Learning to blog (tiring)

After attempting to re-org this blog so that pics would be associated with posts, I am too tired to think aloud about the garden. Not much to say really. The warm weather is here, tendrils and shoots have begun to have more confidence. Still no Virginia Creeper. I was reading a intro to bougies on the IBG website. There are 3 types of bougainvillea. I need to identify mine so i can refer to them correctly.

The passion flower vine is moving. maybe too aggressive mixed in with jasmine? live and learn.

Selph is the already sending up leaflets from the rhizomes, very glad to see that. Surprising that the agressive Caribbean King isn't busting out, usually such a strong grower.  I'm sure the warmth and humidity will coax out some leaves soon.


HAVE NOT received 'The Begonian' from ABS yet. Joined over a month ago.. looking forward to reading it again.

70s/60s

 Very slight haze, humidity in 60%?, but the sun is out and the temp is in early 70's with a soft breeze off of the water. Beautiful. Everyone looks great, except, the bougainvillea on the east wall. It's getting eaten by catepillars, i wonder if I can use a systemic on bougies? I'll go to the BGI website maybe they have info. The University of Florida also is a great source of info on the culture and care of plants in the state. My rhizomatous are well into a month and a half of blooming and Cloe, Fred, Dopey are still sending out stalks. U402 also floriferous, seems to really like the tight squeeze in the new pot. After a month or 2 i'm going to start a prune here and there to begin shaping it. Duranta is sending up branches, healthy, forking as they get longer with the purple racemes of flowers forming. However, it's surprising too with what seems such a hardy plant, there are a few white flies on one of the  plants. On the other, there were small black insects which looked like small black lady bugs. I neemed oiled it. There is a lady bug zipping around on one of them, i'll leave her to her work.

Change of seasons..

Started for the gym, which is a few buildings down, it was already at least 80 and the humidity in the 80% range. Going up to 90's and storms are predicted. I'm excited, the growing season is starting to kick off!

The begonias LOVE this humidity-- others will become more prone to gnawing bugs on new growth. It's funny that I have never (knock, knock) had pest problems with my begonias. I've drowned them, I've shocked them to death, but never pests.

Rain very hard late pm. Had to turn it over and just see how things faired under our first torrential rain of the season. Everything looks great (it's still pouring). I pulled in b. "my good friend" it's in a plastic pot, it's a rex with minimal rhizomes, etc. My terrace tiles are getting a nice wash.

Bird of Paradise

1. The croton was so infested that i cut all affected areas off. Of course this left me with a bare branched un-identifyable. I was going to toss it so I pulled it out of it's large pot. It had been overpotted, with damp compacted soil-- no wonder it was so susceptible to the virulent attack.
I temporarily moved it to a smaller pot, not planted, but with loose soil around root ball to hold it until I buy a tighter cheap pot for it. Over-potting just doesn't work with containers it seems. Unless your talking about a banana whose roots will fill up anything.

So, in the crotons former home a 26" brown plastic pot, I planted a white bird of paradise.  The orange were too expensive for me today. It is a lot more appropriate for the space than a banana.The trunk lends itself to be grown against a wall. The larger stalks can be cut as it's trunk becomes leggy.

It is a gorgeous day with a nice breeze coming off the water in the 70's. I gave everyone a nice shower in the morning, they've gotten great sun all day.

I replanted a rhizomatous that had been planted in a low glazed cobalt bowl to a shallower terracota bowl. It was not going anywhere in the bowl, though far from rotting. It has a peculiar mottled leaf, it may turn out to be a bore, a friend bought the mother plant and i tore a piece off, so I don't know much about it. My space is limited, so I can't just keep growing begonias because they are begonias.

After looking at pictures of the virginia creeper, it looks just like poison ivy, and i'm just not sure.  ivy or simply more creeping fig might be more elegant. if there is anyone reading this that knows of a interesting clinging vine, i'd be grateful if you'd post a name.

