Maggie

To all of my customers who have been asking after Maggie, the border collie greeter at my old location, I'm sad to report that she died between Christmas and New Years. Maggie had a good life, was much loved and lived to be over 100 in dog years.

Her favorite things:
1. Frisbees
2. Swimming
3. Swimming after Frisbees thrown into the lake
4. Playing hide and seek
5. Frisbees
6. Trying to catch the water from the garden hose
7. Really loud squeeky toys
8. Did I mention Frisbees?

R.I.P. Maggie my BDFF.

Merry Christmas

Herbal Flowers #7

Pictured above are nasturtiums, Tropaeolum majus, one of my favorite herbs. The flowers are not only beautiful in the garden, but are one of the best edible flowers around.

A member of the Cruciferae (mustard) family, nasturtium has leaves and flowers with a great cress-like peppery taste from benzyl isothiocyanate, a form of mustard oil. High in vitamin C, the leaves as well as the flowers make a great addition to a salad of mixed greens. I have also made a delicious pesto using half nasturtium leaves and half parsley instead of the usual basil.

Now is the time of year to start growing nasturtiums here in Florida as they deteriorate in the intense heat of our summers. They also dislike extreme cold, so take care to protect them or bring them in when the temperature dips into the 30s. They're easy to grow, preferring full sun and very little fertilizer in order to flower. (Too much fertilizer will give you lots of leaves with little flowering.) Nasturtiums come in mounding and vining forms, several flower colors and a variety with variegated leaves.

Plants Currently in Stock as of Friday 1-29-09

The following plants are currently in stock at our Renningers Farmer's Market location (Row 2 Number 1). This plant list is updated every Friday.

HERBS
Aloe Vera
Arugula
Anise Hyssop 'Blue Fortune'
Bay tree
Catmint
Chamomile, Roman
Chives
Chives, Garlic
Dill, Bouquet
Dill, Fernleaf
Fennel, Bronze
Lavender, Dutch
Lavender, Goodwin Creek
Lavender, Lady
Lavender, Pinnata
Lavender, Provence
Lavender, Sweet
Lemongrass
Marjoram
Mint, Apple
Mint, Chocolate Peppermint
Mint, Orange
Mint, Peppermint
Mint, Spearmint 'Kentucky Colonel'
Oregano, Golden
Oregano, Italian
Parsley, Flat Italian
Parsely, Triple Curled
Sage, Tricolor
Sorrel, French
Tarragon, Mexican
Thyme, Garden
Yarrow 'Summer Pastels'

VEGETABLES
None at this time

BUTTERFLY PLANTS
Aristolochia durior
Aristolochia gigantea
Aristolochia littoralis
Cassia
Firespike
Milkweed, Scarlet
Milkweed, Silky Gold
Passionvine, Incense
Passionvine, Corky Stem
Pentas, Tall Red
Porterweed, Pink/Coral
Verbena, 'Homestead Purple'
Verbena, 'St Paul Pink'

Do Cats Like Catnip?

Answer:

Five Things I Learned About Dogs Last Saturday Night

Maggie with a butterfly on her head

Five things I learned about dogs last Saturday night:

1. It’s surprisingly easy to forget that grapes are toxic to dogs until 2 seconds after yours has eaten the last bite of the leftover chicken salad Veronique you shouldn’t have given her.

2. According to various sites on the internet and the doctor answering the phone at the emergency veterinary clinic, hydrogen peroxide is the accepted method of inducing vomiting in dogs.

3. It’s easy to get the first teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide down a dog’s throat. The next few teaspoons, not so much.

4. About 20 minutes after swallowing a ¼ cup of hydrogen peroxide, a dog will expel all its previously eaten dinner along with an amazingly sticky mass of foaming goo.

5. Dogs are very quick to forgive.

In the Butterfy Garden: Caterpillar Predators

Customers often tell me that caterpillars they've been watching have suddenly disappeared and they wonder what could have happened to them. Sometimes they've just grown up and have gone off to pupate. But often they have become a victim of predators. Birds, of course, love a nice tasty caterpillar, but many smaller critters are predators as well. I recently captured two such predators with my camera.

This is a paper wasp devouring a monarch caterpillar. . . .


