Very pretty! Your queen's wreath looks great. I have a smaller one that I hope looks that good in a few years.

I think it is wonderful!

Anna,

What a beautiful pictures! I would like to steal the idea with the purple against the white fence.

All the colors are so vivid and your pond looks so tranquil, you do have a picture perfect garden even after the harsh winter that we had.

Silvia

Anna, I so love seeing photos of your garden, it really is lovely. You have so much blooming even after all this cold damage. :o)

I was happy to see some blooms on some of my plants now too.

Very nice fauna and flora. You have such a beautiful yard!

Anna, I drool every time I see your pictures. You have such beautiful beds and of course your pond is a dream. Isn't it great that Spring has finally shown up!

Ginny

Your yard is coming back strong. It is always a treat to see your photos. Someone just gave me a cutting of eranthemum pulchellum which is only about 8 inches tall but has been blooming like crazy ever since I got it. I can't wait to see it grow bigger. I planted it where it gets morning sun and then dappled shade. It actually will get morning sun in the summer which I'm concerned might be too much. How do you have yours sited?

Thank-you, ladies! Finally, a bit of color. However, I strategically shot the photos to conceal the brown, barren and dead areas. These color spots are few and far between, but I am grateful to have some! Kgardens, my eranthemum pulchellum is in all-day shade or filtered shade. It is a little lanky (graceful), but I like it that way. I cut it back to 3-4 feet last year after blooming and it is 6-7 feet now. The one I saw at Ariel's was more compact, was in full sun in the afternoon (but close to a lanai, so probably in shade some of the day), was much more compact, and much more full of blooms. I like the foliage on this plant too. Although it doesn't bloom much of the year, to me it still looks pleasant. Please show photos of your April flora and fauna.

Anna

Anna, what a paradise you have in your garden. I love your photos - as always
Olya

If they don't let me get into heaven, can I come sneak into your yard? I would help you weed!

Olya and Ritaweeda, you are too kind. It certainly isn't paradise, but it's ours and the creatures' and we love it.

Anna

Beautiful as always, Anna. And while I am sure you had to do some selective photography to get rid of the brown areas that are all too common in our gardens right now the stuff that is blooming is fantastic!

I promise I will get out this weekend and take some pictures. The amaryllis are about to bloom and a few others are looking pretty good, if small.

As for the fauna, I'll see if any of them besides those lazy dogs will hold still for a picture. The woodpeckers have been very busy lately. We were watching them out the dining room window the other night and it was a great dinner show! We were cracking up. The carolina wrens are building nests in places they shouldn't and keeping me on my toes finding them. If I let them build a nest too low near the house, the yellow dog will find the chicks once they start making some noise. It is not a pretty sight. We have also have a tremendous number of turkey sauntering through the yard lately until the canines chase them off.

Melissa

Where did you get the bird house the woodpeckers are nesting? What brand is it?

Thanks
Joel

Oh, good, Melissa. I was hoping to see others' flora and fauna too. Try to get a photo of those wild turkeys if you can! I'd love to see them. As for the woodpeckers, they are a riot. I never knew they were such aggressive birds. They are kings of the feeder, and I suspect they kicked the screech owls out of the owl house. They are such strong flyers, even with stuff in their beaks. They are fun to watch.

Joel, the screech owl house is from Wild Birds Unlimited. It was a Christmas present. I am going to put another one on my list for next Christmas to put on the other side of my property. I hesitated this year because I didn't want to provide more housing for squirrels, but now that I see the birds will take over, I will definitely want another. In contrast, the carolina wrens don't use their house. They prefer to nest under the deck every year. Such a cute house, too.

Anna

Anna ~ you do certainly have a lovely, peaceful bit of paradise. Your Queen's Wreath if fantastic. I have one that I got in trade from D'Ann and it's about 3' tall. I'm wondering how long before I get those heavenly blooms.

I have eranthemum pulchellum, Blue Sage, as well and love it. I have one in the back section of our property that I do nothing with and it grows just beautifully. I love those blue blooms.

What is that thorny tree by your pond?

