April 14, 2009
Floridians fortunate enough to have gutters affixed to their built structures, only to find a swamp system developing at the outfall, could avail themselves of the good old-fashioned rain barrel, now available in non-funky injection molded plastics in attractive shapes and colors.
Modern rain catchers have hoses attached for easier transfer of conserved water to where it is needed more.
April 8, 2009
Passiflora 'Blue Bouquet'
Another compact, heavily flowering passion vine is offered by Jackson & Perkins. 'Blue Bouquet' can set up to 100 flowers at once on a 3' high trellised plant, thus its virtue as a container plant or as a trailer in a hanging basket.
Floating passion flowers in crystal bowls have long been a favorite centerpiece of Floridians, always desperate for suitable cutting flowers from the yard.
Landscaping Notes of the Day: Leave Time to Plan Well
It is best to not put off landscaping projects and improvements until a landscape emergency arises. An emergency could be a party, holiday, or guests arriving from out of town, owner of the property showing up to look things over (in a managed situation), citation from the neighborhood association or the City, or things just so out of hand as to be horrifying to the eye and sensibilities.
With too little time allowed to plan a renovation or new landscape, aside from the disadvantage of having to make snap decisions on contracts, plant lists, workers, and so forth, compromises may occur in the project since everybody and everything is on a different schedule, sometimes even the plants themselves.
Some neighborhoods requiring plan approval meet only once monthly to review plans. If a plan is rejected, another month may pass before it is reviewed again. It only takes one hyper-fussy board member or one who doesn't understand a plan to hold up the whole she-bang.
To work out design aspects, go through the approval process, and co-ordinate the right contractor, allow a generous 3-6 months before the deadline. This will waylay hasty pitfalls which can include contractor-induced changes to the plan due to some excuse or other based on lack of time or availability. In design, that is the Pandora's Box for throwing a plan off-course and losing control of the outcome.
April 4, 2009
Bougainvillea Bonsai
A bougainvillea bonsai is an ideal patio table or outdoor event centerpiece, remaining vibrant and fresh in heat and sunshine.
April 3, 2009
Passiflora 'Sherry'
So important to the butterfly crowd, Gulf Fritillary, Julia, Zebra Long Wing, and Variegated Fritillary, red passion vine has been up to now unmanageable in many home landscapes due to its rampant year round growth. Plant breeder Frank Moser has been working on developing ultra compact, heavily flowering varieties of passion vines suitable for containers, 'Sherry' being the first.
The proposed name for his series of upcoming cultivars is "Darkhorse," no explanation proffered.
'Sherry' grows 4'-6' on a support and looks best in light shade.
March 31, 2009
Bold Drama Collection
Planting gorgeous planters made easy: 6 plants each of Coleus Red Ruffles, Sweet Potato Blackie, and Sweet Potato Margarite, from Park Seed.
Amongst botanists are some who grumble audibly about double-flowered flowers and seeming reverse evolutionary trends in plant breeding. On the other hand, what an art form it is to breed for pigments and leaf shape, to be exhibited for the sake of beauty in living compositions!
We are, after all, permitted to participate in creation and nature by virtue of the (not always virtuous) reproductive system.
March 30, 2009
'Futurity' Series Cannas
Canna 'Futurity Red'
'Futurity' series cannas are not only compact, but bear the wonderful innovation of self-cleaning. Spent flowers fall softly to the ground as new flowers develop, eliminating the chore of dead-heading as was previously necessary with cannas in order to maintain a pristine display.
This new hybrid is claimed to be trouble-free, while Florida gardeners struggling with poorly drained or moist sites will be pleased with cannas, provided snails are not a problem.
Landscaping Notes of the Day: Tree Holes
More often than not, bidding out a landscape plan builds its own set of pitfalls into the quality of the job ultimately. As an independent designer and consultant, I have witnessed from the humblest to the highest of landscape contractors, shortcuts and fudging born of promising too much in order to clinch a deal, only to find themselves up against it once the job begins, for one reason or another. Exactly at that moment it begins to come out of whatever the contractor estimated for materials and labor, and most assuredly, things will not end up as well as they should have.
To keep expenses low, one of the most important steps which has been dispensed with almost altogether, on the basis that "no one does it," is the proper preparation of a hole for planting a tree. Despite sheets of details on plans of Landscape Architecture as well as easy to understand State publications readily available to contractors, the procedure isn't followed. Namely, there should be enough excavation of the hole for planting mix to go underneath the tree in the bottom of the hole, chopped in somewhat to whatever substrate may be below, and once the trees is set, the hole should be backfilled with very good soil.
Worse is when the ground is rocky or compacted requiring more time in labor to excavate a proper hole. In fact, any aspect of a landscape job requiring more than anticipated labor results in loss of quality somewhere to the purchaser; the solution in the case of tree holes has become placing trees partially, sometimes right on top of the ground and creating a "landscape berm" to the customer, or "debris hill," as I know them, around the root ball of the tree.
In short, to grow a good plant, start with a good hole, is a good rule to observe. After all, we are growing trees for tomorrow, not just turning over nursery stock. It is a waste to plant a beautifully grown field tree a nurseryman has worked twelve years or so to produce in a bad hole.
