New England native, Florida resident. Blogging about boating, beach-combing, gardening, camping, and knitting. Work for Zazzle as a designer since 2008.
I am writing today to make you feel better. Yup, it’s a pretty depressing morning here, so I hope that will make you feel better about your bad start to the day. If you had a good start, yay for you. If you are having gardening troubles, you are not alone.
Here in the jungle, summer is the pits. It is too hot to be outside for long, and if I venture out, it’s either loaded with bug repellent, or covered in long sleeves and pants.
On top of that, there is very little in the way of food growing. All my Seminole pumpkins start to grow, then turn yellow and fall off the vine.
Finally, I have one that looks like it will continue to grow. And today I see that raccoons (my best guess) have scratched it all up!
The Dahlia is wilting. We just had a little tropical system swirling over our area of the state and it dropped 4 inches of rain. We had minor flooding, which went away quickly. But maybe the dahlia did not like all that water. Maybe it doesn’t like July in Florida. I can’t blame it.
The weeds, or should I say, grass has gone nuts. This is all getting away from me because of all the vines that are sprawling all over the yard. The squash vine is done, and I should pull it up. But it’s too hot and buggy.
The watermelon vines have 1 watermelon. The pumpkin vines – well, I mentioned that above. Those vines have nearly made it from the back of the house to the front. They’ve dropped about 10 pumpkins at this point.
Speaking of vines. That mound in the distance in my photo above is an Elm tree next to a Beautyberry bush. Below is a photo of the two trees with most of the vines pulled off. I used to work at this, even though this is not part of my yard. I’d love to see both grow and do well. As you can see it’s a losing battle.
These are trying to grow under that mound of vines in the photo above.
A banana pepper plant has died, and the other peppers don’t look so good. So it’s a depressing start to the day for me. I think I’ll stay inside.
Caterpillars seen on the Maypop plants. These are from the orange, Gulf Fritillary.
This morning, while making my rounds in the garden, I noticed three caterpillars on the Maypop (Passionvine, or Passionflower).
I started these plants from seeds purchased from Johnny Butterfly Seed. The plants are still small and have been growing for only a few months. It’s the first time I’ve seen caterpillars on them.
The orange caterpillars with black hairs are from the Gulf Fritillary butterfly. The caterpillars of the Variegated Fritillary look very similar. I’m guessing they are from the Gulf variety. I’ve recently seen the orange butterflies in my yard.
Below is an excellent photo of the Gulf Fritillary butterfly. Image source is linked beneath the photo. I rarely get a good photo of butterflies, but this is exactly what they look like.
Whenever I see a butterfly in my yard, I run to grab my Butterflies of Central Florida pamphlet to identify it. I already know the Monarch, Gulf Fritillary, Zebra wing, Black Swallowtail, and Giant Swallowtail. All the others send me searching for their names.
Butterfly pamphletInside the pamphlet
The Butterflies of Central Florida pamphlet (paid link to Amazon) has 11 pages of photos with information. I bought mine at the local nursery.
This little waterproof, laminated pamphlet contains photos of the butterfly and its caterpillar or larvae, with its name. It also has their size (wingspan), time of year when they fly, and their preferred host plant / plants. I had thought that some of the images were moths, but I think they are all butterflies.
I like that the host plant is listed. That way, if you want more butterflies, simply plant the host plant they need.
As far as these caterpillars go, I’m wondering if they will disappear like all the Monarchs seem to. If not, I wonder how much of these plants they will consume!
Here I have a photo of my Fall garden. It is hard to tell what is growing, and honestly not much in the way of food just yet. The seeds have all been planted except for Kale and dill. I will also grow more green beans along the way when I find space. (I’m already…
When my daughter gifted me a packet of Dahlia seeds, I had little hope that the plants would grow. I often feel that way about “normal” things trying to grow in this jungle. I live in zone 9b.
My daughter was a little bit obsessed with the Floret flower farm. It was (is?) a show on one of the networks, and focused on a young couple who began a huge flower farm in Washington state.