Thanks for sharing your lovely gardens ~ FlowerLady

I ran out to look at my sussenguthia. I have 1 flower, a bunch of buds but only one flower. You've got the touch for sure!
I'd love to put the bird house on my Christmas list. Hey wait...isn't Mother's day around the corner?????

Birdhouses: I've purchased some of the bird houses made by this person (no relation or sales gimmick) for Cape Cod. I'll get some for our 9b house next year.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Blue-Bird-bluebird-bird-house-Deluxe_W0QQitemZ230458900678QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a86bc0c6

Great photos.

Carol B.

Hi Flowerlady! I bet your queen's wreath will bloom anytime. I think it just needs to get a little bit of a trunk on it? Maybe a little maturity? I bet it will be beautiful in your garden. The thorny tree is a floss silk tree. It blooms in the fall, goes deciduous in winter and is just about to get its foliage now. I really like it.

Kristi, I don't do anything to the sussenguthia. I'm sure yours will be in full bloom soon. Mine has filled in more in the last few days. Yours will too. I thought about mother's day, but I'm afraid the squirrels will inhabit them for further nesting. If I put it up after Christmas, the birds will have a first shot at it hopefully.

Here is a little more flora and fauna:

These guys were mating yesterday. Great.....

A friend of mine air-layered a bombax for me last year and I planted the 3 foot stick last summer or fall. It actually bloomed!

Anna

Anna! Someone from Southern Living needs to come visit your place. Great job. I want one of those queens wreaths now.

How we love when Anna posts pictures! Always a treat . . . and I have fallen in love with three more plants that I gotta have! So tonight I'm hogging the computer to learn more about sussenguthia (and how to correctly pronounce it), eranthemum pulchellum and Queen's Wreath to make sure they will like living here.

And Anna, tomorrow I will take new pics of my April Fauna and Flora so you can see how I'm doin'.

Thanks for the eye-candy.

Susie

Anna
Since you have a large property have you thought of putting up some nesting boxes for some of the larger owls??
have heard they will help with squirrel problems and of course barn owls dine almost exclusively on rodents. Need large boxes fairly high up though.
I always rave about the Queens wreath it is almost an ideal vine . Cold tolerant, blooms almost year around with two heavy ones a year. No pests drought tolerant and best of all doesn't try to eat the house lol I had no luck at all with the double flowering type and the white was too slow growing.but maybe a standard?? Vines are my favorite type of plant growth but I have such a small lot!!
Thought I'd lost the Thunbergia mysorensis due to the cold but is recovering but I'll bet no flowers yet another year!! lol Another that is really struggling is Schizolobium parahyba was hoping to have at least one flower before I have to remove it. Same is true for the Cassia roxburghii. looks terrible and I think it should be flowering right now.
Hope your lilies are doing well I saved all my water plants (I thinK) lol but completely wiped out my fish. have had them since 1982!!
Thanks for the pix always enjoy hearing your up dates!!! gary

I want to recommend the queen's wreath to everyone too. I have mine in full sun western exposure and it is still alive. A miracle. Also it survived this cold winter and just finished blooming. Mine is not as lovely as Anna's but I am hopeful. I know that Disney had one at Epcot's England garden.

Oh where did my post from days ago go?
Darn it. Disappeared in the ether.
Anyway, love the flowers Anna. Love the salvia, way gorgeous.

Not to be pushy but how are your orchids doing? You always had the most wonderful mature plants with many many blooms posted here.

Denise

here's what's blooming in my yard
Napoleon-heirloom rose
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Martha's Vineyard
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Denise

Thanks, Miranda. You know, I only showed the good parts. The ugly parts are no fun.

Susie, I would definitely recommend the Queen's wreath. The eranthemum pulchellum is a great plant, but will only bloom once yearly for a month. I still think it is worthwhile, but not in a prime location. More background. The suessenguthia, well it is pretty, but again, about a month and then it does nothing but grow. I really like it, but I just have it in a place where it can be background foliage. I can't wait to see your flora and fauna!

