Crotons - What You Need to Know

Crotons are colorful and showy in the landscape.  They can be grown in containers as in the photo from my garden, or grown as a shrub (great for hedges).  There are various varieties that can all bring a tropical, colorful look in the garden.

If you are interested in growing these beauties in your garden, click here for an excellent article on crotons.

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How to Grow Flowering Mandevilla Vine

Love the showy flowering mandevilla vine grown on a trellis.  We had a beautiful mandevilla with pink flowers that died in one of our harsh winters.  It was one of my favorite plants!

If you would love to grow a mandevilla, click here for an excellent plant profile.

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Sago Palm Outdoor Care

The photo is from my paradise before a few harsh winters wiped out the landscape.  My beloved sago palm is at the bottom left of the photo.  It was killed by an infestation that hit Florida hard.  Love sago palms!

Click here for a excellent article on the sago palm that grows in zones 8 through 10.

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Beginners Guide to Succulents

Succulents seem to be all the rage . . . I'm seeing them everywhere!  I've always loved hens and chicks, but I have not had luck growing them.

They are perfect plants for container gardening and so cute.

Click here for a beginners guide to growing these little beauties.  I'll be updating this post as I find more links.

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Blue Plumbago: How to grow

Before an unusually brutal winter wiped out most of my paradise, my blue plumbago stood out like a shining gem.  It was started from a cutting from my mother-in-law's garden, like most of my other plants.  The cutting grew into a beautiful bush that always had butterflies hovering around it.  

When we get our paradise beautiful and thriving again, the blue plumbago for sure will be prominent in the garden again.

I highly recommend this beautiful bush for your landscape.

Click here for an excellent article from Plant Care Today on growing these beauties.

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Aucuba . . . the plant with the look of the tropics

It is one of those plants that thrived in my father's garden, a successful result of his passion for propagating plants collected in his travels. The shrub in the photo from my garden is a result of several years growth from the cuttings I took from his yard. The aucuba plant is one of my favorites.

Our aucubas were severely damaged from the unusual cold winter . . . the first year this happened as our mild winters in Tampa usually don't damage the plant. Being the resilient plant that they are, new growth quickly appeared this spring and are on their way back to the beauty the brightly colored leaves bring to the landscape.

Scientific Name
Aucuba japonica

Common Name
Aucuba . . . Gold Dust Plant

Native to eastern Asia, this evergreen shrub has dense, glossy foliage that appears splashed with yellow paint. The shrub can grow up to 10 feet tall.

The ideal soil is moist, high in organic matter and well-drained, although it will tolerate almost any soil condition. Plant in partial to full shade (summer and winter), as its leaves will "burn" in summer and turn sickly green in winter.

It competes successfully with the demanding roots of other shrubs and trees, and transplants easily. The aucuba plant also performs well in containers.

Avoid overhead watering to reduce incidence of disease. Prune occasionally to restrain growth or eliminate dead or dying branches caused by disease.

Insects are not a significant problem!

Propagate from softwood or semi-hardwood cuttings.

In my opinion, they are the perfect Zone 9 plant (although they thrive in Zones 7 through 10).

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Kalanchoe blossfeldiana

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is a durable flowering succulent that requires little maintenance and can be grown either indoors or outdoors.

Their fleshy, dark shiny green leaves will reach 3 inches (7.7 cm) long by up to 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) wide with lobed edges.

Floral colors range from the traditional red to yellows, oranges, salmon, to pink and almost any color in between.

They start blooming in December and last 6-8 weeks.

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana need full sun to high interior lighting, with a well drained soil mix.

The plants are well watered and allowed to dry somewhat in between waterings.

During the growing season (spring and summer), the plants are fertilized every month with a balanced fertilizer.

Beginning in the fall, the plants require 14 hours of continuous darkness every day to promote blooming. During this period, no fertilizer is used. I've never used this method and they always bloom like crazy for me . . . even the container plants that live in my carport where the light is never turned off.

After the plants have bloomed, they should be cut back to promote new growth and fertilized every 2 weeks. Keep plants trimmed to encourage compact and bushy growth.

Cut the blooms off the plant when the flowers start to fade . . . air dry to harvest the seeds. My method is to sprinkle seed where I want them to grow . . .

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is easily propagated from cuttings in the spring. Cuttings should be 2-3" long with two pairs of leaves. Leaves are removed from the lower one or two nodes and inserted into the medium . . . no rooting hormone is needed. A good rooting medium consists of 1 part peat to 1 part perlite or sand . . . stick cuttings into final containers.

This is one of my favorite plants because of the brilliantly colored flowers, they are tolerant of neglect and so easy to propagate . . . I'd love to have a mass planting of this and will probably take lots of cuttings and throw out lots of seed this spring so I can.

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