Flora Journal in Northeast Central Florida

I have an early blooming sunflower.  I think it's remarkable that one can plant a handful of seeds on the same day at the same time, but the seeds sprout and bloom at their own pace.  I told my just-about-four-year-old son, Dane to come and look at the flower we planted, and he seemed excited to come follow me.  Our two year old boy, Liam came right behind us to come see the flower.  When I got to the flower, Liam was oohing over it, but I turned to show Dane and he was nowhere in sight!  I heard him in the house, so I went back inside to see him chilling on the floor watching Teen Titans with his older sister while eating popcorn.  See, it's just about summer time, and we've been getting a good deal of rain.  The adults in our family are procrastinating people, and since we live in a rural area where no one complains about the length of grass, we sorta-kinda let it slide a wee bit.  Dane is a fraidy cat for bugs, and with the taller grass, h...

I mentioned in a previous post that I had something growing under the fennel that my neighbor had given me before she passed on.  She had no clue what it was and asked me to tell her what it was when it grew.  It was some kind of bulb, and much to my surprise, today I saw it in full bloom! I kept losing this plant under the fennel.  I thought it had died after the winter.  I had such a hard time finding the slender leaf blade that originally grew from the bulb, that I thought it was gone.  A week ago or so, I noticed the blade a little further to the corner than I was usually looking, so imagine my surprise to see the big pretty purplish face! Thank you, Kelly, for your amazing gift. So, what is it? It's a Zephyranthes or rain lily!  They have a tendency to bloom in spring, usually after rain storms, so that's why they are called "rain lilies."  :)  It's so pretty.

I'm a terrible garden blogger, because I get all frazzled and don't do things on a regular basis, but this blog is the big ol' update on stuff that's happening and what I'm doing differently than I did before now. Pineapple Plant Here's a pineapple plant that I think I planted in a pot over a year ago.  I had two, but I was a bad plant mommy and left them both in the cold during the winter.  This one was closer to the house than the other one, and it did well.  The weeds in the pot are purslane.  They are actually edible and good for you too, so I tend not to weed them out unless the start crowding my intended plants out.  This plant is starting to get little spikes in the center, so I'm hoping, hoping, hoping its trying to grow a baby pineapple.     Wild Persimmon I live on a long dirt road, and part of it was paved up a ways.  Before the county started paving that part, they started clearing out the area across from me...

I have a potted pepper plant growing on my front porch that had about four peppers growing on it until the wind, the raccoons or my toddler knocked it over and severed two of the peppers from the plant.  I was looking forward to following the recipe for making Quinoa and Black Bean Stuffed Bell Peppers .  Unfortunately, with gardening comes the unexpected casualties.   I find gardening to metaphorical for life experiences.  We learn that the more seeds we plant, the more things can grow, but not all seeds take root.  We also learn to temper our expectations; to fervently work toward hopes and goals, but not to bury those hopes in cement.  Things change and we must adapt.  It's the natural forces which are too unpredictable and powerful for us to forecast with absolute accuracy.  We can only learn about that which we cannot control and do what we can to adapt while accepting the inevitable.  

I've seen the mustard green seedlings for a few days, but today I noticed the cabbages and carrots are starting to grow. Here you can see a mustard green seedling and behind it are lots of carrot seedlings. It's a bit blurry, but here's one of the baby cabbages! Just for fun, I thought I'd share the pineapple plant I grew from a fruit.  I planted this about six months ago, I think.  

According to the trusty planting wheel for zone 8b, cabbages should be set out in September through the beginning of October.  Well, we are in zone 9, so maybe I have a bit of some leeway, at least I hope, because today I just planted some cabbage seeds.  I raised a few beds and put some seeds in the ground.  I watered them, but I didn't add any topsoil or anything.  I just dug up the dirt a bit, then dug a trench beside them and added dirt on top to raise the beds. A while back I got the bright idea to fill up the garden with pine needles I've collected from a portion of our yard that has not been cleared.  Oh, the things I find back yonder.  Anyway, I thought the pine needles might deter weeds in the garden plot and help save some of the soil.  I think they helped a little, because the dirt looked kind of rich, but I didn't test it.  I probably should start learning how to test soil for acidity and all of that.  I read somewhere th...

I bought a Florida Queen Peach tree two days ago from Lowe's.  I've heard that it's not a good idea to buy from bix box retailers, because you never know what kind of root stock the nursury used.  I've heard they might use bay laurel, which is interesting, because I transplanted a bay laurel near the area where our big oak tree died. I probably should have learned my lesson about bix box trees, because I now have thorny, trifolate orange tree growing where I should have had a tangerine tree.  Last year I bought a tangerine from Walmart, and when the winter came, all but the rootstock died, leaving a kind of orange tree that yields very bitter fruit.  I probably could have dug it up and brought it back to Walmart, but I let it grow.  I hear one can still make juice with the fruit, and I think the trees are kind of pretty.  For what it's worth, the White House Garden has a similar orange tree growing, but the fruit is edible. With that said, I'm a little ...