We did it ?

So now what do we talk about. My tomatos down here are finished but my DIL is doing great with Okra and Stringbeans. She is growing them in the ground and not using my earthboxes though I offered. This constant rain doesn't seem to bother the Okra. I've never grown it before but It has a beautiful flower quite similiar to a Hibiscus. Sure hope this rain stops at least for a day ? I'm ready to build an ARK !

We can talk about anything...yipee..

Well, we better talk about Florida-specific topics. After all the squawking we did to get this forum* we should make use of it!

So... my peppers are doing great and should be nice and hot! All y'all on the east coast are getting all the good rain. Up in the Panhandle, it's hit or miss, although judging from the radar, I'd say that's about to change.

So, here's a Florida question: Does anybody else have a creeping verbena called 'Homestead Purple'? Is it supposed to sort of die back in the deathly summer heat and look awful? Mine looks like dead or dying weeds. Anybody have suggestions for something else to interplant for this time of year, that also attracts flutterbies? I have a huge bed of this stuff right in the front of my house -- I had no idea it was going to look this bad, this time of year.

Recently, my zinnias started looking pretty fried, so I replaced them with vinca. That ought to cover the hole!

We ought to make good use of this forum once the hurricanes start rolling in...










* I'm not actually aware that there was any squawking at all. That's what they call exaggeration for affect, or hyperbole, which is fun to say.

Happy -- Just noticed you are classified as zone 10b and I am south of you and listed as zone 10a ?? Go figure ?

It depends on the zone map that you use....even S. FL has a couple of zones...find one that has just FL...I forgot where I found the zone that I use....I think it was the FDA..or whatever it is...

Maybe we should find a map and all use it....I DG has one...I'll have to look at that...The one I used, I had to put in my zip code.

Hap

Just checked DG....does not have any a or b's...

Dogzilla,
What type of plant are you looking for. Bush, ground cover, etc.?

We have a strange situation here in Fort Pierce....The rain comes across the state and when it gets to where I95 and the Sunshine Expressway run close together it just stops...divides...and Vero Beach and Stuart get the rain. We do get rain, but not the summer afternoon pattern of big thunderstorms, ours come mostly at night. So......I water a LOT!

Tplant, Okra just LOVES hot weather. I'm thinking of putting it in my window boxes on the west side of the house! LOL
Pati

Tplant, if you are inland you get cooler temps. in the winter than someone living East of 95. Maybe that's why you are listed as 10a. Sometimes a couple of miles means a difference in microclimates.

I live ten miles from the coast and about ten miles SW of Ft. Laud.

Actually, I'm in Sunrise, 13 miles, clocked it, from the ocean...who knows......

DogZ,

I have that Homestead Purple Verbena. It's doing very well now. Plantfiles says full sun. It also says zone 6-9. So unless it's a tropical that likes full sun, I make sure the verbena has bits of shade during the day. The guiness coleus has been lending some of that shade to the verbena.

However.......it has been raining pretty constantly for the past 6 weeks, since this is not normal, nothing down here is acting normal. But my zone 9 plants are doing excellent!

Molly

P.S. Yall thought ya could hide from me after what you did while I was at work!!!!! I'll see you at that other thread in a minute....Hap, you know who I'm talking about.

Uh.....who?..........hide?......uh.....

I found one map.....hope will help..

http://www.nolawn.com/florida_planting_zones.htm

This one has the a and bs...

I know I found a better one somewhere...oh well....

TPlant,

I received a gift recently from one of our members of some Lemon Cucumber seeds. I know it's pretty hot here, although with all this rain, not so hot as usual.

Anyway. I decided to start 4 of the seeds in a 4 cell pack. 1 has germinated this morning. Any recommendations on what to do with them when they need a bigger pot or I plant them outside?

