Second Spring Surprises

Have you ever had an extremely gorgeous weekend that just begs you to spend time in the garden and you have to spend most of it doing errands, or worse, work? It is enough to make you cry a little. The weather has cooled dramatically in the last few days and is just wonderful. I had to stay inside and clean the house before my husband threatened to move out. The plants have really enjoined their second spring and gave me a few surprises.

This is plain ol' lantana, but I like this shot.

The butterflies have been plentiful this season, but it seems like only the dull ones stay on the flower long enough to for me to take a picture.

The purple pentas are perfect.


The elephant ears became HUGE over night.

The butterfly ginger are gearing up for round two - yeah!

And the most massive surprise of all, a completely jaw dropping one, was that a stargazer lily from last year decided it would bloom after all, sneaking up behind some salvia. It's almost October! I was so disappointed that last years bulbs didn't bloom. I suppose it was just trying to be fashionably late.

Weekend Weeding

Spent the weekend weeding out the butterfly garden with my daughter. This is "her" garden and she is very protective of it. Here is the before:And the after:

The garden is looking pretty lately, waking up a bit from the intense summer heat. Above are Mexican petunia blooms.

Some pink salvia in the back of the garden.
I planted a bunch of pentas in the butterfly garden. They were cheap ($.50 for a 4-inch pot) and somewhere I heard they were decent cool weather plants. The cashier said they were "hummer magnets." Yeah, yeah. I've lived in Florida for 20 years, and I've never seen a hummingbird. I've heard that they are around, but I've also heard that big foot is around these parts if you spend time in the forest. Well, damn if I didn't plant these the other night and yesterday evening we saw a hummingbird. It was small, about the size of my thumb and looked a lot like a large bug, but it was a hummingbird. Makes me think I've seen them before but didn't know what they were. I went out this morning and bought more pentas for the front garden. Now I'll be like the little old ladies with all the tacky bright red plastic hummingbird feeders, perched by the window just waiting. . .

Butterfly Hunting

Me and my daughter went butterfly hunting this morning. Don't worry, we only shot them with the camera. Even though I have fewer butterfly plants this year, I've noticed a ton of butterflies. A lot of different varieties too. Of course, when we sit in the garden, patiently waiting for a butterfly to flutter by, there none but this little dull one. Oh well, I did some seriously cute pictures of my daughter. The garden looks like a jungle from this angle:

Update on the Butterfly Garden

Just when I've written off a plant, it goes and does something that redeems itself. I was ready to tear out all of the lantana this year, just because it was ready to take over things. But check out that pink! I don't remember planting lantana that pink. And its a color after my own heart. I took a bunch of cuttings today, so hopefully I'll have more shortly.Here's an update of the Butterfly Garden. It is still a bit messy looking and I'm not sure how to fix that.

But next week should be pretty - my stargazer lilies are all set to bloom.

The Gardens Have Come Back to Life!

Recent rain has finally cooled the air and made the outside bearable again. The plants for the most part of responded and everything has perked up. Once again, the butterfly ginger is stealing the show, but I’ll spare you another picture of it. Instead I have a picture of the nearby Persian Shield. I think its iridescent purple foliage is just so cool. It really shows up from across the yard, especially against the lime green sweet potato vine. This something I’m thinking about for the other gardens, especially the butterfly garden. For most of the year, it is a sea of green. I think I’ll incorporate more colored foliage, mainly coleus. Below is a pic of the tree lantana that our neighbor gave us. It was looking pretty rough for most of the summer, but started blooming this week. I’ve noticed that the bright banana yellow lantana does well in the hot weather of summer, and the pale yellows and purples bloom as it cools. I kind of wish they would all bloom together, but oh well. I’m much more optimistic about the garden right now. I’m reading Garden Bulbs for the South by Scott Ogden and getting completely inspired. Just wait until next year!!

Lantana

Plants I Love (AKA Plants That Don't Die on Me)

So, this is about plants I love. But sometimes love becomes hate, and then love again until you can’t quite figure out how you feel about the object of one’s affections anymore. That pretty much sums up my relationship with lantana. It has its charms, namely my favorite quality in a plant: I can’t seem to kill it. It is drought and heat resistant, and was hardly phased when I left it in the car all day. (The impatiens didn’t fair so well.) The butterflies love it and it stands up to my daughter’s numerous bouquets. It comes back year after year and is pretty much no maintenance. But the cracks are starting to form in the relationship. It grows everywhere, suffocating my other plants such as the camellias you can hardly see anymore. I think it is responsible for the mild rash I get on my hands sometimes when working in the garden. After researching the Internet, I found out it even smells unpleasant (I have no sense of smell, but that is another post.) But then I do a little research and find out that it is reportedly used to decrease libido. I’m not sure, but I think that might finally be the last straw.

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