Ant Feeding Frenzy Put to an End! 

I showed you some pretty blossoms on my lemon-lime tree that miraculously made it through the winter.  About 2 weeks ago, I noticed a bazillion ants marching up and down the live portions of the plant without a care in the world.  I sprayed them off and they returned.  I was frustrated and once again googled my heart out to try to find out what the problem was.  It seemed the issue was scale insects are on the plant, which secrete a sugary substance the ants are "farming."  It can also be aphids.  The answer is white oil.  Next step was to make homemade white oil of course because I do everything at home if at all possible.  I googled that too.  I found several recipes and they were all pretty much the same.  1 part dish soap (I used Sunlight because the recipe I used specified this brand), 2 parts vegetable oil (I used teaspoons for 1 quart of water so I had no leftovers) mixed well and then dilute 1 tablespoon of this into 1 quart of water and spray all over the plant including both sides of the leaves.  This needs to be repeated on a weekly basis until the problem is completely eradicated.  The oil will suffocate the insects and this mixture will kill the sooty mold as well.  This should not be used until after the flowers have blossomed and the fruit has set.  I've also given the soil a nice, citrus fertilizer spike to give the plant an added boost of vitamins to help it recover.  

Plumeria

Parsley

The little baby parsley is looking very cute.  After all this time, the seeds seem to finally have taken hold and growing on one side of the planter.  We'll wait a bit longer until the seedlings get a bit larger before we thin them out and move the ones we pluck out to the other side of the planter.  I'm just glad to see that they are finally growing.  I thought for a while we weren't going to get anything in the box at all.  Would you believe the plumeria is actually beginning to poke out the top of those slips??  I am amazed!  The sheet of paper that came with them said 90 days or something like that to get roots.  I was a bit concerned because little Josh was having a ton of fun with the hose last weekend and sprayed water water everywhere and my plants got soaked.  The instructions were VERY clear about making sure not to over water these slips.  So I was more than a little worried about them since they took on quite a bit of water if you recall.  Today, I was more careful and prepared for my little man.  I moved them far out of the little guy's reach as well as the range of the sprayer.  

Plumeria slips

Today, I went web crawling all because I my four plumeria slips arrived. I am a cheapskate.  There is a wonderful plumeria farm in Tampa near me but their plants are very expensive.  So, I opted to order the cheapest little slips I could find and give it a go doing the hard work myself.  I read the instructions and it said to put them in perlite and water once every week or week and a half or so.  That got me to wondering what exactly perlite is.  I thought we should talk about it since it plays such a big part in horticulture.  We can talk about the plumeria slips another day after I go pick up some perlite and actually do the rooting.
Perlite is volcanic glass without shape that is from snowy white to grayish white in color with a high water content and the unusual characteristic of having the ability of increasing its volume from 4 to 20 times when heated to just the right temperature.  Typically this is above 1600 F.  Chemically, it's inert and has a pH of around 7. The US is both the largest consumer and producer of this non-renewable resource that is mined.

In 2010, estimated perlite consumption in the US was as shown in the table:^[1]

Fraction	use[1]
53%	building construction products
14%	horticultural aggregate
14%	fillers
8%	filter aid
11%	other

Since we're focusing on horticulture. I thought we'd just go over the value of perlite in horticulture or gardening.

1. Aeration and drainage
2. Sterile Rooting Medium - stimulates root initiation
3. Hydroponics - Excellent media with superb results
4. Neutral pH & Sterile
5. Weed-free & Disease-free - good for seedlings
6. Carrier for fertilizer, herbicides, & pesticides
7. Clean, odorless, lightweight & safe to handle
8. Serves as insulator to reduce extreme soil temperature fluctuations
9. Does not deteriorate
10. Holds moisture without getting soggy

Good Perlite Links:

http://www.schundler.com/outdoor.htm
http://www.thegardensuperstore.co.uk/Perlite__uses_in_the_garden.htm
http://www.simplyhydro.com/growing1.htm
http://www.perlite.net/


I also planted a little basket of lavender, parsley seeds and chive seeds after work today.  It made me happy.  Let's watch and see how it does.

