garden

When planning your cottage garden, use the amount of plants based on their mature width. This is not the time to plant every inch of your landscape. Allow the garden to fill in naturally over a few years.  If you overplant with lots of high maintenance flowers, shrubs, and trees, you will find yourself with a lot of pruning, frustration, and possibly removing these same plants in the future. As your cottage garden matures, you can always fill in seemingly empty nooks and crannies with annuals, summer bulbs, and groundcovers.

 

Stones add the perfect cottage touch.

 

     Finishing your cottage garden setting, you may want to add stones or pavers to allow for a pathway or as hardscape borders.  Classic accoutrements such as bird baths, obelisks, water fountains, whimsical bird houses or garden signs can be added.
 

     Despite all the planning, substituting your own Florida native and non-native species, and knowing what conditions you are working with, creating a cottage garden should be free-flowing, spontaneous, and unique. Understanding the basics of cottage gardening, you can now go through any gardening book, magazine, or your favorite website, and no matter what zone they are designed for and with their plant palette, substitute your own Zone 8 –11 plant favorites, with similar colors, heights, flower and leaf shapes, that match your sunlight, soil moisture, growth needs for your own personal landscape design and presto — you will have your own individual Florida cottage garden.

 

Interest on every level.

Resource to find the perfect plants for your yard?  

Florida Waterwise Landscape Database http://www.sjrwmd.com/waterwiselandscapes
Teresa Watkins, Photographer All Rights Reserved 2013