Cupshaped, We lived just south of Daytona for over 20 years. We hadn't discovered OGRs, but gave up on the HTs that were sold at garden centers because they were too much work--the constant spraying required was a nightmare. Especially in the heat of summer, when you'd come in needing a blood transfusion from all the mosquito bites. We were on a barrier island, so the "soil" was almost pure sand with a thin layer of leaf litter and pine straw on top. Water & nutrients ran right through it. We found gardening with Florida natives to be a very satisfying, enviromentally friendly way to go. If you want a Florida native that will attract butterflies, get a firebush (Hamelia patens). Wonderful red-orange tube-shaped flowers are great nectar sources for most butterflies, and hummingbirds like them, too. Being a native, it should perform well--there may be a little freeze damage once in a while in Daytona, but it's good to whack the bushes back once in a while, anyway. Another great Florida native for butterflies is Wild Coffee (Psychotria nervosa). Makes a beautiful rounded bush with shiny leaves, small white flowers, and red berries. Zebra longwing butterflies LOVE it. Citrus trees act as larval food for Eastern Swallowtails (the caterpillars look like bird poop, and put out scary red antennae-type things when alarmed, but the butterflies are GORGEOUS.) The caterpillars don't eat that much, so just ignore the few chewed on leaves and wait for them to emerge in all their flying glory. And you can eat the citrus, too. Passionflower vines are larval food for zebra longwings, and have great flowers. Muhly grass is a lovely ornamental native grass that has pinkish blooms. And some of the spartina grasses are also great native ornamentals. Green Images in Christmas, Florida is a WONDERFUL native plant nursery that's not too far from Daytona. Worth a trip over there, and they should have a bunch of natives that will perform well and bring in the butterflies. Depending on your friends' soil, amendments can be tricky. If they're in a real sandy area, the soil is so coarse that it has tons of air & oxygen in it, and organics burn up so fast that you almost can't add them quickly enough to make a difference. Other places are muck (basically swamp bottom) and have much richer soil. The Florida Native Plant Society is a wonderful organization and a great source of information if you want to "go native". Natives are so much easier to grow, provide food and cover for birds and butterflies, and low maintenance to boot. Water rationing is becoming pretty common in Florida, and planting things that will deal with normal rainfall is a way to have a beautiful garden in spite of water restrictions.

Linda, I live in Panama City and I haven't been able to find any good succulent nurseries in the area. There is a nursery around Gulf Breeze (near Pensacola) that carries succulents but you have to call ahead for an appointment. From the looks of their website they really only carry Sedums and Sempervivums. As far as having a large jade, I have no idea. Here's there website: http://www.santarosagardens.com/default.asp If you do find a nursery in this area please let me know because I've been searching and searching! I get most of mine from generous people, online nurseries and ebay. ~Erin~

Some things coming up in the February update are: Mexicola avocado has grown 40 inches since the November video (so far) . It seems like a never ending growth flush. Bacon avocado has grown 30 inches since the November video (so far). No chemical fertilizers. Guava is holding about thirty fruit so far when in the November video all the flowers were just dropping. Lots of oaks have been taken down for further expansion and sunlight. Garden beds moved to North side of pond. Planted a Florida Prince peach in early January. Had to dig up Kari starfruit because of a disease but put a new Kari in its place while nursing the now pruned old Kari in a pot. Some work will be done on the newest expansion on the north side of property. My burn barrels frost protection setup. Update on the strawberry patch. These are some of the things that will be coming up in the February update.

Hi, Fl gardener here. You are in Northern Florida and Nematodes are probably not as much a concern there so I would not worry about root stock as much. I would however worry about the climbers as they most likely will not bloom for the first 3 years (YES 3!). So you may not see ANY blooms before you move, if you stay on course.Eden and Zeph are particularly notorious for this. I have both, and can attest. Eden has had maybe 5 blooms going into its third year, Zeph is going into its third and has never had one. If you really want climbers, try and get large bushes that can be trained to climb (wont be hard in FL climate). Also some climbers don't have this problem (some few). Good ones in my garden that would work for you (and will bloom even when small) are: Nahema Heirloom Spirit of Freedom (highly recommend this one) Abe Darby * William Morris Dames De Chennonceau Pat Austin * Evelyn* The ones with stars by them I grow grafted on Fortuniana so they may grow slower on their own roots. Jude The Obscure will do fine, but may need spraying for black spot. New Dawn is a good choice I think. I have a small one and it blooms a lot even while small. It will get huge! So make sure you have room for it. If you are willing to wait, all of the roses you have chosen will do well for you, you have made good choices for your area, but 2 or even 3 years wont be enough time to really get to reap the benefits of your efforts. New Dawn will be worth it, but the others wont. Also, I really don't recommend you pay $45 per rose at Heirloom. They are not any better quality than Rose Unlimited, Rose Petals Nursery, Chamblees, Rogue Valley Roses or Angel Gardens and all of these charge less than half that for their roses (Chamblees has New Dawn for $10.95 and is EXCELLENT QUALITY).