Tersa Sphinx Hummingbird Moth

Pentas

I've been enjoying my pentas this year.  Massive butterfly attractors, these plants grew back wonderfully from the plants I put in last year.  They also do well from cuttings.  Penta cuttings seem to be sensitive to humidity and do not like to dry out.   I added several to my propagation station, a large clear plastic tub that creates a high humidity environment for my new cuttings.  Yesterday, when checking on these plants, I found this:

Ackk!!

It did not go into the tub this way.  There were plenty of leaves when I cut it.  I've seen this sort of thing before.  After checking the rest of tub for the culprit, I felt it before I saw it:

Tersa Sphinx Hummingbird Moth

There he is!  I did some research this year and found out it is a Tersa Sphinx Hummingbird Moth caterpillar, also known as a hornworm.  Here are some good sites for more info: Hornworm and Hummingbird Moths.  While this little guy is no longer with us, they are pretty harmless, excluding their taste for penta salad.  I'll have to keep an eye on the rest of the pentas to make sure there aren't any others hiding out.

Finally!

Finally!  A good solid rain!  My plants will be happy and I have freshly manicured nails.  Whoo-hoo!

No Rain

All I can say is that my life is pretty plain
I like watchin' the puddles gather rain
And all I can do is just pour some tea for two
and speak my point of view, but it's not sane, It's not sane.

That song always seems to play in my head at this time of year.  (Ok, all year.  I was a huge Blind Melon fan back in the day . . .)  While the rest of the country has more weather than they can handle, central Florida has been execessively dry.   We have distinct rainy seasons, the most significant lasting from the end of May to the end of September.  During that time we have daily rain showers and you can set your clock by their 4:30pm arrival.  Usually it takes a big storm to kick-start the cycle, but so far that storm hasn't come.  So it is very dry right now.  Due to wildfires over the weekend, there is a burn ban.  Fireside chats with the hubs will have to wait.  Worse for wear are my wilting plants.  They look so sad and miserable.  We have irrigation, but it is manual, and we try to only turn it on when it is desperately needed.  It was installed by the previous owners and mainly gets the grass, so some of the corners are still parched.  Today I dragged the bucket out and hand watered many of the plants.  A few needed more intensive care:

These vinca were totally shriveled up this morning when I first put them in the sink for water.  After a little time in the ICU, they perked back up. They'd only been left outside for a day and a half!  There is rain in the forecast for tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that there will be lots of rain and minimal lightening!

**The rainy season in Florida also brings the start of the hurricane season.  Every year I hear "Why would people live in hurricane prone areas?? It is so scary!"  At least with hurricanes you've got a few days notice.  I can't begin to image what folks in Alabama and the mid-west have had to deal with from recent tornadoes.  That seems like such a nightmare that you can't plan for and my heart goes out to them.

I'm Totally Crushin' on This Guy

Daron "Farmer D" Joffe

Who knew organic farming could be so sexy?  Sure it is important for the earth and our health, blah, blah blah.  I'm watching the video above for the man-candy.  You can fan him on Facebook, follow on Twitter here or here, visit his website and blog, or you can be like me and just stalk him. 

Best Cat Ever!

Look who is trying to get on Mama's good side!

While I don't advocate harming of animals in any way, I must say that I get a little bit of joy when my own Killer Kitty sees it fit to take care of the problem. She was quite proud of her catch. She kept trying to bring it inside, presumably to skin it and roast it with carrots and potatoes. That's only proper. If you want to know why I dislike squirrels so much, exhibit #1 is here, and exhibit #2 is here.

I'm Back!

Okay. So I wasn't gone for a months as this blog might suggest. Life just got in the way, as it tends to do in Florida during the mid-summer with its blazing heat and mosquitoes that I'm pretty sure are really tiny little aliens sent to destroy us.

Chicago was fantastic! The weather was great. Supposedly there was a heat wave, but the constant breeze meant us Floridians didn't feel it. I was really looking forward to the trip as I've heard from most of you that it is a great garden town. Unfortunately, my daughter came down with a fever halfway through the trip and some things, mostly garden related, had to be cut out of the schedule. I did sneak some shots here are some:

Laurie Park.