Curcuma Ginger Returns 4/1/2012

Curcuma Ginger in Flower 2011

Curcuma Ginger is also known as the Siam Tulip or its Latin name of  Curcuma petiolata and goes dormant from November to the spring of every year.  I read May or June but my Curcuma is just coming round now as you can see in the photo.  I've been watering it along with my other plants and trying to keep it weeded (for the most part unsuccessfully).  This plant is fragrant as all gingers are and is hardy from zone 7a/b to zone 11.  I don't want you to tune out if you are in a cooler zone than this.  This is a perfect plant for you in the warmer climes in the summer time.  It is great out on the deck in a container and then as the weather cools off you can bring it inside in a southern window.   Since it's dormant from November to May, you won't be missing anything.  You can keep it as a houseplant and treat it like one of your bulbs.  I'm going to point you to a website that gives you some houseplant tips for this plant.    In fact, I keep this in a container on my lanai as well, I just never bring it inside.  During frost season, I bring it closer to the house for some added protection.  The Siam Tulip has average watering needs but is drought tolerant.  This means is a good xeriscaping plant.  I've read that it should be both full sun and partial shade to full shade (lol).  I keep mine on the lanai which is full sun but under the screen.  When I used my handy dandy sun measuring tool, it tells me it is partial shade.   It seems to me that there is a lot of different advice about caring for this plant, so I'd say use your best judgement from what you read.  I went by the seat of my pants and did just fine.  Fertilize this little sweetheart in the spring with 10-20-10 mixture and you can divide the rhizomes in the spring for propagation as well.  You can also gather the seeds by allowing the pods to mature and dry on the plant first and then breaking them open to gather the seeds.  I've never tried the seed gathering, but I'm thinking I might this year.  

 kalanchoe blossfeldiana

My Kalanchoes are in their second flowers for the year.  It has been a strange year.  They flowered through the entire winter because it was so mild.  About a month or so ago, I cut them way back because they looked so straggly and added a bunch of fresh soil and some all purpose time-released fertilizer.  As you can see above, we have some new blossoms coming.  Kalanchoes have never really been on my list of favorite flowers for a weird reason from my childhood.  My mom had them lining the front walk to the front door.  The bees love these flowers.  I had gotten a really bad sunburn and had open blisters all over my arms.  I have a memory of the bees and the open blisters and these flowers. So, until last year, I refused to have these plants.  You'll never guess where I put them. lol  I moved them to the lanai after I realized my error.  They got a bit neglected until I moved them to the lanai.  The patio or lanai is where I spend the bulk of my time.  

So let's talk a bit about kalanchoes and what they need.  Kalanchoes originated in Madagascar and need temperatures between 60 F and 85 F.  Since they are succulents, they are drought tolerant but if you let it dry out completely, it will wither and it will take a while for it to come back.  They need bright light, so a shady location is not the best place for it.  Too much sunlight and it will grow a lot but reduce its blossoms.  This is probably why it's doing so well on my lanai.  The insects it is prone to are aphids, scale, spider mites and nematodes.  These are simple to propagate.  Just cut a stem that's 4 - 6 inches and remove the lower leaves and stick it about 1/2 way into the soil and water like it already has roots and is a plant every 2 -3 days.  It should take root and start a new plant that you can share with a friend.  Probably the most important thing to remember with your kalanchoe is to never let the temperature fall below 40 F.  Bring it inside if it's going to get that cold to protect the plant.  Otherwise, it's a stalwart little soldier of a flower.

Today's Links:

Curcuma Ginger Sites:

http://stokestropicals.plants.com/Curcuma-alismatifolia-Pink-Siam-Tulip-P78.aspx

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/691/

http://www.growingguides.com/PlantGuides/HiddenGinger.pdf

http://www.guide-to-houseplants.com/siam-tulip.html

Kalanchoe sites:

http://www.krismers.com/Kalanchoe_care.pdf

http://www.thegardenpages.com/kalanchoe.html

http://houseplants.about.com/od/succulentsandcacti/p/Kalanchoe.htm

Teddy Bear Sunflowers

High Scent Sweet Peas

So seeding this year has been a dismal failure except of course the darn beans that the whiteflies feasted on.    Those are now safely protected with those yellow cards with icky, sticky stuffy on the outsides that reminds me of rubber cement.  But it's a little too late.  Close the barn door after all the horses have escaped except the ugly old hags that are only good for eating your oats.  They've become our friends so we keep them around and talk to them and feed them because we consider them family.  :)  So, this meant it was time for a visit to Burpee Seed Company's website.  I chose Burpee because they've been around forever and cater to the home gardener and I believe them when they say they are not in the pockets of the GMO monsters like Monsanto. What did we get?  