Denise, I had a post disappear recently from Miranda's thread. Don't know what happens. Your roses are absolutely beautiful. I especially love the Martha's vineyard, and it will look stunning in that bed with the salvia and others. I got that at crowley's a few years ago and loved it. I put it in the ground and it declined each year. Probably nematodes. You are smart to have yours in a pot. I love the shape of that bed, by the way! By the way, the red perennial salvia is from Crowley's and it's called Faye Chapel. I would highly recommend this one. I think it is a wonderful plant and blooms all the time. It is really bright red, though. You gotta like red. BTW, I've been thinking about you. I saw the rondeletia (panama rose) you liked at Crowley's and at Troy's recently. The ones at Troy's looked particularly pretty. I tried last year to root it for you to no avail.

Anna

haha Anna
I already planted Martha's Vineyard in the ground. Daily watering was too much and necessary in the pot. I have nematodes out the wazoo but maybe I can keep adding compost. (I got mine at Crowley's too, couldn't resist the amazing color). I really went to Crowley's for bamboo to replace the travellers palms that really don't belong in my yard (frostbit every year).

Thanks for the salvia name. I'll put it in my mental list for next years trip to Crowley's.

Denise

Stunning Anna, you've got me thinking about giving up the veggie arbor for Queen's Wreath. Does it propagate from cuttings, and how long will the vines grow in a year?

Tom

Thank you Anna!

I planted your beautiful caladiums in the light colored pot. And look what I got!

Tom,

I can answer all the questions for you,;) I got today at my local Knox nursery, they are open to the public, it has a trunk of 6 inches and above the pot is 30 inches. I saw the ones they were growing, in my area they are not blooming yet. They had them around a pergola. It cost 34,99 and I am happy. It will replace a purple vine that Cheryl bought and died the past winter, against a white fence.

The arbor that you have will be perfect for that, the trunk is thick like a tree.

Silvia

Wow, Silvia, that is a beauty! I cannot believe the trunk on your new Queen's wreath! I had to run out to see the trunk on mine. It is about the same! With that mature of a specimen, I bet you will get lots and lots of new growth this year. It has taken me about three years to train mine into this form, but mine was a little twig in comparison. I think you will be able to do it all this year! It's about what I paid for mine three years ago too. Congratulations on such a great find. With your green thumb, it will be a spectacle soon!

Tom, I have never been able to propagate mine from cuttings, but now that I see Silvias, perhaps I wasn't trying a thick enough diameter trunk? I might try again. I think someone on GW said they had gotten one someone had propagated. When we start getting rains I will try again. Mine has taken 3 years to get this size, but I cut it back severely in February when the wind blew it down so my DH could tie it up again. You have to help it. Mine was a little twig when I got it, though. Maybe a half to three quarter inch trunk? Once they get established and mature, they get a lot of growth on top, but is in no way invasive.

Gary, the waterlilies have gotten a super slow start this year. They have not liked the cold. They are just starting to grow a little in the last week or so. I know they will make it back, though. So sorry to hear about your fish! How sad. I hope you will get others.

Anna

Thanks Silvia and Anna, I sure would like to find one with trunk the size of that one Silvia has.

Silvia, did they have more? My cousin could bring me one if so....

Tom

Thank you Anna, I was at the winter garden sale today, it was very busy more than other years, saw all my neighbors.:o)

Tom, I planted the queen wreath this morning and yes they have more, I would call if I was you tell them exactly what you want, they had different sizes for the same price, I actually asked them for the smallest one they had, you can get the biggest one for your arbor. You can secure the sale with the credit card, they are very good and used to be wholesaler. After the plant sale at winter garden and saw about the same vendors at leu I went back to the nursery and got other things that I want it. They are open 7 days a week 8am-5pm phone:407-654-5821

I can see it filling your arbor nicely and because you are warmer, yours will bloom at the same time like Anna and we will have something in common for the years to come, :)

Another thing that I like is strong, you will see the roots and no thorns.

Silvia

OK, here are my contributions. As I suspected, they only fauna among the flora were the dogs. Nothing furry, feathered or otherwise comes to see me when they are out.

