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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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Surprise!! There’s babies hiding under all that dead stuff
Posted Jan 23, 2010 by Loren Omoto
Updated Jan 23, 2010 at 07:24 PM
I finally got myself out in the garden to start assessing the damage, cutting away the ugliness and pulling up the obviously dead.
I never, ever would have guessed I’d find so much life under all that brown! Many of my plants still have green stems, and I left the leaves on those that still had plenty, albeit brown ones, like the crotons, tis and jatropha. There’s still a lot of winter left, and the leaves might help some if they don’t fall off.
The pagodas were needing a drastic haircut anyway and, yup, they’re very much alive. (Love those pagodas—they can take anything.) They don’t look quite so shocking as denuded little shrubs.
What was really amazing, though, was uncovering all the perky little babies huddled next to their mothers. Check out this proud mama and her happy little pups.
They’re zebra aloe, a 2010 Florida Nursery Growers Association plant of the year. It’s a little different from the aloe vera we’re all familiar with—a little more showy. The foliage has white stripes, and the mother plant throws a tall flower spike every so often with pretty salmon colored blooms.
That said, I wasn’t a huge fan. I find the aloe family a little .... sharp. But this gal made it through the drought with no watering, and the freeze with no covering. And managed to produce healthy babies all the while. That’s worthy of some admiration.
Gaura turned out to be another surprise. A hot weather lover who took a little bit of a beating, but hung tough and shielded lots of fine baby growth.
Out by the mailbox, I’d put in a little succulent garden, which stayed covered with sheets from the night the temperatures first dropped. Everything survived, but the kalanchoe flapjacks had some fried leaves. When I cut them away, look what I found underneath! (The mother plant is the stalk to the left.) I had no idea what was going on under that sheet!
I’ve said it before, but my biggest heartache was the black-eyed Susan vine that Susan Gillespie gave me as a big, rooted cutting when I couldn’t get any going from seed. It swallowed my fence and I had a view of it from both the kitchen and bedroom. I just loved seeing all those happy little blooms fluttering in the breeze, and I didn’t know how I’d replace it. I haven’t seen it in nurseries.
High on my list today was to cut it all down. (I can also see the dead mess from my kitchen and bedroom—it was depressing!)
I was careful to cut it to within a few inches of the ground, just in case it wanted to come back. But it looked pretty darned dead.
I was hacking away a few feet from the trellis when, hiding under all the dead vinage, I spotted this.
It’s only about an inch tall, but it is unmistakeably a baby black-eyed-Susan vine (those brown V-shaped stems attached to it were part of Mama.)
Where there’s life there’s hope, right?
How many more days till spring?
(PS—Susan at Central Florida Gardener is asking people to post lists of their survivors. Those lists are definitely worth a look—remember, they’re from all over Florida, so check where the sender is from. And add your own!)
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Reader Comments
Posted by (kgardens) on January 23, 2010
I’m glad you found some green underneath your brown. It makes cleaning up a little more fun. Those flapjacks are something else! Here’s hoping those green babies and new shoots keep thriving for you. Kay
Posted by (Iluvpumpkins) on January 23, 2010
I just can’t wait for Spring with all this brown the green is going to look great.
Manny’s on the Bay told me they are getting a very large delivery of plants around February 15 and we all know they have very good prices. Pumpkin
Posted by (Janna) on January 24, 2010
Penny, so glad to see your survivors. Especially the flapjacks and black-eyed Susan. I’ve not yet trimmed my Susan vine, mostly because I’m a little perplexed. Surrounded by crispy brown refuse, there are a few bright green leaves right in the MIDDLE of the trellis.
Thanks for the tips on Manny’s and the Central Florida Gardener survivor list!
Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on January 24, 2010
Yay, the susan lives on. I knew it would. I had to hack my beautiful vine down last year to the nubbies and there were little sprouts everywhere. They attach all over the place. I love the susan vine carpet on the ground as much as the fence climbing.
I’m interested in that zebra aloe too. I had some pots of aloe on the lanai that literally melted. I’m not sure they will come back.
Thanks for the link. I’ll go there now and check it out. And thanks for the pictures. They are really uplifting. It makes spring and renewal that much closer.
Posted by (Chip) on January 24, 2010
New signs of life are everywhere in my garden.Driving around though I see a lot dead landscapes spring is going to be a very busy time for garden shops and landscapers. Planing out our spring garden has been hard, most farmers must be gamblers at heart and my respect for them grows daily all we have is an shoehorn garden they have there lively-hood at stake. I have cow peas ready they will go down as soon as the rainy season starts beyond that we are not sure. .....“Chip”...
Posted by (Janna) on January 24, 2010
Chip, it’s great to hear that your hard work paid off and that all was not lost with regard to your veggies. Enjoy that crop - I know you will!
Susan, my black-eyed Susan came from one of your cuttings, via Penny. I planted it last spring. (Thanks, again!) I just traced my mid-trellis green leaves to one TINY vine that sprouted up right next to the fence beneath the brown. I hope that lots of little sprouts will come! I love that plant.
Posted by (Susan Gillespie) on January 24, 2010
I am so glad, Janna, the susan has traveled to your yard. Happy yellow flowers all over town can’t be a bad thing. I love that plant too.
Posted by (Chip) on January 24, 2010
I love eating out of my garden! I always pick more than we can eat tonight we had Brussels sprouts, cauliflower,broccoli and strawberry’s for dessert I also made barbecue chicken but I could have done with out it. I had a nice surprise one of the Siberian tomatoes Diane grew from seed had some life in it it was covered up by carrot tops I looked closer and it still had tomatoes on it and they are huge! one is about as wide as two of my hands side by side. I was going to harvest those carrots now I am going to wait it must have protected the tomato plant. That made Diane and my day….“Chip”
Posted by (Iluvpumpkins) on January 25, 2010
I guess I took this plant for grant-it, my Gardenia is tall and green and full of blooms. May have to plant more of those in my beds. Chip I still am going to plant a vegetable garden. Janis
Posted by (Chip) on January 26, 2010
Good for you Janis if you buy plants get them from shells they do not carry much but what they do have is just so much better than what you get at the the big box stores. I hate to say it but the only thing they care about at the big box stores is what the plant looks like when they sell it. With ornamental plants this is mostly no big deal. But with veggies time is important if they sit in a pot they have out grown for to long they may stall and never do well that is why Shells is so much better they keep things for only so long then it has to go! Keeping a small inventory makes this easier that and a trusted suppler and they will sell you things out of season at the big box stores so it is buyer beware ...“Chip”