A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion New Members Hello from Florida

Since I've just, in the past year, found some plants a serious black thumb can grow, I find myself enjoying watching things grow. Since Florida sand is more of a challenge than I care to take on, I'm confining myself to container gardening and plants that are seemingly unkillable. I just bought my second Christmas cactus, and I have a pair of Crown of Thorns that can survive my neglect. We'll see how the Mums and Poinsettias do over time. I can do a few herbs; rosemary, chives, and basil are doing pretty well.

Looking forward to hearing some new ideas...

Coppercloud

Welcome from southern California also.

Maybe not contagious--just not like gardening anywhere else! I read all the gardening columns, books, etc. & feel like I'm on another planet!

gotta keep on truckin, black thumbers!
btw coopercloud, mums, poinsettias, chrismas cactus are not the EASIEST of them all to grow. if you can do those, you can grow lots more.
maybe you could try some aloe, cannas, ginger, ivy.
Welcome to the forum!

memosa, that's funny. i had family affected by ivan.

coppercloud welcome. both of you should put a more specific location, like santa rosa county, fl. that way, we'd know a general area where you are! (i'm originally from pensacola) :wink:

(i'm originally from pensacola) :wink: [/quote]

Bingo! McGuires!

we can't go home without a trip to mcguires! my kids think it is the best place to visit there!

i should have added that the baby is 21

I'm from Brandon, just east of Tampa. I manage to keep Christmas cactus going by ignoring it, pretty much. The first one dropped its blooms as soon as it got home, so I sat it outside to die in peace. By the time I really looked at it again, new "leaves" were sprouting. It was given to me right after Thanksgiving 2007, and by Easter 2008 it bloomed and bloomed and bloomed. It's in full bloom again, and I bought an odd white one this morning: instead of drooping leaves, they're straight up. We'll see how this one goes......

next time i'm there, we will

coppercloud, i've never been in your area more than a day or two. but from what i remember its a great place to "ignore" houseplants!

Hello Floridians, and welcome to the forum. Seems there is a lot of sandy soil there. We have the opposite here; clay. But my parents in Perth have sand. They are growing grapes, plumeria, roses, crepe myrtle and a whole lot of other things quite successfully. My dad enriches the soil with compost.

What I want to ask you is, do people in Florida grow Murraya Paniculata? I am growing some here, but they grow slowly as it's a bit cool for them. But they are apparently hardy, probably good for black thumbs, and they have the most beautifully scented flowers. I've heard they grow well in a warm climate.

[quote=

What I want to ask you is, do people in Florida grow Murraya Paniculata? [/quote]

Got pictures? I don't recognize the name but sure sounds like my kind of plant. A friend give me a young Century Plant this past October and it's still hanging in there. Also have a Pineapple top that I just threw out in an empty pot over a year ago and I can't believe that the thing is growing and I just considered it basically trash when I set it out in the old pot and yes totally neglected it.

Mine aren't flowering at the moment; they are still quite small, as I put them in during our winter. So I'll put in a link below. They are also known as 'Orange Jessamine' and/or 'Mock Orange'.

http://www.hear.org/starr/plants/images/species/?q=murraya+paniculata

Good to hear your pineapple is growing well. I remember we used to cut the tops off them and grow them that way when I was growing up in Darwin. You probably can grow mangoes there too? If so, I am envious, because you can't get good ones down in Victoria.

I haven't heard of a century plant, but then again, there are a lot of things I haven't heard of!

memosa, mock orange makes a nice thick shrub in florida. you can go to floridata.com and read up on it. and i don't know what to tell you about the avocado. except, we always had good luck with odd plants if we planted them on a south wall.

The Mock Orange flowers have such a beautiful scent, similar to, but maybe stronger than jasmine. That's how I found out about these plants- I was walking along a footpath, and the scent just hit me; some were growing nearby. They are quite rare in Melbourne, Vic (maybe not in your Melbourne!). I thought they were Jasmines when I first saw them, but like Jiffy said, they grow in a bush shape rather than a climbing vine.

As for posting photos, probably the easiest way is to join photobucket. Once you upload photos to that website, you can then copy and paste the file address to this website. I will try doing it again today, and see if I can describe it better (I've only done it once).

Hope your avocado does well. I love avocados, but it's a bit cool for growing them here. Would love to have a pet squirrel, but we don't have them in Oz. Apparently they are a bit hyperactive!

Hi Memosa, for posting photos, once you upload one to photobucket, you need to click on the edit option at the top left of the photo. You then re-size it to 640 x 480 (the largest size you can post here). At the bottom you can save the change. If you roll the mouse over the photo, it will have a number of codes below. If you copy the IMG code (bottom one), you can paste it here. It will then display your photo once you submit it.

nice

Those shamrocks are pretty, Memosa. I haven't heard of them, but they look like a type of oxalis. I get a lot of oxalis plants taking over my garden beds during autumn, but they are nowhere near as pretty as your plants. Mine have yellow flowers, and just grow like crazy.

they are oxalis stevie. most of them grow well outdoors here in the southern us.