And this is what's left of a monarch caterpillar after a wasp is through with it:


Lizards (or anoles as most of our lizards are appropriately called) eat butterfly eggs and caterpillars. Here is a lizard with an adult butterfly. It was at the end of it's life and was struggling on the sidewalk. I could see the lizard eyeing it and then grab it. It was a pretty heavy load for the lizard so I had time to run get my camera and snap this picture just before the poor butterfly was carried into the brush:

Happy Fourth of July!

Sweet Maggie

Sweet Maggie knows how to make the best of a hot summer day.

The Old Florida Flame Vines

The flame vines seem to be particularly beautiful this year. They always remind me of the old Florida my family moved to in 1955. They were a lot more prevalent then including on the old linen postcards of that era:

Early February Butterfly Count

Red admiral on bright pink pentas

Throughout the winter I have been seeing lots of monarchs and zebra longwings, the occasional sulphur and not much else. But suddenly yesterday I saw so many butterflies appearing for the first time this year. A quick species count from the past 3 days:

blue cassius
red admiral
yellow sulphur
monarch
zebra longwing
gulf fritillary
gold rim swallowtail

"I think using fresh herbs makes you more adventuresome in the kitchen."

Rabbit Hill Gardens and I are mentioned and quoted by Tom MacCubbin in two articles on herbs in today's Orlando Sentinel. Thanks Tom. One mistake in one article, however: it is culantro not cilantro that does well in the summer. Cilantro is a cool-weather annual like dill that bolts quickly and wilts in the heat. Culantro is a warm weather perennial that thrives in the heat and has a very similar taste.

In the Butterfly Garden: Another Milkweed

Several years ago I started seeing growers selling giant milkweed (Calotropis gigantea) at butterfly gardening festivals. These were large plants in 3 gallon pots that sold in the neighborhood of $25. Though I had not seen any with monarch caterpillars, I was assured the giant milkweek was a good host plant. After seeing them several times, I finally broke down, purchased one and started taking cuttings. My hope was to be able to offer smaller plants at a lower price. They are not the easiest thing to propagate, but I have several going and sell them in a 1 gallon pot for $9.99.

Giant milkweed gets to be a large plant several feet high and would be great in ground here in central Florida except that our winter weather is a bit too cold. Calotropis is recommended for US zones 10B-11. We are 9B. My recommendation is to grow it in a large container and bring indoors when the temperature dips into the 30s.

The leaves of giant milkweed are large and a silvery green. The flowers come in lavender or white, though I only have the lavender. I've had plenty of flowers, but have yet to get any seed pods.

So the big question for butterfly gardeners is are they good host plants? Answer:

I've had lots of healthy monarch caterpillars on my giant milkweeds. And, as you can see, the large leaves give them more to eat than regular milkweed and also make a nice platform for collecting caterpillar poop.

In the Butterfly Garden: Two Plants with Fall Color

Among the best plants for fall color are two that are also great plants for the butterfly garden.

The first is Senna bicapsularis (syn. Cassia bicapsularis) with the common names of Christmas senna, winter cassia and fall cassia, all indicating that this is the time of year when they are at their peak of blooming. Fall cassia can be kept pruned into a tall shrub or can be let loose to form a small tree (10-12 feet). Right down the street from me on 11th Avenue in Mount Dora are a couple of fall cassias that have been planted to beautiful effect behind a white fence:

Fall cassia is a host plant for a number of sulphur butterfly caterpillars. These butterflies usually zoom through the yard without stopping, but will stop to lay eggs and perhaps stick around for a bit of nectar from one of your nectar plants. Pictured is a female sulphur laying an egg:

The second plant with great fall color is our native firebush (Hamelia patens) with its orange flowers and black berries. Firebush gets to be a tall shrub and can be grown in either full sun or partial shade. It is a favorite nectar plant of the two passionvine butterflies in our area: the gulf fritillary and the zebra longwing.

Mislabeled

I was starting some nasturtium seeds today and saw on one of the packages something that reminds me how often garden things are mislabeled for Florida.

Many seed packages have a little map on the back and a chart that shows which months the seeds should be started in each area. For nasturtiums, which do best in cool weather, the package from American Seeds had it right: start seeds here Sept-Feb. This way they will be growing in the cool fall, winter and early spring and will only have to be protected on those few nights when temperatures approach freezing. But the Northrup-King seed package had it exactly backwards: start seeds here Feb-Sept. Obviously they were following the first frost dates for the northern zones and continued it for the most southern. But that would have us growing nasturtiums in late spring and summer when they will struggle in the heat.