Their farm is impressive, and they have turned it into a thriving flower business. From what I can tell, the husband is behind the scenes doing all the heavy lifting, while his wife, Erin, does the social stuff, writing of books, and poses for photos. Photography of her holding humongous bouquets appears to be their trademark.
My Dahlia has pale yellow flowers
Growing From Dahlia Seeds, Year One
I put the dahlia seeds into a shallow clay pot. I’d never grown dahlias, and had no idea how to do it. I’d always heard that dahlias were tough to grow. Between that and the fact that the seeds came from Washington, I honestly did not think anything would happen.
When I lived in New Hampshire a local farm sold them out of the greenhouse. Greenhouse plants generally mean they like it warm. But I bought a dahlia plant and put it in my yard. It died. This added to my doubts.
The Floret seeds came with a little booklet full of information about growing Dahlias, Zinnias, and Celosia. These three were the seed types my daughter sent. Floret also has a whole page online about How to Grow Dahlias From Seed.
So the first year my seeds became small, scraggly dahlia plants. They grew about 4-5 inches tall in the shallow pot. When the season was over I pulled them up. They had some tubers at the bottom. Surprise, surprise!
In the booklet that came with the seeds, Erin (the writer) said that she stores her tubers in a cool place in ziplock bags. I was not going to bother with that. All I had was possibly the fridge for storage. So I yanked out the little plants with their tubers and tossed them into the compost barrel. I know, I am awful.
Unexpected Dahlia Plants, Year Two
After months went by and I grew my “winter” crops here in Florida, it was time to ready the gardens for Spring growing. As I dug through the dirt in my compost bin, I found the dahlia tubers just laying at the side! They still looked okay, and I figured I’d just put them into the ground for the heck of it. And they grew. I never even marked where they were planted and now I am only guessing about some of them. Like the photo in the center below. I’m pretty sure it’s a Dahlia.
Yellow flowering dahliaDahlia, I thinkSeedlings from tubers
I now have some pretty nice dahlia plants growing! One is tall, and flowering with pale yellow flowers. I had expected the fluffy type bloom, but got this star shaped flower.
Year two, growing the tubers, is working out much better. I plan to leave the plants growing in the ground and see what happens over winter. If they go dormant and need temperatures that are not freezing, the plants should be okay. The ones in pots might just need transplanting to larger pots until next year. It is very hot to be gardening in July.
Flower Books From Floret
Amazon sells books all about the Floret flower farm (paid link). If nothing else, they are full of beautiful photos. Her books will show you how to grow, harvest, save seeds, and make arrangements from the flowers you grow. I do not have any of her books, and personally, I am not interested. I do not cut my measly little selection of flowers to make floral arrangements. I leave the flowers for the bees and butterflies.
Remember that the books are written by a woman who has a huge area of space, with greenhouses, and lots of help. Also, she lives in Washington, which is about as far (in the US) from Florida as it gets.
My Other Floret Flower Seeds
Along with the Dahlia seeds, I also received Zinnia and Celosia seeds. I grew the Zinnias and they were unimpressive. The colors were a pale blush pink. Zinnias, in my opinion, should be bold in color. I love my deep reds, bright oranges, and stunning pinks. I did not save any Floret zinnia seeds. This year I planted from my own saved seeds, and bought a few others.
Zinnias in my 2025 garden
However, the Celosia were another story! Holy cow, these things are prolific. Celosia is another plant I was totally unfamiliar with, and let me tell you, they are beasts! Apparently they love the Florida climate and the bees LOVE the fluffy flowers. I will be writing a page about them soon.
Celosia – new to the garden, 2024
In Conclusion
The secret to successfully growing things is this: Toss seeds somewhere, ignore them, treat them badly, expect nothing, and see spectacular results. (I am only partly kidding.)
Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a story about your growing adventures in the comments.
I began filling my yard with various types of native milkweed this year. Here is an update on how they are doing, and which I prefer so far.
After I watched a new Monarch butterfly adapt to his new wings and fly away, I made the decision to get myself more Milkweed. So, I planted seeds, bought a few plants, and mail-ordered others. Now we are into the hot month of July. I’ve been monitoring the growth of all varieties. Here is my update.
