The Oiled Squeaky Wheel: April 2009 Garden Update

All of the local gardening experts advised that we not cut back the dead on our plants in the yard from the extended days of frost that we had earlier in the year until you were able to see what was going to come back and what was truly dead. I'm glad that I heard that advice. I took it.

Maybe about 2 weeks or so ago I finally went out and started pruning what was dead from our plants. Things were initially looking pretty bleak, but I think things are doing better now. My pansies, although they looked ok after the initial frost, eventually took a turn for the worse. But, when I dug them up, I noticed a LOT of new growth at their centers. So, I cleared the old/dead away and relocated the pansies in the front yard to the side yard. That made room for the new impatiens I wanted to plant. Home Depot had a sale that weekend, their 4.5" standard annuals for $0.33 each! So, we took advantage of that discount :) :) :)

First up, are some plants on my front porch. This is my first fern. I've always wanted one, and I got this little beauty last weekend at Lukas Nursery in Oviedo.

My gloxinias are coming back... more photos on them when they start to bloom...

We have two large planters, one on either side of our front door with pink and purple impatiens. Here's one of them. I can't wait until they fill out more!

This little one is also a Gloxinia, but is a different variety than the standard above. This one is a "Sylvatica" and has a "sister" plant on the opposite side of our porch steps, and they attract both butterflies and hummingbirds.

This "trough" planter is quite funny. Last year, after my tulip bulbs bloomed in their pots, I dug them up and broke up the bulbs. For safe keeping, I dumped them into this container and threw some dirt from some dead plants on top of them. I then forgot about them. As you can see, the tulip bulbs have sprouted again, and should bloom soon! But, what about those pink begonias you say? Well, this planter sits on my front porch, kind of under a hanging basket. Last year, my hanging baskets had pink begonias in them. I think what happened is that some leaves fell into the trough from the hanging baskets and took root! Maybe next weekend I'll dig all this stuff up, put the tulips in their own containers until they bloom again, and plant the begonias somewhere in the yard :)

The last container plant on this post is another funny guy. This Ponytail Palm used to sit in my front window inside the house. But, a while ago, it got a bad case of scale. So, I took it outside and all of the leaves fell off. I thought I might lose it, but continued to water it to see if anything happened. Well, it is growing again!

Now for the plants in the garden.

The frost did a number on much of our yard. But, this Crown of Thorns was protected by some bushes and did quite well.

This Crown of Thorns wasn't so lucky and had a lot of damage from the frost. But, I've cleared away the dead and it is starting to come back!

This is my latest work. Yesterday I built up the dirt around our front tree and added more pine bark, and planted some Dusty Miller.

Here are some of my pansies that are still blooming. I'm going to leave them in the yard until they give up from the heat ;)

Along the pansy lines, here are my Johnny Jump-ups. I love these guys. They look like such "happy" flowers. It is as if they are standing at attention saying "HELLO!" They did much better with the frost.

I'm not sure if our Crape (Crepe?) Myrtle is going to come back. It had been struggling the last few years and didn't fair well in the frost. Not to mention, every time I mess with that bugger I am bitten up by all of the damn fire ants that crawl up and down it :( I've cut it back the way I've seen the others around town. I'll let it go this season and see what happens. Who knows? Maybe it will be replaced by a Plumeria...

Living in FL, we have these guys everywhere. I don't really mind them much, but funny thing, when my parents were here last week, I was helping my mom gather up some plants that we propagated that were out on the front porch. As I was bringing in a flat, all of the sudden I felt something on my thumb. I started shrieking. The little lizard had made a "home" in one of the baby plants and got scared... My daddy had to save me and get the lizard off me and out the patio door :) More than anything I was startled by him.

Here are some of my white impatiens in the front yard.

Remember my mums from the fall? Well, here are most of them! They're still going strong, and have been relocated to the side tree in our front yard and are doing great!

This is a new addition to the yard as of last week. This is a coreopsis. I love it because it looks like a daisy (my favorite flower in general). When I get more blooms, I plan on clipping a few of these to bring in the house and enjoy :)

Also new last week, lookin' like a daisy and ultimately planned for clipping and bringing inside is this Arizona Sun.

And, to round out the trio of daisy-looking, new last week, to be brought in side from clippings is this Sunny Cambria. The advantage this newbie has over the other two daisy-like flowers is that it is my favorite color, purple :)

The larger plant in front of the green pipe is a hibiscus that was featured in my last post. This used to be a beauty and would cover that green pipe quite nicely. The hope is that it fills back in from the frost damage and covers the pipe again. I've planted a number of pink impatiens in front of it to give it some more color when it fills in.

Some red and dark pink petunias in the side yard:

I honestly don't know what these things are called. I've had them for about 7 years now and they had been in containers most of that time. With the frost, we lost two hibiscus that used to be in their place. So, I decided to take these out of their pots (in which they were both severely root-bound) and put them into the garden. Don't they look great? I remember when I first bought them they were two sticks about 12" and 8" in a single container with some green sprouting at the tops. They've come a long way, baby! We planted a number of red impatiens around their base.