By Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandale
mail@floridanewsline.com
We’ve seen the first major storm of the season, Beryl, and it has been disastrous for our neighbors in the Caribbean, Mexico, and parts of coastal Texas. Doing our best to prepare for such an event is important, so please check out our city’s website if you need more information: https://www.jaxready.com/. Meanwhile, we have high temperatures and associated stormy weather conditions that we also need to be prepared for.
After the extended dry period from May into June, thankfully lawns that were looking brown have greened up again. In my front yard, lance leaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) is looking healthy and its new flush of bright yellow daisy-like flowers are attracting small pollinators. The wild petunias (Ruellia caroliniana) that were suffering from lack of rain have also begun flowering again, and I’m glad to see butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is blooming.
It’s not an easy thing to have flowers in bloom throughout the year. When I look around my neighborhood in the first week of July, I see white gaura, or whirling butterflies (Gaura lindheimeri), sunflowers (Helianthus spp.), blue daze (Evolvulus glomeratus), tall red pentas (Pentas lanceolata), butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), African iris (Dietes iridioides), tropical red salvia (Salvia coccinea), soap aloe (Aloe maculata), firebush (Hamelia patens), and purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), which are all either native or considered “Florida Friendly.”
For an easily used App from the UF/IFAS Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program website, visit https://ffl.ifas.ufl.edu/resources/apps/butterfly-gardens/. I’ve been looking at it on my laptop, but it can be used on phones and tablets too. You can find a list of plants suited to a butterfly garden, and for each plant you can see its flowering time, as well as information on how and where it will grow best. To make full use of the App requires making an account to personalize a garden design and plant list, but simply accessing information on butterflies and plants doesn’t.
As well as being useful for butterflies, bees, and other insects, having flowers in your garden that bloom throughout the year makes for a prettier yard, which is something many of us aspire to. I don’t always achieve that, so anything that clues me in to what might bloom in mid-summer, for instance, when conditions are difficult, is welcome! I can also recommend the Xerces Society for native plant recommendations: https://tinyurl.com/bdz9jwtn. Here you will find bloom times for each plant and information on what insects they attract, as well as other factors you need to choose the right plant for the right place.
If you are a gardener who enjoys propagating your own plants, whatever they may be, you will have bags of potting soil and maybe amendments like vermiculite and perlite with which to adjust the texture and water-holding ability of that potting soil. Please pay attention to how you deal with using and mixing those products. When they become dry and dusty they can be easily blown around and, if inhaled, can be dangerous. At best they are irritants and in the worst case they could cause a serious lung infection which is difficult to treat, MAC lung disease, so be aware and use a well-fitting N95 mask if you work in an enclosed space. Perlite and vermiculite can irritate the eyes, so safety glasses would be helpful. And wear gloves — which is a recommendation on all bags of potting soil — just in case you have any small cuts and scrapes.
For the latest from the Extension office staff, check out A New Leaf – Yard and Garden newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/3aydmufz. There you’ll find details of upcoming classes — like fall vegetable gardening — and some very useful information on a native wetland plant that, like me, you may not know much about. Happy gardening!