Sweet Basil

Common Chives

Double Curled Parsley

Bushsteak Hybrid Tomato

Old Spice Mix Sweet Peas

Hopefully, we'll have some good luck with these seeds when they come.  I saw an interesting planter for sweet peas that I want to try.  It's just a basket with a bunch of bamboo-like supports for the sweet peas to climb up.  It's not much to look at in the beginning, but I bet it's gorgeous once it has a blooming plant growing all over it.  I'm just tickled about sweet peas because I love fragrant plants.  For about 3 weeks while I was walking my dog, there was a fragrance that had my nose leading me all over the place trying to find this scent that was so wonderful I just HAD to find it.  Every day, twice a day I was hunting and hunting trying to find the plant that owned the aroma.  The dog just couldn't understand why I was acting like a dog, sniffing here and there, up and down.  The neighbors must have thought I'd lost my marbles.  I never did find the source of the scent so I expect next spring I'll go through it all again.  As always, before planting these seeds I looked it up.

 

The directions said to plant in November or early spring.  We'll plant them right away when they get here.  I also noticed that it was recommended to nick the hard outer coating with nail clippers to get more of the seeds to germinate.  Be careful to nick only the outer coating and not the seed though.  My daughter soaks her seeds overnight before she plants them.  I'm not sure how that would work with these.  I might try that with some of these as an experiment and see which works better.  These seeds are planted the old fashioned way; make a furrow and put the seeds in the furrow.  Then, cover the seeds.  Remember we talked about gardenias? They like acidic soil.  These are opposite.  These like alkaline soil.  Sweet peas take 3 - 4 weeks to germinate my friends so be patient.  Be sure to give them something to climb up and protect those seedlings from birds, snails and other predators.  Morning sun and afternoon shade suits these flowers to a tea!  As they grow, be very gentle when training them up their trellis or whatever they are growing up, the stems can break easily.  Like all other blooming plants that we love to talk about lately, deadheading is necessary.  Remove those spent blossoms if you want new ones and unlike petunias, don't wait until they are all the way dead, do the dead heading just as the blossom is beginning to fade for the best results.  It is said that the more flowers you cut off the plant for bringing inside to enjoy, the more the plant will produce.  So remember to enjoy some of these blooms inside your home too.  
As always, I want to share a couple of wonderful sites for sweet peas reference that helped me.
http://www.selectseeds.com/sweet_peas05.htm
http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/swp-direct-tips.html

Glorious Geranium Blossoms leftover from last year 3/28/2012

I just love geraniums.  They are a simple flower that bloom from spring through the end of summer.  There seems to be very little that can go wrong with them.  They are somewhat drought tolerant so even if you forget to water them once in awhile, they forgive you.  They are like your children and if you do too much, they rebel and act up.  So too much water and the roots will rot.   Geraniums need to be dead headed to get them to continuously bloom.  If the spent blooms are not removed, then new blossoms will not come and the plant may go to seed.  There are two different fertilizers recommended for geraniums - use either 20-20-20 or 15-30-15 formulas.  As always, when fertilizing, water after applying the fertilizer to avoid burning the plant.  Clay soils need to be improved with organic matter so your geraniums will thrive.  The flowers do well in containers, planted in the ground or brought inside for the winter.  If planted directly in the ground, they prefer a shallow planting rather than deeply planted.  I've been very lucky and had the same plants for several years.  There are 3 main methods of overwintering geraniums.  

