Category: Garden, Growing Flowers

Planting flowering annuals and perennials in the landscape. New posts are Florida gardening with the hydrangeas and some others being from the north.

Mimosa Strigillosa, Sunshine, Powderpuff, and Thornless

Be careful when buying sunshine mimosa as a ground cover. I made the mistake of growing the type that has thorns on the stems!

About a year ago I ordered Mimosa seeds. I did not realize there are different varieties of Mimosa and I got the “Sensitive Plant” or “Shameplant”. It is called Mimosa pudica.

What I wanted was the Sunshine Mimosa I had heard so much about. Plant it in the yard to replace grass and feed the insects. Brighten the landscape with pretty pink, puffy flowers. It does not have thorns.

I made a big mistake when I ordered the wrong seeds. The seeds I grew became plants with thorns on the stems.

sunshine mimosa
Sunshine mimosa plant
sunshine mimosa
herb and flower seeds
Not all mimosas are alike!

The One With Thorns

Once my mimosa seeds began to grow, I was so happy. Then, I noticed thorns on the stems. Because the Sunshine Mimosa is known as an excellent ground cover, I was baffled. No one would walk barefoot on this! Animals would hurt their feet as well. I thought I had been steered wrong.

I gave up on Mimosa.

Recently, I saw a post on Instagram by The Urban Harvest. The post was about alternative ground covers, including Sunshine Mimosa. I left a comment that it has thorns, and was quickly corrected. “Sunshine Mimosa does NOT have thorns”. Any they are correct!

So what the heck did I have? I took this photo of the plant in my yard and discovered that it is a mimosa, but the wrong kind. See those thorns? I will probably rip this one out.

mimosa pudica thorns
the Wrong Mimosa

The Sunshine Mimosa is Mimosa strigillosa, or “Powderpuff” and is thornless – and N O T Mimosa quadrivalvis, or pudica. Be sure to know which type you are getting.

Be careful, because the different varieties look very much alike. They both get pink, puffy flowers and have leaves that close up when touched. Both types sprawl, but the thorny one grows taller.

The huge difference is that one has thorns, and the other can be used to replace your grassy yard with a blooming, soft, ground cover.

Where Can I Get a Sunshine Mimosa?

The trouble I had a year ago was that I wanted this ground cover for my yard. I looked for plants and seeds and found NONE. All I found was mimosa seeds from Eden Brothers and so I bought them, not realizing I’d ordered the incorrect type.

The info in the pink box comes from the Florida Wildflower Foundation website. And, YAY they have a link to a place to buy seeds…. but, guess what? No results.

All my favorite online places don’t have seeds. I get very frustrated when I live in Florida and yet have such trouble buying native plants.

I still can’t find Sunshine Mimosa seeds to buy.

I’ll be ripping up the one that has thorns. I don’t want my cats hurting their feet.

Mimosa plant with thorns
Mimosa with thorns

Garden blogging…

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Beautiful Zinnia Flowers Are Useful to Bees

Zinnias are bright and beautiful flowers that also serve as a shelter for honey bees.

This summer I am growing zinnias from seeds. I’ve come to love seeing the new blooms pop out in this mix. Their colors have been stunningly bright. Some blooms have a more flattened appearance and others are very puffy and full.

I grew these from seeds that were planted a few months ago in my new little flower garden.

Zinnias Growing in My Yard

I have done nothing to these photos, the colors are exactly as they really are!

pink zinnia flower
light pink zinnia flower
bright red zinnia flower
Zinnias
magenta zinnia flower
Beautiful magenta
orange zinnia
Bright orange zinnia
Zinnia garden
Zinnia garden
Zinnia flowers red pink
pink zinnia

The Perfect Flowers for Sleeping Bees

The petals of the zinnia also serve as a shelter for sleeping bees. Each morning I see them tucked among the pink petals of this one flower.

