Bulbs of FLA...

Because we can't grow (perennially, in any case) tulips, hyacinths and daffodils, there's a strange idea common to Central Florida that we cannot grow bulbs at all. That's far from the truth, though gardeners need to choose their bulbs carefully. (Now, of course, the pictures above and the discussion here is not limited to bulbs, but includes rhizomes (and their ally, the tuber) and corms. These are distinct storage organs, but from the gardener's perspective, there's really little difference.) As a rule of thumb, we can grow virtually any bulb if planted at the right time of the year, including tulips and daffodils. However, many bulbs from temperate climates can't cope with Florida's heat, humidity, and "soil." Bulbs from the southern hemisphere, particularly from South Africa, do very well here. I don't mean this to be a comprehensive list, but here goes with the bulbs I have grown in my garden, with some comments on their performance:

• Ranunculus asiaticus (Persian buttercups): Plant as soon as cool weather starts. I remember reading somewhere that the name means little frog (rana in Latin). That might incline you to believing that they grow in marshy, wet soil (which would be entirely wrong -- they're actually sold as xeriscaping bulbs); I think the name more likely comes from their star-shaped, crinkled rhizomes, which look a lot like little frogs. I planted these in too shady a spot this year, and by the time they bloomed, we started to have our typical intermittent heat waves. Still, I had several dozen lovely blooms for a small investment. Next year -- rich soil, full winter sun, plant in early November.
• Dahlias: This is my first year growing them, as many gardeners and books had instructed me that they don't grow here. Nonsense. The trick for me at least was to plant them (in full sun and fairly rich soil) at the beginning of February: They started to bloom in mid-April. There was the risk that a late frost might have killed them, though. I bought cheap, generic tubers from Lowes, but have been very happy -- I have 6 plants growing, two blooming; the others are too small to bloom now, but might still do so this season. (They are the yellow and burgundy blooms in the photos above.) I mistakenly divided the tubers when I probably should have kept them all together. I predict that these will continue to bloom as long as they are watered well. I'll pull them as soon as it's obvious they are rotting (which they will inevitably do, once the rainy season starts).
• Dietes (several species): My comments from Daves Garden:

Sturdy, ultra-low maintenance plant here in Central Florida. It grows rapidly -- even very small, one-gallon plants grow within three years to 2-3' or more in diameter.
Grows best in filtered light here in FL (direct sun farther north), but I have it in full direct sunlight in the swale and it's doing well in those tough conditions, though the leaves are not as deep green. Flowers best in sun, but even in full shade it flowers and grows. Blooms in flushes, with large flowers in the cool season and smaller ones when it's hot. Makes a beautiful cut flower, though lasts only one day.
It does self-sow, but the seedlings are easy to recognize and shallow-rooted.
Note: These plants, when large, are VERY difficult to dig and divide. I have dug and divided monster clums of 4' -- it took me more than an hour to pull the plant out of the ground and another hour to cut the plant into manageable clumps. That said, the one large clump produced 10 medium plants that are now filling a bed.

• I can't praise highly enough the freesia I bought from easytogrowbulbs.com. They have provided a full spring of blooms. In my garden they grow in completely unimproved, though heavily mulched, soil under partial shade. They aren't demanding, don't take up much space with their small, sword-like foliage, and have already put out new growth. They say you can leave them in the ground, and given their relatively low price, I'll give it a shot this year.

To be continued...

Stokes Aster

Stokes Aster (Stokesia laevis) is another reliably perennial herbaceous (as opposed to a shrub) plant here in Central Florida. When dormant, it looks like fat liriope (which, by the way, is unaccountably pronounced luh-rye-o-pee -- surely the second least predictable pronunciation after kalanchoe, which, trust me, is correctly pronounced (per Greek norms) kal-in-kow-ee).

