At the request from a lady from Illinois, I'm pleased to start this general thread for us to share pictures and stories about our Florida gardens.

Please post lots of pictures, they each are worth a thousand words (of course).

White Bird of Paradise, Brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldi'


Begonia 'Don Miller', ground orchids Spathoglottis plicata


Huge hanging basket full of Begonia 'Odorata alba'. It has a lovely soft fragrance in the mornings.


A very tall agapanthus in a pot on my patio. Heliconia 'Lady Di' starting to bloom, but they need rain!


Blazing orange snapdragons have been going all winter, but are ready to give up. 'Easy Does It' rose.


Salvia 'Indigo Spires' is just taking off and spreading nicely. Great plant but needs grooming to stay nice looking.


Mandevilla 'Merlot' has very deep red flowers. I just couldn't get the light right to show it.


Clerodendron ugandense was started from a cutting last fall, and is already a nice little bush. Coral barleria is a pretty groundcover in partial shade.

I love your blooms Elaine, mine are not as many as yours! I love that Angels Trumpet, I have the pink one.

Tropicana Peach Rose:

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Red rose:


Carpet Rose:




Epidendrum




Marygolds:


Blood Lilies:






My plummies, Divine


Puu Kahea:

Thanks, Gigi. Your plumerias are lovely. I have only one, similar to your last picture, a gift from my daughter she brought as a cutting from Hawaii. I don't know it's name but the package said 'Peach'. It's just starting to open, so will post a pic in a few days. I had a big red one that died in the cold winters a few years ago. I failed to take a cutting to try to save it.

Thought I'd better post a couple of my Caladiums so hope Bill gets over here to see them. These first two came from him this spring, 'Gingerland' has delicate pink flowers coming. 'Scarlet O'Hara' is a cartoon plant! Third pic is a mix of Thai varieties, Green Pearl, and Black Thai. I think they are trying to cross, because Green Pearl every once in a while puts up a leaf that is half dark and half green/white. (see lower right of pic)


Creamy yellow African Iris, my favorite color. I have lots of gingers, a new one Hedychium 'Greenii' with red leaf reverses, and hopefully red flowers. None in bloom yet except the Alpinia variegata.

ok Here are some of mine

CUPHEA. TOMATO
BEANS UNKNOWN PLUMMIE
NATIVE
PORTERWEED CRINUM
JATROPHA MUSA ROHO
DWARF
POINCIANA
UNMENTIONABLE
TEXAS SAGE LITCHEE

MORE TO COME

Lovely, Jan. I see you have fruit on your Litchee this year, lucky one! Mine has not one single fruit. It was just coming into bloom at the beginning of March, and the flowers all blasted from cold. Hey, where'd you get the seeds for your native beans? Are those the ones with the square pods and pretty blue flowers? I had some like that one year, and they were so good!

I have tons of mango coming, though. That tree set fruit from the December bloom, and bloomed twice more, so we're hoping for a long season. The battle with the squirrels begins!!


Begonias liked the cool spring weather this year. First is 'Maurice Amy', next is 'Bubbles' and third one is 'Good 'n Plenty'.


A fun basil called 'Cardinal' with big flower heads. Black Gamecock iris are much darker purple than the picture shows. Colcasia 'Blue Hawaii'.

It's going to be hard to show what is in my yard that is NOT Plumeria but I'll try!

Oops - that is another one!

Quite a spectacular triple bloom Amaryllis that keeps coming back each year.

A lovely small Cactus with big blooms, and while we're on cacti: this bloomed last night and I caught the end of the bloom early this morning:

I also have lots of Adeniums. This one is a favorite 'Poseidon'.

I think I can show my favorite vine again: Tecomanthe

My little Tillandsia ball

Nothing edible anymore.... we had two mango trees when we bought this house but it turned out I am quite allergic.... so they're gone.

Eaine,
This is the first year I have gotten more than a few litchee to mature. I've had several years of great bloom but either a cold snap or strong storms have come through to wipe them out. Weather was perfect this year. The beans are just common bush beans like Kentucky Wonder than I started from seed.

I must have hacked Hetty's computer. LOL
Musa Namwah Musa Manzano
Unknown Musa
Same unknown as above bent over from weight.
Had to prop it up with the white pole
Dutchman's Pipevine bloom
Beggin to have his picture taken
y former backyard
nursery being dismantled
Gold Edged Duranta Brug

Some new exotic species in my backyard. LOL (Sorry, couldn't resist showing my feathered friends)

Your birds are in your Florida Garden, right? Lovely garden, pretty birdies and kitty. I'm glad to see someone has more pots than I do . . Had a pair of black-hooded parakeets visit my back yard a week or so ago. Hope they don't find their way back, I have my hands full protecting my mangoes from the squirrels.

