Choice Morsels

Spring means all garden is popping with flowers! Easter Lilies along my front walk: My Pink Hydrangea & "Zara" Clematis putting on a nice show! This is on the corner of my house by the back patio. My huge Coneflower out front! This must be around 40-42 inches in height, but Coneflowers can be quite large & bushy.

I have 2 Amaryllis, each in a container out in my front beds: one is a dark, solid red and the other is this reddish-orange & white. Both have been faithful to bloom for like 15 years! Today's other picture is Chinese Stonecrop in one of my patio containers, which is just now starting to bloom. I'm not quite sure how it got there exactly, but it looks really good!

  Thanks to a garden club, I've learned how to better care for my rose bush and this year it's thriving! It's thick, bushy and covered in blooms! This is a Julia Child Floribunda Rose. I selected it because I wanted a smaller size rose for my front flower bed and this one grows a max of 3 feet tall and wide. I learned from the garden club the proper time to trim a rose and that's what has made it so bushy. Roses here in Northwest Florida need to be trimmed and shaped the week of Valentine's Day, Feb 14.  The right time will vary from growing zone to growing zone in different places where it's colder, but the correct time in any zone is evident when leaf buds are showing along the stems with even a few small leaves beginning to pop out. The other important thing is buying some Rose Food and fertilizing according to directions.  Tons are dark blue Bachelor Buttons are blooming adjacent to this yellow rose, so the show of blue and yellow is quite striking!  

I opened my Blue Blue Nesting Box this past week to see if any Blue Birds were nesting. And I saw this, which is not a Blue Bird nest. This is a Black-Capped Chickadee nest! I was very pleased to see a pair of Chick-a-dee's make use of the space! Every bird has their own unique style of nesting building. Blue Birds, here in Northwest Florida, primarily use long pine needles, they wind round and round in the bottom of the box. Chickadee's like BIG stack of green moss bits topped with something soft for the eggs to rest in. They have a preference for shed pet fur, if they can find it.  Bird nests are amazing architectural art!  (If you brush you doggie in spring, empty the brush outside and leave for your bird friends to use for nesting!)   Next, a nice shot of sunlit Bridal Veil flowers!  (Shrub is called Spirea)

Here's a nice shot I took yesterday of my front bed out by the mailbox: In the foreground, is a very healthy Coneflower covered in bloom heads. The pink is it's native color and they are considered native plants. Drought tolerant and prolific. There are 2 others in this bed, one that self-seeded. In the background you see a clay container I buried to rim in the ground. The greenery you see in it is a miniature burgundy Daylily and I added  hot pink Million Bells I purchased yesterday to the other side of this same container.  The pink shamrocks on either side of the clay pot are everywhere at this time of year as they are a native wild flower here in Northwest Florida. Some moved into my yard & garden and I simply relocate their roots place to place because they naturalize nicely.  To say something "naturalizes" means it "spreads and generally fills in an area." Some plants do so slowly and some are aggressive--and that's important to consider when p...

These white flowers are called Alyssum and the purple leaves are Purple Shamrocks.  I planted this Alyssum last spring---it wintered over, blooming like snow all winter, and now that's it's spring, it's spreading slowly.  To find things that grow well in Florida is actually amazing---so I was so pleased with this Alyssum, I bought more seed to plant! This second picture is one of my favorite Garden Art Pieces: It's 2 clay pots, a smaller one set at an angle inside a larger one, 2 Chicks and lots of Chinese Stonecrop cascading over the side! And the eye-catcher is the ceramic frog. Dollar Tree has the cutest little garden ceramics! Last year it was these frogs. (I bought 3, each in a different position.) This year, it's mushrooms. I bought 2 red ones, though the garden space I plan to put them isn't ready for decor yet.

It's Azalea season here in the Deep South! Today's garden photos are of a side by side pair of Azaleas in my back yard: First, this nice shot of end of day sun lighting up some of the flowers on this dark pink Azalea: Second, the light pink Azalea next to it: Azaleas bloom in sort of a wave either working bottom to top or, like this one, from one side to the other. I took this shot, because you can see a fullness of blossoms in the front toward far side, but the side facing my camera is still full of buds.  Nor do they necessarily bloom all at the same time. I have two bushes in front and one is fully in bloom and the adjacent one is still mostly covered with buds. Though pretty, they require hedging maintenance; otherwise they grow into massively huge shrubs, 15 feet round!  There are dwarf types now---I'd recommend those, if you wish Azaleas.

Today's featured Garden Photo is my Maple Tree that's pretty red with seed agasint the green of other trees in the background! I guess Maple seeds are nicknamed, "whirly birds," because of the way they spin to the ground when they fall. These are the single wing type. Some Maples have double wing seeds.  

  Today's Garden Pic features a shot of one of my container gardens behind a Dwarf Nadina shrub in the area where a large Pampas grass once stood g iving my container garden a central spot in the garden and letting the pretty Nadina be seen. Dwarf Nadina's are a common landscape all season shrub here in the South---one of my better garden decisions after I figured out I didn't want any more huge shrubs to have to trim all the time. In the container garden are a variety of bulb plants the bloom from spring thru fall: Cheers Daffodils (the white flowers), Dutch Iris, Amaryllis, & Orange Spider Lilies. You can see white sticks marking where I planted a set of Peony roots. I'm not sure how they'll do---but they are rated for this planting zone. So we'll see. Below is a closer view of sunny Cheers Daffodils: clusters of tiny double white Daffodils that smell like baby powder on each stem. 