This magenta zinnia, which has a fading bloom, seems to be a favorite for little bees. They look like honey bees, and they crawl way up under the petals toward the center of the flower. I counted four bees, but I believe there were more.

Bees inside the petals

I’ve also caught tiny tree frogs in the petals, but they hop away as soon as I get close.

Zinnias are not the only flowers that make tired bees happy. I’ve seen them within the curl of marigold flowers too. We get accustomed to watching bees gather nectar and usually never think about where they go when they need to rest. Why, a zinnia hotel, of course!

Zinnias
The pink flower is the bee’s favorite

Keep reading…

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Marigolds in the Florida Vegetable Garden

Marigolds are beautiful and easy flowers to grow in a Florida yard and vegetable garden. They may also have some great benefits.

While many flowers I grew in my northern garden can’t be grown here in Florida, the marigold certainly can. The scent of marigolds will repel mosquitoes, which are a bother all the time in my yard. I’m not sure if they work on no-see-ums, but maybe! As my garden space grows, so will my number of marigold plants. They are colorful and so easy to grow.

orange marigolds in garden
Marigolds grow among peppers, pumpkin, and watermelon

Marigolds and Nematodes

Marigolds may also help keep nematodes away (maybe not – read on). They do not hinder all types of nematodes, but do help with common root-knot nematodes. My Great Garden Companions book, by Sally Jean Cunningham (Amazon affiliate link), says to turn the entire marigold plant into the earth after the growing season is over.

To Till or Not To Till

My thoughts on cleaning out a garden is to cut off the plant and leave the roots for the earthworms. Disturbing the soil disrupts the ecology of the soil, or so I’ve read. BUT… if you have nematodes, doing this helps them survive! Maybe I just need to find out if I do have nematodes and go from there.

What is a nematode?

Once I began planting my garden I kept hearing about nematodes. I did not know what they were, only that they were damaging to crops. (Apparently there are also good nematodes.)

Nematode damage appears as yellowing and wilting of crops. The little buggers affect the roots in a way that removes the ability of the plant to take up nutrients and water from the soil. When nothing you do helps the plant, maybe it’s some kind of nematode (there are many types).

Don’t look for them with the naked eye because they are microscopic. (Think “monsters inside us”.) This page at the University of Florida gardening site has excellent nematode pictures to show the size of nematodes. It also explains them really well. So well, in fact, that you may be scared off gardening all together!

Reading all this info on nematodes is very disheartening. Florida can have all kinds of nematodes because nematodes love sandy soil.

The UF site says this: French Marigolds – particularly the yellow or gold “Petite French” Tagetes patula variety can help keep certain nematodes (the root-knot) away. (This info was found in Table 2 in the link above.)

And then… I read this, on the same UF site: Garden Myths: Volume 1 which talks about Marigolds and false beliefs that they can deter nematodes..!!

Holy cow. I guess marigolds can’t hurt, but we can’t see them as the one great answer to destroying nematodes either.

Marigolds and Beneficials

Not only do marigolds repel possible pests in the vegetable garden, and help deter nematodes (we hope), they constantly flower throughout summer – and more seasons here in Florida. That means butterflies and other bugs can enjoy the flowers as sources of food. They are not high on the list for nectar, but I’ve had bees and butterflies on my flowers.

Bee on yellow marigold
Bee climbing through the marigold
orange Gulf Fritillary butterfly
Gulf Fritillary butterfly

I have marigolds growing in some raised beds and among the ground garden veggies. The tall yellow flowers wind their way up through eggplant and help shade the oregano.

The fluffy orange flowering marigold is so pretty, I will save its seeds and plant many more. Saving marigold seeds is easy. I simply scatter the seeds around the gardens and see what grows. Or, they can be scattered in an empty grow pot and then the seedlings can be transplanted. They do very well when transplanted too.

Marigolds in the garden
My orange and yellow marigolds
damselfly
Little damselfly

This frilly gold-orange marigold flower is interesting. I keep waiting for it to “open” but this is all it does. The older flower is now looking like it’s gone by. I hoped it would be more than this. It is different, and I’m not sure what type it is.

