Each hurricane leaves its own signature on the landscape. Milton left us with widespread leaf scorch and saltwater inundation damage marring our once-beautiful landscapes. Things may look bad, but we can look to the future for some recovery ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
Many gardeners are familiar with the orange bird-of-paradise plant, Strelitzia reginae. This tropical herbaceous perennial is a common landscape plant in our area and is known for its stunning orange and blue complex flower that resembles ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
I was walking through our Demonstration Garden at 25550 Harbor View Road in Port Charlotte awhile back and found a relatively new planting of sea oxeye daisy, Borrichia frutescens. This beautiful native flowering perennial plant is chock ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
Truly blue flowering plants are somewhat rare. Blue is a “cool” color which tends to be related to calmness, relaxation, and serenity - always welcome in landscapes. The sky-blue flowering plumbago is one of those plants. While commonplace, ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
The rains have finally returned to the relief of all of our plants. Rain often triggers growth and flowering as well - if you have seen rain lilies, you will know what I mean. Rain lilies have burst forth in a blaze of glory with this ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
Join us at the Port Charlotte Library located at 2280 Aaron Street in Port Charlotte on July 12th, or on July 15th at the Punta Gorda Library at 401 Shreve Street in Punta Gorda for a fun and informative event called Growing Colorful Caladiums! ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
Can a plant have flowers so stunning that they may be best linked to royalty? Can we gardening plebeians be allowed to cultivate a plant that bears the name “Queen”? The answer is “yes” to one and all! No flowering vine could ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
The first Wednesday in June I was able to stop at the History Park in Punta Gorda to see an amazing site – the flowering of the golden shower tree. This magnificent flowering tree put on a show of golden-yellow cascading flowers against ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
What plant has a flower that looks like a tasty seafood treat, but is actually just a fine bedding plant? The golden shrimp plant produces a yellow bracted flower that sort of looks like a shrimp that is exotic and easy to grow. A common ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes
There is a good reason why Charlotte County landscapes are full of Sweet Viburnum. Sweet Viburnum, a type of shrub and small tree, are very versatile in that they not only make a great hedge material, but can also be trained into small, ... READ MORE
Category: Florida-Friendly Landscaping, Home Landscapes