Wicked Gardener

New Layout

2008-10-04T22:28:00.003-04:00

You might have noticed the new layout. I have to credit The Cutest Blog on the Block for the great instructions. Hope you like it. (I'll be adding the new header soon.)

Home Depot Sculptures

2008-10-04T11:28:00.003-04:00

If you haven't already been to Garden History Girl's blog, you should really hit it up; it is a garden nerd's paradise. She finds the most fascinating things there, like this post on an artist making sculptures in the middle of Home Depot. How cool!

Tonight's Blooms

2008-10-03T20:07:00.004-04:00

My 'Stargazer' lily bloomed this week. With the days shortening and me working longer hours, there hasn't been much sunlight to take pictures until lately.

This is the only one of the Nerine Guernsey lily that bloomed. Tomorrow I should have bloom, but nowhere near the size in the picture.

Second Spring Surprises

2008-09-28T17:49:00.010-04:00

Have you ever had an extremely gorgeous weekend that just begs you to spend time in the garden and you have to spend most of it doing errands, or worse, work? It is enough to make you cry a little. The weather has cooled dramatically in the last few days and is just wonderful. I had to stay inside and clean the house before my husband threatened to move out. The plants have really enjoined their second spring and gave me a few surprises.

This is plain ol' lantana, but I like this shot.

The butterflies have been plentiful this season, but it seems like only the dull ones stay on the flower long enough to for me to take a picture.

The purple pentas are perfect.

The elephant ears became HUGE over night.

The butterfly ginger are gearing up for round two - yeah!

And the most massive surprise of all, a completely jaw dropping one, was that a stargazer lily from last year decided it would bloom after all, sneaking up behind some salvia. It's almost October! I was so disappointed that last years bulbs didn't bloom. I suppose it was just trying to be fashionably late.

Camellias and Spiders

2008-09-22T19:23:00.004-04:00

I have camellias! I came home from work and from across the yard I could see the flowers blooming. I also have this little buddy:

The Nursery Nazi came over not too long ago. Since she studies garden bugs for a living, she took a look at my yard. Fortunately, she said "Looks good. You have lots of banana spiders, so its good." I'm guessing it is because it they eat so many garden pests. Since she came by, I've be a bit more tolerant of the spiders, my organic pesticide.

2008-09-14T18:36:00.005-04:00

I spent the weekend puttering around the garden and figured I do a few update photos. Above is the side of the shed.The front of the shed.

The mealy cup sage in the butterfly garden is starting to form buds.

Dwarf Mexican Petunia Cuttings

2008-09-13T14:03:00.008-04:00

This week, I bought a Dwarf Mexican Petunia (Ruellia brittoniana )and took cuttings of the dense plant today. Regular ruellia roots like crazy - put some cuttings in a bucket and a week later you'll have thriving plants with masses of tangled roots. These plants, which typically get to about 3 to 5 feet tall, have about an inch between leaf nodes. Root buds come out from in between these nodes. As you see below, the nodes on the dwarf are much closer together. I like this plant, and I am hoping to get a lot of babies from it, but I'm not sure how it will take to rooting. Here is what I did, and what I do for almost all of my soft root cuttings:

I took several 5 inch cuttings and stripped the leaves off the bottom. I also took off flowers and flower buds to encourage the plant to focus energy in to roots.

The soil I use is a typical seed starting soil mix with perlite, peat moss and sphagnum moss. Regular potting mix, while I have certainly used it, can be too dense. Stay away from anything with fertilizers already mixed in. Some people use sand, and I might start because I happen to have a extra bag of sand, and I'd like to extend the life of my mix.

Next is a key part of most of my cuttings. While plants like coleus and sweet potato vine don't need it, more difficult to root plants must have root hormone. Basically it is a powder that encourages root growth in the cutting. You can find it wherever you find garden soil. Just dip in the some water, dip in the powder and . . .

Stick it in the soil. Pretty simple really. I know, this is all ol' hat for seasoned gardeners, but hopefully there is a newbie out there who could use a pointer or two. Besides, I always like learning what other gardeners are doing, so I hope this is useful.

