Gardening
 

It would be nice if we had a Thread that only pertained to gardening, and not to all these hoorah's to Landscapers, and who is the best and who isn't!!! There are plenty of Villagers who are their own landscapers, and do a real good job!!! :BigApplause:

Easy Garden is a great website. Thats what I was looking for, instead articles about Landscapers. Thanks so much!!!! Too bad we don't have that in Talk of The Villages

Thanks, it is a good resource.

I too am quite excited about that link. Yippee for info.

I would also suggest the Earthbox forum. Lots of info about container gardening (great on the patio), recipes, planting advice, etc.
Earthbox dot com, the forum link is at the bottom of the page.
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/i...D8kPOOgW0TgzpS

How can I encourage our Plumbago bushes to bloom more? I see some that are just loaded with blooms and ours are doing a half hearted job.

We fertilized them with Rapidgro...didn't help:shrug:

The following link is to a Florida gardening forum:

Florida Gardening Forum - GardenWeb

There are several plant hardiness zones within our state so not all plants mentioned in the forum will flourish here in the Villages. We're not even in the same zone within our community - the new 2012 zone map shows Marion County and the northern half of Sumter County in 9a; most of Lake in 9b.

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

June

Gracie,
I'm finding that timed release fertilizer seems to be the way to go, as our soil here drains so rapidly. I have been using Osmocote dry granules (spring through summer) for some blooming things and it seems to make a difference.
I have also had good luck top dressing once a year (fall) with Black Kow manure. Just spread it around the drip line about 2" deep, don't cultivate it in. Helps to amend the soil without much trouble. Has worked well for my Gardenia and Camellias.

i do think that some bloomers, like Plumbago and Roses become exhausted in this climate periodically and just take a rest from blooming for a while. That affords a good time to prune. I wait a few weeks before coaxing them back to bloom again.

Plumbago likes some shade too. When I planted them, I also dug deep hole and put bark mulch to hold the moisture. Also feed it with Cock-a-doodle-doo. Its dried chicken poop! (sorry) But cow manure works just as fine also.

White Mandevilla
 

I've seen some gorgeous white mandevillas around the area but can't seem to find them at any of the garden centers/landscape companies.

Can anyone tell me where I might purchase one locally? Address and phone number please if possible so I can Mapquest....Thanks

Oh, and I vote for a gardening category too!!!

The big box stores will sell them again come mid-spring when they naturally begin their bloom season ( spring to fall). Look for the 'Sun Parasol' varieties, they are bred for bigger blooms and are much improved over older varieties. (they come in white too)

Some mandevilla are evergreen, some are deciduous, but most are considered zone 10 plants, so they may not survive as a perennial here. Central Florida is somewhere from 8b to 9b, but you may have a perfect micro-climate spot and be very successful in overwintering this beautiful plant.

Gardening Thread
 

I have to thank you for starting this thread. I, too, am a gardener and prefer to do my own yard instead of having a professionally landscaped yard. However, this is a miserable climate to garden in the summer. Have to admit I did give up this year and just let nature do her thing, now I am frantically trying to catch up with my neglect.

By the way, for anyone else who is a "real" gardener, don't forget the Mount Dora Plant & Garden Fair, it is spectacular:

18th Annual Mount Dora Plant & Garden Fair
Dates: November 3 & 4, 2012 (First weekend in November)
Admission is free. Central Florida's top growers bring more than 12,000 plants. The event features orchid growers and includes native plants, butterfly-attracting perennials, herbs, roses, camellias, begonias with a complete selection of rare and unusual tropical plants. Garden antiques, festive flags and unusual containers are also a focus.
Location: Simpson's Cove (Downtown Lakefront)

Get there early, things sell out very quickly.

Plant Sale Tomorrow
 

Thanks Madeline, I'll definitely be at that sale. Picked up a flyer for another sale tomorrow:

SUMTER COUNTY MASTER GARDENER PLANT SALE
SAT., OCT 13TH ~ 9AM TILL 1 PM
100 N. MAIN STREET ~ WILDWOOD FL

Do they withstand the frost????

I dug out my hardy impatiens and put in mums. How long will they stay blooming here?

Close to frost time or late Dec. They even might come up next year too

Grumbles House, Dunnellon - Garden Center
 

To Gardeners - this might interest you. Dunnellon's Historic Village their website is Dunnellon Florida Antiques, Collectables, Gifts, and Home Decor. It is NOT just antiques, they have a great garden center and I believe they have a special open day coming up soon. You can email them at gumbleshouseantiquesandplants@gmail.com for more information.