The terrace for sale next door- it comes with a 3 bed 2 bath condo. I wish I had the cash to buy it. It's terrace is as long as mine (35'), but it doesn't have a roof covering the mid third of it. There is a wooden pergola held up by 2 40" or so round masonry posts. If I was doing their terrace landscape work, i'd get 2 50+ gal pots of bougainvillea from Everglades Botanicals-- $300 ea? Lash those against the posts  to guide them toward the ultimate aim of having them climb up and over pergola. I'm am into  masses of messy fabulous colors, so I'd probably try to get a blue sky vine going between the boards at the same time. Maybe a jade vine? A parrot's beak vine? A giant chalice vine. Ideally, all of them. bird of paradise, vines,  a buddha belly -- it stays low and has a thick head of hair, etc.

Back to my plot of masonry and tile. Vines, vines and vines! The passion fruit I'm weaving in on the east handrail, with the jasmine, has a purple flower, I am hoping that it is a 'possum' purple which puts out good fruit. . They have a dull. sweet smell, but i can tell it's a food plant from the scent (call me crazy). A few flowers have already opened. I'm not sure if they are self-polinating or not. There is one good size fruit hanging.

I repotted the mexican flame vine, there was too much hydrasorb in the soil. I HAVE to follow directions. I used to bake good bread, and a baker has to follow instructions fairly carefully. But when I was potting it the other day,  I just threw a few fist fulls of the hydrating polymer in the potting soil. I watered it and the damn thing erupted out of the pot. I leveled the top of the pot thinking that it might be ok, but i saw some black leasions that hinted at the arrival of root rot.

No virginia creeper yet. I've seen a walls around, that have clinging vines with fairly large branches. Don't know if they're one type. I need to dig a little and find out what my options are for a third (or 4th) climber to use. The creeping fig coming out of the orange pot is starting to move. It's branching out and looking pretty confident climbing. It's not as slow as I thought it to be.  I've been worried that a vine on the wall might be frowned upon by condo powers, but walking Ricky today, I noticed several of the buildings on 'Village Lane' had creeping fig heading up thier walls-- precedence has been set.

I don't have time to tell you about my poor croton which has been viciously attacted by a host of different pests. I did the systematic treatment the other day. I neem oiled it this morning. Is it beyond saving? 

The sun has just gone down and the sky is a muddy apricot. The tempature of the breeze is delightful.

Upper 80's and clear

Beautiful, clear, hot sun today. Gave everyone a morning drench and rinse. We get a lot of salt in the air being so close to the ocean. Need to shower all to clean of briny residue. It seems to work. It's been dry for the past 2 weeks, so I've had to use the hose- which i love doing.

Looking for cheap copies of V. Sackville-West's gardening books:

• Some Flowers
• Country Notes
• Country Notes in Wartime
• In Your Garden
• In Your Garden Again
• More for your Garden
• Even more for your Garden
• A Joy of Gardening
• V. Sackville-West's Garden Book
• Midcote Manor Garden
• The Illustrated Garden Book

I hadn't known she had written so many. In Your Garden is wonderful. It gently directs readers as to when to plant and sources for seed. Very interesting to read about the old vendors.

Green Thoughts

Spent my time before showering for work trying to arrange flame vine onto handrail. It's difficult to work with as the vines are hollow tubes and bend very easily. I think that as it get's going in the large pot with lots of food, i'll be able to coax it to grow across the railing, adding a true orange color to the sweet smelling jasmine.

Bright, dry days of spring

I went to Home Depot at lunch and bought 2.5 cu of potting soil. I use the Miracle Grow, it is nice and black and has a good deal of organic matter. There was a sturdy looking Mexican Flame (Senecio confusus)  vine covered with the feathery orange flowers for $19, the handrail on the other end of the terrace needed something to balance the passion flower. Planted the Flame vine into a thick terracota pot, I used 2 handfuls of Absorbs hydrating polymer which will serve well in the upcoming hot summer sun. It is a beautiful, hardy grower.