I'm constantly running across things I think are mislabeled, especially mislabeled for Florida and I will try to post more as I run across them.

Herbal Flowers #6

Earlier in this Herb Flowers series, I showed pictures of cilantro flowers. The spiky green flowers above are from a cilantro-flavored herb called culantro (Eryngium foetidum). Culantro is native to Mexico and Central and South America where it is widely used. It is great for Florida where cilantro is quick to bolt and is extremely difficult to grow in the summer garden. While cilantro is a cool weather annual, culantro is a warm weather perennial. It will grow here all year round, but needs to be protected if the temperature dips into the 30's. Grow in partial shade; it will take the heat of our summers but not in full sun.

Culantro is a low growing plant with flower spikes that have a conical flower head surrounded by spiky leaves that can be quite prickly to the touch. The lower basal leaves have a saw-toothed edge, but are soft and edible. They are the part used in culinary applications and can be used wherever cilantro is called for. Remove the flower spikes to encourage more basal leaf growth.

Thank you Lady Bird Johnson

Picture in public domain available from Johnson Library.

Thank you Lady Bird Johnson for making this country a more beautiful place. In 1998, before I opened Rabbit Hill Gardens, I went to an Herb Growing & Marketing Network conference in San Antonio which offered a bus tour that included the famed Frederickberg Herb Farm and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The tour through her beloved Texas Hill Country was definitely the best part of a great conference. Rest in peace Lady Bird.

Herbal Flowers #5

These cute little purple and white flowers belong to rice paddy herb (Limnophila aromatica) one of my favorite smelling herbs. Easily recognized by those familiar with Vietnamese cooking, it is unfamiliar to most of my customers. The scent is quite powerful, nearly identical to cumin, and I'm hoping to find a good recipe utilizing it. Anyone?

As the name indicates, it is native to southern Asia and grows in very wet areas. It is rated for zone 10. I was struck with the similarity between this herb and the water hyssops in our butterfly garden: similar flowers, long succulent stems, similar succulent leaves and watery habitat. Sure enough, they are in the same plant family, Plantaginaceae.

Looking for photos of roadside gardens

Sissy Willis calls it "when plants garden". You know, roadside wildflowers that pop up without being planted. Fred First is looking for pictures for his online gallery Unplanted Gardens: America's Roadside Bloomery. Go there to see a beautiful example and how to submit your own photos. And look around Fred's site for more gorgeous photos from the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Herbal Flowers #4

This is Oreganum 'Kent Beauty', an ornamental oregano with beautiful flowers unlike any other oreganos. Rated for zones 5-8 (we're in 9B here in central Florida) and liking a dry, very well-drained soil, it's obviously not going to be the easiest plant to grow here, but well worth the trouble.

In the Butterfly Garden: Everyone Loves Milkweed!

The one plant that is the first to be planted in just about every butterfly garden is milkweed (Asclepias spp.). A host plant for the monarch and queen, it's also a decent nectar plant for a wide variety of butterflies. But move over, monarch caterpillar (below), there are other insects taking up residence in the milkweeds.


Aphids are a nearly constant presence on the tender ends. Normally the best control for aphids would be a spray like insecticidal soap, but in the butterfly garden I advise removing them with the garden hose. Luckily the aphids come off easily while the monarch eggs are sticky and not so easily dislodged. Unfortunately the aphids usually come back, so this can wind up being a daily process. Ladybugs will eat aphids so if you can attract them and keep them around, this can help too.


The other insects that enjoy milkweed are milkweed seed bugs. These orange and black bugs feed on the milkweed seeds. In the picture below, there is an adult in the upper right corner and lots of young nymphs on the milkweed seed pod. Usually there are only a few to be found and they can be picked off by hand. Occasionally, however, the population gets out of hand. You can try keeping the seed pods removed; otherwise spraying with insecticidal soap may be your only recourse.

Happy Fourth of July

Herbal Flowers #3

Echinacea spp. or purple coneflower produces beautiful flowers for any garden including the herb garden and butterfly garden. Native to the Midwest prairies, its medicinal roots were first used by native American Indians and it is considered today a major herbal immuno-stimulant. Butterflies love it as a nectar plant.


