florida – Page 9 – Hydrangeas Blue

How to Care For a Desert Rose Plant

desert rose pink flowers — Desert Rose in Garden

When I was given this flowering plant as a gift I was told it was a Plumeria. After seeing this same plant at the local Home Depot store, I discovered it was a Desert Rose. But before I knew what it was, I had taken it out of the original pot and put it into a sunny location in the backyard.

Sun is exactly what this flowering plant craves. But the word “desert” caused me to believe less water was better. The truth is that this plant did well with and without water.

Today I am watering it frequently, and it is thriving! So much for the “desert” title.

At the time I planted it, we were have a long dry spell here in Florida. The Desert Rose did well. I avoided watering it when I watered the hibiscus next to it, and the plant even sent out new buds, which you can see blooming at the bottom of the stalk.

Florida is a tropical place, but some areas are more tropical than others. I am in the central part of the state and it can get very cold (below freezing) here overnight in winter. I was afraid the Rose would die, so I ended up digging it up and putting it into a (bright orange) pot.

pink desert rose in orange pot — Dug up and potted

The Secret to Growing a Desert Rose in Florida

Sunlight is most important, with plenty of heat. The plant can deal with lack of water (I’ve tried that), but it also loves a daily spray with the hose.

These plants develop a very thick “stem” or caudex (see them in the photo below). This is the part that holds in the water to keep the plant thriving in drought conditions. But apparently it does not need to grow in a desert to thrive.

Keep it in a pot so it can come inside when temperatures drop – some sites say below 60 degrees and others say 40. Just bring it inside when it gets cold to be safe.

Pictures of My Desert Rose and How It Has Grown

As I mentioned above, this plant was a gift to me shortly after I moved into my house in 2016. I’ve had the plant for nearly 2 years now.

After a period of dormancy during the winter, suddenly lots of buds began to show up. New little leaves began to grow from the base of the stem. This was about the time when aphids were appearing on all my plants outside. A daily check, and I would spray the buggers off with the hose. I let the lady bugs take care of most of the aphids in my garden, but the Rose is not near the vegetables.

desert rose — Blooming Desert Rose, after winter

desert rose plant in pot — Give it sunshine! It is slow growing.

In the photo below, lots of greenery is showing on the plant, which has stopped blooming for now. It will take this time to put effort into growing stems and leaves before it begins to flower again.
Right now I am not sure when that will be. This plant flowers more than once a year, so I expect to see buds forming soon.

green leaves on desert rose — August 2018, glossy green leaves on my desert rose. I spray it with the hose every day.

More Information About The Desert Rose

The Desert Rose is similar in appearance to the plumeria / frangipani tree and Oleander. The unique aspect is the thick stems. The Oleander does grow in Florida, but I have not seen Plumeria trees. Maybe they will grow in the southern part of the state. For more information about growing the desert rose elsewhere, read my friend’s article: Desert Rose Adenium Plant for Gardening and Bonsai.

Like the Oleander plant, the Rose contains poisonous sap. It may not be a good choice as a houseplant for families with young kids for this reason.

The South Florida Plant Guide site has more info.

Wondering When my Persian Lime Tree Will Bear Fruit

Persian lime buds — Buds on the Lime Tree

A few months ago I purchased a lemon tree and Persian lime tree from a local nursery. Both are blooming and beginning to bear fruit. I planted the lemon tree in the ground, but decided to keep the lime tree in the pot. I’m glad I wasn’t in a hurry to put them both in the ground, because the lemon tree is not doing as well as the lime.

The Meyer lemon began budding almost as soon as it was planted. The tree itself is very small, so I expected no fruit from it. Surprisingly, some of the lemons are now getting to a good size, but many have already fallen off. I gave it a sunny spot, but failed to realize the amount of wind the tree would receive. The lime is more sheltered from the strong wind, on the south side of the house, and also gets a lot of sun. From what I’ve read, this is more to it’s liking.

budding persian lime tree — Potted Persian Lime Tree

Also, the lime tree (photo above), which was never removed from it’s original pot, began to grow like mad! It has doubled in size in the past few months, and is just now blooming. Because of the size, I have some hope of picking limes in the not too distant future. Fingers crossed! I’m holding of putting it into the ground because it’s growing very well where it is.

Because I am not familiar with growing either types of fruit, I searched online for Persian Lime Tree Care and found an article at the Gardening Know How site. In fact they have many articles with growing and care information. That being said, I always get my gardening information from more than one source – especially when reading online. In fact, this article “How Long Does it Take to Grow Limes?” at the Home Guides site, gives a lot more useful information. It tells me that fruit is harvested twice a year; May-June and November-December. This is the information I wanted to find.

