A Little Competition Brings Out the Best

Back in late January I bought some Bulbine frutescens.  (Scroll down to page 11 of the link provided.) I had heard lots of good things about this plant.  It is drought tolerant and, most importantly to me at the time, cold hardy.  The plants were not blooming when I purchased them, but I am a very calm, patient gardener and knew I would be able to wait for blooms. 

Then, Ami at Southeast Florida Garden Evolvement posted a  beautiful picture of her blooms complete with BEES no less.

Obviously, I had to rush out to a garden center and buy more bulbine that was in bloom.  I planted the blooming bulbine near the non-blooming one and ....

The non-bloomer accepted the challenge and has been blooming ever since.  There are subtle differences in the two plants.  The flower petals are shaped a bit differently and the flowers are spaced farther apart in the 'late bloomer'  variety.  The 'late bloomer' leaves seem to be more tightly clumping.  Both flowers are orange with those cool fuzzy yellow centers.  I haven't been able to find any information to explain why these plants are slightly different.  Anyone know?

And yes, I realize I'm NOT a calm, patient gardener.  That's why I have so many plants.

Sunny Blooms

Sunny garden areas at My Garden Path are very sparse but there are a few spots where sun loving plants grow and bloom.


The Tampa Vervain, Glandularia tampensis, which was purchased in February of this year is blooming non-stop.  The Sedum Florida Gold is showing some growth as well.

This little Bulbine frutescens was recently purchased and planted because of a post Ami at Southeast Florida Garden Evolvement wrote.  I think I flunked color placement by putting orange next to red, but I think the butterflies will like it.  That little plant is really only a portion of two plants I split apart to spread out in this area of the garden. 

This Bulbine, shown below,  is one of four I planted in February.  It was nipped by cold on the tips and it and its brothers have just been sitting there doing nothing.  So, I bought the ones that are now blooming to give these guys some competition.  Hopefully, now that I have some blooming Bulbine I can leave these alone long enough to let them recover if they will.  They appear to have a tighter clumping habit than my new ones and I wonder if they could be a different type of Bulbine.  If they ever get off the mark and grow and bloom it will be interesting to see if they have a different flower.  That's my butterfly magnet passionvine, Passiflora incarnata, in the background.  It dies to the ground every winter but returns every spring and soon takes over the trellis, the fence, and anything that stands still near it. 

At the beginning of February I planted my first two rose bushes.  This Knockout RADrazz is very small, I purchased it in a one gallon container, but it keeps up a steady stream of blooms. 

Plants are growing, birds are singing, a few butterflies have flitted past along with one or two bees checking out the emerging flowers, My Garden Path is on a path of renewal. 

I Pretty Much Stuck to the List (Sort of)

I am in full bore reconstruction mode.  I really am trying to focus on one area at a time, but I'm not being very successful at that.  I have taken out two huge 20 years+ old hibiscus bushes and am planning to replace with some Old Garden Roses.  I usually plant zinnias, cosmos, blanket flowers from seed in the area in front of the hibiscus.  I still plan to do that this year as well.  But the roses will be my backbone for this area.  Since they are cold hardy I will have something beautiful to look at even when the full effect of all the other flowers is gone.  I haven't purchased the roses yet.....

Still digging up the stump for the largest of the hibiscus bushes.

I have a very shady corner which is  planted with gingers, caladiums, alocasias, a red shrimp plant, forsythia sage and persian shield.  All but the red shrimp has gone dormant from the cold weather.  These plants always have come back but until about April that corner looks very bare.  It is under my twin grandfather oak  so oakleaf mulch is all you see from January until Aprilish.

Purchases for this area include: 2 Chamaedorea Cataractarum and  2 Shefflera Arboricola.  Also purchased were some Flax Lily I found on the half-price rack at Lowe's and a beautiful Camellia Sasanqua that I plan to put under my bedroom window which is dappled shade.  The Cat Palms will take the place of the Microspadix in my wishlist. They are not as cold hardy but are good to 20 degrees. And they were only $10 each. If I ever find a Microspadix I can still buy one. One.  Here's some info on my beautiful camellia.  Camellia Sasanqua Shishi Gashira


See how my one at a time plan is disintegrating?


A third area I have been working on is against my neighbors chainlink fence.  I planted some Bamboo last spring that is filling in nicely  and held up during the cold snap.  My banana trees however are toast.  I think they will come back from the corms but until then there is a gaping hole.  So, I bought a (Feijoa sellowiana) to put in that space.  Also purchased 2 Bulbine and 2 more Lorapetalum to plant in front of the sunny fence area.

I really got some good plant deals at my local nursery.  Really.  I did.

As I plant each area I will post updates.  My goal is to provide some more cold hardy "bones" for my garden while still keeping all the tropical and more cold sensitive perennials for spring and summer color.  That's the plan!