Abraham Darby

This is one of my new roses I wrote about before, Abraham Darby. I am so happy I decided to get Mr. Darby! I removed and reconfigured a whole planting bed to make room for it and I must say the bed looks a lot prettier with Abraham Darby. This bed is directly in front of my back porch so I can just sit there and look at it and eventually, I hope, smell the delightful scent through the screen. The plant to the left is a citrus/rose scented geranium and I have another rose scented geranium on the right.

This is a David Austin English rose. According to my research it's named after a man who help start the industrial revolution in England. It makes me think more of Mr. Darby from Pride and Prejudice, but that's just me.  

Hydrangeas

I thought I'd do a post about Hydrangeas. I love the lovely old Southern charm they exude. I have two Endless Summer hydrangeas and a Blushing Bride hydrangea. I wasn't certain they'd grow in central Florida when I sent away for my first Endless Summer three years ago. I've never seen them in any other yard around here. You have to take some risks though right?

The Endless Summer series are special hydrangeas that bloom on old and new growth. This allows them, in theory, to rebloom and to bloom in harsh Northern climates. Surprisingly they are really easy to care for if you give them part sun in the morning only and keep them watered. They don't get any pests at all in my yard. They are much easier than say roses and veggies in my yard. A hydrangea bloom lasts months, literally. When they get old they turn a pretty reddish shade and hold their form. Since we have such a long season I think they'd probably rebloom if I cut off the old blooms, but I like them so much I haven't tried yet.

I've been using an acid fertilizer and slowly adding sulfur to the soil around the hydrangeas to change their bloom color. In case you are unaware, many hydrangeas will change colors based on the pH of the soil they are growing in. A low ph turns the flowers blue and a high pH turns the flowers pink. A more neutral pH makes the flowers purple. The Endless Summers are one of these types of hydrangeas that will be blue, pink, or purple depending on the pH. The Blushing Bride is a nice pure white and as it ages it develops a pink blush or a blue blush depending on the pH. The first year my hydrangeas were all pink. Last year they were all purple. This year, joy, they are blue! Blue is my favorite.

More Roses

I have a slight rose addiction as you can tell. I know I shouldn't plant anymore, but they're so pretty. I attended the annual Green Thumb festival in St. Petersburg and I picked up a Heritage rose from Cool Roses. I mean really it was a David Austin rose in full bloom and on Fortuniana rootstock of all things. I couldn't pass it up. The Austin roses really do have the most glorious smell.

So, today I happened to be in a funk and went to a local nursery that had just received a fresh shipment of roses on Fortuniana rootstock.  There before me was a Abraham Darby Austin rose. I'd always wanted to try this one, but my sensible side had always stoppped me from taking this potential disease monster home with me. Well, my sensible side had the day off apparently because I got this one too.

Now I have to tend to two less than easy care Austin roses. The only other Austin I've tried was Teasing Georgia which though very beautiful is now dead. This time will be different, right?

The Fruits of my Labor

I'm more of a fruit person than a veggie person which is sad because my yard produces very little fruit. Ah well, at least I get some fruit. My Valencia orange tree still has about 4 oranges left on it. My Sunshine Blue blueberry is producing a little. The invasion of the green oak worms destroyed about 50% of the berries, but it still has some left. I've been picking them when they get ripe. This year I discovered that alpine strawberries will produce fruit in Florida. In fact the one I planted from seed in the fall is still making berries and looks pretty healthy. The fruit is tasty but about the size of a blueberry.

My melon plants love being in the Earthbox. In the same box I planted a Black Seeded Ice Cream watermelon, a Rich Sweetness 132 melon, a Wrangler melon, and a Honey Orange melon. The watermelon was the first to set fruit. I have one huge bowling ball sized watermelon and a small melon that seems to be waiting for the first one to vacate the vine before developing further. I have about maybe 9? Rich Sweetness melons that have set fruit. I have about four Wranglers that have set fruit and no Honey Oranges yet. I am concerned because one of the vines has redeveloped that stem fungus that it acquired last time it rained and vine is starting to turn to mush. It hasn't gotten to the healthy fruit yet, but I'm afraid it is just a matter of time. I hope I get some fruit at least.

Eggplants



Fairytale-Lavender and White stripe



At any given time in the garden certain plants seem to due better than others. My most successful edible plants at the moment seem to be the eggplants and melons. I will post an update on the melons next time.



I have three eggplant varieties in the garden: Fairytale, Hansel, and Gretel. I believe they were developed by the same grower as a part of a series, but I may be wrong about that. All three are compact plants with smaller sized fruit. I think the small size works for the home gardener because it takes up less room in the garden and produces about the right amount of fruits to eat. Fairytale and Hansel I grew from seeds given to me by a very nice Gardenwebber during the Christmas Santa seed exchange. Fairytale I grew last year and this is my first year with Hansel and Gretel. You can see that they have started producing a lot of flowers and fruit. While I don't really like to eat eggplant myself, I think they are especially beautiful garden vegetables. Gretel (not pictured) is a white eggplant that I purchased as a transplant at Lowes.