Anyway, back to Mr. Stokes. Best grown (like most on the perennials here) with some afternoon shade. Mine has been thoroughly abused (replanted twice in the cool season) and continues to thrive. The first year I got, maybe, 10 blooms. This year it's been non-stop blooms for weeks. Makes for an interesting cut flower which lasts for at least three days. The downside (at least through year two) is that the stems are too short for really interesting cuttings: If you were to take a long stem (say 18"), you'd have to sacrifice a bloom in bud. You could do it, but it would be a pity. Maybe next year the plant will put out sufficiently long stems, or sufficiently large that I won't miss the bloom.

It's native here in Central Florida. If that matters to you. I haven't seen any seedlings, but it's clearly divisible: Fat, tangled roots, not unlike (again) liriope. (Liriope is in the lily family, while Stokes Aster is (predictably) in the Asteraceae.)

Grandmother Greer's rose

I got this rose from my grandmother's farm in Bardstown, KY as a small, sickly rooted cutting. My grandmother had it growing for fifty years, up a bell pole on the farm; planted in that red clay, it's wonder it grew as well as it apparently did. (That bell now lives in Florida, too. I have a 'Don Juan' and 'Prosperity' growing up its pole now. My mother tells me that the bell was only rung in emergencies; my son and daughter, on the other hand, ring it nearly every week, just to delight in the sound. When I mounted it a few years ago, I noticed that it was a school bell, with the year and PS number carefully etched onto the inside. I should have jotted down that information, since now 'Don Juan' is tangled up inside the bell's skirt.)

I don't ever remember seeing this rose in bloom on the farm, but my mother says that some years it was a blanket of pink.

A few years ago, I planted the Greer rose at the base of our gazebo, on a lattice. It's ambled its way up onto the roof, mixing it up with several R. laevigata that I planted there. The roof gets well above 130 degrees in July, so you know these are tough roses. They've formed a dense mat of canes from which new, vertical growth arises. It's vigorous -- I have a tough time keeping it tied up, and new basal canes are always erupting upwards and outwards.

The R. laevigata hasn't bloomed yet. I don't know this for certain, but my guess is that laevigata only blooms on old canes -- apparently older than two years. I hope to see some blooms next spring.

Today, for the first time, I noticed these tiny pink blooms growing on the roof of the gazebo. I almost missed them. I expect that this is just the first of (hopefully) many blooms this season. I don't know when it bloomed in Kentucky, but apparently it's a early summer bloomer here. I wonder what it is?

Gardenias

My gardenias came into bloom last week. I have a love-hate relationship with them. I love them because they're low-maintanence, elegant plants with beautiful, pinwheel-like flowers and an exotic, tropical, seductive smell. I hate them because more than a few moments in the same room with them can be too much. (I have a bunch sitting less than a foot from me as I type, and I have breathe through my mouth.) As they bloom then decline, their scent goes from exotic to just plain slatternly and strident. What's more, they don't drop, and I have to deadhead them daily or my bushes are covered in brown, gnarly-smelling blossoms.
As white flowers that bloom during the dry period, they're also constantly under attack by scale and the subsequent black soot. (Scales, tiny insects whose excretions create the ideal medium for black, sooty mold, are attracted to white flowers, particularly magnolias and gardenias.) It's fairly easy to deal with the disease, though: Soap spray and a blast from my watering gun.
Interestingly, I bought two (genetically) identical bushes (grafted Miami Supreme) two years ago. One gets a lot more sun, and seems to suffer more from the scale and mold than the other, which is in partial shade. What's more, the one in more shade is generally healthier (thicker trunk, fuller shape), with deep green leaves and abundant blooms. Supposedly gardenias should be planted in full sun, but my experience indicates otherwise.

Gaura lindheimeri

Gaura lindheimeri ("Dancing Butterflies") is a reliable herbaceous perennial here: One of the few plants that gets better every year. It's only OK as a cut flower (useful as a filler), but the bees and butterflies love it, and in my experience it's fairly drought-tolerant. It gets 8 hours of summer sun in my bed, and grows in such a way that it makes a wonderful companion for roses (pink or white).

The end of spring...

It's been much hotter than usual for this time of April: Every day for the last week, it's gotten up into the upper 80s, often with very dry air and typical Florida sun. My ranunculus had a few more blooms before giving up the ghost (they're very heat-sensitive). The freesia in partial shade continues to bloom, but I don't see any new spikes, so my guess is in a week or so, they'll be spent. They've performed remarkably well: They started to bloom on March 6, and six weeks later I'm still cutting flowers. I plan to buy a few dozen bulbs next year.

