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Penny Carnathan
Penny’s a Nurture And Hold (NAH): Nah, I won’t pull that out yet, it’s still got a green shoot. She likes dragonflies, lady bugs and new stuff only after weeding, pruning and fertilizing.
Kim Franke-Folstad
Kim’s a Want It Now (WIN): Everything pretty, everything now. She will resort to full-spectrum insecticides in desperate situations, and believes it’s her duty and right to buy new plants every weekend.
Both advocate Plant Choice (SOMEthing besides crotons. Please!), lots of color and low maintenance. We don’t agree on everything, but we’re smart enough to learn from each other - and from you.
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From the garden formerly known as summer; I get by with a little help from my friends
Posted Nov 20, 2009 by Loren Omoto
Updated Nov 20, 2009 at 03:56 PM
I don’t brag. Really. Not often. ... OK, only to my closest friends.
So, just between us, I’m really kind of proud of the blooming I’ve got going on.
I started this garden around 2001, and, since I mostly planted in the summertime, I had pretty much a summer blooming garden. Thanks to you guys, I now have a garden that blooms in the fall, too!
FOD Janice Vogt gave me a chalice vine cutting a few months ago. Solandra maxima likes full sun to partial shade (I have mine in my only little shady spot) and well-draining soil. It also tolerates seaspray, so it’s good for your beach condo. (Not mine. I don’t have one.)
It grows big and fast, and needs support. The blooms are outstanding! And fragrant—my cat was getting intoxicated on this one this morning.
Janice has also given me countless angel’s trumpets cuttings. Brugmansia suaveolens does not like my yard! It’s supposed to like full sun, but it doesn’t like mine. Or maybe it’s my sandy soil—even though I throw in buckets full of compost before I plant.
I would love to have the gorgeous, 5- to 10-foot blooming trees Janice has. But my trumpets are vertically challenged. Or dead. The best of my two little survivors seems to love being in a pot in a corner that gets some shade from the neighbors’ trees. I water frequently and fertilize once every couple months.
This one is interesting because it has both solid green and variegated leaves.
From FOD Janna Begole, I got two cat’s whiskers cuttings.
I had never seen Orthosiphon aristatus till I saw the showpiece blooms in Janna’s garden. She had hers cleverly placed in front of a group of shorter, colorful plants and the effect was stunning. I don’t brag, but I do beg, and, well, it’s fruitful!
I planted this one less than two months ago. It took quickly without a lot of excessive watering, and had its first bloom in no time. Right now, it’s not getting a killer amount of sun. We’ll see how it tolerates summer in Penny’s full-on desert.
A little update on the tiny, organic veggie garden: The yellowing yellow pear tomatoes got a good amount of help from the stinky fish emulsion fertilizer. (See earlier post) It’s now much more green than yellow, has blossoms, and I’ve gotten to actually eat a couple tomatoes. (They’re tasty! And cute!)
FOD Chip Fulp (our edible expert) says yellow pears do better here in the spring, when it’s warmer. Somebody needs to tell Home Dept! I bought this one there at the end of August.
Finally, yeah guys, a plant I discovered, successfully grew AND propagated all on my own! I love my butterfly cassia, also known as desert cassia or Cassia bicapsularis. (Monica Brandies had a few of these—she says they’re the most sought-after cutting when people visit her Open Garden in November.)
I bought my first in 2001 at the now defunct Hudson Nursery. The family propagated it from a huge tree in their yard. That first little one was big and beautiful by 2004, when the hurricanes whipped it around just a bit too much. (I was devastated.)
But I had already discovered it was easy to grow from seed, and I already had some of Miss Original’s daughters growing. Thank God. I have two in the yard now and three volunteers in pots. This one is a great-granddaughter of Miss Original. It’s three or four years old. This is a tree, not a bush. The limbs are hanging much lower than usual because they’re so weighted down with blooms. (YOW! I love it!)
Also, sulphur butterflies, those fun little yellow, frolicky butterflies, love this tree whether or not it’s in bloom. It’s a larval food, but the caterpillars don’t eat enough to make it ugly—and it’s a very pretty tree even when it’s not blooming.
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Reader Comments
Posted by (Chip) on November 20, 2009
I just love large flowering plant’s and your angel trumpets are just so beautiful, we can’t have fence’s here and with all of the teenagers we just can’t do it. It is buyers beware at any garden center last year I spotted strawberry plants at a buck a peace just to bad it was January and would die in a week or two but the yellow pear is a hardy little plant and will keep going if it can. I was getting a five gallon bucket of yellow pears a day out of mine but I let it do its thing every branch that hits the ground will start a new plant so it will take over a large area if you let it. That is why some people trellis them. we just traded our extra’s to our local produce vendor for something we wanted so everybody was happy…“Chip”
Posted by (Iluvpumpkins) on November 20, 2009
Penny, Your yard looks great. We are all learning to apprecate fall in Florida as we find more fall blooming plants.
