Last night we had a very hard freeze. I was so disappointed, because one of the hibiscus that I bought last month online, thanks to my new enabler friends, had a bud just about to open. I knew with this freeze that it would just melt this flower, and maybe this plant. Well, its close to the house, and apparently close enough, that it didnt croak...lookee here!!!
Im am just so in love with these plants...I need more, lots lots more...
Congrats Fla Chick. I'm glad the Hibiscus didn't get nipped by the cold. What Hibiscus variety is that??? Is it Hibiscus "Cheap Frills"???
Jon
Im so glad you said that....I had planted a few hibiscus that I had lost the names for, and thats exactly which one this is. Im going to go make a tag for it so I dont lose it again.
Three cheers! That's one hardy hibiscus. I didn't think you all got a freeze this early. I'm glad that made it through.
Mary
That's cool Fla Chick. I'm glad we got the name right on "Cheap Frills". I keep mine all labeled so it's easier to keep track of them and recall some of the characteristics that each one can have (Frequency of bloom/growth habits/sensitivity to cold/ect/ect.
Jon
Hi, Mary,
I believe our freeze was a record for this date. I really dont mind a freeze occasionally as long as it warms up during the day. It wasnt enough of a freeze, apparently to do any harm. I had covered my tomato plant, and it made it just fine.
Jon, I somehow figured that you would know all of the characteristics of all of your babies. Hard to believe you've only been gardening for 2 years. You jumped into it in a big way!!
Your neighbors must just love you. What a beautiful sight your yard must be from their windows.
Kathy
Hi Kathy
Yeah, I kind of jumped into it pretty fast. It's funny/kind of neat to see flowers now popping up in some of the neighbors yards. They weren't there a year ago. This picture was taken on Sept 27 2008. It's a portion of the front of the house.
Jon
Oh how pretty! Are you recovering part of your lawn to make more flower beds, or is what you have now enough?
I've been tossing around that idea in my head for a few months Kathy. I kind of overwhelmed myself when I first started two years ago, but now it seems very manageable. During the winters I usually run out of current available space because there's so much more of a variety of things that will grow. In the summer there's much more available existing space because I haven't really found enough heat loving stuff that I really like. Rather than just filling it in with "anything" and having to maintain it, I kind of decided to just leave some spaces open. There's a vegetable garden in the backyard thats full of stuff now, but primarily empty in the summer when its too hot for most things to grow. I do grow lots of Sunflowers in the summer because they do much better when the days are longer. They do grow this time of the year but it's common that they will only grow the half their summer size.
Are you content with the size of your garden Kathy or are you thinking of expanding or sizing it down a bit? What are some of your favorite flowers that you have at your place?
Here's a photo of one of my favorite Sunflower varieties called "Strawberry Blonde". It's kind of unique/different.
Im pretty content with the size of my gardening space at this particular time. I have a 10 acre farm, and I had a single wide trailer plunked right down in the middle of it when I moved here 10 years ago. I moved the trailer and built a house a couple of years ago, and decided to make the entire area, which would be considered "lawn", as a garden. The entire yard is mulched...no grass. I started with daylilies everywhere, then I moved in some roses, of which Ive yanked some of them this year. I have some ginger, which Im also going to yank here in the next few weeks, since they multiply so much and are hard to contain. Im going to keep my butterfly ginger, tho, for its heavenly scent. I have veggies planted here and there, tomatoes, peppers, some herbs. I have bananas planted as they provide some nice shade without becoming towering "hurricane missiles" next to the house. I bought a bunch of annuals at Lowes in September and stuck them here and there so Id have some color this winter while the daylilies sleep. Then theres the hibiscus, which are just starting to bloom even tho they are tiny. Ill get a few pictures this weekend to show my mess. Its an on going project, Im afraid. Theres never a lack of something to do here.
Jon, do you have a HOA that prevents you from planting some things?
I know what you mean about being content with things Kathy. I'm always thinking about the extra work that would be created if I expand things. I'm aware of some restrictions here in Plantation, FL in regards to maintenance/upkeep of property and some trees that are banned but not really sure if I'm growing any plants that are banned. Even though I grow most of my annuals from seed myself I see other versions/varieties of the flowers available for purchase at local nurseries...well most of them. For instance I like the very tall Snapdragons, but they only sell the short and medium sized varieties at retailers, so I just grow them myself. I also really like Echinacea, Morning Glories, Rudbeckia, Reblooming Bearded Iris and Pansies and basically either order them online or grow them myself because I rarely, if ever, see them available for purchase locally. In the vegetable garden right now there is red and green leaf lettuce, swiss chard, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower and artichokes. Here a picture from this morning of the first bloom on a new variety of Snapdragon named "Plum Blossom"
And lastly Hibiscus "High Voltage" having a good time this morning.
Jon
Okay, youre pulling our legs, right? You didnt just start gardening 2 years ago...youre starting flowers from seed??
C'mon, youre really a Master Gardener and have been for 20 years, right?
No leg pulling Kathy...just 2 years. I just do some internet lookups on things before giving them a try. I have my fair share of failures on growing things also. Thats when I kind of laugh at myself and call myself "The Plant Murderer". We live and learn from all of it, right?
Jon
All are just beautiful!!!
