It looks great, Fred!!

Beautiful. I would like to get about 5 acres when I retire some day and leave it pretty much in a natural state and add native blooming plants around to enhance it.

Fred
your gardens are great here in central fl i cant keep things the always freeze the only thing i can do is container garden. trying to hold down blankets in the wind is hard. that epi most call Lady of the night. they only bloom at night and one night and the smell is SOO good and strong its known if someone in your area has one you can smell it from 2 blocks away. and I miss mine i just got a cutting from my sister but it only blooms on Old wood? i think 2 yo wood.

mike

(aka) chefmike

Mike, let's hope for a mild winter. The last two years were crazy cold and killed a lot of my plants too but others came back from the ground up. It's all very discouraging though when it happens. Problem is we do not live in a tropical zone but keep pushing the envelope against nature's wishes.
Fred

Mike, I found the key is to use alot of native plants that come back from freeze like durantas, firebush, etc and mix in some of the more tropicals you like, You can even leave the tropicals in pots to bring it if you want. This way you won't be starting completely from scratch each years. The firebush will die back in a hard freeze but you trim it back in February and by June it's easily 10 ft tall again. I have a Christmas cassia that blooms all fall and never drops a leaf in the freeze. You will never be able to have a high percentage of tropicals even here in Florida as Fred can attest to. Even as far south as he is, the freezes have devastated many of his plants and palms. I am going more and more native plantings each year and have gotten a few of my nieces & nephews that have bought their first homes this years to do the same and have supplied them all with starter plants. I have had people in the neighborhood stop on their walks and ask why I have so many butterflies and bees and they never get any. Fortunately, I always have extras plants so I send them home with a couple to get started. I enjoy being able to drive by houses in my neighbor and see my plants growing elsewhere.

I agree with Jan, although it's taken me quite some time to learn what works. Natives definitely are the way to go. No, I am not in SW Florida, and it gets a lot colder here than there, but I do have very difficult growing conditions that must be adapted to.

Jan, "Firebush" got me on your comments. I have three, no, four (with the new sprout) and they freeze back every year and come back in the spring and by now are in full bloom. They don't get 10 feet tall here, but I will settle for 6 feet tall.

You can get a lot of satisfaction with perennials that die back every winter. Coneflowers, rudbeckias, blanket flowers, salvias, and even let that goldenrod grow. But if you stay away from the hybrids of these plants, they are more likely to survive and thrive.

Molly

Actually I went out at looked at mine and they go to the roof line of the house which is about 8 ft so 10 ft was a bit over estimated. LOL
They always seem so tall when you have to trim them back.

Where'd everyone go?

still here but FB seems to be more active for just about everything.

But there are different people here

where? It seems to me that the day of the static webpages are a thing of the past. You can't tell me that there are only a handful of gardners in SW Florida who use a computer. So the question is where are they?

Fred,
Like any business, if you don't put the word out there, they won't find it unless they stumble on it.
Look at how many "gardening sites" there are out there. You can spend all day surfing them and never come back to the same one unless you strike a repore with one. There needs to be something to keep people coming back and if everyone just sits back and doesn't participate, why would someone want to come back?

I am here, just don't do much posting. Everything is dead or dormant!!!

Fred said: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)

@Fred

How did the Red Star Cordyline do? I just bought one. Tag says z 8. The nursery had it with all the yuccas. After researching a little I wonder if I made a mistake. I'm in central Texas, dry white caliche soil, brutal sun and triple digits in summer. Yuccas do very well here...

Hi everyone, just joined today. The plants I have are growing like weeds. I do miss the annuals I use to get in Southern California though.

@Iluvtobake This is a pretty dated thread, I'm not sure Fred is even around anymore? I do have a Red Star cordyline though, I'm zone 9b and I find it does best with filtered sun, it doesn't take to well to cold temps either, but it comes back. I've lost some I had in full sun here.

Lizzardo said:Hi everyone, just joined today. The plants I have are growing like weeds. I do miss the annuals I use to get in Southern California though.

As a S. Calif transplant to Central FL, You're gonna find gardening here much easier. Certainly different plants than Calif. dry climate, but free water from the sky...LOL. You have some nice hardy FL plants there...enjoy your new garden.

@sunkissed

Thank you. That helps a lot. I know exactly where to put it. Then I'll just wait and see what happens after that.

I'm debating if I should stick it in the front yard for a few days to see if the deer eat it. If they grazed it down to the crown, would it come back ok? After I move it back into the fenced backyard, of course. Sounds like it would, since it can bounce back from a freeze. It's only a foot tall at present - no trunk yet.

Iluvtobake said:@sunkissed

Thank you. That helps a lot. I know exactly where to put it. Then I'll just wait and see what happens after that.

I'm debating if I should stick it in the front yard for a few days to see if the deer eat it. If they grazed it down to the crown, would it come back ok? After I move it back into the fenced backyard, of course. Sounds like it would, since it can bounce back from a freeze. It's only a foot tall at present - no trunk yet.

Not sure about deer, however I do cut them back even if they don't freeze since they can get leggy and they come back, usually more than one plant.

That is a good idea Sherri, when they get tall they can be most unattractive.