The rains finally came on Wednesday after a 10 week absence. They were ushered in by a cold front that dropped temperatures down into the mid-thirties here in Florida's Big Bend. The more exposed, early blooming sasanqua camellias (Camellia sasanqua) in my yard had their flowers wilted by the cold. Within a couple of days though, the welcome moisture had perked them up and a fresh flush of flowers has already appeared. In the picture is one of my favorite varieties. It's called 'Mino-no-yuki' (most of our favorite varieties were developed in Japan) and they're just now beginning to bloom. It is also often labeled as 'White Snow' and when you see a mature specimen standing above a pool of fallen white flower petals you'll enjoy the appropriateness of the name. I have eight of them scattered about my place and they've grown large enough in the past 10 years to make an impressive scene. If you live in a warm winter zone, you can enjoy a couple months of sasanqua flowers by planting a mix of early, mid and late blooming varieties. Read the Floridata Plant Profile of the sasanqua camellia for more on this beautiful bush. Click here to download a large version of this 'Mino-no-yuki' blossom.

Chaste Tree Encore
The chaste tree up on The Hill treated me to an unexpected out-of-season flush of flowers this week. The chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus) is a small deciduous tree that normally blooms in late Spring followed by smaller crops of flowers on and off throughout the summer. This is the first year it's bloomed in November and the bees, butterflies and I are all happy to see its vibrant violet flowers whenever we can. There's still a few Gulf Fritillary hanging around that I know are appreciating this unexpected nectar source as most of the garden flowers are way past prime.
This is a spectacularly beautiful tree and one of my favorites. Sure the flowers are beautiful and the foliage resembles that of marijuana (good for playing tricks on your Mom and nosy neighbors), but best of all - it is drought resistant and is more than happy to grow in the super fast-draining sand that passes for soil at my place.
Since I still have a bit of potting soil left from last weekend's projects I think I'll take some cuttings and try to root a bunch of them. I'd like to have a mini-grove of them out front as part of an on-going project to turn my place into a Butterfly Vacation Resort and Spa.
Click here to read Floridata's Profile of Vitex agnus-castus.

Click here to download a large version (800x600) of this chaste tree flower picture.

I had a great weekend! I received a gift of 2 big bags of potting soil and set about repotting some palms that were outgrowing their containers. In the past summer a kentia palm (Howea forsteriana) that I've had since it was a seedling doubled in size over the summer so it was rewarded with a new roomier pot.
Since it's getting late in the season and we could have our first frost/freeze at any time here in Florida's Big Bend, and since I had a surplus of lovely potting soil, it seemed the perfect time to take cuttings from the angel trumpets. These spectacular tropical plants often grow to over six feet tall with huge foot long trumpet-shaped flowers hanging straight down from the branches. The flowers of the species, Brugmansia suaveolens, and of its many popular hybrid children are white or in shades of yellow and pink. All of the angel trumpet are pleasantly fragrant and easy to grow even if you don't live in the tropics.
Here in Zone 8 where I garden, the angel trumpets are killed to the ground by the first hard freeze of the season. The roots survive and new shoots appear when warm weather returns later in the season. It's usually about mid-summer before they're ready to bloom again. I like to have as many of these beauties around as soon as possible so I took some cutting to root. These will establish themselves over the winter and then when "all danger of frost is past" I'll set my rooted cuttings out in the garden, spoil them with lots of liquid fertilizer and by May I should have lot's of flowers on more angel trumpet plants than ever before!
If you have an angel trumpet plant or a neighbor with one, just cut pieces of stem in about 12 to 18 inch pieces, remove any leaves and insert the lower 1 to 2 inches into a container of sterile potting soil. Using a rooting hormone product like Rootone will insure success by inhibiting the funguses that cause rot and hastening the rooting process.
With the addition of my 12 new angel trumpet plants next summer I think it's going to be just heavenly around here. Oh, and I still have some potting soil and Rootone left...
Visit Floridata to read more about the angel's trumpet ( Brugmansia suaveolens) and it's cousin the devil's trumpet (Datura inoxia var. quinquecuspida) which is prettier than the name suggests...

