Florida Plant Trading

I am posting this on the Florida Gardening discussion because I need plants that will grow in Florida and that I can plant now.

I just retired to zone 9b (The Villages in Sumter County) and am planting a butterfly/hummingbird garden. I need the following plants: Lantana camara and keyenesis; Firebush (hamelia patens); Penta lanceolate (red and pink); salvia greggii, salvia elegans, salvia coccinea; salvia guaranitica; and sedum spectabile (red). Since funds are low and since I am just establishing a garden in Florida (came from Massachusetts) I don't have any plants to trade but do have the following: New packaged pill holder boxes, pill alarms, decorating and gardening books, old knitting books. I am a retired nurse practitioner with special knowledge in herbals and vitamins for various health problems and would be more than willing to trade information for plants too. Thanks so much in advance!! Karen

Karen, let me look to see what I have left out there...and get back to you. I'm also in 9b, so I know if it blooms in my yard, it will also bloom in yours!
MerryMary

I will take a look too nurse....get back with you later.
Connie

edited to say: WELCOME to Florida!!!

This message was edited Nov 27, 2005 5:55 PM

Thanks SO much for the warm welcome and the generosity!! Karen

Karen, Where in the state is this retirement place? I have a duranta that the butterflies LOVE. I'll air layer some for you. I will also keep you in mind in the spring when these things refurbish themselves.
Sidney

Hi Sidney, The Villages is 20 miles south of Ocala in Central Florida (Lady Lake) and I am in Sumter County. I would love some duranta even though I know nothing about it and have never heard of it (boy do I have a lot to learn). Thanks so much. Karen

Check these out Karen; http://davesgarden.com/pf/search.php?search_text=Duranta&images_prefs=both&Search=Search
They are vigorus and pretty. Blooming almost constantly.
Mine is a purple and they do best with a lot of sun.
Sidney

Yes it is so beautiful!! Thanks! Karen

Hi Karen,
Here you are again. Great! All the aforementioned are beautiful and I must now have a duranta. Even though they aren't butterfly magnets, you might enjoy having a brugmansia (angel's trumpet). They are so-o-o beautiful, interesting, fragrant and fun. Check out the forum on brugmansia -- that's what got me hooked! In Ocala you'll need to try to get one more sun tolerant or best if you could put it in filtered sun/light shade, I think. I'm going to have lots of cuttings so I'll be glad to send you some if you're interested.
Barbara

Hi Barbara, I had never heard of Brugmansia so I looked it up here. I think they are gorgeous but too big for my back yard (9 ft by 29 ft). However, when I finish the butterfly garden I am going to tackle my front yard and maybe then....Thanks!! Karen

Why do you think they aren't butterfly magnets BDunn?
We had quite a run here with them; http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/547447/
I just wish I knew where you got that notion?
I would love for you to have one also.
Sidney

Karen, you've got a great start going already. I've been butterfly gardening down here for many years so I can probably share/trade information as well. (I'm also into herbals.) My advice would be: all you need to add at this point is a few larval food plants. If you can acquire passionflower, dill, fennel, parsley (flat leaf), and anything in the carrot family, you will attract: gulf fritillaries, all manner of swallowtail and the zebra longwings, which are the yellow and black stripey guys. The Zebra longwings are the state flutterby of Florida. Since you live here now, you should know that! ;>)

This would be a great time to plant the dill as it will not do well in the heat of the summer, but every thing else could go in now or later. I may have some fennel seeds I can share -- I'll check. Feel free to Dmail me anytime! Welcome to the Sunshine State!

Hi Sidney,
It must be my communications skills......no, I didn't mean the duranta isn't a butterfly magnet (see post above)..........I meant that a brugmansia isn't really a butterfly magnet. I thought a brug might be fun for nursetherapies. I think the duranta is fabulous and I'm looking to get one. Probably will have to wait till spring now. Boo Hoo.
Barbara

Thanks Dogzilla,

I have made a list of the herbs and will plant them. I have lots of experience growing herbs up north and my nursing experience includes lots of herbal and vitamin treatments that work well for various ills.