Molly
:^))

Happy -- Thought you might have found the 'definitive' zone map, but they have TAMPA right over our zones. Why do they do that? When I joined DG I had trouble finding a good map and changed my zone when I saw what others in 'my area' had listed...so it's close enough I guess. We may be on the split between and 'a' and 'b' but it only matters when the hurricane comes and splits off north or south. Oh...that's a different map. lol

Yeh, I have that map hidden....

Sooz,

Are you talking about the map they made showing where Florida is going to sink into the ocean? LOL

Molly

Budie: Really low, like a ground cover.

Molly: The verbena is in full, blasting sun. I think maybe something else is wrong... like mold or mildew or some pest...

That's tough for you I know Diane, if it's a vermin thing. I know you won't use pesticides and such in your garden. I hope it's not that.
Plant a sun coleus beside it to lend a little shade and see what happens.

Molly
:^)))

Maybe I'll wash it all down with a liquid dish soap + water mixture. If that doesn't cure it... I'll lop it all back to nothing and see what happens. In the meantime, I'll look for a bullet-proof sun coleus. Good suggestion!

Diane

I've not before seen the Zone Map that Hap provided. It confirmed what I had seen on other maps... that the dividing line for Zone 8b and 9a runs right through my garden! It is frustrating because many things rated for Zone 9 freeze here in the winter and many things rated for Zone 8 burn up in the summer. I usually choose things that have a broader range specified, such as Zone 7 - 10. That way, I can generally grow the thing without it experiencing extremes of hot or cold or other conditions to its distemperment.

Dogzilla,
Check your verbena for spider mites. They seem to love Verbena. I believe this is one of the plants that brought these pests to my yard. Finally getting them undercontrol with the help of Mother Nature's many showers.

Connie

Thanks, Connie... I'll check!

Could that be the same thing that killed my Mexican Sunflowers? Because they look just like the verbena.

Hello everyone. Browsing through the Florida area I came across this thread. Since it started with tomato's, I thought I would get involved using tomatoes some of you might not be aware of.

It came about in my search for local native plant dealers. I found a site here in Ft. Lauderdale run my master gardners. In one of their area's I found the following statement, which I copied and pasted in below. I have included the link to this site at the end.

We "discovered" these Wild Florida Everglades Tomatoes while being given the owner's tour of a well known nursery which exclusively sells tropical and sub-tropical fruit trees, fruit shrubs and fruit vines

It was July of 2001 and it was hot. Near the end of the golf cart tour we suddenly spotted several tomato vines in perfect condition and loaded with bright red cherry tomatoes
My hostess said "taste a few" and I was further shocked they tasted like REAL tomatoes fondly remembered from my father's garden in Michigan many years ago - and they were very sweet with zero acid flavor - just amazing

How can this be? There is no native Florida tomato, right? WRONG. I was informed these are heirloom tomatoes wild in Florida that can and will grow happily almost every month of the year

You can plant them now and plant them every month thereafter and get an incredibly bountiful production of super sweet cherry tomatoes that taste better than any tomato you have eaten in many many years.

http://www.mgonlinestore.com/WFETomato/

Well, that's my story for today. I just had to share since I am a tomato lover and thought there might be more than just a few of us here that miss them this time of the year.
The guy sells seed packets at the site.
Art