Unfortunately I missed the park's prime by about two weeks, but it was still beautiful.

A great little park near the Chicago Art Institute.

Love these color combos.

One of the neatest parts of Chicago is how they use plants in unexpected places.
I really thought these plants on an overpass were really great.

Going to Chicago!!

So this summer our family is taking a vacation to Chicago! We are very excited and are planning all the silly tourist traps we must see. My hubby wants the vacation to be decidedly garden free, so I might get one or two gardens in, tops. Laurie Garden seems to be on the short list, but is there anything else I must see? All suggestions are welcome!

The Best Thing You Can Put In Your Garden

Somewhere along the way I once read "The best thing you can put in your garden is you." Any good gardener knows the biggest part of gardening is being in the garden. Picking weeds, looking for bugs, dead-heading, whatever. Fortunately, I've put a lot of me in the garden in the last few weeks. I've got a ton summer cuttings started in the front yard, the butterfly and shed gardens are picking up and I planted a little itty-bitty veggie garden in the corner garden where I finally gave up on some of my gingers growing this year. This concept applies with a blog, too. I haven't put too much of myself here lately. Who wants to be stuck behind computer when there is a garden to garden? I did take pictures in the last few weeks of some of the best blooms. Hope this will hold you over until I get some legitimate update posts done. Enjoy!

I think this daylily was called 'purple grape'. I call it yummy!

African Iris

African Iris

Daylily - 'Clara'

One of the reasons I LOVE coleus is its diversity. On the right is one from the Aurora series. There was no name in the nursery for the one on the left, so it is now know by me as 'Big-honkin' Coleus.

Crinum Scabrum

Crinum Scabrum

Red Canna

Yellow Walking Iris

Hidden Ginger

'Black and Blue' Salvia and 'Happy Returns' Daylily

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.

IT SNOWED!!!!

Hell has offically frozen over.

Updates

I know it has been a while since I posted the corner garden, but it is coming along nicely!

Didn't the pathways turn out good?

Love the Angel's Trumpet!

And lots of new visitors!

Alright. I'm not fooling any of you. These are pictures from the Butterfly Rainforest at the Florida Museum of Natural History. A girl can dream, can't she? If you live near Gainesville it is worth a visit. It may be the only good reason to visit G-ville (stupid Gators.)

Last weekend, I hit up the Master Gardener's fall sale. In past years I have been less than impressed with fall sale. Pretty much the same ol' stuff. This year I got there much earlier, and I don't know if it was the earlier time or just a better show, but I could have bought the whole place. The above haul was for my yard: 6 red cannas, a pagoda plant, a terribly awesome curly-leafed coleus with burgundy spots (I already have cuttings rooting) and the plant on the chair, which is something random my daughter pick out. I still don't know were I'll put them all.

For my mother's yard, I got a fantastic variegated spiral ginger, a peach ginger (Disney??) and two red firespikes.

Now for some ginger blooms from my garden.

Well, it is a big mish-mash of stuff for this post. Hopefully I'll have some real garden updates next week!

Gardening for Dummies

Ok. So I have million reasons why I have not posted in a while, but they are all terribly boring, so I just recap some of the gardening stuff I've been doing. Last week, I took a course called Gardening for Dummies at the Extension Office. Now I've been around the gardening block a time or two, and this course was really designed for total newbies, but I got a chance to hang out with other gardeners and even learned a thing or two. Much of this info pertains specifically to FL gardeners, but some of these facts are might be useful even if you aren't one. Here are some of the highlights:

• I am in zone 8b. It seems every map I reference says something different. Some say 8, some say 9. There is a road that bisects the county (SR 40) and anything above is 8b and anything below is 9a. I am north, so I am once and for all 8b.
• There is a website called floridayards.org that has a great plant database. Pick your area of the state, the specific conditions of your site, and it recommends some suitable plants. Kinda cool.
• Echinacea is a FL native. Need to get some.
• Rain water has nitrogen and there for is healthier for plants
• Put a few drops of veggie oil in rain barrels to keep mosquitoes from breeding
• Don't use "Weed and Feed" products in Florida for your yard. Weed preventive should be done in January, while the best time to feed is March. Cheaper and smarter to do them separately.
• Iron supplement will green up grass quickly and runoff doesn't cause the problems fertilizer does. You can add it every week if you want and it won't make the grass grow faster, so less watering.
• "Volcano Mulching": Mounding mulch around the base of a plant in the shape of a volcano. Can cause the plant to change its root structure and cause rot. Don't do it.
• There is a caterpillar that feeds on the candlestick cassia plant. If it eats the yellow flowers, it turns yellow. If it eats the leaves, it is green. If it eats both, the caterpillar has yellow and green stripes.
• Nutrient Deficiencies (This was info I always wanted to know)
  If it is deficient in:
  Nitrogen: Older leaves will yellow uniformly
  Potassium: Brown spots on older leaves
  Magnesium: Yellowing of old leaves in "V" shape
  Iron: green veins, yellow in between veins of new leaves
  Manganese: yellowing in between the veins of new leaves
• Nutrient Properties:
  Nitrogen promotes color and growth
  Phosphorous promotes flowers
  Potassium helps with water uptake, stress tolerance
  Calcium helps develop cell structure
• Plant Amaryllis and Crinum with the crown of bulb exposed.
• Most bromeliads produce pups that can be divided.
• Publix will give away free pineapple tops, if you want to make your own plant
• Less than 1% of incests in your yard are harmful
• There have been little to no reports of Brown Recluse spiders in Florida (Since this is the only spider that really scares me, this was good news.)
• Stink bugs with pointy shoulders = good. Stink bugs with rounded shoulders = bad.
• Scarlett Hibiscus is a native - gotta get some.
• Plumbago blossoms are sticky and 6 year old girls can stick them to their earlobes and pretend they are earrings.
• Karst = Porous rock our county is built on and drains water into the Aquifer. Excessive amounts of fertilizer will flow through the karst and into our drinking water.
• Liatris are pretty and I need some.

Most of you probably already knew this stuff, but this website is equal parts my personal garden journal as much as a public site. I will promptly loose the notebook I wrote these notes in, so now I have it for good. Hope you can take something useful from it.

My Kind of Pest Control

I'm totally fascinated watching this guy in the garden.

Once Bitten . . .

I was just outside for 10 minutes. Now I count 18 bug bites, and one more the size of a quarter on my forehead.

A Letter

I just wrote this to a local nursery that has gotten too big for its britches - locals will probably know exactly which one. I don't do this sort of thing often, but I know we read these at my work, so maybe it will do some good.

Hello -

I'm writing about an experience I had last Sunday. I went in looking for Bt, a common organically approved pesticide. I was the only one in the store, and went to find an associate who was insisting you did not have it. She walked over to the pesticides, said "Nope, nothing like that here" and tried to give me some harsher chemical options. As soon as she left I found it under Bacillus thuringienisis. I'm writing this because this is the second or third time I walked into this store asking about organic products and have been looked at like have 3 heads. This is becoming a big issue for gardeners, and working with associates who are very informed and can even recommend organic products and native plants would make many of us devoted customers. Since this store has the reputation of being a local place with all the warmth and selection of a big box store, I think developing this niche would be beneficial in the current economic climate. Hope this helps - I don't like being the only one in the store!

BTW: Bt worked beautifully on the leaf-rollers.

I've Been on Vacation.

I've been hanging out on the Gulf of Mexico, enjoying fireworks by the beach.

Hope to be hanging out in the garden tomorrow.

OMG!!!! I NEED THIS!!

Has anyone used this product? I NEED it!!! (They even have a blog!)

Lizard Porn!!!!!

You know you love it.

Rain

We've had sustained drizzling rain for 24 hours now. Thank god! My garden is already starting to perk back up. Now if the squirrels will just preoccupy themselves with someone else's garden for a while, I might perk back up as well.