Some things are doing better than I would have expected. The "Rocket" snapdragons (from Park's) are still blooming away -- they're advertised as being very heat tolerant, and I haven't seen them droop yet this season (I do water every morning). The colors in the mixed set -- bronze, pink, pastel yellow, deep burgundy -- are rich, and the burgundy ones are very fragrant.

Two new blooms in my garden: The Pink Paeony Papaver (poppy) (right) that I started from seed in December and planted out into the back of my bed at the beginning of February bloomed for the first time today. I wish I'd gotten it out earlier -- it's very cold-hardy and I fear that I won't have long to enjoy the blooms. I forgot earlier this week to water one morning, and I came hope to these poor plants lying flat and wilted. It took a couple of days for them to regain their form. I planted some Papaver rhoeas, too, and they bloomed fleetingly: Beautiful and exotic, but not well adapted to spring's tendency towards heat waves. I'll definitely find the room to plant more of these Paeony poppies next season.

I bought some cheap dahlia tubers from Lowes this winter, more out of curiousity than anything else. I've never grown dahlias before and made some mistakes when I planted them mid-February, but I still have six plants growing in the back of bed. They seem to do fairly well in the sun, but they're plagued by insects on the lower leaves. They've grown vigorously -- the largest came into bloom today after only six weeks. The pale yellow is perhaps not my favorite, but given the ease and the size of the blossom, I won't complain. There are another half dozen buds on this plant, so I'm glad I staked it well early on.

There's a burgundy one in full bud now: Not as tall as the yellow, but bushier. I can't wait to see it when it opens.

Spring in Central Florida, Part II

We've had some record-breaking heat (mid 80s) this past week, prompting me to finish running my water line to a spot nearer the garden, making watering a much easier task. The Chinese wisteria and Cherokee Rose (Rosa laevigata) are in bloom together at the back of my property, my Sparaxis has finally come into bloom (a meager first spike, but the flowers are beautiful), as have my Alliums and Ranunculus. My 'Blush Noisette', which I cruelly yanked from its original home back on September and plunked into a hole with little nurturing, has thrived. (The Noisettes, as a group, were developed not far from here in Georgia -- though they are known by the name of the Frenchman who popularized them.)

The spring flowers, sprouting up among the cool-season blooms and the roses, make the garden a particularly exciting place: Every day, something new comes into bloom.

Spring in Central Florida

I've been too busy, in the garden and at the office, to write much about gardening during the last month. Spring is here -- azaleas, sometimes stately and sometimes garish, are in full exaltation. Even the shabbiest house in the area is temporarily vindicated. Citrus is in bloom, with its exotic, almost cloying perfume coming in waves and making you pause in anticipation of something. The blue-eyed grass has sent out its tiny flowers that bob in the air at the ends of sometimes impossibly long stolons. The Cherokee roses in the neighborhood (but not mine) have started blooming in fits, and will continue to do so for more than a month. My ranunculus and aliums have come into bud (see below). Sweetpeas have started to flower alongside the indefatigible pansies.

The roses are taking a break -- I cleaned them up removing the deadwood and untamed canes in my OGRs, and defoliated the hybrid-teas and removed all the small canes. My climbers I leave alone, though this year they've been hit hard with blackspot and are all but bare. The canes on all the roses are already erupting in reddish-bronze new growth and the promise of blooms.

Cool Roses - American Rose Society Rosarians West Palm Beach, Florida.

Cool Roses - American Rose Society Rosarians West Palm Beach, Florida.

Calendula officinalis, "Pot Marigold, 'Greenheart Orange'"

Some photos of my 'Greenheart Orange' Pot Marigold, which came into bloom a couple of days ago. I don't know if I get the first part of the name, but the bloom is still opening, so perhaps it'll make sense. But I had some seconds to photograph and write about it today.

