European Gardening: Where are you? Part 2, 0 by bedouin

bedouin wrote:
Its already blazing hot here, temperatures in the 80's already! Wish it would rain, rain, rain! Everything is so terribly dry! I'm from the hot tropics of southern Florida (zone 10+) where everything grows quite happily 12 months of the year....but I cant get Sweet Peas to grow in my garden! Sigh!

I plant mainly for fragrance, .... butterflies, beauty, rarity and just because......I love walking around the garden by day and evening, breathing in the wafting fragrances. I have 3 bird baths, each one filled with birds wanting to cool off. Having bird feeders close by helps to attract them as well. Parrots, orioles, mocking birds, cardinals, even an osprey has plopped into the birdbath and simply sat there for ages, cooling off. Parrots are always around as I have sunflower feeders near the birdbaths, forever squawking away, particularly when they think I've neglected to fill the feeders!

I have some fragrant violets surviving very well in the garden despite the intense heat.. Viola Odorata is seeding prolifically. A tropical Viola Odorata grown in full sun, passed on to me by a family who has been here for 40 years seems to have adapted to these harsh conditions extremely well. Talk about plants adapting to alien environments

If anyone has Cionura Oreophila Vine growing in their garden I'd love to know of its cultivation, flowering, seeding etc. Plantsman Nursury carried it in their old catalogue, but they dont ship to the USA. If anyone has seeds, I'd swop most generously for this vine! I believe its extremely fragrant and beautiful. Would love to hear comments about it!

A photo of a tropical shrub, Jatropha . A butterfly attractor.

This message was edited May 1, 2009 1:18 AM

This message was edited May 1, 2009 1:20 AM