Besides the many species of true oreganos (Oreganums) there are a number of other oregano tasting plants which use the common name oregano and are often substituted for the true oreganos in culinary applications. One such herb is Cuban oregano, Plectranthus amboinicus. Originally classified as a coleus and named Coleus amboinicus, it comes in a plain green form as well as several differently variegated forms, one of which is pictured above. Plants in the Coleus and Plectranthus genera are part of the Lamiaceae (mint) family and the flowers are typical of that family. The real and year-round beauty of this plant, though, comes from its variegated leaves.


Many customers at my herb farm express surprise when they see mature rosemary plants covered in flowers. Yes, rosemary does flower and the flowers come in many colors: pink, white, light lavender, light blue and deep blue. These flower colors are reflected in many of the varietal names: Majorca Pink, Alba, Tuscan Blue, etc.

Pictured is a new variety of rosemary called Haifa which I loved right away. It's a very low-growing prostrate variety with dark glossy leaves and a kind of twisty growth habit. I loved this variety even more when it flowered. It had the largest flowers I have seen on any of my rosemarys and the stems were just solid with them. Fantastic.

Herbal Flowers #2

I think the most beautiful of all the herb flowers is foxgloves. It's an herb? you may ask. Absolutely. Digitalis purpurea is the source of the potent heart medication digitalis. But potent heart medications are dangerous and all parts of the foxglove plant should be considered poisonous. I always make sure my customers know this before they leave with these plants in hand.

Foxgloves are biennials, nearly all of them following the biennial pattern of not flowering until the second year. For those of us in Florida, this means foxgloves are rarely attempted as it is very difficult to get them though the first summer's heat and humidity. The pictured foxglove is a variety called "Foxy" and will flower the first year, allowing us to grow it as an annual.

Foxgloves are the quintessential fairy garden plant and were used for one of Cicely Mary Barker's flower fairies. The spots are like little stepping stones which say to bees "Come this way, the good stuff is in here".



This intensely fragrant plant is Tagetes lemmonii with the common names lemon marigold, copper canyon daisy and mountain or lemmon's marigold. Of all the plants I've ever had in my garden, this one releases the most noticeable fragrance when barely touched or watered. Kind of a funky smell, some say a lemon scent; but the species name lemmonii comes from the botanical explorer J G Lemmon who discovered it in its native Arizona.



These flowers look similar to the ones above which is no surprise since this plant is the close relative Tagetes lucida. Commonly called Mexican mint marigold, it is used like tarragon in this area and so is also found sold under the common names Mexican, Texas, Spanish, tropical or winter tarragon.

True French tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) is impossible to grow in Florida. It hates our hot humid summers and requires several months of dormancy brought on by winter freezing. If you live here in Florida and buy fresh tarragon in those little packages at the grocery store, you may have been using this tarragon all along. The fresh tarragon sold in our local grocery stores is nearly always this type since most of our local herbal produce is grown in south Florida.

Mexican tarragon is not as peppery as French tarragon and has more of an anise flavor, but it makes a great substitute. I add it to my homemade tartar sauce.

Herbal Flowers #1

Lots of herb flowers in the garden now. The mints seem to be the most popular with the bees.

The fennel plants are full of flowers. Leaves (and flowers, too) have a licorace flavor, but it's the seeds that pack the big taste. If you buy fennel seeds in the store, you'll get the brown dried ones, but the less mature green ones are better tasting. If you want seeds for making more fennel plants though, you'll need to let them get to the brown dry stage.

Another herb with tasty seeds is cilantro. Fennel and cilantro are in the same plant family, Apiaceae, which has several other members with flavorful seeds: celery, dill, caraway, anise and cumin. The pretty little white flowers of cilantro are edible and have a sweet and very mild cilantro taste. The seeds of the cilantro plant, by the way, are given their own name (coriander).

2007 Seaside Herb Society Herbal Faire

On Saturday, March 24, I set up my booth at Seaside Herb Society’s Herbal Faire. This was my second year. They have a great location: the Riverbridge Meeting House and grounds in Ormond Beach, right on the Halifax River by the Granada Street bridge.


The main features of this location are the Riverbridge House, where the ladies serve the most delicious lunch, and the stone fountain ringed with trays of herbs for sale.


I brought a white wrought iron planter stand filled with scented geraniums, but outside of that I didn’t bring herbs to sell. The rest of my booth was filled with items from my store – our handmade herbal goods, herbal gadgets as well as herb books and herbal cookbooks. And I used my new Provence theme with colorful Provence tablecloths and some of my own "Provence" items: lavender bunches tied up with Provence fabric, lavender buds in a Provence fabric bag and little jars of Suzanne's Herbes de Provence.