I planted Calendula seeds after reading about it in A Cutting Garden for Florida. I bought the seeds from Thompson and Morgan. I've had pretty mixed results with them: They germinate readily, but have a tendency to grow very lanky and floppy. Recently, when pricking and transplanting into Jiffy pots, I've taken to transplanting them into deep divets, with only the leaves at the level of the soil, burying most of the stem. I was worried that they would rot, but this seems to have done the trick. Of the three dozen or so of these seeds I have sowed over the past 3 months, only about a half dozen of them survived. From seed to bloom it takes about ten weeks in cool weather.

From what I've read, these do poorly in hot weather, but I figure I'll have three months of blooms from them before the May heat or June rains kill them.

The past week has alternated between cool, crisp and clear days and warm, sunny ones. Lots of new growth in the garden, including my roses. I got a new camera recently, Konica's Dimage -- a remarkably flexible and inexpensive camera. Below: 'Saint Patrick,' 'Ducher,' 'John F. Kennedy," R. chinensis 'Viridiflora' (a.k.a., 'The Green Rose'). I love that 'St. Patrick' is nearly as beautiful fully blown (below) as it is in bud. That's a good thing, since 'St. Patrick' is a remarkably long-lived rose, lasting two weeks on the bush and nearly that long in a vase. 'Viridiflora' is a much underappreciated flowers -- the warmest most books say is "an oddity." I really love green flowers, and this one, with its reddish hints and its strong peppery smell, is very striking. Note that the flower really isn't one -- it's just a freakish conglomeration of sepals.

EarthKind Roses from Texas A&M

This site at Texas A&M has a comprehensive list of OGRs and some modern shrub roses that are suitable to the climate in North Texas. The photos are useful, but the data is limited. I don't have a copy of Power Point on my home computer, so I haven't had a chance to view their slide show.

Dallas' climate isn't too far removed from Florida's: they get less rain overall, their summers are drier, less humid and much hotter, and their winters significantly cooler than ours.

New roses...

On Dec. 29, I planted in my garden:

• 'Celine Forestier,' 1842 (own root, from Seminole Springs). A one-quart plant that I placed near the hinge-post on my gate.
  
• 'The Green Rose' (R. chinensis viridiflora)
  
• 'La Reine'
  

On Dec. 31, I planted in my mom's garden:

• 'Mlle Franziska Kruger,' 1880 (own root, from Seminole Springs). Full sun, middle of the bed.
  
• Prosperity, 1919 (own root, from Seminole Springs). On an arch, replacing a failed bougainvillea.
  

Wishlist from easytogrowbulbs.com

Crocosmia George Davidson Item# 692005
Canna Lily Journey's End Item# 673203
Canna Lily Lucifer Item# 673003
Gladiolus Albus Item# 724925
Gladiolus Hardy Easy to Grow Mix Item# 724625
Gloriosa superba Party Streamers Mix Item# 803606
Dahlia Sunshine Item# 703803
Dahlia Lavender CheerItem# 704103
Crocosmia Red Hot Mix Item# 699910
Lily, Oriental Garden Mix Item# 789906

New bed

Turning the corner of my main flower bed, I planted today:

• Camellia 'Dr. Tinsley'
• Camellia 'Don Mac'
• Camellia 'Professor Sargent'
• Rosa 'Green Rose' (own root)
• Rosa 'Glamis Castle' (near garden fountain, next to gazebo) (own root, I think)
• Rosa 'John F. Kennedy' (on 'Fortuniana')
• About a dozen Antirrhinum majus 'Rocket Mix' (from Parks Seed) that I started from seed mid-September

Abraham Darby

A rule for roses here in Florida: There's an inverse ration between heat and bloom size. Hot weather means frequent flushes but smaller blooms, and cooler weather results in fewer flushes but much larger flowers. In the heat of July and August, those roses in my garden that are still blooming (like my Bermudas and OGRs) have relatively small, short lived flowers that come and go in cycles of two weeks or so. These blooms also tend to be less fragrant. During the cool and dry Florida winters, the flowers are slow to form, but they are much larger, longer lasting and more fragrant.

