I think we need a thread for this particular area as it has it's own peculiarities.

Ok, let's get the ball started and show us your gardens. Here's three views from my front door.
View from the right


and straight ahead


and to the left

So where are the SWF folks?

Looking great Fred. Feel free to start a thread anytime.

As we all know the last winter did us no favors but slowly some things are coming alive again. My corkscrew seems to be alive but it looks woeful. Some crotons are struggling to come back while others are just fine. I guess it all depends on the variety. Note: one of my bottle palms is now sending up a spike and has survived. Old man palms are dead as a doornail.

Branch of a corkscrew palm


Croton are struggling back, others are fine


gingers are fine and grew all over again. I had cut them all down to the ground.


A Bottle palm is alive and sending out a stem


All my plumeria were frozen and whatever survived after cutting the mushy stuff off will not bloom this year. A few pudicas survived and are blooming.

Fred, not only variety but location will make a huge difference in cold damage. A plant three feet more to the right or the left of a dead one can have no damage at all. It can depend on wind, overhead protection etc. etc. I am glad to see some of the pudicas are at least gracing you with blooms. Let me know if you ever want more Plumeria!

So true Hetty.
I had a red plummie in the front yard that had nothing growing around it that turned to complete mush during the bad freeze a couple of years ago while the ones in the back yard that were sheltered somewhat by a 6ft fence and tall neighboring trees came through with nothing more than a couple brown leaves. Even the seed pods remained viable.

Your corkscrew may be woeful, Fred, but mine is in the mulch pile so I envy you. How I love that plant.

Jim

I just don't understand that you lost anything over there when so much tropical stuff is doing so nicely. I lost most of that stuff. At least I now see that you live in Odessa and not tampa as I tried to tell my GPS. For some reason I always thought you lived in Tampa.

I just finished a four mile power walk along the beach here in SC. It's a beautiful wide and hard shoreline lined with mansions of all kinds. You'd think that the economy is doing great when you see the wealth that surrounds us here. The funny thing is all these places just sit here - empty. What a waste!

How nice to have an area to talk about growing here. I am not sure though it is specific enough as Lehigh Acres is inland so it will be quite different from the coastal areas.

Hetty, can you take a cutting of the plumerias like you do the brugs in the fall? I take my brugs all the way level with the ground in the fall and stick the tops to grow out. The ones in the ground return in the spring and the tops also make huge new plants. Will plumies work that way?

I have two little plumies of unknown variety that slipped across the FL line with me from TX. They came from a trade and I don't remember who they came from and don't remember the names. They were small little pieces that I stuck in the ground when spring arrived and they are nice and healthy now, but no blooms this season.

Charlene

The plumeria can be trimmed and grown from cuttings quite easily, but the ideal time to do this is in the spring. They go dormant in the winter so there is no growth at that time.

I know the ideal time is spring but I have taken cuttings in late fall and overwintered them in the garage and started them in the spring without a problem. They even put out leaf growth before they have been rooted. LOL. After losing my favority Miami Rose one to the freeze a couple of years ago, I am going to continue to take backup cuttings in the fall just in case.

Yes, it can be done. Not ideal, though.

My gardenias are doing it a second time around and the Orange Jasmine blooms and blooms with that scintilating aroma one knows is there but needs to find its source.

My latest creation:



Flowerbed inventory (Planted 9/2/11)

Existing Plant:
'Cycas revolute' (King Sago Palm w/offspring)

Newly planted various:
Beaucarnea recurvata (triple Ponytail Palm) [1]
Cordyline australis 'Red Star'(Dracaena Spike 'Red Star') [2]
Liriope spicata 'Super Blue' (Monkey Grass) [8]
Hemerocallis 'Stella Supreme' (Stella Supreme Day Lily) [2]

Bromeliads:
Aechmea blanchetiana (2)
Aechmea blanchetiana variegated (1)
Aechmea gurkeniana (1)
Neoregelia Fireball 'Donger' (4)
Neoregelia compacta (1)
Neoregelia cruenta 'Stripes' (1)
Neoregelia cruenta 'Rubra'(1)
Neoregelia 'Goldilocks' (1)
Neoregelia marmorata variegated (1)
Neoregelia 'Bobbie Hull' (1)
Neoregelia olens x compacta (1)
Neoregelia 'Martin' (1)
Neoregelia 'Dexter's Pride' x concentrica (1)
Neoregelia (carolinae x concentrica) x Neo.'Big Mac' (1)
Neoregelia fosperior (1)
Neoregelia 'Irish Mist' (1)
Neoregelia laevis [BAB 235] (1)
Neoregelia 'Tequila' (1)

Very nice recordkeeping there, Fred. Oh, and great looking bed! That Ponytail will eventually outgrow the Sago.

Dutchlady1 said:Very nice recordkeeping there, Fred. Oh, and great looking bed! That Ponytail will eventually outgrow the Sago.

I'm not sure if the magic garden fairy and her little folk steal labels in your garden but this time around I chose to keep a record outside of the ground too. I'm actually documenting all of my broms but not their location just yet. This bed has both.

I got the triple Pony at HD for 10 bucks. It should look nice there eventually. My screw pine in the back seems to have finally given up after last winter's freeze. I'm going to take a picture. Marlies noticed from the hot tub that the branches were hanging limp.

Look good Fred,
How large is your property?

Jan, I have 7.5 acres here basically split into three parts. One wild, one cleared but quite natural and one landscaped section. Lots of work..

I took a short walk in the garden today in between the rains. I scattered some pics where the were appropriate in their forums under Tropicals. Here are some general views

First I noticed my bananas. One tree had broken from some storm but the bananas seem none the worse for it


I'm not sure what these epis are called or whether they already bloomed or do their thing at night or what but here they are


The pitcher plants are pitching and flowering


to one side of the pool


Many or most plants have fully recovered from the freeze last winter


Fountain grass just got a haircut. Various palms were grown from tiny seedlings and lastly one side of the driveway