Southeast Florida Garden Evolvement: January 2012

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Early blooming of Daylilies and Other Things in the Garden

Since this is my first post of the year, let me first say "Happy New Year" to you all !!! Wish you have all the fun of the gardening in this new year!

Every year, from early Spring through the summer, I admire those beautiful pictures of Daylilies from other people's blog, wondering when I can own some of these beauties in my garden.

For some reasons, Daylilies are hard to find in South Florida. Occasionally, the big box stores have some for sale. I brought two home in two different times, and both died after the initial blooming. I did some researches, and found out that among thousands of Daylilies, there are three foliage types: Dormant, Semi-evergreen, and Evergreen. For people live deep South like me, Evergreen is the one that will survive our long-lasting hot weather. No wonder I failed twice since those two were all Domant types! Then why they even sold them in the store since Daylilies are not supposed to be a one-time thing in the garden?!

Anyway, since I did not find any local nurseries to buy Evergreen Daylilies, I looked over the Internet. I ordered 5 bareroot Evergreen double-fans from http://smokeysdaylilygardens.com/, and they arrived at the end of last October.

This week, two of them are already blooming! I am not sure if it is only because they are the early bloomers ( 'Lavender Silence' is labled as "Extra-early", and "Whooperee' is labled as "Early-mid" ), or also because of the mild winter we are having in South Florida. Nevertheless, I am excited to see these beauties are finally finding a home in my garden! If they all perform well after this summer, I think I will order more this fall. With a small garden, Daylilies are the ones I can find some space to squeeze in.

Whooperee
Evergreen, early-mid, rebloomer, 6.5" flower, 24" scape height, fragrant, recurved

Lavender Silence
Evergreen, extra-early, 6.5" flower, 22" scape height, ruffled, fragrant, recurved

Other things going on in the garden...

This Rex Begonia is in a shady area, and recently started shooting up the flower scapes. I bought it last year. After one year, it has been growing nicely. I have separated it into four plants. I think after a couple of years, I can expand them to the whole border that surrounds the air conditioner area. Even when it is not blooming, I love the texture of this plant.

Begonia

Love this combo in this part of flower bed. White Vincas, Orange Indian Blanket flowers, pink Pentas. That purple leaf plant with white dotted flowers is Alternanthera dentata 'Purple Knight'. Some says 'Purple Knight' is kind of invasive, but I have not found it is a big problem for me. It does have some seedlings, but only a handful I found so far. I can easily pulled them out, or give them to the friends. In the winter, they are full of those tiny white flowers, brighten the winter garden, and give us Floridians some snowy touch :)

Another combo I like: White Angelonia angustifolia, colorful coleus, and blue Lobelia erinus Techno Heat. This Lobelia is supposed to withstand the hottest summer temperatures while blooming nonstop. I will see if it holds true to Florida heat as well.

My front entry is quite colorful this winter. I removed some copperleaf bushes in the front, and put two cast iron cranes statues there together with some bromeliads.

This philodendron 'moonlight' behind the cranes statues started as a 3-in house plant from the big box store. Oh boy, how much it has grown! Wonder how much bigger it will get if I put it in the ground.