  • Golden orange marigold flower that is frilly

Marigolds Can Handle the Heat

Marigolds are wonderful choices for this humid and very hot location. I’ve never had them wilt or seem stressed by the baking sun. The big yellow flowers can get ants, but other than that, no pest problems.

Red-orange marigold flower

Be Careful of the Rains

Once we began getting big afternoon storms (July), my marigolds fell over. Big sections of the plants just fell to the ground!

I’d already planned to put cages around the yellow marigolds because of their height, but it seems these orange ones need support as well.

The broken parts are going into the compost. Next year I will buy some short cages, sold near the tall tomato cages at Home Depot, and put them up for all the marigold plants.

  • composting broken marigold
  • Short cage for flowering plants

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How to Grow the Beautiful Rudbeckia

Growing the rudbeckia “Rising Sun” flowering perennial pollinator plant.

While dashing through the local nursery, I spotted this pretty yellow flowering plant. It was a Rudbeckia called “Rising Sun”. It had a couple of flowers and a few more buds. It went into my new little flower garden.

In a Nutshell

Rudbeckia is a perennial. It should be dug up and divided, once it is large, to propagate. It is easy to grow, after making sure it has plenty of water in the beginning. Grow in full sun, deadhead old flowers, and enjoy watching bees visit the flowers.

When planting, I added some bone meal and fish fertilizer along with compost to the hole. I do that generally for all transplants. I planted the new garden in May, so it was hot, but not horrible. I made sure to water the new plants every morning because we were getting no rain back then. I added mulch to help.

Flowering Rudbeckia plant
Rudbeckia plant

Because I went out every morning to water, it gave me the opportunity to view changes. It seemed to bloom with at least one new big yellow bloom each day! The plant grew and bloomed like mad, and is now just gorgeous.

Bees Love Rudbeckia

I was hoping to attract bees and butterflies and this plant is perfect. Each morning I see little bees crawling around the flowers. One day I saw a bee sleeping on one of the petals! He was resting or something because he was not moving, but he was not dead. On the photo above you can see a bee on one of the big flower’s petals.

Deadheading and Propagation

Rudbeckia needs to be deadheaded. As soon as I read this, I went out and cut off the old blooms. I brought them inside to see if I could get some seeds from the center when they dry fully. Deadheading helps the plant put energy into creating new blooms and not caring for the old, wilting ones. Many flowering plants benefit from this.

My Rudbeckia even survived us having a new roof installed. If you have ever gone through roof replacement, you know what a mess it makes. I was so worried about my garden and yard, but most things came through okay.

Rudbeckia spreads by rhizomes underground. In other words, when it gets too full, it can be dug up and split into two or more plants. This is one way to propagate. Every 4-5 years or so, or when the plant is really full and not growing as many flowers, it means it needs to be divided. This is similar to peonies. I remember doing just that to divide my beautiful peonies when I grew them in New Hampshire.

Also, apparently the rudbeckia can grow from seed. Each flower will drop little seeds from that center brown “eye”. So the flowers I cut will be saved to see if I can get seeds.

I would love to link to this info, but all the sites I visited had WAY too many ads! I won’t send my readers to them, but if you search for this info, you will find it elsewhere.

I’ve never grown the rudbeckia before, but I truly love it. At some point I will buy more of them to put into the landscape. This plant came from Lindley’s Nursery in New Smyrna Beach.

Keep reading my gardening stories…

Why You Should Plant Zinnias

Here in Florida we can plant and grow Zinnias. I never knew this, but the Urban Harvest sells seeds and they sell things that will grow in Florida. Sure enough, Zinnias are heat tolerant and should grow all summer long.

Zinnias attract bees and butterflies and they come in beautiful colors. This is why you should plant them.