There was an herbalist set up outside the meeting house dispensing herbal advice.


I always liked doing herb fairs when Maggie from Maggie’s Herbs in St Augustine showed up. She always had something out of the ordinary. Recently, Maggie’s Herbs was purchased by a young woman named Dora who stayed with this tradition. I picked up some coconut scented geraniums and a variegated mugwort. [Note on coconut scented geraniums: I read an article once that talked about how scented geraniums are named for fruits, nuts, etc but often don’t really smell like their namesakes. It gave coconut geranium as an example – one of the few that really does smell like its name!]

Dora is also a potter and had several of her things at the show including this birdbath:




Holly from Herbal Creations also in St Augustine was there with her great herbal jellies and jams and herbal mixes. YUM!


One of my neighbors had herbal crafts including a delicious blood orange marmalade.



I liked this booth with cute handmade birdhouses and beautiful painted stones.


The ladies from the Tempting Tub were there again this year with their lovely body care products.


I’ve seen these hypertufa planters at several herb shows now. They’re the perfect containers for herbs – lightweight and earthy. I’m sorry I don’t have the artist’s name; I’m going to have to do better about getting names for my little blog entries here.

2007 Spring Fever in the Garden

On March 31 and April 1, I took my herbs and a few herbal books and other goodies to the 7th Annual Spring Fever in the Garden in historic downtown Winter Garden. This garden show was put on by the Bloom N Grow Garden Society whose members could not have been more helpful and accommodating. They also attracted a good crowd, all of which meant I not only had a good show saleswise, but had fun doing the show, too. They have a website for the Spring Fever which is really spectacular.


I love a good historic downtown area and Winter Garden has a very nice one. Lots of little restaurants, including the Moon Cricket Grille across from my booth with an owner who traded me a lunch for some herbs.

The show took place, appropriately enough, on Plant Street, a brick street with

a beautiful island down the middle and places like

the Garden Theater which welcomed the show.

I was fortunate to be near one of the performers, singer Grant Livingston, who kept me entertained both days with his humorous songs.



My booth was filled mostly with herbs and I tried to bring a good selection of the favorites that everyone wants along with a few unusual things to delight those herb gardeners seeking something different. The biggest hit seemed to be the tray of nasturtiums.

I also brought a few herb books, some herbal gadgets (like herb keepers and mortars and pestles), a few of my Provence crafts and some great vintage wooden herb carriers.


Of course, no garden show would be complete without orchids

or roses and there were many other plant booths, too, although I wasn't able to get away from my booth for very long to take pictures of them all.

Being a potter myself, I was especially interested in several booths that had ceramics:

I've been designing several plant labels including some with herb names in French to coincide with my Herbes de Provence store theme. This artist had several very cute ceramic labels (some with French herb names!) although they're much different than the ones I'm planning. I even made a trade here.


This artist makes large funky brightly-colored ceramic sculptures for the garden including totem-like stakes and a working fountain.


I love this potter's great birdbaths with painted and three-dimensional flowers, turtles and frogs.

Really, the ceramic stuff was terrific and would brighten up any garden.

Also brightening up a garden would be any of the adirondak chairs that were up for (silent) auction:


including my favorite:

The Spectacular Pink Tabebuia

In 1999, I planted two pink Tabebuia trees at Rabbit Hill Gardens, one by the herb shop and one out by the street. For the last several years, the one at the front of the shop has been blossoming spectacularly but the one by the street has only had a few easy-to-overlook flowers. Well, this year the street specimen has redeemed itself. In clear view as you drive around the curve on 19-A, this tree has lost every leaf and is solidly covered in gorgeous pink trumpet flowers in a beautiful round form.

In full flower, Tabebuia trees are surely some of the most beautiful trees in Florida. Several yellow Tabs are seen around Mount Dora and there are probably other pink Tabs but I haven't seen any. Tabebuias belong to the Bignoniaceae family of which another spectacular tree, the purple Jacaranda, belongs. The pink Tabebuia is a much smaller tree than the Jacaranda and both could be damaged if we have a hard freeze into the teens or below. Several vines with very colorful trumpet-shaped flowers also belong to the Bignoniaceae family, with common names like trumpet-, bower-, cross-, or flame-vine.

