Mark your calendars! Florida-Friendly Garden Fest is April 27, 2024 at Centennial Park, 1120 Centennial Blvd. Port Charlotte, FL 33953, from 9am-2pm. Free admission. Master Gardener Plant Sale Plant vendors Garden art, pottery, and ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
Flowering trees have seasonal blooms that we look forward to every year. You know it is coming, but once in bloom the colors wake up the landscape like a floral beacon. The purple trumpet tree – aka - Handroanthus impetiginosus (formerly ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
Impatiens are known by many names including “touch-me-not” and "busy lizzie". However, almost everyone knows that impatiens are common bedding annuals that bring seasonal color and easy care. While once known to be used exclusively ... READ MORE
Category: Home Landscapes
Living in Southwest Florida we often have plants blooming all the time – even during the winter! Well before the official start of Spring, some plants like our native Walter’s Viburnum are in flower. Walter’s Viburnum is one of ... READ MORE
Category: Home Landscapes
Once again, common names can be confusing in the plant world. Slender joyweed is a type of plant called Alternanthera. There are a number of species of Alternanthera, but they are all generally grown for their very colorful foliage, ... READ MORE
Category: Home Landscapes
A papaya is not a true tree, but a tree-like or arborescent plant. This large herbaceous plant is relatively short-lived but can be a great producer of high-quality fruit. I have grown them for years with successes and failures along the ... READ MORE
Category: Fruits & Vegetables, Home Landscapes
While you normally can’t successfully grow edible asparagus in Southwest Florida due to our overly warm and wet climate, you can grow a number of ornamental types that make great container plants for patios, indoors as houseplants, or in some ... READ MORE
Category: Home Landscapes
We live in a gigantic garden here in Charlotte County divided only by fences and roads. In landscapes, gas stations parking lots, and other assorted sites you are likely to see common landscape materials such as dwarf variegated schefflera, ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
Water is perhaps the most important ingredient needed by a newly planted tree. Water is also the item most over-looked by homeowners as they prepare to get a tree established in their landscape. How can we best succeed in providing a ... READ MORE
Category: Home Landscapes
You have probably seen this orchid as you stroll down garden center aisles. It is not as fancy as the other striking orchids – Cattleya or Phalaenopsis. Rather petite in nature, this orchid is eye-catching in its own way with small, ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes