How I Know This is a Florida Photo

Here's a photo of my sunflower from a few weeks ago. I was just reviewing the photo to see if it was post-worthy, and noticed there are so many tell-tale signs of a South Florida Landscape.

The Christmas Palms fronds are still frost-bitten from our recent cold spells in January. It's now late May and all the new growth in the center of the palms is fresh and green, but the outer, older fronds are about to fall off.

See the wood privacy fence in the background? See those rusty marks from the irrigation? That's our well water. So many of us women complain about the iron in the water because it gives our hair a rust tint.

The sunflower is facing due East. Sunflowers usually follow the sun from east to west over the course of a day. At least mine always have. This one has morning sun blocked by the house, and I assume that's why it doesn't turn with the sun each day.

There's drift wood hanging on the wall of the font porch. Everyone down here collects drift wood. You can't see it, but there are air plants growing on it...another South Florida staple.

Here's another shot of the same sunflower, but from 20 feet up.

The large queen palms...another South Florida staple. The peach tropical double hibiscus and the stucco/brick house are also Florida natives.

Lastly, I want to share a sentiment that a fellow gardening blogger wrote about recently. The Rainforest Gardener wrote, "Gardeners do not have a natural skill or knack for helping plants live, we just have the patience and faith to visualize the fruits of our labor."

I couldn't agree more!!!

How to Harvest Miracle Fruit

Harvesting Miracle Fruit is no different than harvesting tomatoes. Wait till the fruit turns bright red, then pick.

Freeze the berries unless you are going to eat them immediately. They spoil quickly. Something with little nails (squirrels or birds) gets to my miracle fruit as soon as they turn red, unless I get to them first. I lost the first two berries last week to the critters. I really, really, really want that garden cam.

I sound like a broken record...but here it goes again....miracle fruit is truly the coolest edible that one can grow. Here's why:

When the fleshy part of the fruit is eaten, the fruit reacts with the taste buds in the tongue, causing sour foods to taste sweet. You eat the fruit as you would eat a fresh cherry, except keep it in your mouth for about 30 seconds before discarding the pit. It tastes good. The fruit works by distorting the shape of sweetness receptors so that they become responsive to acids, instead of sugar and other sweet things. This effect lasts 15-30 minutes.

To read more posts about miracle fruit, click on the label at the bottom of tihs post....or type it in the top left search box.

Most Useless Plant Tag Ever!

I bought a beautiful passion flower vine the other day, but I have to comment about the plant tag. This tag takes the cake for being generic, ambiguous, grammatically incorrect, and utterly useless.

Should we examine it closely? First, what plant is this? Oh, of course, it's a house plant; it says so at the top of the tag. But it also says it's a landscape plant. Hmmm.

Let's continue. This house-landscape plant should be placed in "Full sun, outside keep soil moist..." Run on sentence...check. Redundancy....check. Glad I didn't place this house plant in full sun inside with the soil moist.

I could on and on about things like the inconsistent punctuation, capitalization, and spacing, but why? The tag is useless, and actually a bit frustrating, but the plant is really healthy.

My Wormy Peach

I harvested the first two peaches of the season this morning. One was delicious; the other had bugs slithering through the inside of the peach. Gross! What if I had taken a big bite of bugs!!!

Bugs inside peach! I don't know what kind of bug it was...I didn't really care. I threw the peach away and went on to the next one...which was flawless!


This peach was perfect. It was a bit crispy, but it was soooooo sweet!

oh so happy with my peach harvest!

When to Harvest Peaches

Peaches are minty green leading up to harvest time. But, just because the color changes from green to peach, doesn't mean that the peach is ready to be harvested.

Look for these other indicators before picking the peach:

• Smell it. The scent should be very peachy. Before it's ripe, the scent is unnoticeable.
• Feel it. It will give a bit. Unripe peaches are very firm.
• Twist it. If you lift and twist, and it comes off the branch easily, it's ripe.

You can pick a peach prior to it ripening. Pick it a few days before you think these indicators will be present and bring them inside. Place them in a brown paper bag for a few days to ripen. This is how growers do it, except they put fruit into gas chambers instead of paper bags.

Down here in zone 10, the peaches are supposed to ripen in mid-May. Even with a record-breaking cold spring, the peaches are ripening just on time.

As always, the yorkie walked around the garden with me today.

After some belly pets, she was on her way to dig a hole next to the rose bush.

I noticed the queen palm, the porch, me, and and the peach tree in this photo of her beautiful brown eyes.

Confederate Jasmine Blooms for 2 Months

The confederate jasmine in Danielle's Garden usually blooms for 2 months. It's in full blooms right now and we live in zone 10.

Do all confederate jasmine bloom right now? Are Zone 10 Miami jasmines a few weeks behind us? Are Ocala jasmines a few weeks before me? I'm located East of Lake Okeechobbee about 10 miles inland from the beach.

Let me know if your confederate jasmine is blooming now...just finished blooming...or is just about to bloom.

Brugmansia Anomalie: Two Colors on One Plant

This brugmansia is blooming for the first time, and this one plant has both pink and white blooms on it.

Above: brugmansia (angel trumpet) has two different color blooms on it.

I think I grew this plant from a cutting...don't quite remember. I also think it's a Brugmansia suaveolens, but I don't know exactly which variety. I've submitted questions to two brug websites, and later, I'll be posting a photo on gardenweb.com to see if anyone can help.

I know that sometimes brug plants propagated by seed have different color blooms than the parent plant...but I've never heard/seen two different color blooms on one plant.

