Tag Archives: South Florida Gardening

Gardening Outside Your Zone

Burgundy Loropetalum in Atlanta

Burgundy Loropetalum in Atlanta

The song by the Rolling Stones goes, and I am paraphrasing  “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you get what you need.” Sage words. That made me remember I want to plant some sage..

There are many transplants here in Florida – people and plants as well. The people are trying to grow the plants they know from home, maybe 4 hardiness zones north. The plants are unhappy. I was surprised by the number of folks trying to grow Lilacs in South Florida. Lilacs grow in the Northern US, not South Florida. South Florida may be the mold and mildew capital of the world and Lilacs are extremely susceptible. Of course, there are some delightfully fragrant plants that people in the North are trying to grow that thrive here and are really well suited for this climate- on it goes. Ylang ylang, anyone? If for no other reason it would be fun to try this because of the name. I actually had a vanilla orchid for a while, but I think one of my dogs stepped on it.

Tabebuia

Tabebuia

I am as guilty as the next gardener, to a certain extent. I like the new and unusual and there is a lot to see when you move to the tropics. My favorite tree ever, the Autumnalis Cherry, cannot be grown here. I readily accept that because of the other trees that can be grown here. My new favorite is Tabebuia which I have just found with orchid colored flowers – the Ipe Tabebuia. I also like the yellow one because of the nice corky bark. It is a dilemma to choose between the two, fortunately the back garden of my house is, well, um, non-existent. So, I can have either.

Burgundy Loropetalum in South Florida

Burgundy Loropetalum in South Florida

I have succumbed to Zone pushing by planting some Burgundy Loropetalum. One of my favorite shrubs from the frozen north. This is not supposed to grow in Zone 10, my research says Zone 9 is it for the Loropetalum. But I found one for 5 bucks and decided to try it. It is cheerfully blooming in my front yard in January. You may notice the Atlanta Loropetalum is robust and more than 6 feet tall. The one here in Florida tops out at 8 inches and looks a bit chlorotic. I guess it is time to wait and see.

Recovering the Herb Garden

 

Terracotta Herb Container

Terracotta Herb Container

I have had abdominal surgery twice in two years. This has been detrimental to the quality of my herb and vegetable garden. The last surgery was in October and (knock wood) there are no more holes in my gut to repair. Yay, I have been pulling weeds (and am able to pull weeds!-very exciting) in an attempt to reclaim my two herb beds.

These two beds were constructed a couple of years ago and contain the most fertile soil on the otherwise laughably infertile sand dune I live on. The pure fecundity and variety of the weeds I removed was astounding. What is also interesting is the Rosemary, Bay and German Thyme have all managed to survive the onslaught. Thyme isn’t even supposed to grow this far south. Go figure. I like to use all of these herbs and have clipped the tips off while allowing innundation of the rest of the plant so things are a bit leggy or perhaps I will decide these are simply tree form herbs. Garden problem solving at its finest. The tree form.

Reclaimed Rosemary

Reclaimed Rosemary

I think the Rosemary will be OK. My experience with Rosemary is if cut back too hard it tends to die. Oddly enough the  Rosemary is leaning in the direction of the winter wind, it gives a sculptural effect to the plant.  I discovered the Chives had made bulbs about three times bigger than any I had seen before:

Overgrown Chives?

Overgrown Chives?

I looked at these and realized I probably have enough Chives for a restaurant. Chives, in my experience make maybe 1/2″ bulbs and retain circular foliage. These bulbs are 3 times bigger and the foliage is flat and not particularly tasty. My best guess is to divide and conquer, so I chopped them into bits and replanted them into a shadier area. Time will tell about the success of the chive chopping.

I have been using a terracotta container on my front porch for most herbs while the bigger beds languished in benign neglect. Currently the pot has Parsley, Creeping Rosemary, German and Lemon Thyme and Basil. It is close to the kitchen and a real plus is that the cats can’t get to it.