This is the butterfly that emerged from the chrysalis on my Rosemary plant. Most photos were of the closed wings and I only got these two of the bright orange side.
Update: The Milkweed Plants
Milkweed plants can be found locally. At the Farmer’s Market I found lots of the tropical variety. This is not native to Florida, but it grows great here. A few years ago I didn’t know any better and bought two of these plants. They were tall and healthy looking. Then, I read that tropical milkweed is bad for Monarchs!
Even though I paid good money for those plants, I never planted them and they went into the compost pile. Somehow some of the seeds took root and I have two tropical milkweed plants in the yard. One is very large. Ever since it began to grow last year, it has been host to butterflies, caterpillars, the milkweed bug, aphids, and ladybugs. I’ve also read that maybe this type of milkweed is not so bad after all. It needs to be cut back in Fall, if you grow it.
Big milkweed plantTropical variety
My local plant nursery also carries milkweed. I bought a white swamp variety (see photos below) and it’s now in the ground. At the nursery, many of the plants didn’t look too great. They were covered in aphids, but aphids love milkweed, so I can’t really blame the nursery.
Be sure to buy the milkweed early in the year to establish a good root system before winter when the native types go dormant.
White swamp milkweedAphidsLate June – seed pods
Update: Milkweed Grown From Seed
Most of the milkweed that I grew from seeds this year are still pretty small. I’ve had caterpillars on a few, which ate down the leaves. So, that didn’t help.
The varieties I grew from seed are; orange tuberosa (orange butterfly weed), sandhill, and whorled. They are all growing well, but slowly. I particularly love the thin leaves of the Whorled variety and look forward to seeing how it turns out.
Whorled milkweedChow timeMilkweedSeedlings
The Sandhill milkweed is growing very slowly. I only have two pots, and decided to put one into the ground.
Sandhill milkweed – July 2025Begun from seeds
Update: The Mail Order Milkweed
The four mail order swamp milkweed plants are quite large. I planted two in my hibiscus garden, one near the house downspout, and one in the back garden. None have flowers yet. I’ve seen the occasional caterpillar on them. One is now showing signs of blooming!
Pink swamp milkweedMonarch caterpillar on swamp milkweedJuly flower budsFlorida native milkweed growing alongside zinnias and celosia
Milkweed Warnings
Milkweed tends to be poisonous. Anyone who has animals that might eat it, should consider this. It is toxic to livestock.
Milkweed is a magnet for aphids. This means that milkweed will also draw in the ladybugs. That’s a good thing! Whenever you see lots of aphids on the plants, don’t get too upset. Wait and see if they are taken care of by nature.
Advice on Buying
Now that I have grown native, Florida milkweed from seeds, mail-order and nursery plants, here are my thoughts on buying. If I had the space and wanted more milkweed, this is what I would do.
Buy from a local nursery, if they have native plants that look pretty good.
Order from The Grower’s Exchange. These are by far the best looking plants of all my native milkweed. The tropical milkweed plant is huge, but it is not native.
Order seeds for new varieties. The Sandhill and Whorled are pretty cool.
I wouldn’t bother again with the Orange Tuberosa. I’m not thrilled with these plants. They are leggy and saggy. Some have leaves that have turned brown, and that could be due to too much water. They like it dry. They are not fast growers (from seed), and not very good-looking. They might look a lot better by next year, if they survive. Maybe buying plants, and not starting from seed, would be the way to go with this one. I’m going to see what they do.
Won’s be buying any Tropical milkweed variety. I’ll manage the ones I have by cutting back in Fall. The milkweed bugs have taken care of removing the seed pods! I think they suck the juices out of the pods because every pod is gone.
Volunteer Tropical milkweed with Monarch butterfly
Don’t worry if you have some tropical milkweed in the yard. Recognize it by the two-colored flowers. Right now, it’s the only milkweed flowering in my yard. And the Monarchs are using it for food.