Remember in the movie The Matrix, when Neo downloaded programs to himself that enabled him to know Karate, Tae Kwon Doe, etc...? I would like to download plant datasheets to myself so that I JUST KNOW everything about specific plants. It takes so long to research this kind of stuff....especially when I don't even know what term to put into Google...

bi-colored brugmansia................................................didn't work
two colors on one plant...............................................tried it
different color blooms: brugmansia..........................nope
brugmansia hybrid color problems...........................uh, no.

Maybe I got too much sun today :)

Tiki Garden Makeover

Today's project was getting rid of that nasty pea gravel and the ugly scallop border. Here's what I did and how you can get rid of garden gravel.

I used ground clear on some problem weed areas and covered all the pea gravel with weed block fabric. I didn't stake the fabric into the ground because the mulch will hold it in place. It took 10 bags of pine bark to make a 4-6 inch layer in this area. I chose not to use any type of barrier between the grass and mulch because our lawn guy does a fairly decent job of edging the border.

I planted the eureka lemon and gave it a nice well of dirt at the drip line.

Here are my issues with pea gravel:

You can't walk on it barefoot
When you do walk on it, the gravel sticks to your feet
The dog digs holes to the sand, then weeds grow in the holes
It messes up the lawn mower (not really MY problem)
It is rather ugly
It was the only pea gravel in the whole yard, so i looked out of place

I even took a dip in the 90 pool after the project. I can't believe it's May and the pool is already 90!!!

How to Grow Miracle Fruit

Here's a short article about how to grow miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum)....really this is my list of tips and tricks.

photo above: nearly ripe miracle fruit from Danielle's May garden .

Tips and tricks:
The bush needs to be planted in an acidic, rich, well draining soil. Use a soil additive to increase the acid and get a pH tester so you can determine how acidic or alkaline the soil is. The plant needs lots of peat moss, and requires a constant supply of micronutrients. It is one of the slowest growing plants I have ever grown. It likes warm temperatures, and high humidity. I usually get two harvests per year here in zone 10. I have the plant under a tall palm tree, so it gets filtered light. It can't take the full sun position I used to have it in. It also couldn't take the shady moist spot it used to be in.

Interesting Note:
As I was writing this post, I had on a show called Future Foods in the background. Their whole episode tonight was about miracle fruit. They want to solve world hunger by enabling people to eat nasty tasting local foods while on a miracle fruit trip. Remember...the miracle fruit makes your tongue think sour food id sweet!

Florida Garden Bloggers: I Need to Find a Nursery

I'm looking for a miracle fruit plant...for Mothers Day. I'm in Palm City. Where can I get this plant? Help! Leave a comment or visit my Contact page.

I bought mine several years ago from Top Tropicals, but they are currently sold out. I was happy with my experience by the way.

Here are two current photos of my miracle fruit bush. All the brown leaves are new growth. There are blooms getting ready to open...I can't wait. Last May I had ripe fruit...I think they might be a little late this year.

Gardening Wish List

Just throwin' this out there...There's a lot of things I want for my garden. I'd be willing to trade something in my garden for something on my wish list. Maybe you've always admired my strawberry planter, the hand grown queen palm, the aloe, or the gardening pup...


My Garden Wish List
Illuminated Bricks
Rain barrell
Yellow Brick Garden Path
Garden Soil Thermometer
Irrigation Assessment
Irrigation Updating
Rain Gauge
Topiary Frame
Arbor
Endless Summer Hydrangea
Gator Pride Hibiscus
Cockscomb Coral
Tabebuia chrysotricha (Golden Trumpet)
gargoyls
Billbergia nutans

Maybe you happen to own a company and want to donate to my wish list. Send me your stuff and I will fairly test it out.

Using Hardscapes in the Garden

This house is one that I admire from a distance each time we make our way to the local sandbar. Their gardener uses either creeping fig or jasmine to add interest to the retaining wall which probably hides the pool. They've chosen to use dark colored foliage in the palms and hedges. Silver succulents are sprinkled about to add interest. Nicely done. I wish I was their gardener.

Rain Gauge for Gardening

"I think we're gonna need a bigger...............rain gauge...."

I finally got something that's been on my garden wish list for ever. I got a rain gauge. I got it for $14 at TJ Maxx and it seems to be a nice one. Not a plug for TJMaxx.

The only problem is that I don't know how much rain fell because my gauge only goes up to 7 inches. We could have had 8 inches...could have had 14 inches. I think we're gonna need a bigger rain gauge.

Here are the plants that didn't do so well in the early morning deluge. Below the sunflower needed to be staked up. Above, the Oleander in the South Tiki Garden have spread out.


Here's my garden wish list.
Anyone have a spare rain barrell or topiary frame that needs a home in my garden? Lemme know.

My Garden Wish List

• Illuminated Bricks
• rain barrell
• Garden Soil Thermometer
• Yellow Brick Garden Path
• Rain Gauge
• Topiary Frame
• Arbor
• Endless Summer Hydrangea
• Gator Pride Hibiscus
• Cockscomb Coral
• Tabebuia chrysotricha (Golden Trumpet)
• gargoyls
• Billbergia nuta
• Southern Florida Gardening Books

Southern Highbush Blueberry

This blueberry plant is either a Misty or a Gulf Coast. I'd have to check the tag to be sure. Anyway, I just ate the first berry of the season. I'm going to make it a mission to grow a bigger crop next year. I use that Alaskan Fish Fertilizer, but they just don't produce that many flowers.

I always sprinkle those sulfur pellets that make the soil's pH acidic. I think I'll recheck the pH tomorrow and research different blueberry fertilizers.