Open Greenhouse & Plant Swap, Saturday, April 6, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 602 Ronele Drive, Brandon, FL 33511
Spring is our favorite time of year! Everything is coming back and starting to look amazing. (Sometimes I forget what I’ve planted until it starts to bloom, particularly if they’re gifts from the plant swaps so I love wandering around the yard!)
My sister’s plumeria in Stuart will get a good trim, and she’ll bring the cuttings up here to share. (This time, she’ll mark colors for collectors who are looking for something specific.)
And Mother Nature has gifted us with more volunteers than we’ve ever had before, especially native plants.
- We have baby firebush popping up all over (plus a very limited number larger plants that need to be dug up). Firebush is my all-time favorite plant, it attracts bees, including the bumblebees I really love, butterflies, particularly zebra longwings, hummingbirds and regular birds like cardinals, bluejays and titmouses.
- Wild coffee is one of the most spectacular shade plants in a native garden. It gets pretty white flowers that attract bees and butterflies, then spectacular red berries that birds love. It’s an amazing plant that really wants to grow in a shady location.
- Native violets loved this wet winter so they’re spreading quickly in another shady location.
- Simpson stoppers – volunteering from a mama that was gifted to me more than 10 years ago – also are popping up in spots where they’ll need to be transplanted. There are a few beautyberries popping up in a shady spot at the back of the farm, but we’ll probably start mowing back there soon, so they’re looking for happy new homes.
- The elderberry is blooming early this year, and we’ll have lots of cuttings on this native plant that’s been used medicinally for centuries.
- And a little big of you-dig spiderwort, which is one of my favorite wildflowers in spite of it’s name.
We also have some non-native Surinam cherries to share and baby papalo, a Mexican bush that tastes like cilantro but thrives in heat that would push cilantro into bolting within days. And for fans of Everglade tomatoes, we have a dozen or so that popped up in the greenhouse and are trying to take over.
Before I move on to the rest of the plants we share every month, I’d like to remind you that the mulch fairies gifted us with two giant piles of the prettiest oak mulch we’ve seen in years. Bring your own containers and help yourself, just in time for spring planting. We also have a limited number of wooden pallets and bamboo that can be cut to stake plants. Bring heavy-duty clippers if you want bamboo though!
This is the time of year to start cuttings and most of the pollinator/hummingbird plants we grow are pretty easy. (We’ll give you directions if you ask for them on Saturday.)
- Brazilian red cloak blooms all winter long in full sun or deep shade. It’s also an awesome cut flower if you don’t mind stealing food from the hummingbirds.
- Pink and red powderpuff plants need a good trimming now that they’re pretty much finished blooming.
- Dombeya is a totally amazing plant that was gifted to us two years ago. It’s now eight feet tall and six feet wide and really needs trimming too.
- Firespike, in either purple or red, is another plant that blooms in either sun or shade and attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
- Dark purple salvia planted outside my office window attracts hummingbirds daily – or maybe it’s the same ruby-throated bird who just hangs out here all winter long.
- I still haven’t found a good spot for my coral honeysuckle to show off, but we’ll have cuttings available.
- I’m always careful about promoting pagoda plant (Clerodendrum) because it spreads by underground runners but it’s spectacular all year long if you have the space and the time to The yarden is full of blooming plants that can be dug up or propagated with seeds or cuttings. Check out the plumeria, turmeric, candlestick senna, firebush, dwarf poinciana, crinum lilies, rain lilies, golden cosmos, bachelor’s button and coral porterweed – some are native, but all Florida-friendly and mostly covered in bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
Also on the free plant list for April:
- Lady palms, a slow-growing hedge that’s tough as can be once it’s started – and it actually prefers shade.
- Crinium lilies are beginning to snap into bloom now, and we have plenty of babies to share.
- Ever-bearing mulberries that are super-easy to root and set fruit nearly year-round.
- Coral Porterweed gets butterflies all year long and hummingbirds when they’re here in the winter. It’s also very attractive and very easy to root, plus we have a few you-digs. (They’re nowhere near as aggressive as the purple porterweed so we just get a few volunteers every year.)
- Jacob’s ladder is one of the few things we grow that doesn’t benefit wildlife, but it’s an attractive plant that works beautifully in a pot or as an inside house plant that doesn’t need much light or love.
Seeds
- Blanket flower
- The cosmos growing here are a new favorite, they attract lots of bees and butterflies even though they bounce when a critter lands.
- Bachelor buttons are super-cute plants that attract all kinds of bees and butterflies.
- Yellow dwarf poinciana, a spectacular summer bloomer