The refurbishing of the garden begins tomorrow. I have collected Lemon Thyme, Dill, Cilantro, Snow Peas and Radishes to grow with the existing Tree Formed Rosemary and Bay.

Hopefully it doesn’t rain.

Vive La Difference

Purple Oxalis in Floridian mode with Oyster Plants

Purple Oxalis in Floridian mode with Oyster Plants

I am from Tucker, Georgia USA. While I have titled the post in French, I do not and will not speak French and have a Southern accent that creeps up on me sometimes, mostly in colloquialisms that cause folks around here to scratch their heads. I said to the podiatrist I couldn’t “sit on my haunches” he was completely puzzled. That means squat down in Southern. Genetically bad ankles, I think. Or too much gardening.

“That dog don’t hunt” is another confusing Southernism. It just means it doesn’t work. More head scratching. I don’t really sound like Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind but Vivien Leigh was English anyway.

This past year I have been enjoying numerous gardening blogs; I have read about everything from Lupines in Australia to Roses in England to Daisies and Aloes in the US and Fall color just about everywhere but where I live. South Florida is a bit lacking in that regard.

What I have taken from all my reading is there is a lot of difference in the things people grow, but there are also a lot of similarities in favorites. Here is my take on some universal favorites:

Maples for Fall Color, Japanese Maples especially. Cherries and Deciduous Magnolias for Spring color. Everybody loves Cosmos and Hydrangeas and some type of Asters, Daisies, Mums, Lilies of all shapes and sizes, Roses. The UK writers like Sweetgums, which still boggles my mind. Southerners go searching for the chainsaw when a suspect Sweetgum seedling arises. Azaleas and Rhododendrons are very popular and the everpresent Viburnums.

Another interesting aside, gardening magazines will have you thinking succulents and tropical plants are all the rage in temperate gardens. I don’t read about as much of those types of plants as good, well suited garden plants. Of course, there is always something you must have that is a few plant hardiness zones away from reality. I had palms in my temperate garden, I am guessing after last winter they have expired.

While I couldn’t hope to grow many of the favorites in my garden, what was interesting to me to find out is there are some things that will grow just about anywhere. For example,  Oxalis and Viburnums will grow just about everywhere, even at my house. I have some fantastic Purple Oxalis my neighbor gave me. Who knows where it came from – maybe England.

Fall Color in South Florida – Bolivian Sunflowers

The Sunflower Hedge

The Sunflower Hedge

I have been noticing these plants for the past few years and it always seems weird to me to associate Sunflowers with November. Gigantic Sunflower Shrubs, at that. I also assumed incorrectly they were some sort of Helianthus. Not the case, this is a Tithonia, Tithonia diversifolia – the Bolivian Sunflower. In another perversity of plant naming, the Bolivian Sunflower is native to Mexico and Central America. I am fairly certain Bolivia is in South America.The name Mexican Sunflower is already taken for a smaller perennial.

One of my neighbors has a hedge of Bolivian Sunflowers screening the yard. This Sunflower hedge is at least 12 tall and in full bloom right now. This plant grows Spring and Summer and blooms all Fall and Winter. It has just really started blooming in earnest and should continue for a couple of months. Another one of those kooky benefits of living in South Florida, Sunflowers all winter.

Since the possible 16′ tall shrub bears 6″ flowers profusely, I am imagining it can put out quite a few seeds and become a problem. I am not sure I would try a hedge, but maybe one or two to screen a view where the lawnmower will run over any nearby seedlings. One has to practice selective lawn mower placement of plants here if there is any question of overabundance. No frost means nothing ever dies. Or anything you want gone refuses to die.

Muhly Grass – Muhlenbergia capillaris or filipes

Muhly Grass

Muhly Grass

I planted Muhly Grass recently for its interesting pink mist fall flowers and reputation for indestructibility. The Grass started blooming nearly as soon as I planted it in September and has been slowly filling out with misty pink plumes. This is an interesting grass – it grows as far north as Massachusetts west to Kansas and south to Florida. A huge range, at least 5 USDA hardiness zones, apparently with a native habitat on the edges of marshes. I found in previous attempts that it is virtually impossible to grow in heavy clay soil. So, it should be really happy in my front yard atop a sand dune.

