Clear Away Winter, Welcome Spring

It seems like you could garden in Central Florida year-round.  Florida is never buried in snow, averaging only three freezes a winter, which usually lasts only a few hours.  The tropical foliage really suffers when the temperatures dip below 60F, so although the weather seems great (read: not frozen), our tender plants cannot tolerate the grooming it so desperately looks like it needs.  Once we are safe from cold snaps, Floridians have a small window of time to get those flower beds back in shape before the mosquitoes arrive and intense heat and humidity strikes.  Now is the time and here is a sample of what I plan to work on this week:

Our blue flowering plumbago have died back to foot-long dead sticks, but a patch of green leaves are sprouting at the base of each nearly dead plant.  These are the best plants for my sandy soil; full sun, drought and heat tolerant, and they survive winter and come back in happy, bushy, flower covered mounds.

I was given two hydrangea plants just before winter and decided to wait until spring to plant them.  They look a little scroungy right now, but once they're in a shady place and given lots of water (hydrangea means "water lover"), they should thrive.  I think the plants I received are blue booming.

Beautiful red amaryllis and fragrant Easter lily bulbs are growing and green shoots have already begun to grow.  Once in bloom, they will peek up over the plumbago.  I don't do anything with these bulbs, just leave them alone year-round in the ground and we usually get dozens of brilliant blooms around Easter each year.

A woody evergreen bush called the yesterday, today and tomorrow plant grows at the end of our front porch and is ready to bloom bloom bloom!  It has intensely fragrant flowers that bloom deep purple, fade to a pale lilac a day or two later, and finally turns white for a few days before falling off.  The scent is so strong, it's overbearing if you stand too close to the flowers.  I'm glad we planted this at the far end of the porch!  I keep watching for shoots to transplant, but just never seem to find any.  Momma gave me a baby in a pot (again, just before winter) and it is ready to be planted.  I'm wondering where I should put it?  NOT near the front door, but close enough, so we can enjoy the pretty flowers and fragrance from a safe distance.

Each year I put annuals under a small viburnum tree.  I think I'll plant colorful mounding impatiens this year.  I wonder if I can keep them moist enough?

A Busy Weekend

On Saturday we webt to Lowe's Hardware store, where we bought 3 hibiscus, lawn fertilizer, and lawn bug killer.  We've been troubled by sand gnats, plus we saw a couple of tiny ticks on our dog, and so the bugs had to go!  David spread it, but he's so fast, I'm afraid he may have run the spreader in record speed, thus not covering enough ground with the poison.  Time will tell.  The weather station said rain, but none has come yet.  Hoping the stuff we spread doens't burn the grass.  I don't look forward to standing outside with a hose.

Mark and I had the nicest Sunday.  We started out with breakfast at the Woodshed, which wasn't anything to write home about.  Next, we took a pleasant drive, windows open, to Mount Dora.  We ended up at a waterside park and enjoyed watching the ending of a sailboat race.  Kids were having a ball in the park and I wondered out loud if I could still hang upside down from my knees.  Mark was quick to warn me not to, or I might get hurt.  He probably had an image of my head hitting the ground.  I still feel like I can do anything, but Mark's got a point! 

A typical stop for us is at the RV store, where we looked for the millionth time at campers and RVs.  We finally decided that a fifth wheel would be the wisest choice, as it has plenty of head room for Mark's 6'6" crown.  Now that we have that decision made, we will spend many enjoyable visits figuring out what is important to both of us in a camper.  We probably won't buy one until we sell our Florida house and move to our North Carolina home.  Having a nice-sized trailer is a good idea so we can bail out when we tire of snowy winters and also so we can be in Central Florida during Spring, so I can coninue with my tour escort job, accompanying high school marching bands.  I love it.  The camper store was having hot dogs and hamburgers, so we ate lunch there.

On our way home we drove through Winter Garden, where the main street was closed for a Spring festival.  Oh fun!  We walked up and down the street looking at all sorts of plants and displays of ecologically sound strategies for better gardening.  We bought six nice-sized azeleass in dark pink with freckles, 3 cast iron plants, and a plumeria stick.  I planted my plumeria today, and look forward to the day when it is as big as the huge one I lost this winter to frost.  We have lots to plant; replacing plants that we lost in frost this winter.  We normally get 2-3 freezes, but this winter we had 13.  Hoping Florida won't have such severe weather next winter.