Most of the flowers are fading but many of the grasses, like the gulf muhlygrass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) are spectacular at this time of year. Especially when the seedheads are backlit - like last afternoon when I saw these clumps of muhlygrass shimmering in a rosy glow of late afternoon sun. At this time of year the Gulf Coast humidity tends to condense into small droplets that slows the sunlight into a fuzzy glow.
Also called pink (or purple) muhlygrass, this stuff really lights up when a few sunbeams strike it and I can't think of many real flowers able to create such an impressive display. Actually this grass, a native of the southeastern USA, looks handsome regardless of season, is drought resistant and virtually immune to disease.
In the background the dogwoods (Cornus florida) lining my driveway have turned to matching shades of pinkish-red and orangey-yellow but on these November afternoons the light and haze tone the colors into soft pastels. (Click here to download a large version, 800x600 of this image).
The blue-leaved palm out in the yard is a Butia yatay palm from South America. They're very similar in appearance to the pindo palm (Butia capitata), a very cold-hardy species that is the most popular feather-leaved palm grown in Zone 8 climates. I bought my yatay palm as a seedling and it's been here for twelve years and is just beginning to form a trunk. Yes, it looks just like all of the thousands of pindos in the area but to me it looks just a little bit prettier and uniquely special but I can't figure out why.
Here in North Florida a beautiful weekend is forecast and I plan to spend it raking and mulching - I hope you have a fun weekend too!

I found a packet of black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) seed that I had stashed away last year and then forgot to plant. I'm trying to turn a dry grassy patch out front into a wildflower meadow so I used my found seeds to sow a patch that was just recently cleared of rough bahiagrass. Black-eyed Susan is native to where I live in Florida's Big Bend as it is throughout much of North America. It's a tough survivor which is the only kind of plant that grows in the infertile sandy soil that we have here.
Besides the shy little black-eyed Susan of wildflower fame, this species has an alter-ego. When exposed to radiation or chemical mutagens, the number of chromosome pairs can be doubled or even quadrupled! These are referred to as diploids and tetraploids and the result is a huge, robust version- a Super Susan, that gardeners often refer to as gloriosa daisies. These big-blossomed mutant beauties are beloved by florists and flower arrangers and gardeners prize their presence in the perennial garden where they provide a delicious source of nourishment for hungry deer. Deer like them because they're twice as big as the wildflower version and cause the gardener three times the grief and aggravation when devoured.
As much as I like the gloriosa daisies, I'm sticking to the wildflower version of black-eyed Susan which the local butterflies find perfectly attractive and I am so sick of deer destruction I decided to at least stop serving the good (expensive) stuff. But if you get a chance I recommend that you plant both the species black-eyed Susan (interested in Wildflower Gardens? here's a how-to wildflower link) and the super showy Susan the Gloriosa daisy). Read the Floridata Rudbeckia hirta Plant Profile for more on this easy beauty.
...not that I wish any creature harm, but I am kinda hoping the local deer hunters have a good season this year.

Welcome to my first post on blogger.com! I publish an online plant encyclopedia called Floridata.com and I'd like to introduce you to some of my favorite and most interesting plants on the planet. My Plants of the Day will cover trees and shrubs and other plants for the landscape as well as flowers and vegetables for in the garden and in the home. Often the daily plants will relate to the season - like when its time to plant them, pick them and/or eat them. I'll even introduce you to plants that are normally not cultivated and some are even weeds but even weeds can be useful and interesting. In my view there is no plant that is not worth knowing even if it is nothing that you would ever be growing.
All of my Plant of the Day posts will include a photo and a link to the Floridata Plant Profile so you can read more about our featured plant which today is the Grape Hyacinth (Muscari spp).
After surviving a long gray winter there is nothing more beautiful than to see these brilliant blue jewels of Spring bursting forth in early Spring. If you can't wait until Spring try forcing a handful of these little bulbs indoors and you'll be rewarded with a fragrant display in just a few weeks (makes a great project to do with the kids).
Read the Grape Hyacinth Plant Profile for more info and stop by tomorrow so I can tell you about my favorite weed.