Hansel-Dark Purple





New Roses

I added some new roses to the garden this Spring. This really shouldn't be too surprising to anyone who knows me. I know I'm not supposed to get any more roses, but ah well you know how it is for addicts. The first came from Home Depot in a bare root bag. This was my first bare root bag since moving to Florida. I would never be so cruel as to plant a bare root plant in my sandy soil, so it's now in a large planter.  This is Comte De Chambord taken a few weeks ago. It smelled so nice!

Next accquisitions were also bare root plants from Big Lots and cost $2.50 each. I bought what was labeled as Reine des Violettes, but it quickly became apparent that it was not Reine des Violettes because Reine des Violette is thornless or at least has minimal thorns and mine had many big thorns. It was a lovely light pink hybrid tea. I really wanted a Reine des Violettes so I got another one and hoped for the best. The new one hasn't bloomed yet, but it is different from the other rose.

The next rose was an Easy Does It potted rose on Dr. Huey rootstock I got it at Home Depot. Dr. Huey is a big no no in Florida and I'm afraid the rose police will come and get me, but I, gasp, planted it in the ground! I agree that Fortuniana rootstock is the best for my area, but sadly no one sells it anymore in my area. I do have a rose that has lived on Dr. Huey for about 7 years so it is possible to get years of enjoyment out of them. I'm certainly getting plenty of enjoyment out of Easy Does It right now.



Bermuda Anna Olivier



Next I needed something to plant along the property line. Well, of course I thought of roses! I decided to get some more Old Garden roses. Since the only thing available locally was Knockouts, I had to mail order them. I got them from Rose Petals Nursery here in Florida. They arrived in good condition. I ordered a Bermuda's Anna Olivier, a yellow shrub rose, and a climbing Clothide Soupert. I just planted these last week and they're already growing. Clothide is already blooming!



Clothide





Clothide-Smells nice!



Veggie Update 4/26/11

I thought it may be a good time to devote a post to update the status of my edibles. Sure they're not as pretty in photos as the flowers, but they serve the important purpose of feeding me and keeping me entertained. I pulled out the tomato in the Earthbox that obviously had TSWV (RIP KBX). It was declining fairly quickly and may have even died eventually. I never let my plants get to the point of death. I pull them well before their demise.  I left the other tomato, JD Special C-Tex,  in the Earthbox because it was too late to start over. It still has some ruffled leaves, but it's setting a ton of tomatoes. I haven't had too many bug problems with it.

The other tomato Earthbox is frustrating me. The Goosecreek and Brandywine OTV are in this one and it also looks like they have a virus. One is actively declining and getting yellow leaves. The other, much like JD's is ruffled,  but otherwise doing ok. Over 50% of my tomatoes in this box have been lost to armyworms or blossom end rot. I will be instituting some changes for the Fall crop, but I've decided to let nature take its course for this pair.

The traditional containers are doing well. They don't look even 1/4 as big and lush as the Earthbox tomatoes and they are suffering some afflictions as well now. Big silver lining in that cloud is they have no blossom end rot or bug problems and they are loaded with big heirloom tomatoes. Brandywine Suddith's is pictured on the right. I also have Aunt Ruby' Green, Great White, Lucky Cross,  and Calf's Heart. In the Topsy Turvy I am finishing up a nice crop of Eva's Purple Ball and Gardener's Delight.

I have one pepper. Five pepper plants, but one pepper. It's either a Jimmy Nardello or Beaver Dam pepper. I can't remember which one.

The other peppers may have the dreaded tomato/squash virus. Maybe I'll just fertilize them and see if it's a nutrient deficiency.

I bought some sweet potatoes at Home depot. It's my first time growing sweet potatoes, so I am experimenting a little. I need to plant them in nematode free soil. Yeah right, I have lots of nematodes free soil in my yard that is sitting empty. I put them in the brick raised bed. I've been growing the anti-nematode marigolds in that bed for a while so that will have to be good enough. I have no more giant pots available.

I finally got a Diva cucumber growing in my Earthbox. Hurray! Only one of the four cucumbers in the Earthbox have produce anything up till now. The Diamante cuke produced about 11 cucumbers though. I think the cucumbers are nitrogen hungry because the leaves are a pale green. I used organic fertilizer in this box and it doesn't seem to be enough. I'm not really sure how to add more in an Earthbox. I've also been getting a lot of male flowers on the Diva which according to the internet experts is a sign of stress.

Wow, I do grow a lot of plants in my tiny yard! There are several more I could mention, but I'm tired now. I really need to show you my watermelon though. I have two watermelons now, one in an Earthbox and one in the ground. This is the Earthbox one, Ice cream watermelon. Isn't it pretty? It was dangling down from the center of the arbor I built until today. It was very cool looking on that extra long stem. Some lady stopped her car and asked me about it. Today I was worried about the weight on the vine so I made a pantyhose sling for it to hang in. I worried about damaging it with that too, but I worry a lot about everything anyway.