Garden Bloggers Bloom Day~October 2015~Central Florida

GBBD totally slipped my mind, until I turned on the computer this morning.  And what a morning it was...cool, breezy, just a delight.  I'm putting this post together at 3:30 and it's now 89 degrees.  In spite of our cooler mornings,  summer is still very much with us in Central Florida.  Fall has not had much affect on my plants,  just a few yellowing leaves, here and there in the shade gardens.  Here's a few blooms...

Saucer Magnolia

Clair Matin Rose

Pink Pet Rose

Knockout Roses

These are some of the cuttings I took a few months ago from my old garden roses, so happy to see one blooming already...

This is the 'mother plant'.

 A couple other blooms out front, then we'll go to the back...

Aloe, a hummingbird favorite.

Crown of Thorns

Jasmine, in the shade garden.

Blue Ginger, these blooms have lasted for months.

A lowly, but lovely, coleus bloom.

  

Clerodendrum Vine, just beginning to show color.

Another, on the fence, further along.

Sasanqua Camellia

The tree above has a beautiful bloom, a crepe paper look...

Sasanqua Camellia

Just one more camellia...

A couple more plants that seem to bloom all year round in my garden...Gloriosa Lily.

Clematis

Common water hyacinth looks so much like a flower from a hyacinthus bulb.  It seemed as though the whole canal was blooming today, so even though it's not my bloom, I'll share the photo.

Happy gardening!

Perfect Gardening Weather!

What a beautiful week in Central Florida!  It's been one of those 'open all the windows and air out the house' kind of weeks.  Lovely, cool mornings, just perfect weather to be outdoors.  This is what's blooming down back, around the gazebo this week...

Gloriosa lilies.

Knockout rose, with a cute little guy resting in the shade of a petal.

This clematis has been cut down several times this season, probably it's last bloom of the year.

Still in the back yard, but in the shade gardens.  The cooler weather has amped (is that even a word) up the color in everything back here.  Have you noticed this in your gardens?

Curcuma gingers are still blooming in the background.

Most of my Caladiums are still vibrant, although some have faded away completely.

Jasmine

Clerodendrum Vine

Walking through the front yard the other day, I noticed my desert rose 'Adenium', was chock-full of seed pods.  I normally keep them picked off, because I don't need anymore of  anything that has to come inside in winter.  Still, I  rooted a couple cuttings this summer (one rotted).  After rooting those, I learned that the sap from them is very toxic.  I also read that a cutting will never get the 'fat trunk' (caudex), which is what makes a desert rose so cool.  On the other hand, if you propagate from seed, you won't get the true nature of a hybrid desert rose because the seeds revert.  Too complicated, good thing I don't  need another one!

The cutting that survived...don't know if she'll be pink or red, time will tell.

Remember the hydrangea cuttings I took this summer?  I meant to have them planted by the end of September.  I'm a little behind, but they'll go in the ground in a few days...this is them now.

My irrigation system does not cover the area well enough where I am planting these, so here's what's going on about that...

Let me just say, I have the best husband.  He does all the 'heavy lifting' in our gardening endeavors, and leaves the fun parts (designing and planting), to me.  I couldn't garden without him.  Just a few of the roots coming from our viburnum privacy hedge that he had to dig out...

Hopefully, the hydrangeas will look like their parents in a few years...

I just want to show you a quick peek at the veggies...squash, with onions at the other end.

Tomatoes, right outside the garden.

Mustard and turnip greens.

I have collards, a variety of lettuce, cabbage and broccoli in another bed.

Nothing makes a better salad than fresh arugula, delicious peppery flavor revs up plain lettuce.

Our lettuce harvest today...could be that I over planted.

Thank you for visiting,  I hope you get outside and...

Central Florida Garden~A Typical Day

We've had a mix of sun and clouds this morning, clouds finally won out.  I was outside early, trying to get a list of things done that I've been working on the last few weeks, but this thing called life, keeps drawing me away.  Thankfully, fall weather is just around the corner, and the gardens will need less of me.  I had just finished thinning the mustard and turnip greens when the sky opened, no more work for today...

I got a nice bowl of greens that I'll mix in with the collards that I thinned yesterday.  I wanted to get some pics of the vegetable garden, but the rain looks like it's set in for a while.

Earlier today, I walked the front yard and found this Autumn Sunset rose full of blooms, in different stages...

She's under planted with Angelonia.

Louis Philippe, on the fence, is a good rose for Florida.  He does get some black spot, but not enough to affect his performance as a beautiful bloomer.

On the other end of this fence, another OGR that was given to me as a small cutting, just two years ago.

Knockout rose.

A Gene Boerner tree rose, by the front porch.

Some more Knockout roses, with Belinda's Dream rose in the background.

The last rose today is an unnamed drift rose.

I recently bought two new Hibiscus shrubs,  $3.88 at Walmart!  I'm trying to incorporate more shrubs into my gardens, for their easy care.  I love a good perennial, and I have a nice variety of Salvias, that I wouldn't give up.  I'm eliminating some other less worthy perennials though, because dead heading has become a dreaded chore during Florida's summer months.

One I've had for several years.

Two other flowering shrubs. the yellow Thryallis and the blue Cleodendrum 'Ugandense'.

My Sasanqua Camellias are just beginning to bloom.  I have two large ones that I pruned into trees, years ago.  I also have about a dozen others, shrub types, full of buds, ready to explode.  They grow beautifully in Florida, some of mine are in full sun...not to be confused with the Japonica Camellia, which needs a shady area.  One of the trees...

It's flower...

Flower from the other Camellia tree.

Down by the vegetable garden, the Mexican Bush Sage and Knockout roses are still in full bloom.

Some Mexican Petunias in the mix.

Blue Ginger not only has a beautiful bloom, but it lasts for weeks.

Lastly, this bee was running around in circles (like me, at times) on my Clematis.

That's all from my garden today... have a wonderful week.