I am getting a feeling I might have to water it a bit. Plants that are designated drought tolerant with conditions usually are not as drought tolerant as you would like.

Another common name for this is Sweetgrass, supposedly when dried it has a sweet fragrance like hay. I haven’t noticed the smell, but I haven’t dried any either. I think I prefer the Sweetgrass name to Muhly Grass. Muhly sounds like beer or something. Muhly Ale?!

This grass is the source of material for basketry by the Seminole Indians in Florida and the famous Sweetgrass baskets of the Low Country of South Carolina. The Low Country basketry tradition was started by slaves from West Africa imported to the American South to work in the rice plantations in the 1800s. The tradition continues and to this day sweetgrass baskets are made and sold in the Low Country. The grass is sewn in ropes, then coiled to make a basket – a time consuming task that produces a beautiful basket.

According to the Seminole tribe website they started making sweetgrass baskets 60 years ago. Their baskets are based on grass from the Everglades, which is dried and constructed in a similar way to the Low Country baskets.

Given that I now possess a mass of Muhly I might try a basket. I suspect this is a lot harder than I think it is.. and my backyard has been blessed with an overabundance of Muscadines (a native grape) – the local wildlife population eats all the fruit, but I have such a large amount of grapevine I may take up basketweaving or wreathmaking..

Winter Containers for South Florida

Here comes the Work Shop

Here comes the Work Shop

My husband likes to work with his hands, when we moved to South Florida there wasn’t enough room in our house for a workshop so we had one craned it. The picture is the shop being lifted over the house..I’ll get to the containers in a minute.

The shop ends up looking a bit like a trailer but with some landscaping and a porch it fits in. These sheds are fairly common in South Florida, I have never seen them before – they are even built and attached to the ground to resist hurricanes.

The whole adventure left me feeling a bit like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Maybe in reverse.

After all this, my husband who has clearly been living with me too long decided he wanted some flower pots (containers if you are a landscape professional) on his shop porch. I put some containers together with the usual suspects last year sometime – yes, the annuals last that long here. It seems crazy to me as well. They last so long you get tired of them. When I lived further north I always did the containers twice a year, changed the colors with the seasons and enjoyed the variety.

Imagine my surprise when the old summer reliables, Bronzeleaf Begonias, rolled over and died in the summer heat. Time to revise thinking to plants that live in say, the Sahara. Pentas and Lantanas. I had gotten bored with Lantanas in Atlanta and really still am, they just smell funny. If I want fragrance, that is so not it.

The Lantana and Pentas were pooping out so I was trolling around in our yard to see what I could find to replace the spent annuals. One of the fun things about living in Florida is you never know what you might find growing in the yard. Boston Fern grows wild in the side yard so I dug a start of that and then found some Purple Wandering Jew (Zebrina), a Burgundy Bromeliad and an unknown groundcover Bromeliad (from a garage sale) that needed to be divided  and added them to the ‘Florida Friendly’ (this is a Florida Extension Service sort of approved plant) chartreuse Sedum that was already in the pots. As an aside, who ever heard of a sedum that does well in partial shade – this does. Whatever it is.

Groundcover Bromeliad and Sedum

Groundcover Bromeliad and Sedum

Voila, a purple and chartreuse themed container garden. The Bromeliads seem to be perennial in containers – the big Burgundy one was divided from a container I have had on my front porch for a year or so – I started with one and now there are three in there. You just never know what you will find growing outside…

Newly planted containers

Newly planted containers

 

Rain Gardens on the Treasure Coast

We have a local environmental blogger here on the Treasure Coast who posted  about Rain Gardens and inspired this.

I have been designing Rain Gardens for about 10 years. It is a great idea for the environment, but aesthetically it is difficult to cope with the fact that unless carefully planned it looks like a big drainage ditch in your front yard. Not a good look.