On the rain thingie, I have been studying the rain since I have been in this house, now almost 15 years. I have a pretty good handle on what happens at my location, just west of I-95 between Broward and Davie blvd's.
Our rain comes generally from the West and South, with an occasional rain coming in off the ocean to the East.
During the summer rainy season it's mainly from the South and West. When it approaches my yard from either direction, it meets up with our daily Easterly ocean breeze. This Easterly breeze literally pushes back the rain to a about a mile West of my house. I miss about three out of four daily rainstorms due to what I call, this Easterly breeze effect.
When it's about to rain, and the Easterly's are blowing, I look up and see the storms stalled just about a mile West of my house or about at 441.
If I drive out there, it's raining at 441 and bone dry at my place. In the middle of the summer rainy season my yard is bone dry. I have to use my sprinkler system every third day just to keep my stuff alive.
I hate doing this for a couple of reasons. First I don't like wasting the water. My well goes down to the Biscayne acquifer, so I am using drinking water to water my yard. Second, this water is loaded with bacteria. It effects the way plants grow by depositing lots of bacteria on my plants. The blooms look terrible, the plants get attacked by all kinds of insects to get at the bacteria on the plants. I don't like to spray for fear of the danger to butterflies and bees here.
The past six weeks of rain have been a blessing, but all the extra work dealing with the exceptional growth the rain has caused has me way behind on my honey-do list. I can't ever remember cutting the grass every week, or draining water from the pool daily as I have had to the last six weeks. In fact, this is the first time since we have had a pool that the water has not been at 90 degrees or higher by July.
Oops, looks like a bitching session, but not meant to be.
I am glad it rained for six weeks. It has helped keep the tempratures down. When it finally stops we are going to really feel the heat this year because we have been spoiled by the cool temp's.
Art

Art,

Thank you so much for that. This is the time of year I don't even try to grow any veggies because it's so hot.

My Husky cherry tomatoes from the winter produced 4-5 months of cherries, I do miss them. They are my snacks when I am gardening.

I'm kinda dense sometimes. I have been finding an occasional tomato plant in my shade garden, certainly wondering how they got there. Of course they don't do that well because of the lack of sunshine. But it was Nancy who told me, and you again reminded me yesterday, the birds do a lot of seed spreading in their travels.

Now let me get over there to get some of those seeds at that site.

Thanks much!

Molly
:^)))

One more post.
The picture is a Florida Zone map copied from the Florida Native Plant Society web site. Here is the link.
Art
http://www.fnps.org/pages/plants/landscape_plants.php

Art,

I have been trying to find the home page for MGonlinestore and I can't seem to come up with it. I googled and I keep coming up with individual pages of plant sales.

I like to find out a little more about a place, their physical address etc, before I buy from them. Do you have any more information?

Thanks,
Molly

Art, that's a great web-site. I love that you can see each county alone for their natives.

Fort Pierce has the same pattern of rain. The storms coming from the west pause where I95 and the Sunshine come close, split, and go north and south of us. Vero Beach to the north and Stuart to the south get the rain. I container garden so I water a LOT!
Pati

PS THis is a great web site for FL people who plant for the birds and
butterflys.
http://www.medepalma.com/garden.htm

THANK YOU ART....that is the map that I hunted all over for... I knew that I had seen a strange looking map somewhere....that the 10 b was in the Middle of 10 a....Thanks..

BTW folks...I have ordered from mgonline, a brug....nice people, but not cheap....

Oh, sent the brug to my DD in Chicago, she potted it and it did nothing all summer...When I got there in December it was in her furnace room, on a table, bare rooted.....Took the poor baby, by helicopter or course, to my planting area at home....potted it in emergency potting soil, started IVs, D5W/saline and on recovery, it really did, planted it in my yard.....This is a 7 month saga...To date is it about 30" tall and no Y as yet....It has leaves and they are green...I think that is all that I can expect for this rescued brug at this point. Story to continue......

re; MG online. I looked all over their site in an attempt to find out where they are. At that time I was looking for a local source of native plants. My best guess is they are a landscaping service without an actual nursery but with a source of wholesalers they buy from for jobs and that ship and package seeds for them. Now that's strictly a guess, and may in fact not be true. At any rate, here is the link to their main page.
Art
http://mgonline.com/

Art,

Thanks for taking the time to find that. It appears they are in Ft Lauderdale. I'm going to email him and ask about picking them up instead of mailing them. Oops, got some more reading to do at his site.

Thanks again,
Molly
:^)))

Molly, I already asked....they do not allow the public in....I think that he just grows from his house or whatever....I believe that his name is Dave; very nice to correspond with and very knowledgalbe.