Garden Log

I didn't do anything garden wise today, but it did rain a little bit so that is something at least. I basically just sat around and watched some World Cup, movies on TV, and read stuff on the intarwebs. What I call a lazy day. I did take one of those little quizes you see posted in peoples profiles, and you get in your email somethimes. This one was called, "What Kind of American English Do You Speak?". These are my results.
60% General American English
20% Dixie
15% Yankee
0% Midwestern
0% Upper Midwestern

Today was the Butterfly and Herb Fair at the University of South Floridas Botanical Garden. I got there at 10am so I could walk around an see what the vendors had for sale before the speaker on butterfly gardens began his talk. There were a lot more people there than I expected. I probably saw Ariel from GardenWeb there, but I don't know what she looks like so I'm not really sure. Maybe she came to the talk an saw me too. I'll ask her later an see.

The speaker was Zane Greathouse from Greathouse Butterfly Farm. He started off by saying that he used to be very serious when he gave these talks, but not anymore. He then proceded to put on a set of butterfly wings, a pair stuffed butterfly legs, a headband antenna, and clown glasses with a whole bunch of sticker google eyes stuck on them. Needless to say he looked quite silly. A couple of people took pictures of him in this getup. I should have asked them to email me their pictures so I could have posted them here. He then told us that butterflies smell with their antennas, taste with their feet, and see in the ultra-violet spectrum of light, but can't see very well because of all the eyes. He said that they can see shapes and movement, but that's about it.

Then Zane proceeded to talk about the different caterpillar host plants like passion vine, milkweed, and citrus, and also butterfly nectar plants like porterweed, lantana, and salvia. And how to place the nectar plants in your garden to attract butterflies.

Today at a jobsite in Lithia Pinecrest I got six wild blackberry plants, and about ten whole red bricks and fifteen 2/3 sized red bricks.

I haven't really done much else in the garden other than matinience.

About two or three weeks ago I bought three orchids off the discount rack (discount rack=almost dead rack) for like one or two dollars apeice. I figured if I bought an orchid, since I don't know much of anything about them, it would most likely die, so why spend a lot of money on something that might not last very long. If I could keep these alive then I could try for some better ones, so last night I put some orchid bark mix in a tub of water to soak so I could repot the orchids this morning.

Well I did just that this morning, and I think it went well even though I could have been better prepared. Like having some fungicide to spray the plants with. What I did was take an orchid; remove it from the pot, clean the old potting medium (sphagnum moss) from the roots, trim the bad (what looked bad to me) roots off with sterile clippers, put the cleaned plant in a clean bowl of water, washed the old pot in a bleach an water solution, let the pot dry, and then repotted it with the orchid bark mix. We will see how they do. Hopefully they live because I really like orchids, and would like to have a few dozen LoL.

A couple hours after that I planted the ornamental red banana in the ground in front an to the right of the front porch close to the front of the gutter downspout. It was kind of tricky because there are Caladiums all around the spot that I planted it, and there were quite a few roots that I had to cut through from the Magnolia grandiflora we cut down last month.

All in all I thought it was a pretty good day.

Hopefully on the 24th of June I'll be attending a plant swap in Orlando with a group of members from GardenWeb. I'm supposed to ride with TampaFred if he can fit the swap into his new schedual, but if not then I won't be going. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will happen though. I would really like to meet these folks I've been talking with for so long.

I've been getting plants ready for the plant swap, so today I transplanted 16 (Brunfelsia australis) Yesterday Today and Tomorrow from a shared container to individual pots.

With the Brunfelsia australis potted that means I roughtly have 16 Brunfelsia australis, 5 passion vines, 4 gloriosa lilies, 8 or so double purple Datura, close to a hundred Senna alata seeds, and probably a bag full of Costus speciosus rhizomes. That's quite a bit more than I thought I would have to bring.

This morning around 8am I planted my (Vaccinium ashei) blueberry bushes in the ground in the front yard. One is in between the two (Thunbergia erecta) Kings Mantle that are along the fence, and the other in the corner between the driveway an front fence.

The soil mix I used was 60% pine bark, 30% peat moss, and 10% top soil. This mix was suggested to me by a very nice lady over at GardenWeb that knows a whole lot about growing fruit bearing trees an bushes.