Finished transplanting the Duranta into a larger plastic pot. It's supposed to grow to a large shrub 12' - 15' (depending on trimming) and form a fountain-like habit, with purple flowers at the tips of the branches http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Duranta_(1).jpg . It is a member of the Verbena family. It will add some depth to the garden by spraying flowering branches into the garden and not simply blooming against a wall.

I realized the other day when I pulled everything away from the wall how much better it looked. Having some pots closer, others almost hidden, it made a more natural, random look. I had been planting for the walls -a straight foot path versus a soft, winding foot path, one that invites the visitor in.

Ordered a copy of Eleanor Perenyi's 'Green Thoughts'. Need to see if i still have my V. Sackville-West 'In Your Garden' . I love a good historic garden diary.
Looking forward to the arrival of the Virginia Creeper.

The morning after

False aurelia has a few burnt leaf tips from the insecticide. Otherwise ok, no wilting. Croton seems fine. I'm looking  forward to the croton filling out, it's a very pretty burgundy red with yellow spots. It'll had some nice contract to bamboo. The gardenia has a few dead leaves (overnight!). Not many and otherwise it looks fine. I'll be happy to see the thrips, scales, leaf suckers go away. The pulmaria is fine after this de-lousing. I had sprayed some soapy water on the buds that were getting eaten and they're beginning to bloom.

I 86xd the banana. It had a fungus of some sort. The trunk was going soft at the top. May replace it with a bird of paradise or travelers that will provide some horizontal coveral, thought the canopy of the banana was very nice. Replanted duranta into the larger, plastic banana pot. It will fill it in and it soaks up too much water in the terracota pot.

Also, cut the large branches off of the rubber plant, they were leggy and there a number of beautiful dark branchlettes coming up that should be much fuller in terms of leaf coverage.

We went out to Flamingo Road Nursery yesterday and bought two cheap pots for the Virginia creeper.

Maintenance

Swept up, planted passion fruit in new pot, washed down the terrace.

Used a systemic pesticide on croton, aurelia, and gardenia.

Spring cleaning

Alot of work today.  Pulled all pots away from walls swept up debris. I didn't scrub and wash, I'll try to get up very early tomorrow and scrub the decks.

Fed the gardenia, jasmine boxes, bamboo with Plant Tone. Citrus Tone on the orange.

I bought a beautiful old terracotta pot probably 26" rim with the face of the sun embossed on one side. it's surface is irregular and has mold on one side-- also bought a buxom passion fruit vine to put in it. I've been meaning to get another vine for the handrail. The jasmine is to spare, though it is blooming.

I've ordered 6 bare root virginia creeper to start getting the walls green  $4 for 1'-2' plants from Cold Stream Farm. They have great prices.  I'll need to find some reasonable rectangular planters for the to put at the base of the east and west walls where the vines will be planted.

Walking to the meeting tonight we ran across a clinging vine going up a townhouse's masonry wall with big stiff branches that looked too large to be held onto a vertical surface by roots alone- but it was. On the way home,  broke off a piece and root toned it and stuck it with with false aurelia as a temp home. It looked like a wild thing covering the townhouse it was on. Maybe it will take off here too.  .

Plastic pots and the summer sun

It's been a quiet few days sans ocean breeze. Everyone is getting some quiet time in the sunshine. Cloe seems to be fine in terracota bowl. There is a real difference in terms of soil water retention between terracota, plastic and glazed pots. It'll be interesting as the wamer, warmer, HOT weather comes if having terracota will make any sense at all. The mulching I did certainly makes a difference. I enjoy watering in the am anyway so it won't any trouble. My dad loved watering his plants. Watering can tame the savage beast. Red Fred seems happy, which makes me happy. I've left him in the quart pot he came in and I've only watered him in two weeks-- a plastic container.