A few days ago I placed my third seed packet order from The Urban Harvest, a Florida based grower. Within a few days my seeds arrived. I planted the Zinnia seeds into small pots on May 19th. The next day – May 20th – all seeds had sprouted!

Zinnia seeds after one day!

I don’t believe I have ever in my life seen seeds sprout in one day’s time. To say I am amazed is an understatement. I have great results growing seeds from The Urban Harvest.

Currently I have Okra growing that was planted directly into a raised bed and it came up in four days. Of the 15 seeds planted, there are 12 growing. But, what is eating my okra?

Much of what is growing in my gardens have come from seeds bought at The Urban Harvest.

Zinnia Seeds Sown Directly Into the Garden

It also works to sow zinnia seeds right into the dirt. I did this around the edge of my small garden space – which is quickly being overrun by watermelon vines.

The seeds sprouted within a couple of days.

Zinnia seeds

More About Zinnias at UF / IFAS site.

Pictures of Zinnias

These photos come from Pixabay. I’ll have my own photos when my flowers grow.

Zinnia with bee

Keep reading about Florida gardening

Building a Flower Garden

See how I planted a little flower garden in my Florida yard.

My son took me to Lindley’s Nursery in New Smyrna Beach the other day and I picked up some flowering plants for the yard. (More about Lindley’s further down the page.)

I’ve been saving cardboard boxes to use as grass killers in the yard. It is not that easy to kill Florida grass and weeds, but this type of thing works very well in New Hampshire! Haha… I’m not there, I’m here, so we used the rototiller.

cardboard on grass

Step Two

Dig up the grass, roots, and dollar weed (ugh) and pull it all out. (There is no way to remove all the dollar weed.) This leaves a sandy “dirt” to which I added a bag of store bought soil. (We buy our dirt, compost, and mulch from The Yard Shop in New Smyrna.)

creating a new flower garden
Nearly done with the garden

Plant the Shrubbery

I had four plants to put into the space and I planted them back a bit to leave room for something in the front. Also, I’m not sure how big they will become. I used a piece of the cardboard to kneel on while planting.

These plants came from Lindley’s Nursery in New Smyrna Beach. I was so impressed with the upgrades they had done to the place since my last visit (quite a white ago). I would have stayed longer because the grounds were beautiful and they had so many wonderful plants, but I was with my son who was not into plant shopping.

I grabbed some flowering things that seemed to attract bees (if the bees are on the plants while shopping, it’s a good indication!). All the Florida native plant names totally left my head, but I will probably go back at a later date to find more plants. They did not have any native milkweed because I asked. It was sold out – and there was no sign – so I’m not sure which type they were selling. I hope it was not the tropical milkweed.

I’ve never grown any of theses plants before.

Flowering Rudbeckia plant
Rudbeckia plant
Amaranthus plant
Amaranthus
Gailardia plant
Gailardia flowers
yellow cosmos plant
Yellow cosmos

The Garden is Finished!

The digging began early in the morning to beat the sun. I have until around 9:00am until this area becomes sunny. I did have to finish with the mulch and do the watering in the sun, but at least the digging was finished.

New flower garden planted
Finished!

Planting Tips

For each plant I added to the garden, I included some bone meal, crab meal, earthworm castings, and compost. All these things should help improve the soil and keep the plants happy for now. I used these amendments because I had them, but bone meal only would have been fine for now. (All links are Amazon affiliate links.)

A couple of the plants were very root bound, so I disturbed the roots by pulling them a bit to keep them from being tight. This helps them to grow outward instead of round and round like they had to do in the pot.

All the soil amendments I mentioned above were mixed with the ground soil once the plant was in its place. After planting, each plant was soaked with water, and once the mulch was added, I watered them all again.

Keep Reading the Blog

February Garden Planting

It is the end of February and here in Florida I am getting some seedlings and sweet potato slips into the raised beds.

Borage Season is Here

Florida gardeners can easily grow borage. The blue flowers add interest to any garden, and honey bees love them. The plant is short lived as it dislikes the heat.