Selective Sights After a Cold Winter's Night

The garden thermometer under the big double-oak showed 29 degrees this morning at first-light. 

Smiling Pansies

As a native Floridian who has never lived anywhere else, I remember cold winters like we have been experiencing these last few years.  However, I had been lulled into forgetfulness by the decade or so of milder winters occurring prior to 2008.

Bamboo, Multiplex 'Fernleaf'

I've lived on the same piece of property for 25 years now.  When the children were still small my gardening efforts were limited to a few hedges of ligustrum, viburnum and lots of azaleas.  All of those plants are cold-hardy and have never been fazed by winter.

Budding Azaleas


A few hibiscus bushes and pass-along bromeliads were in the landscape but I don't remember winter ever ravaging them like it has recently.

Native Saw Palmetto

The last four years have afforded a slower lifestyle that fueled a new interest in gardening.  Yep, just in time for a cold winter cycle to hit.



Flowering Maple

All the beautiful tropicals and butterfly nectar and host plants that drew me that first spring of 2007 gardening have taught me much.  Old stand-by plants once considered "boring" are now appreciated for the structure they provide during just such times as these.

African Iris

Oh, the tropicals and other tender perennials will always be loved and grown in this garden, but more thought is being given to a reliable frame-work to define the garden during the dormant months.

Shrimp Plant

This thought began after last January's eleven days of freezing temperatures.  By April, the thought was hidden beneath the exuberance of seeing those tender plants returning.  Soon, the thought of providing a form that would be cold-hardy was completely forgotten, or at least, ignored.



Sasanqua Camellia 'Yuletide'

A few reliable garden residents are rewarding my initial effort and refueling my resolve to follow-through better this next gardening year. 

My blog title says "Learning and Growing in a Florida Garden" and, albeit slowly, I am.

Sitting in the Shade

With the cooler temperatures that have come about since the beginning of September, sitting in the shady part of the garden is once again a pleasant way to spend some quiet time.  Cool is a relative term I suppose.  The daytime highs have been in the mid to high eighties with night temperatures being in the mid seventies. 

So many of the plants in the garden are enjoying this time of year as much as the gardener.  Sitting here,  I notice the Curcumas are as tall as the six-foot fence.  The Butterfly Gingers and the Pinecone Gingers are nearly as tall.  Since all of them will be going dormant for the winter season, I want to sit and appreciate them for all they are giving to the garden right now. 

Persian Shield, Forsythia Sage, Shrimp Plants, how many of these will last through this winter's cold spell?  Past years have seen these plants going semi-dormant but not disappearing altogether.  That is, past years not including the most recent.  Oh how I fear the corner becoming nothing but oak leaf mulch as it was this past January through March.

Some plants were added to give the area at least a minimal amount of green this winter.  Cast Iron plants are cold hardy and several clumps have been placed throughout the corner plantings.  Both Variegated and Green Liriope were planted as a border to define the area.  Two Holly Fern were placed within the corner plantings as well.  But what about the Schefflera, the Bleeding Heart Clerodendrum, and the Cat Palms?  How will they react to a cold winter blast?

Ah, well, this is the best time of the year for this area of the garden.  This shady corner has been growing in beauty all summer and now has reached its peak.  Seasons change and so will the garden.  Everything that seemed gone forever in January has returned with enthusiasm. 

The huge live-oak that gives the area its shade will stand strong through the cold continuing to provide cover for all the birds which frequent the feeders and birdbaths during all the seasons of the year.

Providing feeders with fresh seed and birdbaths with fresh water ensures that these colorful visitors will stay around through all the seasons.

Now is the time I have been given to enjoy this spot.  The scent of the Butterfly Ginger blooms, the ripening beauty of the Pinecone Ginger cones are only available now, in this season.  The buds on the Forsythia Sage promising yellow spires of blooms, the reddening bracts on the Red Shrimp plants are only for this time. 

As I continue to sit in this special corner of my garden, I realize I'm learning to listen.

"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."

Psalm 90:12

Early September Color

This time of year there is plenty of color in the garden.  The Pentas lanceolata provide dots of color in red, pink, purple and white. 

The view from the backporch is always filled with butterflies sipping from the clusters of blossoms.

Pinecone ginger,  Zingiber zerumbet, blooms are turning red now and soon will be incorporated in arrangements for Thanksgiving and Christmas get togethers.

Lots of color greets anyone coming through the entryway garden.   The Caladiums are still growing well and the Impatiens have just exploded with growth.

The cranberry colored Pentas that are part of the new front flower bed are butterfly magnets.  The grandkids and I watch dancing butterflies from the front windows.  I enjoy the Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender' which has been producing purple plumes since Spring but the butterflies don't pay any attention to them.   

While the red shrimp plants,  Justicia brandegeana, are making me wait for blooms, the Justicia brandegeana 'Fruit Cocktail' are bursting with buds.  They are another butterfly favorite especially of the Giant Swallowtail.

When the light is just right, green can be bright and beautiful.  The normally shady back corner glows in the sunlight of early morning.

Without a doubt, the showiest flower of the season is the Red Firespike, Odontonema strictum.  This cold sensitive shrub is killed to the ground every winter but grows back by summer to a height of six feet.  The many large spikes of tiny trumpet shaped flowers are very attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds. 

There is a lot of color in early September here at My Garden Path.  New buds are forming on many plants promising color will continue for months to come.

Blooms Along the Shady Path

When I look out my kitchen windows onto the shady backyard I see tiny plants making a comeback amid bushels and bushels of fallen oak leaves.  It takes some looking but here are some blooms I found popping up through the leaves.

This bromeliad was gifted to me from a gardening friend and is blooming for the first time in my garden.  I don't know the name of it but it sure is pretty.

Spiderwort, Tradescantia ohiensis, is a native plant I considered a weed for the first 20 years I lived here.  I've dug so many of these up I've lost count.  A few years ago I was browsing a native plant fair and saw these flowers being sold for $4/ gallon size pot.  Having a monetary value placed on these and seeing them listed as native plants, I now carefully cultivate them.  They grow well in the floodzone of my middle backyard and are just loving the wet earth there.  Another reason to love these plants is that they didn't skip a beat during the cold weather.

Another plant that the cold didn't faze is the blue walking iris, neomarica gracilis.  I have these hopelessly mixed together with the yellow variety, neomarica longifolia, and when they bloom en masse starting about this time of year, they are quite lovely.

The 'Fruit Cocktail' shrimp plant, Justicia brandegeana,  is a recent purchase that was made to give some color to a slowly returning garden.

These plants are all under my huge live oak tree that creates one big self-mulching bed taking up half the backyard.  My Garden Path gets its name from the circular path that surrounds the oak.  As soon as leaf fall and pollen fall are over in a week or so, this area will be a favorite spot to spend time as it is always cool and pleasant under the big oak.