Here's an example: Abraham Darby, a David Austin (English) rose that does quite well in my garden. A likeable apricot, yellow and pink bloom with a fruity, slightly citrusy fragance that fills the kitchen. The most recent flush took a long time from bud to flower (about a month) due to the fairly cool, December weather we've had. Darby's a wonderful rose with a significant drawback -- with one to four blooms per stem, the bush is just nowhere near strong enough to hold the blooms upright. The stems are pretty short, too, making cutting difficult. Still, if I put them in a narrow-necked vase like in the picture, they are very striking.

I complain about the difficulties of growing flowers in Florida, but where else could I, at the end of December, pick blooms like this (and, while I'm at it, pick a juicy orange)?

Jon's Nursery - Inventory

Oxalis Triangularis

Oxalis triangularis, about four weeks from the time I set it out into the pot. The flower is slightly pinky. Very striking.

Miniature Roses

I succumbed to temptation and bought a yellow miniature rose, Millenium Yellow, from Lowes. Given its growth habit, I wanted to put it somewhere where it could hang and be admired from a nearby. I drilled a couple of holes in a nice pot, strung some stiff aluminum wire through the holes, and mounted it on the fence at the gate to our backyard.

Bargain Roses

At the beginning of November, I stopped by Lowes to buy some paving base for a project, and noticed the clerk rolling out a cart of $1.50 roses... stunted, fungus-covered, one dollar and fifty cent roses. All were Jackson & Perkins roses, most of them rooted on Fortuniana. I have long considered converting my annual bed in the backyard to a mixed annual/rose border. I had planned to buy a eight or ten roses in the spring, each at $25 each. Considering the bargain, I didn't really mind that they weren't perhaps my ideal roses.

I bought the six healthiest, five of which I've nursed back to health with the aid of Ferti-Lome systemic anti-fungal spray applied once a week, very weak fertilizer applied every other day, and lots of morning sun. One, a "Peace", died. I transplanted three of them today: "Love Potion," a deep lavender, raspberry-scented Floribunda on Fortuniana; "Gold Medal" (aka AROyqueli), a deep yellow Grandiflora (my first), also on Fortuniana; and an own-root, Portland Damask (OGR) "Rose de Rescht." The first two roses are pretty standard fare, but the latter is a bit more exotic. Here's what Paul Barden has to say:

Being of the Portland group, Rose de Rescht is capable of several flushes of repeat bloom throughout the season. It does not repeat constantly like a Hybrid Tea though, but repeats in distinct cycles. It blooms, pauses briefly, then makes a new burst of growth, and flowers again. It is actually a very nice habit. You have to wait a bit between cycles, and I find that it is just long enough to make me long to see another bloom.
In growth, this shrub is much like a Gallica in form, reaching a height of about 3.5 feet, always remaining a tidy, domed bush, well foliated and neat looking. It requires little pruning, except that apparently it performs best when old wood over 5 years old is periodically removed. It is quite disease resistant, and healthy. It does not tend to sucker like a Gallica though, which is best for most gardeners.
The bloom is not very large compared to some of the roses we know; about 2.5 to 3 inches across. It is a beautiful opening bud, that quickly grows to reflex into a pompon form. The scent is exceptional in quality; pure sweet Damask, but not always the strongest ( for me, anyway).

This is the rose that is often recommended to people who are contemplating buying their first Heritage Rose, as it is trouble free, well behaved, and very rewarding. Try it and you will not be disappointed.

Given its relatively petite size (3-4'), I put the Rose de Rescht towards the front of the garden.

"Gold Medal," "Love Potion," and "Rose de Rescht"

"Gold Medal" in the garden. I should have pinched those blooms whil the plant was convalescing, but couldn't bring myself. They're about 4.5" in diameter.

Update 11/30: My 'Rose de Rescht' bloomed today and its slightly spicey aroma perfumes my entire back walk. Very nice.

More orchids in bloom.

The cooler, drier weather and the shortening diurnal cycle triggered many of my orchids to bloom.

Left, Cycnodes 'Wine Delight'; and below a
Brsdm. Longlen, 'Orchid Man', just covered in dancing flowers.