 Two Garden Pictures today! This healthy bunch of greenery is called either Red-Veined Sorrel or sometimes Valentine Sorrel because of the red veins. It is an edible perennial. I've tried it in salads, but the red veins turn everything purple. It can be used in soups. I haven't yet. Mostly, I like it because it's so pretty. Next is my Patch of Winter Broccoli: Six plants in a raised bed. Winter is the best time to grow it here in Northwest Florida---no insect pests and it doesn't mind a freeze. Pretty healthy looking. They are in the side-shoot phase. I collected a few small heads that were ready for a stir-fry for dinner. Probably hold onto them until end of March.

I had computer issues last week I needed to resolve, so wasn't able to do my Garden Pic, but here it is this week: a couple shots of my Winter Jasmine!   And a closer shot of the sunlit blooms!

  Garden Pic of the Day: Snake Iris Here in Northwest Florida, the end of January spells the end of winter and the beginning of spring! Everything is starting to "wake-up." Leaf buds line my rose stems and my Snake Iris has just started blooming! Here's an excellent shot of one of the 3 first blooms! It's a unique looking Iris, miniature in size, with deep purple outer petals and lime-ish inner petals. It occupies a container out front.

Last week, one winter day when was warmish and muggy after a rain, I found this "Stinkhorn" Fungus in my flower bed that's along the walkway to the front door.  Also known as Column Stinkhorn or more amusingly, as "Dead Man's Fingers." Stinkhorns have emit a smelly odor to attract flies and so on, who then brush against spores and carry them off--that's how it reproduces.  They are quite unique---though I don't put my nose up close!   Last week we had our first hard freeze--everything except this Alyssum and the Broccoli in my raised garden got freeze-fried.  I was out of town right then, so unfortunately I wasn't able to cover my Salvia or anything. But amazingly, this Alyssum carries on!

Today's Garden Pic is a close up of Asparagus fern in seasonal red & green! Check out all those berries! (Birds can eat them. Not for people.)  

This shot is out along my front walk: Purple Shamrocks, Dusty Miller in the background, Shasta Daisy greens to the bottom left and directly behind the strawberry pot & shamrocks are the tall spikes of my Siberian iris.  

I have two containers of Red Salvia brightening up my December! This one near the front door and one on the back patio I see out the sliding glass door! Actually, I took this shot in November and more Salvia has popped up both containers and come to bloom as well, so there's a lot more! When the blossoms turn brown, I break them off and put them on the soil in the container, so any seeds can grow.  Temps have been down around 36F degrees at night, but that doesn't bother the Salvia, Vinca or Alyssum. If temps do threaten to freeze, I'll cover the Salvia and that usually works pretty well. I hope you have a very Merry Christmas & also a Happy New Year!  

 This is my Maple Tree in my back yard: Actually, it's reasonably pretty this year. The trick to good fall color in deciduous trees is it has to get cold gradually. If cold comes on too suddenly, the change is swift and leaves fall too quick for a good showing of color and that's true regardless of location. Here in Northwest Florida, there are plenty of deciduous trees mixed in among the evergreen pines, magnolia trees & live oaks: Maples, Pecan Trees, Cypress, Sycamore, Scrub Oaks and all of them color as the weather cools between November & December. Pecan Trees turn a brilliant yellow. Cypress range from burnt to ruddy orange. Scrub Oaks turn a deep red tone. Anyone with a Japanese Maple gets burgundy. This Maple is called a "Florida Maple" or a "Florida Sugar Maple." It's a wild tree that was already established on the property when we built our house.

This is front yard boarder the lays along my property line with my neighbor. It's looked this pretty until just yesterday, when it got a little cold over night that put a dent in the Mexican Heather and some of the white Vinca, but the Marigolds persist. (Those are their solar flamingo lights, which look pretty at night.) And this is a shot of my front bed by the mailbox: That pretty light green plant with the magenta blossoms is a 4'Oclock called "Limelight." This is a fresh growth that sprang up in late September, I think. Here in Florida, 4'Clocks are perennial.  There are actually 3 of them in this bed; this one is the largest.  

I have a nice row of Dwarf Marigolds & Vinca out front that all the bees & butterflies have been loving.  These shots are from about 2 weeks ago, while it was still mildly cool and sunny out. It's the same Bumble in both shots. There were numerous honey bees and this one large Bumble. It's a Brown-Belted Bumble identifiable by the furry brown stripes from waist to tail and the fuzzy yellow thorax. Bumbles are always completely fuzzy; Carpenter Bees have a smooth rear end without any fuzz.  

  Today's Garden Pic is a harvest of Sweet Basil & Greek Oregano laid out in dryer trays for drying! Temperatures outside are getting cool, so since the Basil will freeze and I only have the one plant, I decided yesterday to hop-to and get it picked for drying! The Greek Oregano I can get anytime as it's winter hardy here in Florida. So, I tray Basil & 3 Trays of Greek Oregano. Once dry, I separate leaves from stems, crush up the leaves with my fingers on wax paper, then slide the herbs into a recycled glass herb bottle. Since I had so little Basil, I combined them in one bottle labeled "Italian Seasoning." Consumer Reports tested a number of common commercial herbs & spice brands for arsenic, cadmium & lead. Popular brands including Walmart Great Value, McCormick, Spice Islands, 365 Whole Foods, Badia and many others for particular spices & herbs: basil, oregano, black pepper, chili powder, cumin, etc. The report is not encouraging. A lot of them ...