NF Garden Brigade #15

Welcome to the NF/S.Ga Garden Brigade
We came from here http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1172000/

Tale us what is going on in your gardens.

Thanks for the new thread, Sandy. What is going on in my garden? -- the dern lubber grasshoppers are turning my plants into a gourmet smorgasbord! LOL I'm sorry to report they chewed up the Amaryllis 'Hercules' and 'Pepilio Elite' down to ground level. I moved all my Amaryllis to one small garden plot and intended to cover the bulbs with a wire mesh screen, but the lubbers seemed to reach the adult stage suddenly overnight. It only takes a few hours for a single lubber to turn an Amaryllis bulb into a gnawed up stump. The grasshoppers have also skeletonized my cut-leaf Philodendron (P. selloum) and are trying to ingest all my Crinum lilies. GRRR! I generally have a "live and let live" attitude toward all garden creatures, but I do declare a holy jihad on the lubbers every year, crushing them mercilessly with size 13 clodhoppers. The only comfort is that they will die off soon at the end of the yearly life cycle. I especially go after the "piggyback" lubbers to try to prevent any new generations, but a single mating pair can result in a few hundred lubbers. Every year, I think that I have killed them all when they are tiny, but some of them invariably escape. My main fear now is that, by selective breeding when I kill off only the slowest and least fit lubbers, that I will end up with a race of Uber-Lubbers that may fight back!! LOL

Jeremy

Double Flowering Tuberose, Rajanigandha
Polianthes tuberosa 'The Pearl'
I grew this one in a pot for two years. Started with some small bulb i got at the garden center. Bloom spike 4 feet and drooped over. Plant leaves resemble day lilly. Very fragrant, although I think the double blooms hold-back some of the effect.

Black Lubbers are fewer this year in my yard, probably because i was patrolling this march every afternoon around the yard looking for the swarms of tiney hatchlings and I sprayed and stomped them into oblivion. Jeremy it's good to vent your frustration on insects instead of humans, although we consume far-more of this planet than we deserve. My pests are the #$%^&* feral cat's that like to pis and poop in my mulch.

red castor bean seedling given to me at the last round-up.

another child adopted at the last round-up

the root-beer bush from last year's roundup survived the freeze and is showing-off its big honker leaves.

another big-leaf tropical plant that came from a trade last year.
This likes to grow in a pot with no drain holes (semi-aquatic)

What is the last one?

verigated cast iron plant.

dwarf powder puff bush using the camera flash.

milk weed and agastache with the camera flash

nice pictures

Wren John's plant w/o a name looks like Farfugium Japonicum. One day I too shall own one.

Thank you

Jon, it is good that you have the Tuberrose in a pot because I've found they are very susceptible to soil nematodes. The nematodes are apparently a major concern where the Tuberrose are grown as part of the flower industry in India. I didn't think they would grow here at all until i saw mistressgardener (Linda) growing one in a pot. Every tuberrose I put into the soil of my garden soon perished.nt

Oh, Farfugium! I am surprised it is hardy (according to Plant Files) to Zone 7. Now I have another plant to add to my never-ending-eternal plant wish list!

A passionvine making fruit in my neighborhood on a chainlink fence by an abandoned lot behind a grocery store. I got some of the smaller vines to add to my garden. Get in touch if you want to know the exact location so you can snatch your own vines or get some of the fruit to eat or to use as seeds for propagation. I think it is probably Passiflora edulis, Maypop, the edible passionfruit vine. I thought it was a Florida native, but the Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants says that it is not.

Jeremy

Here's the flower of the passionvine. Light blue, smaller than most passionvine flowers, and the leaves are totally different from my Hardy Passionvine ( Passiflora caerulea ). As you can see, the leaves have three distinct lobes and the leaf is about 4 inches wide.

Jeremy

I will be leading a botanical tour tomorrow, Sunday, 7/17, at the UU Church of Jacksonville, 7405 Arlington Expy (on the north access ramp), around 12:30 PM. I will be discussing about 8 - 10 plants/trees/shrubs (depending on how long my energy and interest lasts today while poring over info at the library computers). LOL So far, the ones to be discussed include Elderberry (currently in great profusion of berries on the church property), Cardinal Flower (present in the nature walk at the church, but nearing the end of its bloom cycle), Camphor Tree, Button Bush and some other natives and invasives. I will try to include some interesting factoids for each plant, including traditional medicinal uses, folklore, suspected magickal properties, etc. I offered to do this as part of a service auction fund-raising activity of the church back in January, but only two people officially signed up. For the tour i gave in April, about 10 people joined in as a result of an announcement made during the church service. All are welcome. If you want to donate a dollar or two to the church, that is fine, but no contribution is necessary.