Finally, I put the cuttings in a "high-humidity environment." In my case it is my propagation station, or big clear plastic tub with a lid. You can also cover it with a plastic bag or cover it with empty soda bottle, but I have found this to be the easiest. I used to skip step this in the past, but I tried it this year and I have to say that it dramatically improved my success rate. Usually I'll keep the plant in here anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks. Then they go on the table above, which is in a shady spot on the north side of the house for about a week. Finally, they typically spend a week in their future home before actually being planted there. Watch your plants and check on them every few days. Some really don't like the propagation station. In my case, the vinca didn't preform well in it. Others preform beautifully and I when I take them out they wilt after an hour. They are just not ready yet. The Ruellia are in here, as well as some pentas (another experiment), some Angle Trumpet seedlings and oleander cuttings.

Anyway, here is what do. How do you like to propagate plants?

Weekend Weeding

2008-09-07T19:59:00.012-04:00

Spent the weekend weeding out the butterfly garden with my daughter. This is "her" garden and she is very protective of it. Here is the before:And the after:

The garden is looking pretty lately, waking up a bit from the intense summer heat. Above are Mexican petunia blooms.

Some pink salvia in the back of the garden.
I planted a bunch of pentas in the butterfly garden. They were cheap ($.50 for a 4-inch pot) and somewhere I heard they were decent cool weather plants. The cashier said they were "hummer magnets." Yeah, yeah. I've lived in Florida for 20 years, and I've never seen a hummingbird. I've heard that they are around, but I've also heard that big foot is around these parts if you spend time in the forest. Well, damn if I didn't plant these the other night and yesterday evening we saw a hummingbird. It was small, about the size of my thumb and looked a lot like a large bug, but it was a hummingbird. Makes me think I've seen them before but didn't know what they were. I went out this morning and bought more pentas for the front garden. Now I'll be like the little old ladies with all the tacky bright red plastic hummingbird feeders, perched by the window just waiting. . .

Waterfall

2008-08-31T09:49:00.001-04:00

I want this waterfall!!

Why I am so excited for my girl to start school . . .

2008-08-24T09:51:00.003-04:00

This is the school she is going to. They have their own organic garden!!!

Word of the Day: Soggy

2008-08-23T09:22:00.011-04:00

Well Fay left us a soggy mess. The storm was not intense, but the wind and rain stuck around for a while, over 24 hours, and we still may see some outer bands of rain later this morning. Fortunately we are not seeing the flooding that some parts of Florida are and we haven't lost any trees like our neighbors have. I thought I'd stroll around the yard and show you what did happen:

The major thing was this branch falling in the corner garden. The branch was dead and hanging ominously over the garden. We cut down as much of it as we could, and since we couldn't afford a professional to trim it up, we hoped that when it did eventually fall that it wouldn't take out the fence or the palms. Fortunately, this is what happened. It did squish my gingers, but they will bounce back with no problems.

This picture of the pool shows how truly concerned we were about this storm. We forgot to take the umbrella down, and it is no worse for the ware.

My oleander in the front garden is strange . . . it didn't really fall over, more like it is bent over. Not sure how to fix it. Maybe prune it back so it is not so top heavy.

My lantana tree fell over, which is not a surprise because it falls periodically even without a storm. Before Fay it was on the agenda to spend some serious time weeding this garden and that certainly hasn't changed. This is the only real damage. I think the branch broke some slats in the fence. No big deal, but I'm sure the neighbors will leave it there for another three weeks. Do you like their paint job? A few months ago they painted as far up as they could reach and then left like that. Attractive, huh?

I might have spoken too soon . . .

2008-08-20T19:45:00.006-04:00

Fay's coming right at us!!! And the party is deferred, because after two false-alarm, sunny-as-could-be hurricane days I'm definitely having to go to work. Actually none of it would be a big deal if my daughter's first day of school wasn't canceled again, and I didn't have to shuffle her around between parents and grandparents. She's mopping pathetically around the house saying "I want to go to Kindergarten!"

I can't wait until this is a gardening blog again.

