Springtime Tallahassee

It's definitely Springtime Tallahassee.  My vegetables are growing strong, our bluebird eggs have hatched, and blooms are opening everywhere.  I visited Native Nurseries last weekend and came home with a native Florida Azalea (Rhododendron austrinum) and pretty Coral Nymph (Salvia coccinea), a cultivar of Tropical Sage.  Now I'll have to add red Tropical Sage to our our flower garden and Pinxter Azalea to the Florida natives section of our backyard.  Plants need companions!  The Mountain Laurels (Kalmia latifolia) were blooming at the nursery and this shrub is definitely on my wanted list.

Here are some pics of our new additions and beautiful blooms that we want:

Florida Azalea

Coral Nymph along with some Tropical Sage

Mountain Laurels

Now for what's happening in our yard:

Coral Honeysuckle, Amaryllis, Milkweed, Spiderwort, and the newly planted Coral Nymph all blooming.  I made some cuttings of the spiderwort and milkweed that are beginning to grow. I also have some Four o'clock seeds sprouting in this garden and our butterfly garden.  

Amaryllis

Hello Yellow Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)

I cleaned up the nursery section of the yard and would like to start adding a lot more in the near future.  Here I have lots of Angel Trumpets, Crepe Myrtles, Firespikes, and a section of miscellaneous plants that started on their own.  

Yellow squash, pole beans, snap peas, and carrots are all growing well.  I have also planted a section of herbs that have yet to sprout.  In our other garden we have red potatoes and tomatoes growing.  

Look at that little squash growing under the bloom!

Our new garden truck!

Pollen + Rain = Yellow Puddles

This past week has been nothing but pollen and rain.  It rained non-stop for three straight days and now the pollen picked right back up covering everything.

A positive from all the rain is that lots of my vegetable seeds have sprouted.  In this picture I have sugar snap peas, onions, and carrots.  I also have three varieties of tomatoes sprouting as well as the red potatoes and yellow squash growing strong in the gardens.

A couple weeks ago my neighbor "crape murdered" her crape myrtle tree and cut it back to the trunk.  I grabbed one large branch and made 20+ cuttings with 10 or more already sprouting.  I'm really impressed how quickly they started growing.  I hope they root well.  Google 'crape murder' if you want some entertainment.

My larger Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia) cuttings are growing real well.  Tonight I trimmed off the dead parts of the cuttings so that they have room to grow tall.  It's amazing how easy these things grow.

Here are more Angel Trumpets (Brugmansia) cuttings.  The softwood cuttings from last fall are in the middle and growing well.  All the bare sticks are hardwood cuttings from the winter.  Some are rooting but no leaves yet.


Seven Sisters Roses

The gutter is supplying plenty of water to the rose cuttings.

Two new cuttings starting to grow leaves.

The previous three pictures are from our front walkway garden.  Originally we had ratty looking boxwood bushes but I removed those by pulling them out with my truck and now I've been planting Seven Sister Roses.

The original rosebush came as a cutting started by my Grandmother.  I started a 2nd bush at my old house and then when I moved last summer, I dug up these two bushes to take with me to my new house.  The rosebushes went through an initial shock and dropped all their leaves, but have rebounded very well.  Since then I've made four more bushes from cuttings branches off the two bigger bushes.

I've learned that when trying to grow these roses from cuttings, all you need to do it remove the leaves, stick them in the ground, and keep them watered.  Mulching around them keeps the soil moist and once the roots grow you have a new rosebush.  The cuttings I ignore seem to grow the best.

Until next time....