Climate change brought we North Central FL gardeners an overly hot spring, extended summer, and a fall that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. I had some plants that usually do very well without much care, but they didn't do well this year.

Two of my mature brugmansias (angel trumpets) didn't even put up root shoots as they usually do. In fact, the shoots they did put up were spindly and never got much taller than a couple of feet tall, no matter how much I fertilized them. One of them was 7 years old, though. I got it as a small cutting when I first moved here. It was beautiful last year, so I don't know if it was the heat or what that affected it. Not even my potted brugs bloomed like they should have, and my main Charles Grimaldi put up one pitiful shoot, then died. Luckily, I have another one in a container.

My taro did not come up at all until early fall, and didn't grow. I'm digging them up this winter and putting them into another bed. It may have been because I didn't rake out the magnolia leaves from their bed this year. I don't think they like the acidity. But then, the Xanthasoma, which usually take over the courtyard, didn't do well either. Only one grew to a decent size, and there were very few babies.

None of my magenta four-o'clocks grew well or bloomed, and my giant white one only bloomed sparingly. They are usually some of my most faithful plants, and the white one is usually huge and spreads like mad, despite my attempts to pick off as many seeds as possible.

My potato mint in containers did well, but not the ones in the ground. None of them have bloomed yet.

My forsythia sage just barely came up, didn't put out any runners and didn't bloom. That's being taken up too and put into a container. In the same bed, my golden shrimp plant refused to even put out any leaves. My red shrimp plant didn't even come back up this year.

I have a feeling my large bed is overrun by roots and nematodes. I'm going to try to terrace it this year, put in some compost and see what happens. The blackberry lilies and ironweed did very well in that bed, though.

Everything in the courtyard did well except my Everglades tomatoes, which is strange. I still have one spindly one trying to grow. They are usually huge by now.

All in all, a disappointing year. On the upside, many things are blooming like mad with this nice, cool, sunny weather. I think it may be strange from now on out.