Your Monthly Grow-zine
January 2019
Things to do in the garden this month...
Dianthus 'Purple Picotee' and SnapdragonsShop at your local nursery for winter annuals. Now is the time of year when we have the most choices in annuals for winter color in our gardens.
It's also a great time to plant anything else - palms, trees, shrubs, you name it. The weather is cool and comfortable (for the most part) for working outdoors.
Run irrigation once a week - or at least every 10 days - for lawn and gardens (if no rain).
Watch out for bugs - take bagged cuttings to your local nursery for diagnosis and treatment options.
Create a Rainbow Garden
with Winter Annuals
Love lots of color? A garden bed planted in a succession of rainbow colors, using bright winter annuals, might be the answer. Even a small bed will "pop" with this theme.
A rainbow's colors are - in order - red, orange, yellow, green. blue and purple. Here are options to use for each (each picture is the first one listed):
RED
- Geranium
- Petunia
- Sunpatiens
ORANGE
- Sunpatiens
- Geranium
- Petunia
- Snapdragon
- Marigold
YELLOW
- Marigold
- Snapdragon
GREEN
- Oregano
- Basil
- Parsley
- Mint
BLUE
- Delphnium
- Lobelia
PURPLE
- Pansy
- Petunia
- Viola
- Sunpatiens
Carnauba Wax Palm
Looking for an unusual palm for your yard? This palm - Copernicia prunifera - is an excellent choice for South Florida's landscapes.
It's a good-looking specimen that features bluish-green fan shaped leaves and an unusual trunk with decorative leaf bases that grow in a spiral.
(For a better look at the palm's trunk, see this article.)
Another common name for the Carnauba is "Brazilian Wax Palm." It's an important industry in its native Brazil where naturally-occurring wax is scraped from the leaves to use in diverse ways - car wax, floor polish, cosmetics, and coatings for candy and paper plates.
This plant grows at a slow pace to about 30 feet. It loves full sun and is moderately salt tolerant. Though considered moderately drought tolerant, it prefers regular water with time to dry out between waterings. Zone 10 is best.
Not usually in stock at plant nurseries, it can be ordered.
What's new at South-Florida-Plant-Guide.com
I've added this new picture to the Plant Page on Areca Palm.
These lovely and versatile palms can be trimmed so that the beautiful trunks are visible - giving it a completely different look, and providing more elbow-room near them.
My latest ebooks are here!
"Best of the Grow-zines"
All the best info and ideas from past issues of our monthly newsletter - The Grow-zine!
Garden Ideas & FAQs
Landscaping Tips & Problem Solvers
Buy both "Best Of" ebooks & get this one FREE!
Are you a Snowbird?
Want to know more about growing a beautiful landscape with only part-time care?
Check out the new, updated edition of my paperback book, Snowbird Gardening.
I've added more plants, more photos and up-to-date info for South Florida Snowbirds.
This new edition features 146 plant varieties - palms, shrubs, trees and flowers - with photos and information about each one.
Now available as an ebook! Find out more...
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Happy New Year!
Chase Landre
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Getting rid of Spanish moss
There are two ways to remove Spanish moss. The first? Climb up a ladder and remove by hand...not always a good choice, especially if the tree is a large live oak.
OR...you can spray it with neutral copper - but only during cold weather.
Spanish moss is at its weakest in winter so that's when neutral copper can be effective.
Mix 2 tablespoons per 1 gallon of water. Spray 3 to 4 times, 14 days apart.
The moss should die off and fall to the ground. You may not be able to reach all of it with spraying, but this series of applications should help eradicate a good deal of it.
Over a period of time more moss will likely land in your tree and you can do another spraying next winter.
Important! You MUST protect any nearby bromeliads or orchids, as they can be harmed by the copper spray, since they are also epiphytes like the moss.
Take a break!
The ultimate guide to low-maintenance plants
and landscaping!
An ebook by
Chase Landre
author of
South-Florida-Plant-Guide.com
Learn more!
Q&A Update
Last month I featured a visitor's request for ideas for a fast-growing shade tree for a horse pasture.
Another web visitor advised me that my suggestion of Slash Pine wasn't a good one!
She wrote:
"Telling someone to plant pine trees on a horse farm in Florida is not a good idea as the horses tend to stand under trees in the heat and rainstorms.
"Pine trees attract lightening and could harm the horses as well. Better to plant an oak tree,it provides better shade and will last longer."
She's right! I should have recommended Live Oak - though it's not a fast grower. With its more broad-spreading canopy it would be a safer choice for horses.
Take a crash course!
Ebooks on South Florida gardening!
Take a break!
The ultimate guide to low-maintenance plants
and landscaping!
An ebook by
Chase Landre
author of
South-Florida-Plant-Guide.com
Learn more!
Get a greener thumb!
Want to learn more about South Florida planting, watering, fertilizing and dealing with weeds and pests?
See our Gardening How-To section for answers!
Get instant curb appeal!
An ebook by
Chase Landre
author of
South-Florida-Plant-Guide.com
Learn how to get instant curb appeal with fast growing plants and landscaping techniques!
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