Online articles can be written by experts, or by people who really have no idea what they are talking about. Some people write online simply to make money and are not all that interested in truthfulness. I prefer to find information on a blog written by someone with first hand experience. In other words, someone who cares enough to share what they know to be true.

At the present time, I am not a lime growing expert, but I hope to become one by growing them myself. As time goes on I will share MY first hand experience, but for now, I must count on others for solid information.

I’ll be sure to post about eating my first home-grown lemons and limes!

Florida Yardscape Must Include At Least One Hibiscus

Now that I live in Florida, my yard must contain the normal Florida perennials. Hibiscus is at the top of that list, and therefore I recently purchased a shrub and recently planted it along the side of the house.

I know that hibiscus will tolerate lots of sun and heat. Although the tag on this one said it was protected from mites and aphids, I notice there are some on the buds. I mixed up a solution of dish detergent and water to spray on the plant, and picked off the buds that were full of bugs. I’ve had to do this for a few days not. It’s irritating that I bought it with the bugs on it. Should have checked closer.

Next to it, I added a rose bush and on the other side a small Desert Rose. In my photo below the plumeria hasn’t been planted yet, but you can see the red poinsettia I bought this past Christmas … the flowers are still red! That one also needs to go in the ground.

rose bush and hibiscus — New Little Florida Garden

I need to get these gardens planted before the weather becomes too hot. I can’t work outside like I used to, and I dislike working in the heat. Digging up this St. Augustine grass is a real chore, and then I must lug the dirt to mix into the dug hole. The Florida “dirt” is mostly sand, so it must be amended with quality dirt and fertilizer. After it was planted I added black mulch.

double orange hibiscus — This Hibiscus Has Ruffled Flowers

The Plumeria Plant Gift, Or Is It Something Else?

Some friends stopped by the other day and they had been to the Farmer’s Market at the Volusia County Fairgrounds. They opened the trunk of the car to show us the wonderful plants they had purchased. They had boxes of little succulents, a bushy croton, tiny African violets, and bags of organic dirt. In the back I noticed three tall stalks in pots with one or two flowers at the top. When I asked what the plant was, our friend pulled one out and handed it to me. “It’s a Plumeria” she said, “Here take it, it’s for you”.

I tried to give it back, and said I was only curious, but she insisted I keep it. She said they were only $3.00 and she had more. The guy who sold them to her told her they were Plumerias.

Now, I have never seen a plumeria plant. I am familiar with the beautiful flowers of the Hawaiian plumeria (frangipani), and know that they are often used to make Hawaiian leis in the islands. I use plumeria (or frangipani) images to create wedding and event stationery for my Sandpiper Wedding store. But I have never had a plant like this. And honestly the flower reminded me more of an Oleander, but the plant itself was like nothing I had seen.

I figured I’d call it a plumeria until I discovered differently. I had already looked up How to grow plumerias, but I’ve had my doubts as to what this plant really is. I’ve never seen plumerias growing in Florida, and I used to have all the favorite local plants planted in my yard when I lived here in the 80’s and 90’s. It doesn’t mean they don’t grow here, but they need a more tropical climate than what we have here in central Florida.

Plumerias need tropical conditions to grow well, and where I live it does get cold.

**** Then, I went shopping at the local Home Depot, and came across plants that look just like my “plumeria” but they were called “Desert Rose“. Aha, I did not have a plumeria. But I had no idea what to do with a desert rose.

I looked up how to care for it.

The Desert Rose is a flowering succulent, which means it won’t need a lot of water. The stem can be very thick, and holds water to be used in times of drought. It does not like cold temperatures, which means I should keep it indoors over the Florida winter. I’ll have to dig it up. It is slow growing, compared to plumerias, which grow fast and turn into small trees.

Right now our temperatures are very warm with daytime readings in the 80’s and overnight in the 60’s and some 50’s. I regret planting it outdoors and will have to spend some money on a decent pot and bring it inside eventually. I’m not sure it will like all the summer rain we’ll be getting soon. It’s meant to be an ornamental indoor plant, from what I gather.

Here are more pictures of the Desert Rose, found at the free images site, Pixabay.

pink desert rose flowers — Beautiful Desert Rose Flowers (photo credit: Pixabay)

The Garden in March, One Month Later

screen-shot-2017-03-02-at-9-27-07-am — My Garden, March 2nd

Last month I began to plant my little garden in my Florida backyard. Because the raised bed was not filled with dirt, I used black fabric pots.