Ocala Wore its Hurricane Repellent Today

2008-08-19T13:15:00.008-04:00

Overnight, Fay went from the west coast to the east and is headed back north, completely going around us. After school closings, changing work arrangements, buying emergency supplies (matches, batteries, beer, etc.) it turns out, we have pretty sunny skies right now. Ocala wore its hurricane repellent. A bit of a bummer too. Here's a secret every Floridian knows, but you almost never hear about. Hurricanes can be a bit of fun. Our version of a snow day. Now, by all means, you need to take all necessary precautions and always leave if the authorites recommend it. But once you are hunkered in, off from work, house full of non-perishable snack food, and no electric, what are you going to do but have a party? It also makes a bit of sense. When you have bunch people you can pool your supplies and take care of your friends who's living conditions may not be so favorable (aka mobile homes). In the '04 storms, we hung out in our garages and barbequed with neighbors - kegs going up and down the street from one house to another. But the real parties where in college. In Tallahassee, which was more prone to flooding and had actual hills, one hurricane party featured drunken party goers riding plastic garbage cans down the flooded street. Ahhhh, those were the days. Anyway, if you have suffered from hurricane damage, I don't mean to make light of it. I just wanted to post the other side of hurricanes you don't often hear about. Do you want to plan your own party? Check this out. (Really, a gas powered blender. How genius is that?)

Rainy Day Treasures

2008-08-17T17:01:00.005-04:00

Today was rainy, as the will be the rest of the week. The plants are drinking it up, especially the weeds. Isn't the bird of paradise just huge? I'm hoping it will get to a blooming size soon.

My daughter spent the weekend with my parents and of course she came home with presents. This bromeliad in a coconut shell is very neat. You can see how the "flower" is really a modified leaf as one of the leaves is actually turning red. I have no idea how to take care of these guys, so any advice is welcome. Julie, did you hear that?

Isn't this cactus cute? It looks like a scoop of ice cream. My little one has been pretending to lick it all afternoon.

Will a Hurricane Come? Fay May.

2008-08-17T15:40:00.006-04:00

Looks like it will be an interesting week. By the time it reaches us, it will be a tropical storm. We still have to be concerned about the power being out, tree limbs falling and potential tornadoes. Fortunate I don't live on the coast so the storms are not as severe for us. The major bummer is you can see that the storm will be over us on Wednesday at 8:00 am, the exact time my daughter was supposed to start her first day of kindergarten. It is unlikely that it will be open because even if the storm is not severe, they often close schools to serve as shelters for evacuees. If in the watch area please take care.

Good post on big leaf tropicals

2008-08-14T22:34:00.001-04:00

This is mainly for my benefit. If I don't link this post I'll never find it again.

http://www.gardeninggonewild.com/?p=1475#comment-4337

Wicked Bad Gardener??

2008-08-14T20:10:00.022-04:00

So, you ask, "What does a garden look like when its owner has totally ignored it for some lousy Olympics?" Well my friends, I'll show you:

There are weeds.

And there are more weeds.

The slugs are monsterous.

The spiders think they own the place. (The mosquitoes however know they own it.)

It's not all bad. Some coleus sprouted that I had forgotten about. And the other coleus are doing beautifully - with no help from me.

I'm Blaming Michael Phelps

2008-08-12T19:21:00.004-04:00

It is all Michael Phelps fault that I was not the garden this weekend. I blame the Olympics for being far more interesting than my weed and mosquito infested garden. Every time I thought about going outside, I looked out the window at the pathetic garden area then over to the sofa and the air-conditioned living room. Guess what won out? Oh well, I think both me and the garden needed a rest. I am still around and will try to catch up on all of your blogs, (what else would I do during the commercials?) so if you stumble on my blog, come and say hello!

Go USA!! (. . . and for my Canadian friends, Go Cana . . . yeah, well, don't worry. The Winter Olympics are just around the corner.)

I've Been Blobbed.

2008-08-06T20:00:00.003-04:00

Check out this picture that Mr. Subjunctive from Plants are the Strangest People. He used a site called Dreamlines to make pictures out of some garden blogs. He put the term Wicked Gardener in to it and out popped the above picture. It seems to do a search for pics on the term and then layers and scribbles on them in really neat ways. Cool huh? Looks a bit like a blurry Chagall. The green devil is neat - I mean, "Hello?" Green Devil. Why wasn't that my logo??? Oh well. Thanks Mr. S for the new toy and for thinking about me.

In the Garden This Evening

2008-07-29T19:55:00.009-04:00

I am madly in love with the gingers right now. I want a bazillion more. In all the colors I can get my hands on. They are blooming early, and almost all of the plants have several small shoots. I'm wondering if I cut back some of the spent shoots I can coax another set of blooms.

The corner garden is thriving in all the rain.

This vinca isn't thriving. I've noticed in some of my patches of vinca one plant will suddenly wither and die. Does anyone know why this is happening?

