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!