I decided to put some Rain Gardens around our house after discovering that the areas right around the house were not irrigated and the house had no gutters so the rain collected on the ground around the house and was not really concentrated by gutters into 4 or 5 spots.

The lack of gutters on the roof is relatively common here, this is new to me. I am not quite sure why – maybe Hurricanes blow them off. Anyway, we bought the house without gutters and I always, always hated dealing with getting the gutters cleaned, etc. on our house in Atlanta. I was happy not to have gutters.

Then it rained, like seven inches. Wow, there were pits in the areas under the valleys of the roof where the water came off the roof. Luckily the yard was so gruesome there was no question about redoing the driveway and landscaping. And we live on a Sugar Sand Dune, highly pervious no water stands anywhere. A big ditch was not really necessary.

My father taught Geology at Emory University. He passed on and I inherited his love of rocks, but in a more decorative way. I love stone, boulders and natural materials incorporated into the garden. I brought his rocks to Florida and planned to use them in my gardens. In Florida, I have added seashells and cap rocks in an effort to be more sustainable by using locally available material.

My Rain Gardens are in my front yard in a planter:

Rocks for Splashing

Rocks for Splashing

The valley of the roof drains onto these rocks, the rocks break the speed of water and then it splashes on down the Egg Rock, waters my plants and drains back into the sand. This planter is not irrigated, a bit of a sin in South Florida – it is maintained for the most part by rain. I occasionally water the Plumeria in  winter. The plants are placed out from under the edge of the roof  so they get watered and not beaten by a big rainstorm.

Rain Garden Planter

Rain Garden Planter

This is the whole garden. A Bridal Veil Plumeria is centered on the house flanked by Lemon Blanchiata Bromeliads then FlapJack plants. A Pencil Cactus anchors the corner. The plant selection is mostly succulents or low water tolerant plants. I had to have the Plumeria for aesthetic reasons and suffer through the watering.

Rockcentric Rain Garden

Rockcentric Rain Garden

This is my other Rain Garden. Again the water comes off the corner valley and lands on the large sized Egg Rock and flows over the Black Mexican Pebbles and drains to the driveway. The driveway is made from pervious shell and drains onto a turf area with a french drain beneath it.

The Rocks are from my father’s collection and one piece of coral rock from Jensen Beach. Plants are newly planted -a Tibouchina and a Leafless Bird of Paradise. I am watering these plants to establish them.

Tropical Ranch

I went on a mini garden tour yesterday to the Tropical Ranch Botanical Garden in nearby Stuart, Florida. This is a two acre garden owned by a local couple who are Master Gardeners; they live in the garden and open it every month or so.

The garden is beautifully maintained and available for events. Here are a few plants from my meander through the garden:

'Queen Emma' Crinum

This is a ‘Queen Emma’ Crinum – this plant is 5 or 6 feet tall.

Blanchietta Aechmea Bromeliad

Blanchetiana Aechmea Bromeliad

Another enormous tropical in bloom,  these are very popular around town and are available in Lemon, Orange and Raspberry. I am not sure which one this is but, I am guessing Lemon as the leaves have a yellow cast. The flower is almost 5 feet tall and out of this world. I have had these for a couple of years and mine refuse to bloom. One of the owners told me they used to have cows – maybe that is the secret.

 

Hala

Hala 

Hawaiians call this Hala, it is used for everything from hats to huts, not native to Florida it will grow here. Floridians tend to call this Screw Pine, not sure why, it seems odd – when I first heard the term I thought it was some weird tropical version of a Japanese Black Pine, not so. I have one in my garden, it is about 12″ tall, unlike this beauty.

And last but not least, another favorite, the Heliconia. I think it is some variety of Lobsterclaw. Another thing I am waiting for a flower from; I read the other day these shouldn’t be pruned or you cut the flowers off. That could be my problem – excessive pruning. But, the plant is seven feet tall. Gardening teaches patience, right?