Lots of flowers are beginning to bloom in June. Here in central Florida we have a jump on growing, but look forward to growth just the same.
I love to photograph flowers. They make an excellent subject. Who doesn’t like viewing the delicate intricacies, fantastic shapes, and stunning colors of flowers. They don’t move so photography is simple! LOVE.
So…. from all the flowers above, I see bees visiting most often the Spiderwort. I’ve let some clumps of Spiderwort grow randomly around the garden. Each morning when I water, I hear and see bumblebees visiting the purple flowers.
Another favorite is the purple Holy Basil, also called Tatsoi. Those flowers come out on tall spikes and the flowers are very tiny. But the bumblebees love them!
Butterflies usually visit the beautiful zinnias, but I have not had many butterflies. The occasional Gulf Fritillary has been spotted, and a few Zebra longwings, but honestly not many at all.
The Cosmos are not like the cosmos I grew in New Hampshire. These are small plants and not leggy like the northern plants. All of the cosmos growing in my yard came from saved seeds. I bought one plant and saved the seeds that I continue to plant in the yard. I like not knowing if the flowers will be yellow or orange, or a combination.
From the Front Yard
I rarely pay much attention to what is growing in my front yard. My focus is on the vegetable garden and flowers planted there. But, my hydrangea plant is blooming with big pink flowers.
Hydrangeas are the reason I began this blog. Many years ago, I lived in New England and grew many types of hydrangeas. I photographed the blue ones especially, and created this blog to share hydrangea info.
A few years ago, I decided to see what a hydrangea bush would do in my Florida yard. And here it is, still growing and flowering. I pay almost no attention to it. The bush is still small, but I believe it is surviving because it is constantly in the shade of a very large shrub.
BromeliadHydrangea shrubHydrangea flower
I bought the hydrangea in May one year. That’s when you might be able to find the plants. Big box stores get them out on display for Mother’s Day. When I bought this one, it was blue, or purple-blue. The gorgeous blues I had on my New Hampshire hydrangea bushes can’t really be replicated by making the soil acidic. I believe that the pretty light blue is just natural, and comes from the earth.
Native Florida milkweed plants can be hard to find. I am trying to grow some from seeds. Know how it grows, and what to do for seeds to flourish.
I’ve been trying to grow my own native Florida milkweed from seed. The trick is to learn as much as possible about milkweed plants. There are quite a few native Florida milkweed varieties. Some prefer dryer conditions, while others need to remain moist. Decide what will work best in the area you plan to put your milkweed plants.
In the wild, they will self seed alongside the parent plants, in a naturally perfect location. In my yard, I will need to mimic that for success.
This list includes milkweed I am attempting to grow from seed, or mail order. Milkweed likes sun, and most like it moist. I ordered these types to see what I could get to grow. I do not have a lot of space.
Asclepias perennis – swamp milkweed, with white flowers
Asclepias incarnata – swamp milkweed, with pink flowers
Asclepias verticillata – whorled milkweed, blooms later into fall. Needs space for tubers to spread. Not as good for small gardens.
Asclepias humistrata – pinewoods, or sandhill – grows in sand, likes it dry. Must be in well-drained sandy ground.
Tuberosa (orange butterfly weed), Whorled milkweed, Tropical and Sandhill.
Finding and Buying Milkweed Seeds and Plants
Where I live, it is nearly impossible to find native milkweed plants locally. And when I do find them, they are scraggly and not growing well. Often they are full of aphids.
For that reason I have turned to starting milkweed from seeds. Look for seeds from plants that are grown without the use of chemicals.
The seeds I bought have come from various sellers. When buying online, many reputable places have good information about growing each milkweed variety. Johnny Butterflyseed has a nice variety of seeds that come in little brown packets. I have a few pots of each variety planted.
Johnny Butterfly seedSeeds are coming up
I ordered a few Swamp Milkweed seedlings online. Some of them look really nice, and two are already in the ground. Buying seedlings, or small plants online, can be expensive. There is no way to know what the plants condition will be when they arrive. Usually only a pot size is given, and not a plant size. Read about my experience with ordering live plants online here. I did find a place I would buy from again – The Grower’s Exchange. Look at the beautiful milkweed plants in the photos below that were mail order plants!
