Irises

The African Irises in the front garden are putting on quite the show.

In other parts of my yard, I think I'm going to give up on growing gingers this year.

The pot didn't work and most of the gingers were chewed up. Moving on to massive amounts of habanero sauce.

WWPD?

Oy - Before Pictures. Whether it is a chubbie chick or an underdeveloped spring garden, they are never pretty. I hate showing them, but I know in a few months it will be fun to look back. Above is the circle in the middle of the corner garden. It was a happier spot once, but the frosts hit the palms and the squirrels decimated the gingers, and frankly, last year I kinda gave up on it. I'm now trying to revitalize it, and, as almost always, with no budget. The biggest problem is lack of definition. Ideally, I'd like to add a limestone border around it, in a more natural shape than the tight circle I originally created. That was a great plan until I priced out limestone. $10, per stone! For a girl that has a garden budget of right around $10 per week, more or less, that seems out of my price range. I could feel the spirits of my ancestors waiting to kick me if I even thought of spending $10 for a rock.

At times like these, I sit down and think: "What would Pearl do?"


Some of you know exactly who I am talking about. For those of you who don't, stop reading this and immediately get yourself a copy of the movie, A Man Named Pearl. It is a documentary about gardener and topiary artist Pearl Fryar. He is practically the patron saint of frugality and creativity in the garden. One of the reasons he took up topiary was that he could take a cheap discarded nursery plant and shape it into something totally unique and special. He is such an inspiration for me. So when I look at the area above, the thought comes in to my mind, "What would Pearl do?" How can I use the resources I have to make something really special? Unfortunately, I don't have Pearl's brain, so I still don't know what I am going to do with this area. I have filled it with with red canna I picked up from the Master Gardener's sale last year and some grass divided from the front yard. But I still have no idea how I'll define the bed. Suggestions, especially for cheap rock sources, are welcome.

The cannas are pretty though.

In case any of you are wondering how the war on squirrels is going, I'm trying a new tactic: physical barriers! On some of my more prized ginger shoots, I've cut out the bottoms of garden pots and put them over the shoots. In other areas, I've surrounded the gingers with branches. Anything to make them harder to reach and get to. I'll let you know how it goes.

And the Winners of my Undying Respect and Admiration are . . .

Congrats to Garden Lily and Susan for correctly identifying the mystery plant as an Amaryllis! I'd tell you the variety, but since it looks nothing like what was on the package, there is no telling.
Whatever. I'm just happy to have something blooming in the garden!

Mystery Plant

Alright - Here is a little fun for you guys today. What is the name of the plant above? The winner gets my undying respect and admiration.

Daylily

I've been busy lately, but I had to show you the Daylilies. They are quite literally the garden variety, but I'm just so excited to have an actual flower in the garden right now.

The eggs (and the table, and the sink . . . ) are now dyed and super-glittered. Happy Easter!!

Just Because It's a Native . . .

The post was already written. It was titled: "Just Because it's a Native, Doesn't Mean You Can't Kill It" Catchy, huh? It would have been about my beloved Pinxter Azalea. The Pinxter is beloved first because of the name. I seriously considered changing the name of this blog to the Pinxter blog. Don't really know why. Just really like it. Secondly, I loved the unique look of flower. It is a native in this part of Florida that I bought in Dunnellon last year. It looks so different than the run-of-the-mill variety that are so ubiquitous around here. The plant is a big, wild and unruly bush. The stamens on the flowers extend way past the petals making them look a little alien. It was so different it was almost, ironically enough, exotic looking.

The native part was a huge attractor for me. I know I'm supposed to like natives because they don't disrupt the local habitat and all that blah, blah, blah. Really, when I see the word native on a plant, the phrase Hard to Kill almost instantly replaces it. I mean if this plant can supposedly grow out on its own in the wild, with zero human intervention, that should mean it will do just peachy in my garden, with just slightly more attention, right? I thought that until about October. My poor Pinxter started to loose its leaves, way before any frost hit. By the time the frosts did hit, the bush was looking decidedly dead-stick-like. It was in good company. Many of the other plants had seen better days too. But when they started to come back to life, the Pinxter kept up the impression. So I started writing the post about paying attention to even the natives and mentally started figure out what I'd plant in that spot next.

Fortunately, I procrastinate. Er, I mean I am patient. A few days ago I stepped out in to the garden ready to take out the Dead Stick Bush, and look what I found!
A not so dead Pinxter! I will not be charged with criminal plant neglect after all! At least not yet.

My Newbie List

My co-worker asked me a simple question today: “I have a small bed in my front yard and I want some pretty plants. What should I plant? Those pink flowers (snapdragons) out back of the office are really pretty . . . “ I think I scared the woman with my exuberance. “Nooo!!! That is a winter annual! It will totally die in a few months, no matter what you do!” As I rattled off some names of this and that to get and this and that to avoid, her eyes got wider and wider. She was never going to remember any of it. “Never mind,” I told her, “I’ll email you a list.”

All the way home I thought about it, because this is a question a Garden Geek like me lives for. This woman is not a gardener. She isn’t going to read up on a plant or seek out info online. She just wants to have a small garden bed look good with as little money and work as possible. So here are my criteria for a Newbie Plant List for Central Florida:

1. Simple basic plants that you can find anywhere. Go into any big box store, ask any random clerk where this plant is located, and chances are they’ll be able to find it for you. They also have to be cheap, with bonus points if they reproduce easily. (Sorry Gunnera)

2. They can stand the extreme heat Florida often has. They can take a drought, a flood, and a drought again without a lot of babying. They will look good most of the summer with minimal work. Bonus points if they can take a frost too. (Impatiens - that means you’re out)

3. They have to have pretty flowers. There plenty of really attractive grasses and shrubs out there, but for the newbie, they are kind of boring. I will make the exception for plants with leaves so colorful, they might as well be flowers. (Mondo grass - you’re great but dull as dishwater.)

So here’s my Newbie list:

African Iris: This plant has grass-like leaves with white flowers. It has done very well during the freezes and can take both droughts and floods well. Blooms year round. Clumps will get larger over the years and you can divide them for more plants.

Daylilies: This plant did well with the recent frosts, and I’m very excited to stock up on them this year. They are grass-like, with flowers that range in color from white to deep purple, although yellow, red and orange are most common. Blooms from mid-April to mid-June.

Pentas: Butterfly and hummingbird magnets. Look nice all summer. Might die back during frosts, but during relatively mild winters (like ones with no snow,) they will come back for another year. They bloom all year and come in white, pink, hot pink and purple.

Coleus: This plant is grown for its very colorful leaves. They come in kinds of colors, deep purple, red, lime green and my favorite, hot pink. Very easy to grow from cuttings. They will die in the winter.

Vinca: Downside: These are true summer annuals that only good from April to about October and tend to fade if we get too much rain. They will die in the winter. Upside: They do well in a drought. They multiply like rabbits from cuttings and seeds. One sturdy plant can fill a garden bed by the end of a season.

Persian Shield: No flowers, but purple and silver leaves I really love. Propagates well from cuttings. It will die to the ground, but in snow-less winters it will come back. Jury is still out if mine made it through the winter, but if it didn’t, I will be buying more.

Salvia: This plant comes a wide variety of colors and types. They come in colors ranging from purple to blue to red and pink. Mine come back year after year from seeds.

Avoid winter annuals: Snapdragons, Petunias and Pansies. Plant them in October.

There is my highly subjective, totally incomplete Newbie list. What should I add?

This Gnome is provided for your viewing pleasure.