 Want to read the Thompson's chapter regarding hybridizing. I have 5 beautiful rhizomatous begonias in bloom at once. Some of the blooms stay on the stalk and harden up. I usually cut the stalk, but if it were left would seeds develop? If Red and Cloe and U402 are next to each other.. what might be born? Of course this isn't the serious way to do it, but I'm not in the serious gardener category. I am in the loving gardener category though which is a great healing gift. The green oakleaf croton is putting out nice shiny leaves with the beautiful thread of yellow down the lenght of the leaf. I burned with a liquid fertilizer batch... I turned the sprayer upside down to get all the fertilizer out, and the powder which hadn't dissolved :( but she's back. Have to be very careful of full strength anything. I'd really like to see him grow into a large, mature plant. Dopey is still just busting out all over with beautiful stalks of white with a very slight hint of pink and the yellow stamens.

The Yahoo Begonians were right. http://www.begonias.org/Articles/Vol68/B_U402.htm.

Did I mention I re-joined the American Begonia Society? Maybe have to join Palm Beach Society as well. There are some very well known begonia-culturists.

Clear early days of summer?

Clear sunny day, everyone looks healthy outside. I spot watered bamboo, Sophie Cecile, Cloe etc. weak liquid fertilizer.

I submitted my pictures of what I thought might be b. 'China Boy' to the yahoo Begonia group. The consensus is that it's a U402, a species. I'll check out the ABS webite.

Pulmaria's leaves are curling a bit but otherwise has full growth.

Found a simple home made remedy for insects: 3 tbl per gallon of handsoap. I've sprayed both gardenia and croton again with this mixture. Tired.

Daylight savings

Sweet morning, I got up at 7:30 a to a 6:30 a sunrise. Treat.

I'm pleased with how everything is looking this morning. The bamboo umbral is a very dense ball of green-- heavy dose of Espoma citrus? The durantas are both looking fiesty and have the little grapes on the branch tips that will soon become purple sprays. The begonias all look happy, of course Irene N. and Sophie C. still are adjusting to thier pruning. The newly transplanted b. 'China Boy' didn'nt skip a beat. Perky and upright in it's pot, no wilting, leaf or bloom loss. As to Cloe and Little Red, They look good and I just have to leave them to their growing! I've posted a pic of the giant liriope in the urn and the newly repotted China B.

 Reading pieces of The Art of South Florida Gardening by Harold Songdahl and Coralee Leon. A lot of pertinent information. I especially liked the chapter on fertilizing.  Oolite and marl are some of my favorite words now. 

Also browsing Stan DeFreitas' The Complete Guide to Florida Gardening it's like looking at the old Sear's catalogue.

 

Sunday, Sunday

Spot watering with the can as soil is damp all around. Doused the bamboo 2 cans (3gal) of a weak miracle grow solution. 'Cloe' got a nice bath, as did the cypress, railing boxes, pulmaria, plumbago, etc. Transplanted the little shrub begonia, it looks like b. 'china boy' as far as I can tell from Thompson's. I stole the cutting off a large plant in a nursery (it was a very small branch) and I didn't inquire re the name. I'll post a pic tomorrow. It was plantet very awkwardly in a bowl which it had shared with other rhizome b's. It looks full and fabulous in the pot.

b. 'My Good Friend' seems quite happy on the terrace. It seems to have adjusted to the terrace sun right nice. 'Dopey' is full of flower stalks.

I guess it's going to take a while for the bougainvillea to fill out. The magenta plant pinned up on the eastern wall has just finished a flush is nearly naked. No foliage, no bracts. It's in a pot that's larger than the root ball and soil is fairly loamy. Probably would be showier in a compact, sandy soil and a tight pot. I'll have to wait a few years. The purple girl on the west wall is well foliated and is coming into bloom shyly, once this one is ready it puts on a show. See the last pic at the bottom of the blog. The directions on the Bougain fertilizer, recommended by the IBS says that Bougs need food, sun but not so much water. This might be true, but is the plant going to grow leaves without water? I was at a nursery recently that had beautiful B's covered in healthy foliage, that were being watered daily. I guess we have to find our own way sometimes, hopefully the plants will live through it with us.

Daylight saving time went into effect today. By summer time it's going to be late afternoon at 8pm. More time in the garden.