Those anoles are shameless, they don't care where they are or who sees them

I just looked up liatris, and that's going to be so pretty when it blooms! Where do you get your native plants like that? I don't have a native nursery close to me, so either I drive at least an hour or I have to mail order.

Good news - we finally got some rain yesterday! It's been raining all around us for the past week, but we've missed it everytime. Yesterday it poured, lots of thunder and lightning too just to keep things interesting. My plants are smiling today.

Believe it or not, I bought the Liatris at Lowe's. You know how they have the box display full of bulbs? There's usually Caladiums, Dahlias, Lilies. Well, they generally carry Liatris, too! I've never seen them sold as plants, just the bulbs. But they've been easy enough to grow so I would save money and buy the bulbs.

I just made my hotel reservations for the 2016 Florida Wildflower Foundation Symposium in Silver Springs, FL! I also added it to the event calendar: http://garden.org/apps/events/...

Come meet me and my mom! Also, if you have the Florida wildflower license tag (as I do) then you're already a member of the FWF! I've never been to Silver Springs and I'm super excited! More info coming soon here: http://flawildflowers.org/even...

@mellelong Sorry we won't be in Florida for this event.

Jean, I'll have enough fun for everyone! And I'll share all my fabulous pictures here on NGA, of course!

Im still not used to NGA....for some reason national golf association always pops in my head, and I dont even play golf.

I grew up in Ocala, silver springs was our swimming pool. The had a big sandy beach, three pontoon docks marking the roped in area, steps to get down in the spring, and it was heaven. It cost a quarter to get in, and they gave you a colored string to put on your wrist. We never liked to cut them off, the more strings, the cooler you were. Different color for different days. It was then just a big park, beautiful grounds on the spring, a great place. free.( Just like Busch Gardens, when it was a free garden) They had the glass bottom boats, a little strip of shops with candy makers, a little deer feeding area, and thats it. It was disney world to us!!!
My Dad owned a laundry/dry cleaner/rental uniform business, when in college, he got a contract to do whatever for a movie they were filming at silver springs. Ill never forget the day he took me out there to watch some filming. I dont know if I was more in awe of being able to see parts of the springs I had never seen after all the years I went there, or watching Rock Hudson wrestle the alligator for the movie.

Pam, that's so cool! What great memories you have! I collect glass and I have a souvenir glass from Silver Springs made by Hazel Atlas, probably in the '50's. It has a picture of the glass bottom boat on it. I can't wait to see the real thing!

Seems like I always forget to look at the bulb racks. A couple months ago I bought a 10lb box of caladiums from Bill. I shared some with a friend. She came over to help plant mine in. I couldn't remember where we planted them all........but now I know since they have all come up and are everywhere. It was a mixed box so there are a large variety of colors and I really like that to help cover up the gray ground. Will post some pics when my notebook get done uploading 2 pics for posting.

Okay, caladium crazy.........

Oooh, Very nice Molly!

I know most folks love blooms, blooms, blooms but in my opinion (and I love flowers a lot too) Caladiums add so much texture and color to a garden, especially when mass planted, I don't miss blooms so much with all the pretty colors of caladiums!

plantladylin said:Oooh, Very nice Molly!

I know most folks love blooms, blooms, blooms but in my opinion (and I love flowers a lot too) Caladiums add so much texture and color to a garden, especially when mass planted, I don't miss blooms so much with all the pretty colors of caladiums!

I agree!!!! Gorgeous Molly!

Lovely, Molly. I agree with Lin. Colorful leaves are always welcome in my yard.

Wonderful Molly. I use Caladiums a lot in my shady border under the impression oaks. So pretty.

I went bird watching down in Bradenton and made a thread about it over on the BBB forum. Check it out here if you'd like (there's a few plant pictures, too): The thread "Melanie Goes Birdwatching on Bradenton Beach" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

I had snatched up some Liatris seeds a few years back, tried both scattering and in pots, wasn't successful with either. I see them blooming all over when hiking around FL in the late summer and early fall mostly. I posted some pictures of an October hike with lots of liatris, Wekiwa State Park.

Melli, wish I could attend the Florida Wildflower Foundation Symposium , would be nice to meet you. We are up in the Panhandle that week on vacation. It has been quite a few years since we've been to Silver Springs. Last time we camped at the Silver River State Park they said the State Park system was going to merge the campground and Silver Springs into one. I guess that has been done now. I love to kayak that river, so pristine, lots of gators.

We had to really prune our oak tree by getting on the roof yesterday, what a job in this extreme heat. looks a bit bare to me now. We are getting a new roof, not because we have leaking problems but because the Insurance company won't renew us unless we do, ours is over 20 years old now. Cha Ching a ling a ding!

I can assure every one though it will probably start raining everyday again as soon as they start on my roof...

Nice BBB post Mellie, great bird shots!

Thanks, Sherri! I love seeing the Tiger Swallowtails on the liatris. So pretty! And I can't wait to go to Silver Springs. Should be lots of fun.

Sherri,

Those liatris grow wild here on my property, as do the Florida Paint Brush. They all bloom in September. I haven't collected any seeds, but have tried to move some of them into my flower beds.....no success there, so I just let them grow where they will.

On the other hand, a few years ago I picked up a couple native rudbeckias that now think they own the place. I pull the multitude of extras and just throw them out in the areas of the property I am not caring for. They are all out there blooming now. It's wonderful! You can see one on the right of this picture. Very tall, some of the blooms are showing there.

The Tiger Swallowtails love that FL paintbrush. I did buy some native Rubeckia a few years ago, so far it keeps re-seeding in the same general area....love the bright yellow flowers. I have Indian blanket all around the garden, I have moved some out of the lawn into the flower beds with a 70% success rate. Last year I cut off the dried seed heads and spread them around on the sandy east side of our house where nothing grows and have a nice new patch of them this year. I'm glad my neighbor loves them and letting them grow on her side too.

Got about 9 different kinds of flowers at garden gate today. I needed to replenish milkweed, and they had an eye full of butterfly treats. I got some red lantana for me, I hope it does as well as other lantana. I just loved it. Some different yarrows ( that counts as one plant ;-) ). This is not a cheap undertaking, so Im trying to be smart as to where I put them.
Im picking seed heads like crazy, dont know what Im going to do with them, but Molly was the one who taught me never to let a good seed head go to waste, one day at a ginger nursery. Wow was that a lifetime ago or what Molly. Well for me it seems, lots of water passed under that bridge since then