Heliconia

Heliconia

Bromeliad update – Matchstick and Aechmea idon’tknowwhatitis

Pink Bromeliad

Pink Bromeliad

This is a close up of an Aechmea Bromeliad I bought two years ago. Totally pink and as weird looking as these things are sometimes. I used this in a an article that never got published. Being a cooperative plant it put out a pup and the mother plant died after hanging around for a while. I waited for the thing to bloom again and set in the ground in a relatively shady, sandy bed with some Bromeliad friends.

A month or so ago,  it started sending up a stalk -yes, it looked like a girl power corn cob.

Second Generation Pink Bromeliad

Second Generation Pink Bromeliad

I am calling this Aechmea idon’tknowwhatitis because the guy I bought it from did not know either. And there are a zillion of these things and from this I guess that they are not clones from the mother plant.

Here is a close up of the flower from Second Generation

Pink and Yellow Bromeliad

Pink and Yellow Bromeliad

Curiouser and curiouser, this flower just stays pink and yellow and has been around for a couple of weeks now.

An additional Bromeliad note, the Matchstick Bromeliads I planted in nearly full sun have all burned up with the exception of one that looks great. So, take the ‘this one likes the sun’ advice with a grain of salt and try a little shade.

The Sustainable Garden: Perennial Thoughts

I perennially have thoughts about flowers. In terms of sustainability I am not sure the native ones are always best. Many of the natives are simply weeds with attractive flowers or characteristics we like. I have a deep respect for Black Eyed Susan from a previous experience – as in being nearly overrun by them. I used to live in their native habitat and had bought some “improved” Goldstrum Variety and they bolted back to their native selves and then ran amok on a well drained sunny hill. A recipe for landscape disaster. As beautiful as they were in full bloom, it took a long time to get rid of the Black Eyed Susans. I could not cope with their joyful abundance anymore. So easy on the natives and seek those that do well in your climate without too much water and too much abundance. Easier to take care of and maintain.

In South Florida irrigation is a big deal. We have a rainy season and a dry season. While there are many native plants this is a tropical climate and some of them can go wild. I have found some escaped houseplants in my yard going wild. Mother in Laws tongues is an invasive species. Many plants commonly grown here will not survive without irrigation. I chose not to irrigate my entire yard to save water and to save my sanity. The areas in lawn and vegetables are irrigated; areas with lower water perennials are drip irrigated and I have some unirrigated low maintenance areas that I still want to plant with beautiful perennials. I am just looking at things a bit differently. So, I am paying close attention to who I am inviting to live in my garden.

Beach Sunflower

The Beach Sunflower from Wikipedia

I am about to plant some Beach Sunflower in an unirrigated portion of my garden, I live on a sand hill and these are native to our area – I believe if I planted them in an irrigated area I would be overrun in short order. So, it is time for some more garden experimentation. The Beach Sunflower is going to look great with the existing Blue Agave, Red Martin Bromeliad and Painted Fingernail Bromeliad. Eventually providing shade is a native Gumbo Limbo tree; if that doesn’t get you in the mood for a Margarita nothing will. All these plants are extremely drought tolerant and will survive without regular irrigation. The Gumbo Limbo and Beach Sunflower are native, the Blue Agave is from Mexico, and the Martin and Painted Fingernail Bromeliads are Neoregelia type Bromeliads that originated in South America.

Painted Fingernail Bromeliad

Painted Fingernail Bromeliad

 

Martin Bromeliad

Martin Bromeliad

Blue Agave

Blue Agave

It seems strange to me that Bromeliads, in my mind a rainforest plant, would thrive in the sun with little supplemental water, but they do. The Painted Fingernail Bromeliad is a passalong plant around here and I have seen large masses of it planted around mailboxes on the side of the road. A great example of a not native plant working in a sustainable way. The result of my selection of plant material is an evergreen perennial bed that blooms or provides year round color while being very drought tolerant and using very little fertilizer or maintenance.

Sustainability is about more than native plants – it is about selecting the right plants.