I went back to the grower where I had gotten my Tabs and was able to find some for the nursery. He is only just now beginning to have Tabs available after being devestated by the hurricanes two years ago. We have a few small trees for sale in 3 gallon size. Tabebuias need to be staked to keep the growth upright and should be pruned to allow just one trunk.

Scarecrow Stroll

We entered the Mount Dora Scarecrow Stroll this year. "Name That Tune" is this year's theme with scarecrows having to represent a song. We haven't done a scarecrow for the Stroll in the past, but we just couldn't resist doing Scarborough Fair (Are you going to Scarborough Fair?/Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme). Our scarecrow is an English gardener designed after Vita Sackville-West who used to garden in tweed jackets and pearls. Of course, she's got her green Wellies, along with packages of herb seeds, a copy of Herb Companion, a book on Rosemary (all laminated to withstand the weather) and the requisite pots of said herbs. Her name is Matilde.

Godspeed Atlantis!

The launch of the space shuttle Atlantis as seen from my back yard this morning.

UPDATE Thr, September 21: After listening to the news last night, I went to bed expecting to be awakened early this morning by the sonic booms of a returning Atlantis. But it came in from the south and all was quite this morning. Glad they made it back safely.

UPDATE: Apparently, others WAY south heard the sonic booms.

The Stink Bug

This weekend in Mount Dora: an art car show featuring highly (and permanently) decorated cars. This afternoon I had a customer drive up in one of the entries. At first glance Goldenrod artist Carolyn Stapleton's VW Bug looks like it's been covered with light and dark pieces of bamboo in patterns that are similar to marquetry. But on closer inspection, it's not wood, it's CIGARETTE BUTTS!! Carolyn's car, named The Stink Bug, features thousands of brown and cream cigarette butts attached with silicone adhesive in patterns that include the phrase "stop in the name of lungs" on the top and "stinkbug.com", her website , on the back.

I hadn't planned to go to the show, but now that I've seen Carolyn's car I really have to see the others. Since the show hours on Saturday and Sunday coincide with my store hours, I'll just have to open a bit late on Sunday. I'll take my camera and have more pictures Sunday night.

2005 Mount Dora Garden Tour Garden #6

I haven't posted for several days. My old monitor has been getting slowly darker and darker until it had reached a point where I could hardly read anything and trying to adjust the brightness and color on Photoshop had become impossible. It was one of those incremental things like gaining weight where you suddenly think to yourself "I think I've gained weight" only to weigh yourself and discover that you've gained 20 pounds little by little over months without realizing it. Anyway, it lasted a long time, that Gateway 2000 monitor that came with my first computer in 1994. In fact, I liked it so much that when I purchased a new computer several years ago, I kept the old monitor because I really loved the screen. So remembering that I had seen one just like it at the Bible School Thrift Shop down the street some time ago, I paid them a visit and ta-da I have my same monitor. It's not as pristine on the outside as my old one but it has the same great screen and best of all: $10. Obviously I'm not one of those people that needs the latest gadgets.

So now on to the last garden of the 2005 Mount Dora Garden Tour. The floppy disc gave up the first few pictures but then started making weird noises, so I only have a few pictures:


The front yard was nice and shady with a perfectly placed vintage iron garden bench...

which the painter had also found interesting.

The backyard of this downtown Mount Dora house was a tropical jungle

with a huge fish pond

and lots of fish.

2005 Mount Dora Garden Tour Garden #5

The fifth garden on the 2005 Mount Dora Garden Tour was very different from a lot of Florida gardens as it included an extensive vegetable garden. Having an herb farm, I run across a number of vegetable gardeners, but overall, vegetable gardening is not nearly as popular in Florida as it is in many other parts of the country.




Two views of the organic vegetable and herb garden.


An intriguing greenhouse which the program said was made from recycled materials.


Another sky vine. These vines work best on an overhang where the flowers can gracefully drop down.


An arbor filled with bottle gourds.


A cute birdbath with a smiling snail. Must have just eaten a big helping of vegetables.


This was my favorite element in this garden: pots of herbs on vintage classical pedestals edging the deck.

2005 Mount Dora Garden Tour Garden #3

I said earlier that garden #2 was my favorite, but I think maybe THIS is my favorite. I love the energy and creativeness of #2, but I think this garden (and cottage house) is the one I would love to live in day to day.


