I live in the Jacaranda area of Broward and they are planted all over the place. The definitely blend in with the other trees unless they're in bloom. I think the ones around here are mimosfolia? I think either the nursery in Punta Gorda or Gardinos offer both species. I think it would be spectacular to have a street lined alternating jacarandas & Royal poiciannas. Imagine that show if they all bloomed at once!

I used to never use gravel in the bottom of the pots. Until I started fighting root rot every time we get a week of rain. ProMix holds a lot of water and unless your pot is pretty much root bound, it's going to stay soggy. Even then, plants don't take up enough water when it's cloudy and raining. When you use a couple of inches of gravel, then put the window screen on top of it, you are creating an air pocket under the potting mix. Also, along with the air, the entire bottom surface of the potting mix can drain. I like that, I can flush my pots out a lot faster and better. You can't flush out the area dead center in a pot without elevating the potting mix. Your link is talking about adding gravel to the bottom of a pot - without - covering the gravel with window screen to elevate the potting mix. What you link is talking about is that gravel is denser than the potting mix and will not drain or aerate as well - when it is mixed with the potting mix. Elevating the potting mix above the gravel with window screen is two different things. From your link: "Some have suggested the placement of gravel in the bottom of containers improves drainage. In fact, the gravel decreases the total volume of medium with favorable aeration. The pores at the interface of the container medium and gravel must be saturated before water will move down into the gravel. This means that a layer of medium with near maximum water content is positioned above the gravel rather than on the container bottom. Therefore, the effective height of this container is reduced by the depth of the gravel in the bottom." What I'm talking about is creating a bottomless pot. Because of the window screen, the potting mix is elevated off the bottom of the pot by a couple of inches. There are no pores at the interface of the container medium and gravel, because the gravel and potting mix are not touching and are not mixed together. Make any sense? Corrie

Hi, I’m in Palm Beach Gardens (Zone 10B) There are three varietals in this bed, the two taller ones are Mammoths. The one on the right is 10ft. This is my first try at Mammoths but, I’ll share what I did and what I think worked well. Planting Time: Direct sow in February, thin out slow growers to prevent crowding. Two seeds every 30”. Soil Prep: Dug a 2ft deep trench, 1ft wide. I have sand as well so I amended the soil with a compost/top soil mix from HD and granulated fertilizer for shrubs. Next go around I‘m going to add bone meal earlier, probably around thinning. Watering: Water in the morning daily until they get about 1ft tall, then I typically water every other day if there’s no rain. Important to make sure soil dries a bit between waterings and very important to give them a slow deep soak to encourage good root growth. These just survived a severe storm with 40mph+ gusts and hail. I think the care to the root system helped them. Feeding: Liquid fish fertilizer heavy nitrogen every 14 days. Added an inch of manure on the surface when they got about 2ft tall and dug out a 3” deep moat, 1ft radius around the stalks. This really helped to direct the fert and water to the roots. Added bone meal to the surface around the stocks in mid April, I’m going to do this earlier next time. Although it seemed to really help with producing new buds on the Autumn Sun varietal. I applied neem oil at night a couple times early on, soak the leaves on top and bottom as well as spray the soil surface. Also I had to apply copper fungicide early on to fight leaf rot. Got a little lazy and the Jerusalem Golds suffered. These get great morning light, slight shade in midday from a palm. The shed in the background blocks a significant portion of direct afternoon light and there’s a row of Autumn Suns on that side as well. I think they’d be taller with more light but, that’s a guess. I also, didn’t apply liquid fertilizer as regular as I could/should have. I think they could’ve benefited from a couple more feedings. Next go around, I’ll experiment with the feedings. I hope this helps.

I have a lot of experience with planting roses in pots. Consider why you want to use pots instead of planting your roses in the ground. If you want to keep your roses in pots for a long time I would consider a larger pot (10gal+) such as: I got this one at Costco ($20) a few years back. Now, if you want to pot up your roses temporarily for the purpose of giving your roses a head start, which is what I did this past year, I would recommend using cheaper nursery pots (the big box stores don't sell these, I buy mine from Diamond Fertilizer for around $1 each). I go all out and create my own potting mix by mixing top soil with compost, Perilite, granular fertilizer, and peat moss (1 bag + 1 bag + ten cups + 3 cups + 5 cups). It's an inexpensive way to pot up several dozen roses, but is very labor intensive. I used to mix in the crystals for hydration, but I didn't see much of a difference so I cut out the expense. I have found that the Miracle Gro Rose Soil is good, but I get the same outcome using the competitions garden soil (it costs around $6 a bag). I did cover my garden beds in professional grade ground cover to stem off the weeds and prevent the roses from rooting down in the ground, as this sets them back a bit when you have to relocate the pot and tear up the roots in the process. I only have a problem with needing to raise the roses off of the ground during the extreme wet months, and even then there's no predicting what will happen. I have planted several roses on Dr. Huey directly into the ground and the average life span runs between three and five years with very good care. The ones that survive past five years are those that set off on their own roots and tend to be very hardy (Don Juan, Sonia, Mister Lincoln, Queen Elizabeth, etc.). You will have to keep to a regular spray program in order to achieve success with these roses. I've found that planting these roses close to a house tends to increase their success. Unfortunately, I've had limited success with those bagged roses once placed in the ground. They are extremely difficult to start to begin with. Once you DO get them started, they tend to be less healthy than potted roses you'd find in the garden center (my experience). Try posting pictures of your situation for better feedback. Good Luck! -Adrian.