Ralph E. Mitchell is the Director/Horticulture Agent for the UF/IFAS Charlotte County Extension Service. Ralph previously contributed to the SpaceMonkey blogger account. He can be reached at 941-764-4344 or ralph.mitchell [at] charlottecountyfl [dot] gov.

Posts by Ralph Mitchell:

• Nasturtiums make me smile!
• The African violet – a gift for the holidays
• Neon color, prickly nature
• Aglaonema on my mind
• Z is for Zoysia
• Color for the Fall - Pink Muhly Grass
• Plectranthus promises plenty of possibilities.
• Flowering maples – not what you think!
• Twinkle, twinkle, little earth star
• Landscapes - the aftermath

• As cute as a button
• Colorful tapioca
• The famous bird of paradise plant has a close connection to Charlotte County
• Why cabbage?
• A cosmos of cosmos
• Look for the sea oxeye daisy – a colorful native plant.
• The heartbreak of whiteflies
• Shady characters – Persian shields
• Something very different – the finger lime
• Ornamental peppers for bedding plants

• The summer of stinging caterpillars
• Indoors – outdoors
• Sky blue near you
• June showers bring rain lily flowers
• Royal splendor – the queen’s wreath
• Blue skies, golden showers
• Nature imitates nature – the golden shrimp plant
• The snowbush rises again?
• A top landscape plant – the golden dewdrop
• Tithonia – a sippy cup for butterflies

• Raising roses requires reasoning and resilience
• One sweet shrub – the sweet viburnum
• Velvet gems – celosia in the garden
• A passion
• Go subtropical!
• A bold oregano – ornamental and edible
• Alternative fruit – the longan
• Purple in the landscape
• Enjoy the new and improved touch-me-not
• Walter is in bloom!

• Joyweed – not what you think!
• Fruit tales - my papaya
• Asparagus – to look at, not to eat.
• The frilly fringe flower
• Water – the most important ingredient
• Spathoglottis – a beautiful terrestrial orchid
• 2024 - New year’s gardening resolutions – don’t go dormant – spring into gardening!
• Bougainvillea are daytime beacons of color
• Pretty petunias for winter color
• A mellow, yellow firecracker plant

• Blue for your Florida-Friendly Landscape™
• A legion of common names, but all the same plant
• ‘Xanadu’ and so can you!
• False heather – several colors, one plant
• A firebush of a different color
• Tiny purple Podocarpus parasites
• Broccoli in the landscape - an edible ornamental
• There is nothing like a coontie!
• Native plant daydream – the beautyberry
• The oleander moth – color and calamity

• Rangoon creeper – single and double
• Plant rewind - have a fun time with bulbine
• The butterfly pea – as blue as blue can be!
• A native “weed”
• Sedges have edges
• Periwinkles rule in summer heat
• 2023 - a bumper crop of lubbers?
• Tropical tulips – curcuma anybody?
• Peace…lily
• Jazzy “jasmine”

• Mites are not a disease
• In appreciation of the long-legged fly
• The bottle of palms
• Tuff turf – Bahia grass
• Please pass the butter daisy
• Curators of compost
• A palm from Europe?
• A premium native hedge for the right place – cocoplum
• A newer plant on the block – Japanese blueberry
• If you have shade, you need the cast iron plant

• In search of … the lily of the Nile
• Glorious coleus
• Small is good
• Smile, and say gerberas!
• Plan Before You Plant a Tree
• Variegation sensation – variegated plants
• Harvest now, plant in the fall – backyard cauliflower
• The telltale leaf notcher
• Shrub, hedge, material for a floral arrangement – the all-purpose pittosporum
• 2023 - New year’s gardening resolutions

• Christmas palms in color
• Norfolk Island pines – enjoy them now, maybe don’t plant them later
• Small palm, big impact
• Join the 40th annual master gardener volunteer training class in 2023
• The cryptic, but unique whisk fern
• The multipurpose podocarpus
• The queen of perennials – the crinum lily
• Starting over from scratch – the Florida-friendly landscaping™ way!
• Looking to plant new trees – what are best to resist a hurricane?
• Callus after the storm – time to seal

• Wishbones
• Palm triage
• Hurricane-damaged tree assessment – remove the tree or attempt restoration – that is the question
• Suds in the garden
• Once upon a millipede
• Shades of orange – the crossandra
• Getting your money’s worth in flowers this year - Ixora in the landscape
• Animated pumpkin seeds – take a closer look!
• The second hibiscus dimension – foliage color
• A native plant with pizazz - tropical sage

• Blockbuster in the landscape – the firecracker plant
• Prickly pears – pain and delight
• Dwarf oleanders are easy to keep in-bounds
• The only allamanda you will ever need
• A daisy in the bush is worth two in the hand
• I smell a sweet almond in your future!
• Beat the summer heat with the summer snapdragon
• High society – garlic?
• Blowing in soon – the saltbush
• Upside down hedges

