Category: Come To The Garden

Flowers and gardens, Eco-friendly Gardening

Don’t Murder Your Crape Myrtles

Carol 18 Comments

Lagerstroemia, commonly known as crape or crepe myrtle, is a genus of around 50 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs native to the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, northern Australia, and parts of Oceania. It is cultivated in warmer climates around the world. It is very popular here in the southeastern USA in growing zones 6 or 7 to 10.

Crape Myrtles (crape or crepe are both correct spellings) are trees, and they grow from 20 – 40’ in height. They have been lovingly referred to as the Lilac of the South (with no fragrance) with a very long bloom time in the summer.

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Tips to Help Create a Self-Sustaining Garden

Carol 5 Comments

Many of us spend a lot of time in the garden trying to get it to look the way we want it to. Maintaining and sustaining a garden can take a lot of work, but it doesn’t need to. In fact, if you’re prepared to put the initial work in to plan, you can create a garden that does a lot of self maintainance. Most of the work involved in creating a self-sustaining garden gets done during the planning phase. When you put more thought into the set-up of your garden, you’ll reduce the amount of care and maintenance required to keep it going. If you’re new to gardening or you’re unsure how to make it self-sufficient, these tips can help you get started:

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Tabebuia Trees Spring Blooms

Carol 22 Comments

Common name(s): Golden trumpet tree

Family: Bignoniaceae

USDA hardiness zones: 9B through 11

Origin: native to Central and South America

This last week I was surprised by the sudden blooms of bright yellow on trees in the neighborhood. I wasn’t familiar with the species. I did some research on the golden trees. Tabebuias are from the West Indies, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Central America, but several species are very well adapted to South Florida. I was thrilled to find the golden beauties here in central Florida. Since they are tropical plants, they WON’T SURVIVE HARD FREEZES.

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