Will trade pill holders and pill alarms for herbs if anyone has some of the above and still need blue passionflower vine. Thanks again. Karen

BDunn, I'm so sorry I misread your statement, LOL. I had a little problem with my left hand and am on some mind boggleing drugs of the legal kind, lol.
Sidney

Hello, Karen. Welcome to Florida and to The Villages. I thought it was funny that Sidney didn't know the location of The Villages since it covers portions of Lake, Marion, and Sumter Counties. (I live in Lake, but teach in Sumter.) I don't have plants to offer because I am new at gardening, but I do have burgandy and white striped daylilies if you want any of those.

Karen,

I recently moved from Massachusetts too. I have a small Firebush that I propagated, and I'd be glad to send it for postage. Let me know, OK?

Steve

Fireant, thanks so much for the offer but I am going to visit Leslie and see her garden in Maitland next week and she has tons of daylilies.

Steve, where were you in MA? I was in Northboro near Worcester. If the Firebush is Hamelia patens, I would love some!! Would you prefer a trade of a pill holder, pill alarm, or book?

Thanks!!! Karen

Leslie's garden is great from the pictures she's posted of it.

I am so excited. How wonderful it was for her to invite me!!

I don't have much in the way of gardens yet. Although my pond spot is almost finished, I still have an empty yard, but I'd be happy to have you visit.

Just have to brag--South Sumter High Raiders football team (school where I work) is going to the State Championship game in Miami tomorrow! Even though it is farther north, The Villages support our high school quite a bit, so I thought I would mention it.

Hi Fireant,

I didn't realize Mascotte was so close to me. We should try to get a garden group together sometime. Karen

Karen,

Lived in Northboro for 10 years (off of Whitney St.) - I was born and raised in Worcester, lived there most of my life.

I have no more info on the Firebush, other than I know it's a Firebush. Sorry.

I don't need anything in return. Paying for postage is customary here, when the sender doesn't want a return plant. Not necessary, though - if you want the plant, let me know, and I'll send it.

Steve

Oh my goodness it is a small world! I lived off of Howard Street in the Northborough Farms development (off Valentine Rd.).

I would love the plant and will happily send a SASE for it. Give me your address. Thanks, Karen

Hmmmm... Valentine Rd - seems to ring a bell. It's been a while (almost 10 years) since I've lived in N'boro, and Middle Age has taken it's toll.

I'll look and see if you're in the Address Exchange. If not, give me your address, and I'll send the plant.

Steve

I am, thanks. Karen

fireant, I'm too busy running up and down the east coast working in power houses to learn all the great places in Florida. I will have been here 10 years in April, but have been 'out of state' half that time. I'm going to Orlando next week to a 5 day OSHA class and then on to Fort Lauderdale to gallop with the gang to some neat place. I also get to meet face to face about 8 DGers I haven't met before.
South Florida is totaly different to me from here, I guess it's a Zone thing.
Sidney

Karen

Where is The Villages? There is a DGer who is organizing a round-up for Central Fla - I think he's shooting for March. His user name is Corky something or other. I'll look it up for you.

Steve

Sidney, The Villages dominate so much of Marion, Sumter, and Lake, that it seems odd that other Floridians have never heard of it. I have relatives in the north who get literature all the time from The Villages trying to get them to buy homes there. It surprises me when my northern relatives ask me about The Villages.

You sound busy. I hope the OSHA conference is not boring. I agree, South Florida does seem totally different. This is such a long state.
Nancy

Is there an outlet mall in The Villages? If not, that's why none of the other Floridians have heard of it. Most of us are from someplace else, so if we can't shop there... it doesn't even exist.

(Just kidding.)

Nancy well my memory isn't whar it used to be and I see almost too much so it tends to run togeather. The osha thing is a class and it wasn't boring the first time. I'll be certified to teach. I am also going to do all the Red Cross I can afford.