Here is their web site:
Dunnellon Florida Antiques, Collectables, Gifts, and Home Decor

Thanks for websites!!!! Like to see more questions on gardening, and other information, like entering into winter and what to do etc. Trimming, pulling plants and covering. Whats best for winter, and planning for next spring. And of course pruning

I have been mulling when to do some landscaping. Is it better to not do it now and wait until spring? If so, when does spring really start?
I don't think TV amends the soil when they plant...or do they? Is it possible to simply buy some shrubs, dig a hole, and stick in the new plant? When do you fertilize? Spring?
Clearly, I know nothing.

You will love this forum. I've been on the northern portion of it for years. Then we moved to a condo, and I got into the container gardening part of it. Now I can try out the southern part.

For those who like to garden but don't want the responsibility for the entire landscape... our landscapers are suggesting that we have portions of the landscape prepped for planting so that we can have fun doing some of our own without it being overwhelming.

And Gracie, our plumbago are not doing well either, and we fertilized them with osmocote last spring. They look burned. Our front yard faces directly west. We're thinking of having them moved to the back where they'll get a little more shade, or else putting them under whatever tree we have planted. Everyone's on our side of the street look the same way. the other possibility is that these are builders' plants, and perhaps they might be of a different quality than a landscaper would put in? I don't know. But if you drive around, some look great and some do not.

I have to keep trimming my plumbago's, because they grow so much. Two plants get sun in afternoon only, but I have one that is in sun all day (looks great, but don't trim as often) I find they like water, so I planted them with an extra large hole, and put bark mulch in to absorb water and hold it. Manure pellets also help. They do get hit by frost in winter, but come back

Fall Gardening
 

I use this time of the year for cleaning up in the garden. I get rid of plants that have not done well, I pull out summer plants that are tired and wilting. I weed, mulch, cut back - but no fertilizer right now; the last thing you want to do is encourage anything to have a growth spurt, right now they need to recover from the summer heat. I use fall/winter plants to fill in the gaps, and Home Depot, Lowes and even WalMart have some good winter annuals to get us through until spring. I will cut back/prune my Crepe Myrtles and I have already pruned a lot of "stuff" off my roses - I grow antique roses so we cut them right back in the late summer and they are coming back nicely. I leave everything else alone and wait until after the frosts to see what has survived the winter.

This is also the best time to plant roses, camellias, bushes, perennials and specimen plants which is why most of the really big garden shows are at this time of the year. Getting them in the ground now gives them a chance to establish roots before the frost.

I had the opportunity to speak with someone from UF/IFAS in Gainesville and he told me Disney uses Black Cow, and I think that is what TV uses too. I keep a couple of bags of Black Cow around and when I am planting I mix it in with the existing soil in the hole. I don't know if it really helps, but it makes me feel good! Actually I think everything just washes through the Florida sand .....................

Good info. Can you name some winter annuals? We're from MI, and there's no such thing! We'll have two spots around the porch that we can plant annuals in.

Florida Winter Annuals
 

To anyone reading this - these are just my personal opinions and are how I handle gardening in this zone/climate, suggest everyone experiments in their own yards. Also, please remember, the annuals on sale in the stores now are grown here in South Florida for our climate.

Florida winter annuals are basically your northern spring time annuals. Look at this climate here (8b-9b) as being an almost complete reversal of gardening up North. Our fall here is like your early May/June weather, cool at night with plenty of dew and warm summer days. I grow Snapdragons, the low growing type - up North I grew the gorgeous tall ones, here they are inclined to fall over, so I stick with the low spreading ones. Petunias. Annual Salvias, basically any annual you find in the store. I grow my herbs in pots on my patio, and start them at this time of the year, and next summer they will be tired and need replacing.

I would suggest two reference books - Month-by-Month Gardening in Florida - written by Tom MacCubbin who is a Floridian; and The Southern Living Garden Book. The month by month gardening book is excellent, as the name suggests he tells you what to plant and also how to garden in Florida by the month - great book. The Southern Living Garden Book is a publication listing just about every plant you could imagine, how to grow, climate, zone etc. If you go over to Barnes & Noble you can sit and read them there to see if they are of any use to you before you purchase. Also, you can buy used on Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more.

Guess I know what will be on my Christmas list :)

This is all great info. Thanks so much, esp. about the part about what's spring up north is fall down here. I will be trying to find those books used online.

How much do you prune back on Crepe Myrtles? And great info you put out there!! Thanks

Pruning Crepe Myrtles
 

I prune to shape only. I have one overhanging my patio area and that is all the shade I have in the summer, so I am trying to get it tall and thick. This particular Myrtle is a white blossom Nachez with three trunks and it grows to about 30ft tall, so I have pruned off the lower branches and taken out a lot of the fine inner branches, leaving it to grow tall and shaped like an open umbrella. I have two others which are bushes, not trees. Those I just take out the fine inner branches to give the bush some shape. I sometimes take off the spent flower seed pods, but it is not necessary, and I never just cut the ends off the branches; and I never, ever, do a Crepe Murder hatchet job on them!