Hetty, you can show us as many plumerias as you want. I'm shopping for one with more fragrance - the one I have is ok, but the scent is very faint and more like almond than frangipani. I forgot, I do have a variegated one with yellow flowers but it is a real wimp, struggling to survive, and has not bloomed since I got it.

Little dwarf Canna, only gets about 2ft. tall. Bigger blazing red, quiet white one. They look good in this dry weather, but I hide the pots away when it gets rainy and the flowers go to mush.


Another ginger with cool 'corduroy' leaves. Don't know its name as I got it on a trade, and haven't seen it bloom yet. More jazzy leaves on Begonia 'Looking Glass'. It looks sort of gray and dull until you see the leaves catch the light, and they are metallic sparkly silver!

All of your pictures are really great representation of Florida Gardening. Ellaine, your mangoes are yummy too. Many years ago, my favorite restaurant makes the best green mango shake. The cold snap blasted the fruits of my mango tree in pots. I love Begonias but I only have 2 small ones because I don't have shade. I'm full sun all around me.

Jan I love the bananas, I used to boil them or broil them when they are just starting to ripen but still firm and eat them with grilled chicken or steak (yum!). I have banana trees but they are still babies. I love your feathered friends!

Hetty my garden is looking more and more like yours. More plumerias although I still have some roses and other full sun annuals. I can't get over the beautiful bloom of Tecomanthe and the beautiful Tilansia ball! .

thanks everyone.

Gigi, are you planting trees? I couldn't garden without at least some shade on the south and west sides. Must admit, I'd like a little more sun around here. I grow veggies in Earth Boxes and a big raised bed in the back yard, and by this time of year, it's over for veggies because of the shade encroaching. I still have tomatoes coming, but they're nearly done.

We have an older house with gigantic oaks on all four sides plus a huge stand of tall bamboo on the north side that shades in summer, but protects in the winter when the sun slants in underneath it. The oaks do shade the house beautifully, and keep the garden cool but everywhere I dig there are oak tree roots. I keep a lot of my plants in pots and just sink them into the borders to protect them from the oak roots. It does limit the size of some shrubs like the YlangYlang and brugs, but that's generally not a bad thing here, where everything becomes gigantic so fast!


Here's my NOID plummie finally with a flower head all open. More pink suffuses into the yellow as the flowers age. (but you all know that, of course)


One of my favorites, Gloriosa lily puts on a little samba pah-ti every month or so through the summer. Love those flowers at every stage, and the little curly leaf tips that grasp, too.

Elaine I think you might have 'Penang Peach' a very compact growing plumeria variety. If the leaves have a distinct 'hook' under the tip it is that one for sure!

Ah, ha! Thank you so much, Hetty. It does indeed have hooked ends on most of the mature leaves. At 5 years old, I guess you could call it compact, too. It's about 6ft. tall and wide. A very nice size.

Here's a mystery though - the first two years I had it, it kept its leaves through the winter incl. the two very cold winters. But the last two, it dropped all leaves. (even though the weather was mild) Do you happen to know if this is supposed to be a deciduous variety? Or did the rusty fungus just get to the leaves? Btw, is there a prevention for that rusty fungus?

I have trees but in pots

Elaine,

That Gloriosa really earns its name. That is an absolutely stunning plant, and one I wasn't familiar with before now. Definitely adding that lily to my list of some-day plants.

Mike, that's one easy grower, too. Once you get it established it comes back year after year, and blooms up a storm. You do need a trellis or some sort of support for it.

I have some Lobster Claw Heliconias in bloom this week - such bizarre blooms. Hope my friends will ignore the ratty foliage, we're working on it.

Pretty Elaine!

Thanks for the info Elaine. I definitely need to give that lily a go. Sigh... Heliconia. For a short time, one of the Lowes I visit had Heliconia Collinsiana. Great big foliage, good height, white powdery undersides. I held off purchasing them and missed out. Shortly after, Lowes dropped Greendale Nursery as their tropical supplier, and I'm still waiting to see what changes for this year. Looking forward to seeing more tropicals for sale in the nurseries and the Tropical Plant sale as USF in July. Heliconia can be a bit on the expensive side, so I always held out on building a big H. bed. They're likely my next big pet plant project. Yours look fantastic. There's just no helping the ratty foliage, it seems.

Mike

Mike
Have you been to Wilcox native plant nursery in Largo? You should add some hardy natives to balance the tropicals if you haven't already.

In fact Jan, I have. I drive down Ulmerton to Indian Rocks Beach six days a week, and love stopping by Wilcox when I get the opportunity. I've probably spent 300 dollars on various plants there over the last year, purchasing Coffee plants, Silver buttonwood, Firebush, Beautyberry, Milkweed and tons more. They're all located in other non-tropical portions of my yard, front and back. I have another section of my yard (an old line of Gardenia) that are hosting whitefly, black mold, etc that need to be torn out soon. I plan on installing more natives, host plants, shrubs and 'leave 'em alone' types.