The perfect cottage entrance.


We were greeted by Betty Boop…


and a basket of flowers. I love the skyvine, seen frequently around Mount Dora.


Mosaic stepping stones…


with an herbal theme!


The writing was on the wall along with ivy and a window box.


We got to see not just the garden, but the house, too. Here's a wonderful blue and white porch. Such soft colors and the sunlight coming through the windows - sublime. Wouldn’t you just love to curl up here with a book?


Another artist had been painting across the street.

2005 Mount Dora Garden Tour Garden #4

Garden #4 (I’m out of order and will do #3 tomorrow) on the 2005 Mount Dora Garden Tour was a backyard in the downtown area with several nice sculptural pieces in a yard designed for kids.


One of the more striking plants was this luminous grass displayed in an old pot.


A nice fish pond with water lilies.


A big wooden emu tucked among the ferns holds a hanging pot of petunias.


Boy, and I thought my yard had some big lizards.


Two colorful funky sculptures.

2005 Mount Dora Garden Tour Garden #2

The second garden on last year’s garden tour was my favorite. I love collages made with found objects and that’s exactly what this garden is. Found objects, plants, and artwork that in most hands would just be a yard full of kitsch, but in the hands of the right person becomes a whimsical work of art.


An old stove surrounded by plants and glass becomes a gardening altar.


Another painter set up in this garden


A number of humorous vignettes including this convention of frogs seen through a veil of hanging glass discs.


An encouragement to just BE






More views of the garden. No grass to mow, just mulched pathways winding through nicely shaded areas of plants and art.


One last look back as we leave.

Garden Gloves and a Cat

A cute story about a cat who steals gardening gloves from around the neighborhood.

A Return to Blogging: 2005 Mount Dora Garden Tour Garden #1

Like a lot of bloggers, I got real excited when I first set up my blog but soon found it soaked up more precious time than I had expected and after only a handful of entries I stopped writing. I still like the idea, however, and am determined to give it another try.

Last November I took the Second Annual Mount Dora Garden Tour presented by the Lakes and Hills Garden Club. I took my big 2 megapixel floppy-disc-using first-generation-digital Sony Mavica camera and managed to take a few pictures at each of the 6 stops. Luckily I’ve since upgraded to a Fuji F-10 6.3 megapixel so I’m hoping pictures of subsequent trips and garden studies will be better. That’s my plan: to photograph and write about my own garden and about other nurseries, herb farms, herb shops, garden shops, herb fairs, butterfly farms, public and private gardens, herb society meetings and garden tours I visit/attend.

So to start, here was garden #1 on the 2005 Mount Dora Garden Tour:


This house and garden was on Sheridan Road in the Sylvan Shores area. First to greet us was a cheerful painted mailbox and you can see the Garden Club volunteers manning the ticket table in the background.


The house is named “Tudorville”. I like the idea of naming houses and they’ve made a cute sign.


Most of the gardens had an artist painting the gardens and homes. A great idea! Did they do that last year, too?


There were a number of paintings throughout the garden. This one blends right into the foliage.


Lots more paintings and a bench to sit on and contemplate.


A number of garden sculptures, too, from a traditional St Fiacre statue to funky modern flamingoes.

Stop number two tomorrow.

In the Butterfly Garden: Lantanas and Tiger Swallowtails

I love finding Tiger Swallowtails on the lantana. What spectacularly large and beautiful butterflies. I first got interested in butterfly gardening after seeing these swallowtails making frequent trips to a roadside lantana that had popped up in the corner of my property long ago. A lot of gardeners don’t like planting lantana in their yards because it reminds them of those roadside lantanas that grow like weeds by, well, by the roadside. But they’re missing out on what is probably the best butterfly nectar plant in Florida and many named cultivars are now available in colors other than the deep orange and school-bus-yellow common lantana. Several sizes are available, too, from low growing trailing lantana to ones that grow 5 feet. Frequently we carry lantanas grown into lollipop topiaries and have one planted in our own butterfly garden (replacing the one we lost last year to hurricane Jeanne). Lantanas are reported to be somewhat toxic, especially the berries, but my border collie, Maggie, finds the slightly funky smell of lantana to be irresistable and has eaten many leaves with seemingly no ill effect.