Note the beautiful gynostemium in the center of the flowers. Anatomically, it's the combined male-female sexual organs, the stamen and pistil. You can see, perhaps, why Orchidaceae have always been perceived as sexually ambiguous, provocative flowers. (Orchis in Greek is testicle, apparently a similarity to the pseudo-bulb of some species.)

The flower of the Brassidium below, though the hybrid is called 'Orchid Man', looks very feminine to me -- striking a "come-hither" pose... Like other Oncidium-tribe I grow, this one is truly a no-maintenance plant, save for its weekly weak fertilizing.

Brassidium Longlen 'Orchid Man'

A new orchid blooms today. Like some lithe dancing insect. Brassidium Lonlglen 'Orchid Man.'

A few words about Cherokee and Fortuniana

With Central Florida's sandy, hot and nematode ridden soil, most roses are doomed to a few years' lifespan before losing vigor and eventually failing. You can buy a nice rose at the local Home Depot for $10, and that rose will return dozens of blossoms for a modest investment in that short span. Not a bad bloom for your buck.

However, it really takes several years before roses come into their prime: Their canes thicken at the base, they grow and flower more expansively, they require less water. I've only lived in this old Spanish Revival house for a few years, but the roses that have been growing in my garden for two years are remarkable for their vigor and floriferousness. Some roses, like my hybrid teas 'Elegant Beauty' and 'St. Patricks' bloomed only fitfully during their first year. Now that they've adapted and grown a bit, they bloom freely and stand up to the heat and humidity better than initially.

While there are dozens of Old Garden Roses that can survive growing on their own stocks, your money is well spent investing in plants that are grafted onto 'Fortuniana,' an OGR (Old Garden Rose), believed to be a natural cross between two Rosa species, R. banksiae -- the 'Lady
Banks' rose -- and R. laevigata, the 'Cherokee Rose.' (One of the other common names for 'Fortuniana' is 'Double Cherokee.' Notice the resemblance between 'Fortuniana' above and 'Cherokee' below. )

A few quick words about the latter patriarch in 'Fortuniana's' lineage. The Cherokee Rose is the state flower of Georgia (though it is not native there), and grows here in Central Florida on old brick fences around my neighborhood. The beautiful old Mediterranean Revival house to the east has 'Cherokee' growing as a twenty-foot hedge, the tips in the morning wind wave madly at me against the bleached blue sky while I putter about my business. Early in the spring, mid-March, those long and thorny canes are covered with simple but charming white flowers with yellow stamens and anthers (right). It's a likeable rose in its own right -- zero maintenance, and amazingly vital. I started several cuttings of it last year by just sticking them in sand in the spring, and they've quickly mounted my gazebo's roof, where I imagine the temperatures reach well over 130 degrees in the heat of summer. The canes are already 15 feet long -- in one year.

Anyway, back to 'Fortuniana.' Robert Fortune introduced the rose in 1850 (hence 'Fortuniana'), and wrote of the rose:

The white climbing rose referred to is cultivated in gardens about Ningpo and Shanghai, and is held in high esteem by the Chinese; indeed it is one of the best white kinds which I have met with in China. It is frequently seen of a large size covering trellis-work formed into alcoves or built over garden walks. For this purpose it is well suited, as it is a luxuriant grower, and it blooms profusely and early. This Rose was amongst my first importations to the Horticultural Society and is no doubt well worth cultivation in English gardens. It may not please in every respect Rose-fanciers, but it is very beautiful nevertheless, and it has some advantages peculiar to itself. (quoting from the Rosarian Malcolm Manners, who is quoting from Willmott's monograph "The Genus Rosa.")

The lineage of 'Fortuniana' is not uncontested. Quoting from Climbing Roses of the World by Charles Quest-Ritson:

'Fortuneana' syn. 'Fortuniana' [=Rosa x fortuniana]. Crepin considered 'Fortuneana' a hybrid between R. Laevigata and R. banksiae, but this parentage is questionable because no one has ever succeeded in crossing R. laevigata with R. banksiae. Its flowers are larger than other Banksian roses, about 6 cm across, although 'Fortuneana' flowers at the same time as they do, very early in the season. It was named in honor of Robert Fortune (1812-1880) by John Lindley in 1850. 'Fortuneana' is an important rootstock in Western Australia where heat, drought, and poor soil are a challenge to cultivation.