Melissa

Silvia - Thanks! I will call them tomorrow and order two of the largest vines they have :-)

Melissa - when I saw your pictures last year I started thinking about ripping out everything in the front yard that was BORING GREEN and establishing an English style flower garden, THANK YOU! We decided to take it one step further and make it a Butterfly Garden...your pictures inspire me and continue to give me new ideas :-)

Tom

Hi everybody
I took alot of pics because this will be my last spring in Chokoloskee and I decided to make an album of how the gardens look this year so I won't forget.
I will be taking alot of my containered plants with me, the stuff in the ground is all grown up and should be able to fend for themselves. What I never show in my pics is the Waste Management dumpster that services my trailer park - it is where each neighbor has to come with their trash, so they get to monitor my gardens all the time. It is almost central in my "garden area" - - see if you can figure out where it might be by looking at these photos:

#1 You're getting warm

{{gwi:850025}}

#2 Look the right direction . . .
{{gwi:850026}}

#3 Okay, you're really warmer now!

#4 Now that you on the garden side of the dumpster wall, here's my Guara and Purple Firespike
{{gwi:850027}}

#5 and here's the bouganvillea
{{gwi:850028}}

#6 More Bouganvillea
{{gwi:850030}}

#7 Now idle in for some bait and gas, and take a look at my hibiscus garden. You can't miss it, it's right across from the dumpster!
{{gwi:850031}}

#8 Today's hibiscus
{{gwi:850032}}
#9 Another one
{{gwi:850033}}

#10 Enough is enough y'all saw these last year, right?
{{gwi:850035}}

#11 Okay this is the hanging basket of impatiens that I was standing next to when a hummingbird stopped by.
{{gwi:850038}}

#12 Red impatiens garden

{{gwi:850041}}

#13 Non-red impatiens garden

{{gwi:850044}}
#14 Peas, tomatoes, lettuce and flowers dangerously close to garbage truck wheels
{{gwi:850046}}

#15 One for Denise - a rose I grew from a cutting I took in November. I didn't get the name of the bush, but it is climbing, or scrambling, I think. Let me know if you can identify.
{{gwi:818667}}

Well, I have lots more, but I think I've worn out my welcome. For Tom, I was hoping to have 5 or 6 big Veronicas to show you, but they are so puny right now, I'd need a super close-up lens!

Susie

Yay! More pictures!!!

Melissa, I always love seeing what you do in your garden. It's always remarkable to see the evolution of that front bed throughout the year. You have a good start already and a lot of texture. Is that a rudbeckia triloba? And what is the pretty, feathery, silvery ground cover next to it? That froggy sure adds color, and brightens the garden on its own! Wow, that yarrow sure looks vigorous. Please show it again when it blooms. That bed you made looks great! And you won't have weeds for a long, long time unless you disturb the soil. No need to wait to plant in it. Just don't incorporate the wood chips, leave them as mulch on top. Dig a hole just big enough for the plant through the cardboard, if it's still there, and it should be good to go! I bet you'll already have improved soil in the area and more earthworms.

Susie, I can't even imagine a dumpster there. All that color already. I love your views of the water, too. Why are you moving and where to? I hope it's still in FL. I never thought of white on white for a container, but that one with white petunias and alyssum is just so pretty. That bouganvillea is really wow.... and those hibiscus are amazing. I never saw such pretty ones. You will have a lot of containers to move, but it will give you an instant garden at your next place!

Denise, I forgot to answer your question about the orchids. They are super neglected. Some of the phals died when they got left out in the cold. The cattleyas are doing fine through their severe neglect and are blooming in a timely fashion despite no fertilizer and hardly any water. I just have the same old ones I've posted in the past, so I don't post them every year.

Anna

Susie
I too hope you're staying in FL. The hibisci (hibiscuses?) need you. I looked and looked and couldn't see the dumpster. What a good photographer you are, and a great gardener.

That rose is SO pretty. The form is like Duchesse de Brabant but it's not as pink.
I am really not an expert, just an "amateur" in the Latin sense (a lover of...). I know someone more knowledgeable will speak up with the name.