I began with crops that were more suited to cooler weather, like peas and lettuce.

Well, Skittle the cat decided to sleep in the bed of peas, so now only one stalk is growing as the others were a bit crushed. It was just the right spot for a nap in the sun. No worries Skittle, I’ll eat 2 peas and be happy.

screen-shot-2017-03-02-at-9-32-17-am — Skittle in the Peas

I also planted potatoes and they are growing like mad. I followed the directions from a blog I read and began by only filling the bags part way. Then I have added dirt as the tops grew. And boy did they grow! Course I’ll have to wait and see what’s happening down inside the bags, but hopefully I’ll have some little red potatoes to eat one day.

screen-shot-2017-03-02-at-12-02-59-pm — Growing potatoes

I also just planted cucumber seeds and I see today that they are popping through the soil. It only took 2 days for that to happen!

My two pepper plants are doing well, and one is blooming like mad. This may be the year I am able to grow peppers. They like heat, and yesterday it was 88 degrees, so there ya go.

I have more cardboard to put down in the bottom of the wood enclosure to keep the grass from growing up through. Newspaper would work for that too. Eventually I will empty the dirt out of my pots and fill the enclosure. But first…. I may try to dig up the grass beneath the enclosure.

I always thought I would just set up the wooden bed and fill it with dirt and I’m ready to plant. Now I have read at EarthEasy that I should dig down a ways to loosen the ground so roots can go down into the dirt beneath the bed. This makes sense, as some vegetables do have long roots, but I didn’t think they needed that much space.

It got me wondering what the roots of vegetables look like, and which ones need the most depth to grow well.

screen-shot-2017-03-02-at-12-01-09-pm — Bib lettuce and carrots

The Bib lettuce needed to be thinned and the carrots were planted using paper strips. I had never used carrot seed tape before, and I bought it by accident. The old method of mixing seeds with sand when sowing small seeds works fine. I still had to thin the seedlings, even when I used the tape.

screen-shot-2017-03-02-at-12-01-31-pm — March Tomatoes!

I can honestly say I have never had tomatoes growing in my yard in March! In fact compared to gardening in New Hampshire, growth here seems to be accelerated.

Every time I visit the garden section I keep an eye out for hydrangeas. I haven’t seen any for sale.

Growing a Meyer Lemon Tree

meyer lemon tree flowers — Buds on Meyer Lemon tree

Although my new yard is fairly small, there is a lot of sunny space out front. I planned to plant a row of Florida citrus trees out there, but now I have some questions about growing citrus trees.

I bought a Meyer Lemon tree and a Lime Tree from Pells a few weeks ago. The lemon is planted in the ground out front, and the lime is in a pot on the patio out back.

The lemon tree has pretty, purple buds on it, but it’s December – almost January – and I don’t think this is the time of year it should be getting flowers… but I don’t know.

I did find a Meyer Lemon tree growing article at the Fast Growing Trees site. Between the information in the article about watering, fertilizer, pollination, and light needs, the comments from people trying to grow these trees also adds good info.

screen-shot-2016-12-31-at-8-57-26-am — In the ground 3 weeks

My question is “Can I plant other citrus near my lemon tree?” What if I put a lime next to a lemon? Will the fruit end up tasting like a combination of the two?

I also wonder if it’s too early in the season for flowers to be forming on the tree. We could have frosts and freezes in the months coming. I thought that citrus began to bloom in Spring.

UPDATE: The staff at the “Fast Growing Trees” site have answered my questions. Trees that have been growing in containers may take time to acclimate to being in the ground. He said it is early for the tree to be blooming, but the tree will eventually figure it out.

Also… it’s fine to plant citrus trees near each other. It will help with pollination! Thank you! I can’t seem to figure out how I signed into that site so I can say thanks.

I’m new at this, but I live in a location where it should be easy to grow all kinds of fruit. I know that I can cut the top off pineapples and stick them into the ground to grow. It takes a couple of years before a little pineapple begins to grow out of the top, but it can be done. I used to grow them when I lived here before.

pineapple welcome sign — Welcome address custom tile with pineapples and tropical flowers.

So I have posted my question with the above-mentioned site. I’m always up for learning new things, and gardening of all kinds in Florida is something I must now learn.

The Secret to Growing a Desert Rose in Florida

Pictures of My Desert Rose and How It Has Grown

More Information About The Desert Rose

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for sharing!