I do not have a butterfly cassia tree only the popcorn cassia. Manny’s has a 3 gallon for about $7 I am going to pick one up this weekend.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of The Dirt bloggers. Janice
Posted by (Iluvpumpkins) on November 20, 2009
Penny, I would love to put one up at the school garden. Thanks Janice
Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on November 20, 2009
I’m loving your cassia Penny. I hope mine grows up to be big and gorgeous like your Momma tree. Just to share how easy this is to grow——Penny gave me some seeds in March. I started it in a pot, it was big enough to put in the yard in June and I got a few blooms atop a now 4 foot sapling this fall. 3 or 4 years and I’ll be sharing my seeds as well. Beautifying Florida, one Dirt person at a time.
Love the cat’s whiskers. I’ve always loved the look of them but didn’t realize how easy they were to propagate.
Chalice vine—-hmmm—-do I have any fence left?
Posted by (Chip) on November 21, 2009
What a nice garden you have made for yourself and your family! lots of color and very healthy looking . It sounds like you are liking the results you got from the fish emulsion! I know the smell is bad , but you can almost see your plants transform right in fount of your eyes then it is hard to stay out of. I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone it has been my pleasure blogging with all of you and meeting some of you on the field trip. I hope to see you all very soon at the seed and cutting exchange. ...“Chip”
Posted by (Janna) on November 21, 2009
Penny, you officially have a BEAUTIFUL fall blooming garden! The cassia is stunning. I was at Home Depot this morning and broke down and bought one - it’s only a couple feet tall, but I couldn’t resist. (If I had a little more patience, I would’ve waited for a cutting from you!)
I love the chalice vine bloom, too. Does that bloom only in the fall? I’ll take a cutting if you have one, Janice. Oh - and if anyone wants any cat’s whisker’s cuttings, I can pot some of those up for the swap, too.
Posted by (Janna) on November 21, 2009
I want to wish my Dirt friends a very happy Thanksgiving! I too, am very thankful for all of you and for the opportunity I’ve had to meet and talk with you through this blog. What a bunch of great people you are!
Posted by (Janna) on November 21, 2009
Thanks for the cassia tip, Penny! I moved it from the small pot it was in when I bought it to a much larger pot today. Glad to hear that I should be seeing a nice growth spurt soon!
What a great deal on the petunias!! Lowe’s on Waters? Home Depot on north Dale Mabry had some nice poinsettias for under $4.00. I put a couple in the back and a couple in the front walkway area (filtered sun) using the “pot-in-pot” method farmer Rick told us about…
Posted by (Janna) on November 22, 2009
As of yesterday morning, the north Dale Mabry Home Depot had lots of violas. They also had pansies! Not a huge selection of color on the pansies as most of them were white with splashes of lavendar or white with splashes of lavendar and yellow. They looked healthy, though. I bought a couple. I think they were $2.97 each. I’ll check it out again this morning - as we’ll be going back there for some mulch.
From now on, I will ASK about unadvertised sales when at Lowe’s!
Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on November 22, 2009
Lowe’s really does have the best sales when they are rotating their stuff. I don’t know what Home Depot does with theirs.
Let me add to the Happy Thanksgiving thoughts. I truly am grateful for the forum Penny and Kim have made here and the lovely friendship with all the fellow gardeners. Thanks for sharing all the great advice, too. I’ve learned a lot and hope to continue learning even more.
Posted by (Iluvpumpkins) on November 22, 2009
Janna, I will start you a cutting of the Chalice vine tomorrow for you and yes it only blooms in Fall. I would love more cat whiskers.
I was up at the school all day putting in a new flower bed in the main court yard.I will send pictures, then I worked in a shade area trying to copy the path that Hoe and shovel has on her blog. I will send pictures of that as well. Janice
Posted by (Janna) on November 23, 2009
Looking forward to your new pics, Janice! I started some more devil’s backbone and cat’s whisker’s cuttings yesterday, so I’ll have some for you at the swap. (And some for anyone else who would like them!)
Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on November 23, 2009
I’d love to be on the cat’s whiskers list Janna.
Posted by (Janna) on November 23, 2009
Susan, I’ve got you on the list and will definitely have some whisker’s for you!