My daddy was a Basketball coach in small schools when I was young. Those victories mean a great deal to a school. That's also lots of fun.
Sidney

DZ, LOL
;)

That must be it, no mall. :-) Karen

It won't be long before there's a mall there.

Sidney--that's great--the Red Cross and OSHA. I thought you were an editor, or is that connected with your work?

As for the football, "boring" test prep for the state test seems to dominate the whole curriculum. (I think simply requiring more reading/writing in the core course is all the test prep students need.) It's just nice to have something to remind us that high school is supposed to be fun, too.

You could be mixing us up -- it happens all the time. I believe Sidney told us she's a boilermaker (or used to be, but I think that's what she still does.) I'm an editor. And, as a matter of fact, I work on that "boring" state test... ;>)

(And, btw, you're right. See, here's how it's SUPPOSED to work. The test is based on some standard benchmarks the State adopted. It only measures how well students meet those standards, which include really obvious basic skills like, can a 4th grader multiply and divide? Can a 10th grader write an essay in 45 minutes? Stuff like that. If the curriculum is based on the Standards -- like the State says it's supposed to be -- then prepping for the test should be a no-brainer. The standards cover all the basic information that you and I think any kid should know. These standards were created by Florida teachers, Florida citizens and FL education administrators. "Teaching to the test" is indeed a laborious waste of time and it's too darn bad that message hasn't quite reached the people who most need to hear it. I'll step off the soap box now, but since this is what I do for a living... I just wanted my friends and colleagues on this forum to know the Straight Dope on the Test That Must Not Be Named. For more information, click on "Information for the General Public" at this web site: http://www.firn.edu/doe/sas/fcat/handbk/fcathandbook.html. We just released this -- it's a very comprehensive look at assessment in this state.)

Sorry for the hijack. You may now resume your thread discussion of what Sidney does for a living. :>)

I've never met Sidney, but I can't imagine her as a boilermaker.

This message was edited Dec 1, 2005 9:09 PM

Well here I am at 59 in my bibs, which are a boilermaker's uniform.
I've been doing the Boilermaker thing for nearly 16 years. Before that I was a heavy equipment operator for12 years.
I love it!!!
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=1256287
5'11" still.
Sidney

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a boilermaker? Thanks, Karen

Hi, Karen. If you still need Lantana camara, I can supply plenty. It comes up all over my yard. I've moved a lot of it to my fence line and espalier it there to help control its gangling growth habit. It can, however, also be pruned to a standard shape to make a nice specimen shrub in a small garden. I have both the native cream/lavender fowered species of lantana and the orange/yellow hybrid. It transplants easily even when fully grown or can be sprouted readily from its copious seeds.

And the offer is still open for a pillow case full of Bidens alba 'radiata' (Spanish Needles) LOL. A great butterfly nectar source if you don't mind giving up every spare inch of bare soil to its prolific self-seeding. Neglect of my yard during my last several months of being overly busy has resulted in the entire back yard now being neck high in Spanish Needles.

When choosing a passion flower vine, beware of the scented version, Passiflores indicum (if I recall the Latin name correctly). I planted some of it along a fence and it has completely overwhelmed all my other vines, grown high up into surrounding oak trees, and sent dozens of suckers out 50 ft from the original vine. Though I see lots of butterfly egg laying behavior around the leaves, it never seems to get any fritillary caterpillars on it. One of those "too much of a good thing" plants. I found that the frit caterpillars would eat the leaves when I raised some of them in a butterfly box, so it may be that my thousands of camelions or some other predator gulps down the cats before they have a chance to grow.

Jeremy

Karen,
We build and repair the big powerhouses like FP&L use to make electricity. We also do the same for Chemical and oil refineries, paper mill recovery boilers and steel mills. If I hadn't hurt my hand I would be in Baltimore working at Bethleham Steel
on a 14 week job.
Sidney