Anna
I just love your orchid photos because they are mature plants with many many blooms. Not seen many places except growers.

Here are a few more recent photos
bananas looked dead but decided to blossom and fruit
{{gwi:850049}}

Moringa tree looked dead as a doornail but...
{{gwi:850050}}
surprise surprise
{{gwi:850051}}

Denise

Thanks for your kind words. Tom, I did a double take when you said it was MY garden that inspired you to put in your new garden. I thought I must have read it wrong! :) I would say that the one disadvantage to that english style/butterfly garden is that here at least it freezes flat every winter. This winter was worse than most but we usually get at least a few days of below freezing weather and it mostly freezes to the ground.

Anna, yes that is the rudbeckia triloba and behind it is variegated artemesia. I am having a love/hate relationship with it right now. It behaved itself the first few years but is getting kind of agressive. The winter did not even faze it. So I have been pushing it back a bit. The few sticks poking out from the middle of it are what is left of my firebush, which I still have some hope for.

As for the other bed, I don't know what I am going to do with it so letting it sit seems like a good idea for now. Plus, there were some very persisent vines in there. I am afraid to poke even the smallest hole in the cardboard to let one of those suckers back out!

And Susie, I am sure your neighbors are going to miss you!

Melissa

That's funny, Melissa - I understand about letting those suckers have an escape hatch from the cardboard! Last year I was dealing with nutsedge in my veggie garden (in my neighbor's yard on the other side of that wall), but the thick layers of cardboard really did the trick. I was so glad to read about Anna's technique, and living next to the trash, I got more than enough cardboard.

Yes, my neighbors and my church are making me sad to be leaving. But I'm going to a place in Fla called "Way Closer to the New Grandbabies"! The Everglades are so far from the family . . . and when we got here, we didn't have any grandchildren.

Oh, and I forgot to mention about my unique way of gardening - it's one I cannot take any credit for. Almost all of the flowers and colors you see in the pics are volunteers. As Snowbirds left in past years, I got the plants they yanked out of their spots and left for dead. Some lived after TLC and some went to seed in my pots, or in the soil I recycled. Alot of them just grew where they are, like the petunias in the plumeria pots. And each spring is like Christmas for me as I discover new seedlings. This year I got babies like torenia and ageratum and alyssum that I never had any parent plants of.
Then there are the trees from seeds from GW and the cuttings from GW trades, the plumerias from various island trees, and the different roses from friends' cuttings. Only 4 hibiscus plants were from somewhere else, the rest I grew from seeds I hybridized from those 4 (about 20) I went crazy and couldn't stop!

Anyways, my goal will be to have a nice big yard so I can host a Super Swap like Ricky's and share more of my stuff with all my GW buds! There ain't no place better than the Florida Forum . . ...right?

Here's the Blue Butterfly bush that started as a GW trade cutting (wish I could remember from whom)
{{gwi:850052}}

And here's the Seaforthia from Denise that I truly adore and it never stops blooming!
{{gwi:850053}}

I hope it likes its new home.

If it wasn't raining right now, I'd go get some more pics to show you all the great treasures I got from my friends here on Fla GW. The best treasure, though, is just the friendships. I love that the best!

Susie

Anna,I love your pictures. When I am out side,I can't make up my mind on where to weed and do to make things nice. I feel like it should all be done,right now. Oh, so much to do. But in time it will all look good,right?
The other posters of pictures on this thread,the pictures
are an inspiration. So much color.
Let's have fun and garden,:-)
Hugs,
Felix

Denise, that's one big bunch of bananas! I have a couple of orchids way past their prime and a couple just starting. They are probably ones you've seen in the past. Give me a couple of days and I'll post some pics. How's your serendipity doing?

Melissa, just wanted to say your garden pics have given me a lot of inspiration as well. Keep posting!

Susie, it would have to be something as compelling as grandkids to leave your place, but I completely understand. I'm glad it's in FL and you can share the transformation of your new yard with us.

Felix, and I love your pictures. Yes, threads like this are inspiring to me too. We've got to start having more now that the weather is good. And we're having some rain!

Anna