Open Greenhouse & Plant Swap, Saturday, June 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 602 Ronele Drive, Brandon, FL 33511
If you’ve been thinking about buying a neem tree, now is the time!
For a very limited time, we’ll have neem sprouts for sale. They’re super-challenging to germinate but these little guys are ready to be transplanted into their own pots so they can grow more quickly. We also have plenty of neem seedlings from last year that also are more than ready to be transplanted into larger pots.
Or if you’re more into food than neem, this is a great time to grow your own salsa 😊 Grab some cuttings on our Everglade tomatoes that will fruit all summer (and a hand full of fruit) plus some papalo that generously self-seeds this time of year. Use it instead of cilantro, which IMHO is one of the hardest things of all times to grow.
Along with our normal plants, 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!
Some of the potted plants we’ll have available on Saturday:
- Firebush is my all-around favorite native plant because it’s always alive with bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.
- We also potted up some non-native rain lilies which aren’t as spectacular as the firebush every day, but when they bloom, they’re show-stoppers.
- Potted aloe plants that came from the last swap
- Candlestick senna seedlings, also from the last swap, are ready to grow in the ground
Also on the free plant list for April:
- Native elderberries are covered in berries but they also spread by runners so we have lots to share
- Bleeding heart and pagoda plants, both of which do need to be contained because they spread underground.
- Lady palms, a slow-growing hedge that’s tough as can be once it’s started
- Crinium lilies are beginning to snap into bloom now, and we have plenty of babies to share.
- Ever-bearing mulberries with fruit that is just now starting to ripen, to the delight of children and birds. They’re 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.
- Dark blue salvia and lavender or red firespike. There’s one big red firespike you can take as a you-dig.
- 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
- Native spiderwort, another favorite native that thrives almost anywhere it gets enough sun
- The cosmos growing here are a new favorite, they attract lots of bees and butterflies even though they bounce when a critter lands.
- Candlestick senna is a show-stopper plant when it blooms but it’s also the larval food for sulfur butterflies, which are gorgeous on their own and here for most of the year.
- Bachelor buttons are super-cute plants that attract all kinds of bees and butterflies.