*UPdate, these four milkweed plants are now about 3 feet tall and doing very well.
New mail order milkweed in black pots – transplanted from the small pots they arrived in.Swamp milkweed by downspoutLater – growing nicely!
Alternatively, see The Milkweed Man website for a list of Florida native plants, including milkweed. He does not ship, but if you live nearby (Spring Hill – directly west of Orlando near the coast), this looks like a great place to buy native plants.
How Milkweed Plants Grow
First of all, realize that native milkweed goes dormant in Fall / Winter, even in Florida. Tropical milkweed does not go dormant! Native varieties should be started from seed or purchased to plant, in spring and summer.
I learned this the hard way when I bought two plants late last year. They were basically sticks, covered in aphids. I thought they would be fine once planted, but they both seemed to die. They were actually going dormant for our Florida winter. Now, many months later, one of them is sprouting new growth! The other one didn’t make it. I should have waited and bought them in spring when they would be growing well.
So here’s a hint: Buy milkweed and get it planted early – like spring to early summer. Give it a chance to establish roots before the dormant time arrives.
XLUX soil moisture meterSwamp milkweed coming up from overwintering dormant plant
Milkweeds need water when they are young. Seedlings and small plants need lots of water (exception may be the Sandhill variety). Get yourself a simple soil water meter (paid link – see my meter above) and make sure the soil stays moist. As the plant matures, it will grow a long taproot that will help keep it going in times of drought.
Pick up the pots and look for emerging roots at the bottom. If little white roots are coming out, it is time to plant into a bigger pot, or in the ground.
Be aware that milkweed spreads by underground rhizomes as well as by seeds that come out of the pods.
Feeding Hungry Caterpillars
The milkweed you are most likely to come across when shopping for plants is not a Florida native. Once thought to be not good for Monarchs, now “they” are not so sure. Is it better to have the wrong milkweed and grow caterpillars and butterflies? Or have nothing for the butterflies to use.
The tropical milkweed grows like mad. Consider growing one or two of this fast growing milkweed alongside the slower varieties. This is helpful when hungry Monarch caterpillars are munching away on the plant.
Let Tropical milkweed grow until winter – cut it back by December and always remove any seed pods before they blow away.
Monarch egg on milkweedCaterpillar eating seed pod
Monarchs and the Lizards – Just a Thought
In March and April I had three Monarch butterflies appear in my yard. One I watched form a chrysalis, and saw him the day he hatched. Two more showed up in various locations, looking as if they were new to the world. Every day since then, I’ve had at least two Monarchs flying around every day. The highest number I saw all at once was four.
I’ve since had many more caterpillars, which suddenly disappear. Both native anoles and the invasive lizards will eat them! It could be that I saw the three Monarchs arrive only because there were fewer lizards to eat them in the colder months of March and April.
Milkweed is Meant to Grow Wild
Milkweed attracts aphids, and ladybugs love to eat aphids. This works very well in the wild, I would imagine, where lawns are not sprayed and things work together as they should. Wild areas are disappearing. Now, we have to grow milkweed in our gardens, and that can bring ladybugs.
I’ve been checking all my milkweed plants, large and small, every day. Nearly all of them have aphids. Aphids can be removed by hand – run your fingers down the leaf. Or, use a spray bottle and spray them off. Leave them alone on larger plants and wait for ladybugs to arrive and eat them! I’ve chosen to wait and see what happens. Sure enough, the ladybugs have arrived.
Later in June, I noticed that all aphids were gone from this plant. So were the ladybugs. In my opinion, don’t worry about the aphids.
Yellow aphidsLadybug & aphidsAphids on white Swamp MilkweedTropical milkweed plant, has flowers of two colors
To get milkweed plants started, they might need a lot of attention. Even the types that prefer to grow in dryer locations will need water at first. Growing from seed can be tricky. I’ll let you know how mine do.
Hydrangeas Blue 