In the Butterfly Garden: Blue Plumbago

I have lots of Blue Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) in my butterfly garden. It's one of the best flowering landscape plants in Florida: cold hardy and blooming all year round with beautiful periwinkle blue flowers. It's considered a major butterfly plant because it's a host plant for the tiny blue cassius butterfly. But lately I've been seeing many species of butterflies using it as a nectar plant as well in spite of the fact that there are many of the best nectar plants for butterflies to choose from in the garden.

Propagating Herbs

I've been spending a lot of time in my little “shade house” doing some propagating. I am happy spending hours taking cuttings as long as I have my little Fiskars scissors. These scissors are totally useless for such tasks as cutting paper or fabric but are perfect for cutting softwood and neatly and precisely trimming off leaves. Which is why it is a puzzle to me that these scissors are frequently found in office supply stores/departments or fabric stores/departments but almost never in garden stores/departments.

If you want to learn more about plant propagation and be inspired by gorgeous photos as well, pick up a copy of "Making More Plants" by Ken Druse. I have to say I learned more from this book than the Plant Propagation course I took in college. Plus the enthusiastic writing and photos offer so much more than our dry textbook ever did.

New Herb Magazine

New on the magazine racks: the premier issue of Flowers and Herbs. Rosalind Creasy is Editor as well as photographer. Rosalind is the author of The Edible Flower Garden, The Edible Herb Garden, and Herbs: Country Garden Cookbook and was the photographer for Exotic Herbs: A Compendium of Exceptional Culinary Herbs. Lots of good herb articles with super-saturated colorful pictures in this first issue:

Combining Herbs and Flowers with Flair
Lovely Luscious Lavender (with recipes)
Scented Geraniums (more recipes)
Magical Fairy Garden (makes me want one)
Plant Your First Herb Garden
Create a Magic Herb Circle
Mini Italian Herb Garden (with plants in colorful Italian tins – I love those funky planters)
Basil – Queen of the Herbs
Landscaping with herbs Made Easy
Sage Advice

All in all, as an herb lover, I liked it and it’s heavier on the herbs and lighter on the flowers than I expected when I first picked it up.

Garden Report

The aristolochia is looking good

as is the porterweed.

The Don Juan roses have never looked better, filling the arbor with the first big flush of flowers since I severely pruned them in February.

The spirea is still beautiful but starting to decline

and the purple tabebuia has only a few flowers still refusing to let go and litter the sidewalk.

Garden Critter Blogging

I was showing visitors around the butterfly garden when we spotted this snake winding its way in and out of the holes in the gothic top of the fence. Luckily my camera was nearby. That's the snake's head toward the lower right smiling for the camera. As best as I can tell from my Audubon Field Guide to Florida, it's an indigo which is a threatened species. Well, he's not threatened in my garden; we love him! By the way, that's an aristolochia vine sharing the fence. A great host plant for the pipevine swallowtail which I rarely see and the gold rim swallowtail which is the most abundant butterfly in my garden.

A Rainy Saturday

It rained most of the day with occasional bouts of thunder and lightening, keeping most of my usual Saturday customers away and Maggie hiding behind the computer table where she managed to unplug the mouse and keyboard wires. But rainy days are not without their upsides. No need to water today and I managed to catch these rose leaves where all the rain had run off the leaf top and had gathered in little glistening balls on the edges.

Chocolate + Herbs = Heaven

If you can still find one on the newsstand, grab a February/March issue of Chocolatier magazine for a nice long article on the pairing of chocolate with herbs. Commonly paired with mint, chocolate is also combined with rose geranium, lemon-thyme, lavender, rosemary, and basil for ice cream, shortbread, panna cotta, mousse, cookies and a torte rated in difficulty from easy to advanced.

Natural Eggs for Easter

Now is the time to make Easter eggs using herbs and other natural materials. A fun project for the whole family. Try especially the red cabbage dye.

Cat Blogging

This is Groucho and where he got his name is pretty obvious. I've touched up the background and added a few graphic elements, but people think I've added the mustache, too. Not so. This is exactly the way he looks. He came from the county animal shelter where I went looking for him after seeing his picture in the newspaper in the section where they profile animals that need adopting. I was sure he'd be gone by the time I got there, but there he was, waiting to be taken to the paradise of a catnip-filled herb farm. His favorite pastime is chasing the light from a flashlight around the floor and up the walls. My other cats just don't get it. What the heck is he chasing? You can tell they think he's nuts.