Open Greenhouse & Plant Swap, Saturday, March 1, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 602 Ronele Drive, Brandon, FL 33511
IMPORTANT: We changed the time back to 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. since it will be cool enough to enjoy being outside again.
If you’ve never been to Open Greenhouse, it’s a great way to see what’s happening in my Florida-friendly yarden and meet other gardeners. The plant swaps are great fun – you never know who is going to bring what. (They’re not a tit-for-tat swap so you don’t need to bring anything if you don’t have plants you can share.)
We don’t usually sell things like tomato plants, but Vicki bought the most expensive seeds she’s ever purchased last year (right before all the hurricanes) and actually had extras. Tough Boy is described as “perhaps the best fresh-eating tomato of them all,” and we heard about it from David Scanlon at Practical Plants, who is definitely one of the best gardeners in Florida. These plants are in citrus pots, so they have roots about a foot long and are about 18 inches tall. They’re definitely ready to go in the ground and begin production.
Rather than a single featured plant for March we’ll be highlighting native plants and how they play such an important role in our ecosystems (check out this article on planting a refuge for wildlife that Vicki wrote for Bay Soundings). We’re not totally focused on native – we grow food and pollinator plants that bloom all winter because most natives bloom in the summer in spring and we love the hummingbirds that are only here in the winter.
We’ve been growing many of these native plants for decades. Over the last two years, they’re naturalizing and popping up in places where they won’t be able to thrive – and/or they’re growing so closely together that they really need to be separated.
One of the easiest and most versatile native plants is elderberry, which is also an incredible medicinal herb. It’s super-easy to grow, has spectacular flowers that attract bees and butterflies and fruit that attract all kinds of birds (unless you want to harvest it to make gummies or wine). And, after coming through this threatening winter, it’s great to know that it’s so cold-tolerant that the same species that’s native in Florida grows as far north as Canada.
Other fun natives include:
- Porterweed: The native species is actually a very attractive ground cover, not the huge blue plant that pops up everywhere. (We also have the non-native salmon Porterweed that’s important because it’s a hummingbird favorite.)
- Milton knocked hundreds of acorns off our oak trees and we have dozens of baby laurel oaks to share.
- We have seeds for native red salvia, which is also a favorite for butterflies and bees.
- Scorpion tail, a low-growing native with tiny flowers, is an important plant for small butterflies and native bees.
- Native violets are charming, low-growing plants that are perfect in a shady location.
- Our firebush may have been beaten up in the storms, but we still have lots of volunteers, also popping up in places where they’re liable to be run over by the lawnmower. Along with the babies, we have a very limited number of 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. (These are the native firebush, although they don’t always conform to that description. I purchased the original plants from Brightman Logan, a well-respected native plant grower, and have carefully checked other yards within a half-mile. Nobody else is growing firebush that might hybridize with ours.)
A couple of non-native pollinator plants really need trimming.
- 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.
- Dombeya (aka Florida hydrangea) is a totally amazing plant that was gifted to us two years ago. It’s now eight feet tall and six feet wide and covered in blooms all winter long.
- Pink and red powderpuff plants need a good trimming too.
- Firespike, in either purple or red, is another plant that blooms in either sun or shade and attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
- Ever-bearing mulberries are popping out with flowers and fruit that we like to share with birds.
And if you’re planning a vegetable garden this spring, and looking for stakes, we have some giant bamboo that drastically needs trimming. Bring big clippers – chain saws don’t work because the bamboo is so stringy. We also have nice piles of mulch and/or compost to share – bring something to carry it home.