I figured that today would be a good day to do this because the weathermen said it was supposed to rain today, and it did rain on an off all day after I planted them. I am very glad even for that little bit of rain, and I'm sure the plants were even happier.

At the job site in Pasco county there were blue passiflora growing all over the place like weeds. There were also many gloriosa growing in front of the work area. At the end of the day the boss and I dug up 11 passiflora and 6 gloriosa. That's what I call a successful day at work LoL.

When I got home though the chickens had gotten around front an wreaked havok in the front bed by the gingers. That made me angry then I realized, like I do everytime something makes me angry, that it is useless to let that bother me, and to just fix it an move on. Before I set the bed right I potted the plants from the job site.

The University of South Florida held their annual Mothers Day Orchid and Rose Fantasy this Saturday and Sunday (today an tomorrow).

My mother and I went to this today an had a very nice time. We got there right at 10am. The air was cool and filled with the scent of roses. Which was great as we walked through the garden. There were all kind of really neat orchids and roses.

This time I remembered to bring some paper so I could write down the names of plants that I saw an liked, and also to write down the information the speaker was giving.

The guy giving the talk on orchids really knew his stuff. When we came in he gave everyone a flower which he then showed us how to pollenate orchids with. Then he showed us orchid seeds, told us how they are grown from seed, explained the different steps in the process of growing the seedlings, and showed the different stages from a few thousand in a beaker to a few hundred in another container then like six in a pot. He gave light, growing medium, frequency of repotting, and fertilization requirements for the different varieties.

I didn't get any orchids or roses yet because I don't think I can take care of them properly right now, but if I keep seeing all these great flowers I'm going to completely loss the last bit of my willpower an be hooked on new plants! I did get a new plant though a Philodendron 'pink princess' the new leaves an the stalk of the plant are great shades of red an dusky pink. I really like philos, and there were like 11 varieties. I had to restarin myself from getting one of each =) They also had 2 varigated monstera which I wanted to get as well!

I also bought my mother four little plants she wanted. Two philodendron and two varigated thingies.

My mother and I went to K-Mart today to get some more annuals to replace the ones that were to far gone. Maybe I should back track some. A few days ago my mom decided to plant some annuals around the stump to mask it until it is removed. The annuals she got, impatiens and some other plant, were on the clearance rack (almost dead rack) at Lowes, and the others didn't make it.

Ok back to the begining. She wanted to get some more impatiens to fill in where the other plants died. While we were there I found a dwarf banana, the kind with the red spotted leaves, that I just had to get. It had the cool plus of already having two pups on it. I haven't planted it yet, but I think that it's going to be planted close to the front porch near the downspout.

I also got some new (Mirabilis jalapa) 4 O'Clock seeds, since the other ones don't seem to be growing, and my mom wants to grow some sun flowers so we got a mixed pack of them.

Today I recieved four (Alpinia zerumbet) shell ginger rhizomes, and eight (Dolichos lablab) hyacinth bean vine seeds, maybe I should call them beans not seeds..LoL, from a friend over at GardenWeb. I planted the Alpinia zerumbet in the ground near where I already have two others. That should make a really nice clump beside the front porch an slightly in front of my window. I planted the Dolichos lablab beans in pots. I'm going to plant them in the ground once they are big enough, and once I have amended the soil where they are going to be placed.

I'm going to plant some of the Dolichos lablab near the down spout in front of the porch, and let them grow up the aluminum post things that hold up the roof of the porch. Also I'm going to run some twine between the post that they are going to grow up an the other one so they can grow to the side as well. The other ones are going to be planted on the front fence to fill it in till the Gloriosa superba grow to cover the fence.

While I was planting the Alpinia zerumbet my mother was planting some annuals around the stump in the front yard. We figure we might as well pretty it up until I get around to taking the stump out of the ground.

After the plants were planted I moved the rest of the mulch to where I am going to make the chicken pen. Tomorrow I'm going to go over there an spread the mulch out and see how much of the ground it covers. I'm hoping that the mulch there will serve as a distraction to keep the chicken from coming into the front yard an reeking havoc in my freshly planted beds there.

