In my area - the Japanese Beetles are only here for about a month - mid June to mid July. I have just learned to enjoy the roses prior to that then deadhead them and even do a severe pruning if need be. By the time the new foilage and buds are formed the beetles are gone and I have the roses for the rest of they year. Same with my hollyhocks - I will enjoy most of the bloom and when they start attacking them - I cut the stalks back and sometimes get a second smaller bloom later in the season. I do alot of handpicking of them - always have a container of water and dish soap and put the container underneath the beetle/beetles and use the lid or even my hands and knock the beetles into the jar - put the lip on and then shake or swirl it - the beetles die. They are a mess - thats for sure. I have also learned the very BEST Bag-o-Bug is the one in SOMEONE elses yard - preferbably a couple of houses away. NEVER put them directly in your garden - if you feel you must have them - put it as far away from your plants as possible. As for the original question - I would love to just get cosmos to grow for me. I LOVE the flowers and want them in my garden however I am learning to accept the fact that not EVERY flower will do well in my zone/soil so will work with what does best for me. I DO know they grow down here because they are used for the roadside and median plantings by the DOT so will continue to try..... Lynne

I came across an interesting article by the LA Daily News. The author wrote about a volunteer Mimosa tree growing along the freeway that does not receive any irrigation (in the dry SW). “Mimosa and jacaranda trees are known to bloom more heavily than usual in times of drought. Both are native to drought frequented habitats — Western Asia for mimosa and Argentina for jacaranda — and the way they respond to drought stress is by going into survival mode, which means forming more flowers and thus more seeds than usual.” Maybe you are watering too much during the blooming period. My first thought was too much shade or nitrogen, but i think this article makes a compelling argument for drought specimens. https://www.dailynews.com/2015/06/04/mimosa-isnt-just-a-drink-its-a-tropical-exotic-tree/

I find it strange that so many people are trying to grow northern vegetables following a northern calendar in FL. No wonder you're having so much trouble! I'm in central FL 9B and I grow stuff all year round - but what I grow changes with the temperatures. For example, this past year in the cooler months (late fall/winter) I grew lots of leafy greens like lettuce, chard, cilantro, garden and red sorrel, bok choy, radishes, carrots, and peas. I've got a few pigeon pea "trees" (they live for ~5 years and produce pigeon peas year round. They are drought tolerant and infertile sand tolerant). I've got straight Myakka sand and I haven't been amending. To my surprise, quite a few plants were very happy in my infertile sand. The only thing I do is occasionally add some coffee grounds once in a while or some diluted urine. I'm now in the process of making and charging biochar to long term improve the fertility of my sand since any compost I added in the past disappeared almost immediately (to be honest, it disappears in my compost bin before I even really get a chance to use it). In October I started tomato plants from seeds - now that it's March they are flowering and fruiting. Everglades tomato is a FL native tomato that can perform even during our crazy hot and humid summers. There's also Floradade tomato, which was developed in south FL specifically to cope with the brutal summers and can handle up to 100F. I've got those sprouting now (mid March) so we'll see how they do. There are at least 10 other tomatoes I know of that purportedly thrive even in FL summers but they will not be the tomatoes everyone knows in the north. If you want to grow northern tomatoes, just do it in the spring; most tomatoes will drop flowers by June due to the heat. If you can keep the plant alive through the summer (usually by shading it from afternoon sun) they will start producing again in the fall when temps cool down. I've also got sweet and hot peppers, sweet potatoes, cowpeas, eggplant, callaloo (amaranth), garlic chives, lagos spinach, New Zealand spinach, Ethiopian Kale, Malabar spinach, Roselle, Cranberry Hibiscus, Chaya, and Moringa for the summer. Rule of thumb for FL gardening: Southeast Asian + Caribbean veggies do particularly well in FL summers and "northern" veggies grow well here in the winter. As for fruit trees... stop trying to grow what does well in the north and grow what does well here. I've got a monster guava that I never fertilize or water and can deal with the occasional cold snap. Mulberries also do particularly well - they are basically zero maintenance (no extra watering, fertilizer, thrive on neglect). They fruit multiple times a year (mine are flowering now). There are plenty of other options if you look.

Hello, I'm in Alpine Utah. As someone else mentioned the Linden is a good alternative for the Poplar and there are many varieties of Linden to consider. They do well here, flexible branches/less prone to break and smell wonderful when they bloom (and attract bees). Some varieties of Ash grow as fast as Cottonwood, but like other fast growing trees, they are even weaker branched than Poplar! We have a good size property, so I did plant some cottonless cottonwood on the edge of my property because I love the flicker of the leaves and the roots there won't be a problem (for neighbors either). You might look at Mountain Ash (Sorbus) not related to Ash (Fraxinus I think). They do maginficent out here and have beautiful fall color, flowers in late spring, berries into the winter. I love the Bur Oak also, but slow grower. Also I would not recommend Silver Maple as a fast growing tree. They are brittle and don't look so Silver as they do Chlorotic (Chlorosis, sickly yellow).