Excellent information on this site Untitled which I believe is from Auburn University in Alabama.

My older friend came to visit yesterday and she was planting winter vegetables or had some already planted. I think some cabbage and some lettuce and I can't remember what else she had growing right now. I hesitated over buying a new tomato plant at Walmart, not sure how they do right now.

Gardener people...what do you suggest?

If I may hijack for just a bit... Today I was walking out of Sam's to my car and passed a white crepe myrtle. It's branches were low enough to reach, and full of blooms, so I pulled one closer to sniff it (heavenly scent). From a car parked in front of the tree came an elderly guy's voice... "I smell just as good as that does!"

It takes so little to make someone's day! I'm still chuckling.

Usually tomatoe plants have about 65-75 days before maturity, which would bring you into January. Good suggestion is to pot plant tomatoes, so you can bring inside against frost. Get large pot, and a pot holder on rollers, so your able to roll in plant at night. Last year, I took chance at end of Feb, and planted two tomatoe plants, and I was successful. It's a gamble of about 5-10 bucks!!!! Good Luck Gracie, what ever you choose to do. Also can plant outside, and wrap clear plastic around whole plant, to stop wind from getting to it, and cover at night on cold nights.

Chives
 

I've been planting herbs in a large pot and have found everything I need EXCEPT chives - has anyone seen chives around? So far I've gone to Walmart, Home Depot, Publix, Fresh Market and Sweet Bay. Where should i look next? (I want to start with a plant, not seeds).

I'm curious about your use of Black Cow - are you applying it over the rocks or do you have mulch in your landscape? I have those horrible rocks (done by the previous owner) and not sure how to top treat or if it is worth while to put down a pre-emergent weed killer like Preen. I have gone through 2 gallons of RoundUp spraying weeds and would prefer to use a pre=emergent if anyone has had luck using this with rocks in the landscape.

I keep a generous layer of pine straw around the front landscape and most of the plants I treat this way are located there.
I find the pine straw is very easy to literally roll back. (using a claw type hand tool and my hands) I then have free access to lay down the Black Kow and then roll the straw into place again.

I know that a lot of folks don't care much for pine straw, but I find that a 4" deep layer right over the dirt has eliminated almost all weeds for me. I find maybe one or two baby weeds weekly and just pull them by hand.
I bought a large container of Preen a year ago.... but only seem to need it occasionally along our CYV fence, as the neighbors grass creeps under that.
I pull back the straw, remove the zoysia creepers, sprinkle a line of Preen and reposition the straw.
Takes about 5 minutes quarterly.

The plantings in our back have rock as a ground cover, so I do not use the Black Kow there. (do use the Osmocote, sprinkled on top of the rock) Again, our rock is pretty deep, and I think that helps. We have had it since early summer and I have hand picked three weeds so far, but I did see the landscaper take extra care to prep the ground before the weed barrier was laid beneath the rock.

I imagine that over time, as airborne dirt accumulates between the rocks, there will be places where a weed seed can take hold. I may regret the rock some day. But as time goes by, the plants grow larger, so less rock or pine straw will be visible as our stuff matures.

I have seen homes where weeds are runaway in the rock beds. I have watched landscapers lay weed cloth over existing weed beds and rock over that. Not so good.

Short of re-doing the underlayment, I guess chemical treatment would be most practical, being careful of the plants you do NOT want to kill. You still have to pluck the weeds after they turn ugly and dead, however.... for me they're easier to pluck when they are green. That is, with a good pair of garden gloves to protect your hands from things like rocks and critters.
Happy Gardening!

Thanks for your response. I find the weeds are the worst around the edge of the bed where the barrier has pulled back or at places where the barrier is compromised because of plantings. Guess there is no easy solution. I think I'm going to give Preen a try this spring - nothing to lose and everything to gain if it works.

I agree about liking pine straw. I cannot thank you all enough for all of your good advice. PLEASE continue.

Is not chives a bulb??? I'm not sure

Chives are bulbs... very little ones. They grow best when they are in a clump by themselves. They don't usually like to be planted in with other plants. I suspect they are slow to take in nutrients and are deprived if they must compete with something else.

Fall Gardening
 

Gardeners: Before you throw away your copy of the POA turn to page 18 of November's Bulletin and read the article written by master gardener Anne Lambrecht. It has all the information you need to work in the fall and spring garden. She runs the Garden Club North and really knows her stuff!