Bloom Time in My Central Florida Garden

No Consistency in My Central Florida Garden

Yes, it’s been another L-O-N-G spell between posts.  Maybe I will get this back on track, finally.

Well, Disney’s plant topiaries may be the rage throughout the horticultural world, but my Central Florida Garden wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to the poorest.  Especially now that we are in what most would laughingly call the winter here in Central Florida.  As our Northern neighbors can attest, this has been a brutal season of ice, sleet, snow, and all forms of frozen inclemencies (Is that even a word???). 

Here in Central Florida, the frost covers saw action only four times, and three of those nights were back-to-back, so there was no running in and out with them, just left them on all day long.

Sorry my old Northern Illinois friends from the land of glow-in-the-dark legs (because they about never get tanned), I was out cleaning a planting bed, laying landscape fabric, and spreading mulch while wearing a tank top and sweatband which did get sweaty. 

The last post referenced that I was trying to grow Daffodils here in my Central Florida Garden. I was so excited, got them in the ground shortly after they arrived, and planned for luscious bouquets scattered through the house.  Well, for all the work first to FIND southern daffodils, and then to PLANT about 200 bulbs, I was mostly disappointed.  I did get maybe 20 or 25 flowers in total.  Disappointing.  I planted them in the fall of 2012, saw the disappointing lack of expected bloom in the spring of 2013, and now up comes the spring of 2014.  We will see if this spring brings more heralds of a joyous season of blooms.

Also planted some Irises that I had ordered very late last fall.  They were stashed in the laundry room until I found them on Valentine’s Day.  They felt pretty dry, but I figured I’d stick them in the ground anyway – just in case. 

When I did live in Northern Illinois, I had rich, dark soil with just enough clay to hold it together and just enough sand to help it drain.  It was about the most perfect soil for everything.  Oh, to have that in my planting beds here! But I was able to grow huge clumps of the tall Bearded (some call them German) Irises from just a relatively small rhizome.  They are easy-peasy, not to mention stately and elegant, with barely any fragrance, endearing themselves to most allergy sufferers.

I should know within about 30 days if the Irises were still viable or not.  Now if I can just keep my eye on where I planted them – with some CONSISTENCY!