Did you know: Sleeping under an elderberry can make the faeries and elves appear? Possibly because there is a sedative chemical in the aroma of the elderberry flowers. LOL

Jeremy

Jeremy--I had the hateful Camphor Trees on southside and will attest to their invasiveness!!! they popped up daily throughout the backyard. I could pull them each day for 3-4 hrs and there would be just as many coming up a few days later! I NEVER want to see another one! I love the passie you discovered. I have tried to get various varieties and have several growing this year. "Incense" finally started growing last year and I have to keep it in check now--it is trying to take over the entire community!

I have a ton of weeding to catch up on since it got out of hand when I was not able to do much after surgeries. I have been getting some yard work done and things organized a bit--lots to do!!!

I am thinking of hosting a Round-up here the end of September/first part of Oct when it might? be cooler if there is any interest. Would like to know what fits best into everyone's schedule. Hopefully I will have things to share by then as well.

Linda

Farfugiums are very hardy here but I had no idea they did well without drainage. Very interesting.

Sandy, your Ornamental Okra (Abelmoschus moschatus) has started flowering. It turns out to be the usual reddish color (which means I don't have to give it back, right??!! LOL).

Amazing how quickly all the rain dried up and left my sandy soil parched again. I ran the sprinklers just about all day yesterday, trying to revive a few of my plants. The Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia) especially looked like they were one gasp from a quick death.

Jeremy

LOL!!!! I so wanted a different color, oh well only about 40 more of them to bloom

Sandy

Hey Sandy! That white agastache I got from you at the swap? Well, yesterday I caught one of my cats swatting and chewing on one of them like it was catnip. Ever heard of it being a feline stimulant? LOL

no but we did find a mint up in the mountains that a cat I had at the time loved

I sank a 6ft round kiddee pool in the ground and filled it back with dirt. I put in mostly colocasias a crinum a canna and one of LariAnn's hybrid Alocasias and all are doing surprisingly great. The difference between theses plants and ones planted 10 ft away is amazing. Despite the fact they both get watered an hour a day. I need to either amend my sandy soil or dig down a foot in my beds and lay some plastic cause the results are unreal. Full sun area.

GrubWorm, I think that's a great idea & the results are clear to see. I'm only wondering if you need to sink the plastic deeper so the roots can go deeper than a foot. They will reach for the moistness down there if you go deeper. I know, easier said than done right? By a long shot!
Do the colocasias survive the winters here? (Lake City)

Ann

Good morning everyone

Sandy

GOOD MORNING!!!

I get a Native Paw-Paw yesterday will at the Butterfly Farm!!!!

I also get some butterfly pupae
19 pupae of 9 species
2 Julia
2 Red Admiral
2 Question Mark
2 Pipevine Swallowtail
2 Gulf Fritillary
2 Great Southern White
2 Common Buckeye
1 Zebra Longwing
2 Monarch

Very cool!

Going to take pictures!!! LOL

Sandy

It's very quiet on the Florida forums! Hope everyone is busy with their gardens and all are well. My gardens have been rather neglected and look terrible with all the weeds and lack of water! I water when I can but the heat has been so oppressive that they dry right out. I was hoping for some rain from Irene but it passed us too far to the east. Another week of no rain predicted..

Happy gardening!

I am here, my gardens look like heck also.
We nee to get together to pot up those Hibiscus for the up coming RU

Sandy

I have Dr appts Mon thru Wed~~~either Thurs or Fri should work unless I have to have more tests! Let me know what works best for you!

I have to get some pots and soil first. I think it would be best to put the Hibiscus in to the square ones if we are going to take some of them to the RU. I can not order them until after the 1st so it will have to be the week after

I see my Oncologist Oct 6th for results of Pet Scan and Cat Scan. Nothing else scheduled...yet!

Ok I will let you and Brandy know when I get the pots and soil

Ohhhh I am so out of the loop. Roundup ? What roundup?

I work too much!

Molly

I just heard a rumor about it for Oct. do not know any facts yet

Found it. Here is the information

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1215324/
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1215319/

Thanks Sandy, sorry I missed your trip over here last week. We have been working day and night all summer long. Very grueling and I am beat all the time, but you have to take the work when it comes.

Am hoping things slow a bit now so I can get some weeds pulled, they are taking over everything as we have been having almost daily rains now for the past month or so.

Molly