Meet Mr. Nestor White

2008-07-27T18:07:00.012-04:00

Normally, eBay purchases are a pretty anonymous affair. You know a person's email, and typically their address. You might be able to deduce that a person represents a store or nursery or if they are private individuals selling their stuff. That's about it. But then I ordered from Mr. Nestor White.

I was very pleased with the purchase itself. Not only did I receive the crinum bulbs I was promised, but he threw in a bonus bulb. In the package was also a CD, and here I was introduced Mr. White. The CD had scans of new paper articles he and his garden was featured in. He's a home gardener in Orange Park, FL near Jacksonville. His garden features about 40,000 plants, with his passion (and here is where my heart flutters a bit . . .) being his 4,000 crinum bulbs. The CD not only included pictures of almost all of his 250 varieties of crinum and other plants, but pictures of his family and amazing jam packed home garden. With his permission, I just had to post about it. Now if he would only start a blog . . . I'd be in heaven!

The above picture is a nice example of using crinum in a front border.

The pathway to the backyard has crinum and cannas, along with a bunch of other stuff.

How gorgeous is that giant crinum?

What I love about his garden is that it is not a pristine magazine garden. There are things out of place, scattered about and most definitely lived in. But there is no doubt that every square inch of the place jammed with the most interesting things. I know I could spend hours there.

Here's what I've bought from Mr. White. These are his pictures, not mine. My plants are still babies and will take a few years to bloom:

Two Crinum Americanum bulbs

The Hannibal's Dwarf was a bonus plant. I'd like to get more of these.

I bought several of these small Digweedii 'Nassau' bulbs.

JC Harvey was the bonus.

All of my purchases are still going very strong and I am quite happy. Mr. White has a very good rating as well, so I'm not the only one who feels this way. If you are shopping eBay for crinums, look for the seller Bulbsnmore. You'll be very pleased.

2008-07-21T20:13:00.004-04:00

I was going to do a simple answer to this post left by Andrea at Popular Growth, but it got a bit lengthy and I though others might be able to contribute. So if you are a Florida Gardener, feel free to put in your two cents.

So I have a very stupid stupid question, if you leave the potatoe vine, is it sort of a perennial in your garden? How do you guys maintain everything? Cut it all down sometime in the year, just to refresh them? (considering you don't get snow). I am SO ignorant to gardening in the hotter areas and Im REALLY interested in knowing all about them.

Ok, here is some Florida Gardening 101. We actually do get snow down here, albeit once every 20 years and only a few flurries at most. But I've seen it here. Typically, we get one or two killing frosts. Most non-coastal cities north of Orlando will get frost. These frosts will take out most annuals, especially coleus and impatiens. Saved are the shell gingers, palms, camellias, pansies and snapdragons, which are hardly effected by the cold. Most other perennials simply die to the ground, but come back in the spring. This includes the sweet potato vine, which grows back from the tuber (the sweet potato) underground. The ground rarely freezes, so these plants do tend last a while. Another interesting aspect of gardening down here that Northerners find strange is that we tend to have two mini seasons instead of one year long one. We are currently headed into a dormant period (Mid-July thru August). This mainly effects veggies and annual flowers. They just kind of stop growing. Many veggie gardeners clear every out everything and start again in September. With my perennials, I cut them back somewhat dramatically before or after this dormant period. This year I did it in the beginning of June so my plants would be back in shape by the 4th. I might do it again in September. With the sweet potato vine, I don't cut it back severely, just take clippings to keep it check and looking full. Anyway - hope this answers your question!

Update of the Corner Garden

2008-07-20T20:18:00.010-04:00

This is the corner garden as of today. Starting on the far left are: shampoo ginger, crinum, coleus, (above) shell ginger, white crinum and canna. In the circle are white vinca, a burgundy crinum, sweet potato vine, butterfly ginger, and two baby queen palms.

This bed has chocolate mint coleus, green sweet potato vine, purple queen, shell ginger, cannas, butterfly ginger and a queen palm.

Update on the Shed Garden

2008-07-20T20:04:00.005-04:00

This garden is what it is. For some reason, it is not capturing my imagination, maybe because it is pretty decent as is. There are bananas, palms, elephant ears, Persian shield, butterfly ginger, and hidden ginger. Below is a picture of the butterfly ginger bud, one of my favorite plants.

Update on the Butterfly Garden

2008-07-20T19:54:00.004-04:00

Update on the butterfly garden. A rampant lantana has made this area quite weedy looking. That and the weeds.