1. Hang bare roots upside down in cool place (45-50°Fahrenheit or 7.5-10°Celsius)
2. Bring the plants inside as house plants
3. Using a sharp knife or pruners take a 3-4 inch cutting, pinch off lower leaves, dip in rooting hormone and stick in a mixture of coarse sand and sphagnum peat moss

Here are a couple sites to help you with Geranium Care:

http://www.weekendgardener.net/perennial-flowers/overwintering-geranium-110811.htm

http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/geraniums.html

http://askville.amazon.com/Geranium-Care/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=2489628

Whitefly update: The bean plants are tanking.  I've completely lost 3 plants entirely.  Shown here are 2 more that I don't expect to recover.  I've been treating the plants since Friday with spray and each day I inspect, I continue to see whiteflies on the undersides of the leaves.  I ordered some whitefly strips from amazon.com.  In the beginning I was really upset, but as I thought about this I decided that the beans took only a week to really start growing.  I can grow some more bean pretty quickly so I need to stop whining and just wait for silly, yellow strips and then get rid of the insects and grow some more beans.  Hopefully the strips will get here soon because I see they are attacking the really healthy bean plants too now.  Notice the curling of the leaves.  When I saw the wilting leaves, I knew.  It was confirmed when I turned the leaf over and saw all the little white buggers just hanging around having a little tea party without me.

Lessons Learned: 

1. Do not put newly bought houseplants near your garden plants.  
2. Always keep whitefly/aphid strips on hand so you don't have to wait for them to be shipped

I didn't want to just complain tonight so I thought I'd share a cool little ornament terrarium I found at Save-On crafts.  Naturally, this is not what they advertised
it as.  You can find it here.  I used it for air plants and orchids.  Another cool glass piece I love for showing off single cut flowers is a flower shaped vase.  It typically is used for a hibiscus flower but I use for any flower I see blooming that I find.  It's always nice to see what others use to display their garden showpieces.  Getting ideas is part of what blogging is all about after all.  Finally, that little orchid that I got as a free bonus for purchasing 3 plants from Orchid Master that I told you about last week?  It has 2 blooms!  I was soooo tickled!  It almost made up for those wicked whitflies.  ALMOST, but not quite.

New Orchid - Notice 2 Buds Baby!!

Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides)

Gardenia in Bloom 2011

 I have always loved gardenias because they look so elegant and smell like I am dancing a waltz.  Gardenias can be a little tricky to keep flourishing in your yard.  I've tried them a few times.  This is my third effort and so far, my most successful.  I have been able to keep this one alive for 4 years so far.  Gardenias need bright light, high humidity, and well drained soil with a pH between 5.0 and 6.5.  Normally, I would not bother with the pH, these can be really tough plants to keep going.  I water these sweethearts to keep them going and I am not fond of watering.  I believe in xeriscaping whenever possible.  This is also one of my plants I never forget to feed fertilizer every spring.  

Scraggly Gardenia - 2012

Gardenia in Bud 2012

I used to have 3 gardenia plants, then about 3 years ago I was down to one gardenia. Things are looking a bit iffy now.  My last gardenia plant is terribly, terribly sad.  I trimmed it way back hoping it will begin to fill in.  It does appear to be filling in.  Thank goodness. I have a few photos to show you today so you can see what's going on here.  Before we go any further.  We'll go over what's right and what's not right in the world of gardenia's on the sunny side of Susan.  I'm still researching the growth I see below and what I need to do to fix it.  I see good growth and I also saw no air plants or Spanish moss growing on the gardenia this year!  This was TERRIFIC to see.  Last year I spent many days picking air plants off and moss of the gardenia and checking it daily.  I learned from my tree guy that when pruning the gardenia that it is absolutely necessary to trim it flush with the joint.  If you trim it and leave any nubs at the joint, it gives the Spanish moss and air plants a little "seat" to rest on and take hold on your plant.  I am a much more careful pruner now.

Gardenia Filling In - 3/17/2012

Growth on the stems of Gardenia - 3/17/2012

Living Wreath
I found this cool little project I wanted to try.  Planting a living wreath.  I finally got my act together and ordered the supplies this past weekend from Save-On-Crafts.  The instructions for the wreath are from English Gardens.   I picked up the sheet moss and the wire wreath frames.  While the wreath frames aren't exactly what the instructions called for, they were pretty close.  I expect this weekend to put it all together.  Save-On was the least expensive for these material and I spent hours looking for this stuff and checking for the lowest prices. I'm not sure if I'll use the pansies or not, because these will be on the southern exposure in Florida and virtually no shade.  I also want to snatch up some of the seeds from that gorgeous purple azalea I showed you under the lugustrum a few days back.
If you are handy at all or have a handy housemate, I have another little project for you.  Take a gander at this beauty. 