• The great annual mahogany leaf drop
• Stop and smell the jasmine!
• Shade but no olives
• Fakahatchee’s little cousin
• Crotons – a living paint palette of color
• Panama rose – revisited
• Food of the gods it is not!
• Canna I grow it?
• Deep freeze 2022 – postmortem part II - palm edition
• Deep freeze 2022 – postmortem

• All puffed up in the landscape
• 2022 - New year’s gardening resolutions
• Vanda orchids at a glance
• Dyckia – another type of bromeliad
• Some writings on pencil cactus
• Holey leaves - when holes in leaves are a good thing
• Flowering now as a holiday reminder of the real snow up north
• More butter in the garden
• Buttercups for pollinators
• A very different type of hibiscus – nature’s chandelier

• Pink makes you think it is Muhly grass time
• Hey, hey, its sweet bay!
• Hey, hey, its sweet bay!
• A copperleaf of a different color
• Variegation – St. Augustine style!
• The longan, cousin of the lychee
• An orange-flowering tree in bloom now – the Geiger Tree
• Our local crape myrtles look great this year!
• Have you spotted the leopard plant?
• A cool flowering plant for hot summers

• The shrublet
• The other pineapple – the ornamental pineapple – a landscape jewel!
• Pass the jackfruit
• Hang-on, vines are on the way!
• Cool name, heat tolerant – the ice plant
• Who ate the crinum lilies?
• Introducing, or reintroducing, the lion’s ear
• Cover your landscape with the blanket flower
• Worms in a bag – a cryptic caterpillar
• Flax lily – maybe overplanted, but for a good reason

• The ‘Drake’
• Termites are in the air
• The golden flowers of Cochran Blvd.
• County Events: Planning Your Presentation: Intro, Body & Summary
• Raphiolepis - nice and low in the landscape
• Not to brag, but my Brazilian red cloak is looking great!
• Don’t make a mountain out of a mole hill
• Wax nostalgic for wax myrtle
• Satisfying Salvia
• Preparing for the next cold snap – just in case

• The leopard plant – revisited
• Perennial pentas perform year-round
• Needle palms – attractive, well-armed, native palms
• Recently spotted – the yellow jacobinia
• A living Christmas tree
• A holiday dream – the poinsettia
• Gardening can be rosy
• Now is the season for geraniums
• The sunflower for Lilliputians – the beach sunflower
• Wake up call for sleeping hibiscus

• First out for the Holidays – amaryllis – a bulb of great potential!
• Tried and true – Jatropha
• A palm in name only
• Target - baby jump up
• Managing cockroaches without pesticides
• Mealybugs - soft-bodied villains!
• Puff goes the weed!
• Malabar spinach – not that bad after all!
• Roses of the Desert
• Best to stay away from the castor bean

• O-v-e-r - P-r-u-n-e-d!
• A complement to waterlilies – pickerelweed
• Read about the reed orchid
• The giant potato tree
• A mango tree in your yard?
• Yard long beans – plus or minus thirty-six inches
• There are good stink bugs
• Summer pumpkins
• Garlic vine – the beauty beats the smell!
• New year’s gardening resolutions for 2020

• Let nature help you
• Backyard sweet tooth
• The humble blue plumbago
• I like your ti!
• Flying gems add to your Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ yard
• Flying gems add to your Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ yard
• Flying gems add to your Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ yard
• Screw-pine - not a pine, but definitely whorled!
• Rotten butts – the heartbreak of Ganoderma
• The voodoo lily

• Tiny, but mighty – the lychee erinose mite
• Here today – here tomorrow – the bush daisy
• Green shrimp plant – friend or foe?
• Still amusing – heliconia in my garden
• Mary’s gold
• Sun + flower = Helianthus
• Our native grape – the muscadine
• In a real pickle with pickle worms
• Calla calling!
• The amaryllis – the tulip of Florida

• All hail kale!
• Agave – get the point!
• Fancy plants in the landscape – Eugenia
• Sweet potatoes grow themselves
• When is a jasmine not a jasmine?
• A truly purple “evergreen”
• Larger canna leafrollers and other tales of terror
• Keep it in the pot – control your pothos
• Scarlet ginger – easy to grow by all gardeners
• To prune or not to prune – that is the crape myrtle question

• Not a lout or a lummox, just a lubber
• A fine vine is the sky vine
• The Grand Crinum Lily
• Soil testing is fundamental
• Can you grow a coconut palm in Charlotte County?
• Bud drop and other hibiscus horror stories
• Ginger with a twist
• Once called “wild bananas” and “false birds-of-paradise” , this plant now answers to heliconia
• Rise of the millipedes
• Looking to plant new trees – what are best to resist a hurricane?

• How to avoid future tree blow-overs
• My favorite golden dewdrop
• Home-grown dragon fruit – a fruit salad possibility!
• Palms – the root of no problems
• The Jadera bug and the golden rain tree – a love story
• The Everglades palm in your backyard
• Nematodes in residential lawns – best management practices
• Periwinkles – fail no more with Cora™ series
• Periwinkles – fail no more with Cora™ series
• Not lovebugs, not mosquitoes – just blind mosquitoes!