That's what I did today. Tomorrow I'm going to be pretty busy. I have to work on cleaning up the yard some more. I'm going to be cutting my neighbors grass. Also a guy is going to come over an get half (I hope) of the wood from the (Quercus nigra) water oak we removed a few weeks ago. There is probably more, but I'm tired an can't think of it right now.

The first thing I did outside today was planted my (Mirabilis jalapa) 4 O'Clock seeds, there was a thread over at GardenWeb about them that reminded me to, so now all there is to do with them is to keep 'em watered an wait for them to pop up. I don't know what color each one is, they were all mixed up, but I do know that I have at least three new colors that aren't in The Garden right now. We see once they come up an start flowering. Don't count your chickens before they hatch right.

After that I went to work on cleaning up the branches from the (Quercus nigra) water oak we cut down a few days ago. It was a full of (Phoradendron flavescens) mistletoe, had beetle damage, and was half dead. Basically waiting for a good stiff wind, so it could split in half an do some serious damage to the house. You would be suprised how much sun a tree with so few leaves could keep from reaching the ground. The spot where it used to be hardly ever got any sun, but now that it is gone it stays sunny there for hours. There are still a lot of branches left, but they will be gone soon enough. What I'm going to have trouble getting rid of are the bigger logs.

As I was going from the back to the front with the bundled branches I kept thinking that the front yard is really starting to come together. I was also thinking that it would look nice to put those tumbled pavers where all the paths are sand right now. To the right in the picture is the bed in front of the porch with the Brunfelsia australis in it. Those boxes an trays on the edge of the bed are what the Mirabilis jalapa seeds are in. To the left is a little round island with the Tithonia diversifolia in it, and in the bed around the base of the Tithonia diversifolia are the amaryllis. I also need to remove a magnolia stump that is right in the middle of the path. It is really come a good little way since the sandbox days.

I spent the early part of the day planting ginger in the newly mulched front yard beds. To the right, if you're facing the street, of the front porch I planted two (Alpinia zerumbet) shell gingers. A little further over I planted an unidentified ginger. I knew what it was when I bought it, but can't remember what genus or species it is now. At the corner of the house an to the front I planted a lone costus that I can't remember the species of either. On the other side of the front yard, by the fence just under the edge of a cedar tree, I planted about ten (Hedychium coronarium) butterfly ginger. I probably would have done more today, but it was really quite hot outside.

Yesterday I moved some plants, and planted some plants. From the bed in front of my front porch I dug up the (Alocasia macrorrhiza) elephant ears and the amaryllis. In their spot I planted two (Brunfelsia australis) yesterday today and tomorrow, and about 14 of two different caladium bulbs around them. The caladiums are there for some color while the Brunfelsia australis grows into its new spot. They, the brunfelsia, are still quite small, ones only 4" tall an the other is closer to a foot, so I'll probably have to wait for a little while for them to bloom. Once they do start blooming though it will be nice to step out front just for the fragrance not to mention the great visual flower display.

I moved the (Alocasia macrorrhiza) elephant ears to the bed by the second gate. At first I thought I was going to put some of the (Hedychium coronarium) butterfly gingers there, but I didn't think they would get enough sun. That spot gets lightly dappled shade, so I think the Alocasia macrorrhiza will do excellent there. The only thing I want to change is to have closer to 11 there, because right now there are only five an the bed is about 10'x15'

In the middle of the front fence (from the main driveway to the cedar tree), well just to either side of the middle, I planted two bushes that my neighbor gave me. She called them morning glory bushes, but I can't find anything on them yet. They have fragrant purple tubular flowers that are about 2"-3" across. The leaves are oval, about an inch an a half long with a point at the end, and purple tinged. The one in her backyard is like 5' tall, and puts on a nice display when in bloom.

In the middle, yes really the middle this time, of the front yard I have a (Tithonia diversifolia) mexican sunflower, and around that is where I planted the amaryllis. I'm not sure what species of amaryllis they are, or even if they are amaryllis that's just what I've always called them so that's what they will stay for now. There are five of them there, and I have a bunch more in the back that I want to move. I'm just not sure where I want to put them yet, so they can stay where they are for now.