 It seems pretty easy to build on your own, as long as you remember that you need to have a resting spot for each plant so the soil does not wash away.  I'd say slip a half tube (like a gully or ditch) into each hole and then make sure to affix it in place with caulk.  Then, you can put the small plant into the opening so it will grow out of the opening.  If you want the easy way out, you can always purchase it.  Check out Green Head for details.

Azaleas

Azaleas beneath Bottle Brush Tree

Azalea beneath Lugustrum

A few days ago, we talked about planting azaleas under some plant for dappled sunlight in the very hot climates to protect them from burning.  We also discussed why putting them beneath a Bottle Brush was not such a good idea.  Then, today I was walking my dog and I see someone has come up with this bright idea.  I decided to snap a photo for you to see what it looks like.  The passerby isn't sure what the show is, the azaleas at the base or beautiful bottle brush blooms.  What a shame to waste these showy blooms.  I saw directly across the street from this a properly planted azalea and thought you might like to see that as well.   The lugustrum azaleas are better protected and overall healthier; not to mention the show is clearly not upstaged.  Remember that when you plant your gardens, a bit of time spent planning can make a whole world of difference and save you a lot of grief later.  Think about how the color scheme goes together, when the blooms show their best display and how will that affect the plants around it (Art).  This is all in addition to the sunlight and soil type (Science).  So you see gardening is part art and part science, just like cooking and everything else that's really fun and gives something good in return.  :D 
This brings me to another area of garden art.  I told you I was stuck on this patio for now and that kept me in containers.  This is good in some ways because it lets me be artistic with my plantings.  I can play creatively with how I plant and each year is different from the year before.  Did you ever notice how we seem to fall into that trap of planting the same thing the same way as we did the year before in the same place or nearly the same place or the nearly the same way?  Breaking out of this pattern of sameness is good for us because it lets us express ourselves and have some fun with our plantings.  Plant your strawberries in a pocket planter and tomatoes so they are vertical and hang upside down.  This makes them so much easier to harvest as well.  Plant your potatoes in a plastic bag!  I searched a few of these out for you and looked for what I believed are real bargains and purchased myself.  However, I do not spend more than an hour or so looking.  If you are more dedicated, I suggest that you keep looking and use these to get a good head-start. 

French Lavender
Eeeeee!  I'm so excited! My French Provence Lavender arrived today.  I ordered 4 plants in 4 inch pots.  This delivery was the fastest post I think I ever got and it came in a box marked perishable filled with those little Styrofoam peanuts.  The pots had tape over the soil to keep it moist.  These plants, though not flowering yet, are extra fragrant and as soon as I cut the tape and opened the flaps, the aroma wafted out and wriggled its way up to my nose and tickled my senses.  I can't wait until the weekend comes and I have the time to plant them.  I'll have to search Google and see if they'll be safe from the deer or if I'll have to make room in the cramped quarters on the lanai for them.   For people that know me well, they are probably laughing about now because they realize this is the 4th time I'm trying to grow lavender in Florida.  Every time before it has died on me.  This time I did a little more research and chose to search for the species that suited the zone I now live in.  When I lived in zone 5, it did so well, I couldn't kill it. 

Avocado - February 23, 2012

Avocado Grown by Seed
Have you ever grown a potato in a glass of water?  How about an avocado?  As a grandma to two 3-year old grandsons and a brand new grandson, I've been helping the older ones learn the love of playing in the dirt and growing things.  You saw what happened when we planted bean seeds.  It took two tries but that is how we learn.  We also ate an avocado and then washed the seed that was left after we finished enjoying the fruit.  After that, we stuck three toothpicks into the seed at equal distances around the center to help balance it and hold it on the rim of a plastic cup.  We balanced it on the rim of the cup and then filled the cup with water to cover about 1/3 of the bottom of the seed.  We kept changing the water to keep it from getting murky and rotten.  Some days it looked like it evaporated and we just added a bit more water to keep it covering about 1/3 of the seed.  After awhile, roots began to form.  When the root system looked fairly strong and the toothpicks caved in, we planted the avocado seed in soil.  It's been about 6 months now and we're starting to get some woody covering beginning to form on the stem.  In other words, we are getting a tree beginning to form!!