December Free Plant List

Dec. 4, 2021, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

602 Ronele Drive

Brandon, FL 33511

(We’re closed for the holiday weekend in January, but mark your calendar for Feb. 5 if you can’t make it this month.)

Join our friendly garden group for Open Greenhouse and Plant Swap at Neem Tree Farms, held most first Saturdays of the month. This list is what we have — but you never know what other people will bring to swap! (If you don’t have anything to share, don’t worry. We all started with empty gardens too.)

They’re not exactly plants, but they’re great in gardens. We have two rain barrels and a limited number of used wooden pallets. We just got a delivery on the prettiest mulch we’ve ever seen and the bottom of the piles we’ve been working from have turned into a gorgeous compost.

And not exactly free but great bargains:

• Rooted cuttings of hummingbird food, including coral porterweed, and red and lavender firebush. (Cuttings are free.)
• Potted Everglade tomato seedings (you-digs are free)
• Potted seedlings of passionflower for caterpillars and baseball-sized fruit (seeds are free)

Now for the free stuff!

• Native elderberry — yes, it’s what you use to make jams, wine and gummy bears.
• Sweet almond (not native but covered in bees)
• Native firebush, the ultimate bee, butterfly and hummingbird attractor, cuttings and fresh seeds
• Chinese hat plant, a unique winter-blooming flower that’s another hummingbird attractor
• Brazillian red cloak, spectacular winter flowers in shady locations
• Ever-bearing mulberry, covered in flowers and fresh fruit
• Moringa: cuttings, you-dig plants or seeds
• White or pink crepe myrtle cuttings (and three white seedlings)
• Native Porterweed, which is actually a low-growing plant with spectacular purple flowers that attract all kinds of butterflies and bees, you dig or cuttings

You dig:

• Native yellow canna
• Lemongrass (also seeds)
• Monkey grass
• Cranberry hibiscus, which has been spectacular this summer
• Candlestick senna
• Callisia fragrans, aka headache plant or basket plant
•  Sansevieria (full-sized, please plant in pots not the ground!)
• Lady palms
• Crinum lily
• Clerodendron (pagoda and bleeding heart)
• Naturalized periwinkles (aka vinca)
• Chenille plants
• Hot pink Four O’Clocks, another hummingbird attractor
• Shampoo ginger

Cuttings:

• Tunera (Cuban buttercup)
• Beautyberry
• Native wild coffee, provides gorgeous color even in deep shade
• Katuk
• Bush morning glory (plus two you-dig seedlings)
• Golden dewdrop
• Devil’s backbone, no wildlife value but a cool looking plant

Seeds:

• Daikon radish – it’s time to plant in Florida now!
• Native beautyberry (also grows from cuttings)
• Tropical milkweed
• Blanketflower (gaillardia)
• Scorpion tail — a low-growing native that attracts all kinds of bees and small butterflies, also cuttings and you-dig
• Dwarf Poinciana
• Papalo, a heat-loving alternative to cilantro