This is a wonderful thread. So many ideas to share. Just bought a bullseye geranium and really happy to know that I can keep it alive indoors. @ridgetop01 guess I will try my luck with gerbera daisies once more. Love the beautiful flowers. Anybody had any luck with calibrachoa and bachelors' button? I started gardening 3 years ago and found it really hard to let the beautiful annuals die. So started bringing them inside. My living room and a bedroom gets atleast 4 hours of direct sun throughout winter, but lack of humidity is a challenge. The first year I brought a vinca, a zinnia, a gerbera and the container of Indian hot chilies that I started from seed indoors. The vinca, zinnia and gerbera succumbed to dryness very soon (I can't think of any other reason). But the hot chili did wonderfully inside. The chili plant is still alive and thriving after 3 winters. That winter I started many annuals (both ornamentals and edibles) from store bought seeds. The flowering ones were petunias, portulacas, nasturtiums, marigolds and 4 o'clock. I started vinca and zinnia from saved seeds. All these are very easy to start indoors. I find zinnias really amusing as they can surprise you with unique colors (the seed from a pink zinnia resulted in a beautiful coral zinnia). The nasturtiams and marigolds started from seeds remaine true (mine is a balcony garden and I suspect there is little or no cross pollination). Gradually I realized the portulacas reseed generously and so I don't save the seeds anymore. I continue to bring in as many annuals as I can and each year the numbers just keep on increasing. I place the plants real close to each other (that helps with humidity). So far I have successfully over wintered the following plants in my sun lit rooms: Colocasia (loves the indoors and grows rapidly) Jasmine (this one continues to flower indoors) Malabar spinach Hot Pepper Ginger Petunias (need good amount of humidity) Amaryllis (not exactly annual) Tube rose Tropical hibiscus Some herbs I have started many new kinds of plants this year and after going through this thread I'm hopeful that many will survive the winter. Happy gardening everyone :)

I lived in Florida (Avon Park/Okeechobee) for many years and am familiar with "Florida Holly" as compost feedstock. As finely shredded chips, the Brazilian Pepper is OK in a pile but break down more slowly than softwoods like slash pine you have there. Leaves are 'leathery' and slightly acidic, which will slow down composting somewhat due to producing an acidic leaf mold, lowering the compost pH. Depends on what your compost end result is going to be used for. If a container potting media, keep the chips very small. If as an anamendment in sandy soil, larger chips are useful...But it takes a LONG time to compost a large amount of such material. Mostly deep sand in S. Florida, and if that's the case where you live, recommend that you rent a 50+ hp tractor with large wheels and a strong PTO tiller and a professional driver. Land clearing company. Should not take more than 4 hours to make several passes in at least two directions on that 'almost acre' to get the majority of those chips tilled into the ground. In my opinion, mulched chips on top of the ground decompose more slowly than wood chips IN the ground or compost pile. It's a matter of moisture. Drier chips break down more slowly because the microbes that do the 'breaking down' require a moist environment to survive/reproduce. Point out to the tractor operator to be aware that larger stumps could be an issue for the tiller, but this 'holly' shrub is usually 'small' diameter trunk and shallow-rooted, and in sand, tilling will 'loosen' stump roots, which should also help keep the stumps from putting up more new growth - which they are prone to do. Cypress trunks are another issue - best to avoid those with the tiller. Stumps that produce strong new growth should be ground down. There are treatments for stumps to kill them - but I don't recommend that treatment if you're going to grow something new in that area. Tilling-in the chips will help them break down faster, since underground the chips will hold more moisture. In sand, broadcasting nitrogen fertilizer (even cheap synthetic ammonium sulfate) will not be cost-effective before tilling - not just because of the large area, but because with frequent afternoon rains through that section of the penninsula, the nitrogen would be quickly leached down, beyond the wood chips, and be lost. AND, you don't want to promote vegetative growth from the understory you just had removed, by providing a nitrogen source to all those cut-down stumps. On the other hand, planting rye grass cover is a good suggestion, to add organics into the soil, but the only rye grass I recommended for your area is CEREAL Rye (Elbon) because it is a R-K nematode 'trap crop' in addition to being a very fast-growing cover crop. Root-Knot Nematodes are common in the sandy soils of south Florida and can do considerable damage to susceptible plants. Sounds to me like that area is a perfect place to start a veggie garden or perhaps sow pretty wildflower seed mixes. Hope this helps, SoilGuy

I have been doing a lot of research on plants that don't need a lot of water since we bought a 3 acre property in lake mathews, ca. Here's what I have so far...verbena rigida, creeping raspberry...both spread very fast and require little water. I will be buying these for our slopes. delosperma cooperi is similar to ice plant but very hardy and does not require as much water.... Ice plant requires a lot of water and its heavy. That is what we have currently and we will be replacing it with what I have written here. All our slopes have ice plant and we are trying to save water costs. So I will be adding those ground covers and adding water wise bushes and other plants. Snow in summer also sounds like a good plant to add. They say it spreads fast and it's very nice... I also want to add fremontodendron, it looks like a nice bush to add...since we have so much room... Any other ideas?

So glad you brought this thread back to the top Helen. I plant a little more every year for the hummingbirds and last summer was the first year that I've had a LOT of hummingbirds around my yard. It wasn't unusual to see a dozen at a time and in past summers, I would just see one or two at a time. I have planted Yvonne's Salvia. I believe it's salvia splendens, the bright red annual type like you see at Wal-Mart every year but Yvonne's gets much taller. I read in another forum that Yvonne passed away recently. She was 94. The story alone makes them a joy to grow. They even had an article in Birds and Blooms about Yvonne and her salvia. I started mine late and they didn't get as tall as they should have. Last year I bought lonicera sempervirens 'Alabama Crimson' at the farmers market in Springfield and also got the species in a trade. The arbor I'm going to plant them on is still a pile of boards though so I just stuck them in the ground and will have to move them. I planted a Dropmore Scarlet in full sun on our chainlink fence and it bloomed a long time last summer but l. sempervirens is supposed to bloom even longer. Mexican Sunflowers (tithonia) are great for attracting hummingbirds and swallowtails. It gets pretty tall though. Helen - was it you that posted a photo of your tithonia last summer after they fell over and kept blooming so well? I'm a bit tempted to knock mine over on purpose. lol Pam - I should have plenty of zinnias and tithonia but thanks for the offer. I expect some volunteers and have seed packets too. Glenda - I never got out to Dorothy's last summer. No need to apologize though since I'm typically behind and really have no business buying more plants anyway. lol violet - Your photos are wonderful!