Fortune's rose never caught on in England, as he had hoped. It turns out the rose has poor cold tolerance, and never grew well in a damp, cool continental climate. It was, however, popular around the Mediterranean basin at the end of the nineteenth century.

However, 'Fortuniana' is perfect for Florida: It is very heat and drought tolerant, and develops remarkable root growth. I've dug out 'Fortuniana' with six-foot roots after only a year's growth. (That's prodigious growth by rose standards.) The roots also trend out and near the surface, rather than down, which allows greater absorption of water and soluble minerals in Florida's sandy soil. Finally, the rose is apparently immune to the nematodes that infect much of the soil here. (Though, frankly, I've looked for the telltale signs of nematodes on plants, and never found any where I live, though I'm not botanist.)

All these adaptations mean that roses grafted onto 'Fortuniana' will grow more quickly and larger, be less susceptible to drought and disease, and live for much longer, than they would were they own-root roses. Even OGRs that grow well here in Florida grow better on 'Fortuniana' stock. (That said, I grow a half-dozen, own-root roses.) The only drawback I've found is that 'Fortuniana' is such a vigorous rose that you end up with a lot of suckers (offgrowth from the stock). They're easy to identify (three leaves, different color) and pinch off, though.

Two other facts about 'Fortuniana': Many people wonder why they graft roses onto such long 'Fortuniana' stocks. Usually the rootstock is about a foot high, much much higher than 'Dr. Huey' up North. (You can always indentify 'Fortuniana'-grafted roses by their rootstock length.) I've heard various explanations, including "just to make them look unique," but I'm pretty certain the reason for this practice is to allow for heavy mulching, which is absolutely necessary in rose culture here. (I try to keep a minimum of four inches of pine bark mulch around my roses, and several inches deeper of old, well-composted mulch and biological debris like leaves.) As I've pointed out, 'Fortuniana' is a tough and disease-resistant plant, so it stands up to the rot problems (which are ultimately fungal) that would plague a more delicate rose. The 'Fortuniana's' stock length keeps the grafted rose out of the mulch. The other fact about 'Fortuniana': Because its roots tend to grow outward, rather than downward, I've heard a lot about the importance of staking roses. I think that's a load of bunk. Some of my roses are well-staked, others not at all. We had three hurricanes pass through here last year, and I had absolutely no damage to my roses, including a 'Prosperity' that was ten feet high and was blow n and buffeted for ten hours straight during Frances. Based on that experience, I can say without equivocationg that 'Fortuniana' does a fine job hunkering down, and needs to be staked no more nor less than another rose.

Unlike those $10 roses from Home Depot, a rose grafted onto 'Fortuniana' will set you back at least $20. One reason for this premium is that 'Fortuniana' is relatively difficult to propagate, so it costs more than own-root or roses grafted on other stocks. (You'll often find roses in Florida rooted on 'Dr. Huey' for much less than those rooted on 'Fortuniana.' Don't bother with Huey here, though -- it might buy you a year over own-root, but it's not worth the cost.)

I know of two growers that use 'Fortuniana' in the area: Merrygro farms in Eustis and Nelsons' Florida Rose. At Merrygro, the prices are low but you have to mail order them or find them at Home Depot or a local nursery. I've bought nearly all my roses from Nelsons', at plant fairs or through their distributors. They've recently opened their doors to the public, though I haven't visited. Merrygro's prices are a little lower and their selection a bit wider, but Nelsons' is a family-run business that has led the industry in introducing Florida roses. In the end, it comes down to who has the rose I want to add to my garden.

Speaking of buying from nurseries: I can't recommend highly enough developing a good relationship with your local nursery. I shop at A Garden Fair or at the DeBary Nursery. Both of them excellent, full-service nurseries with a wide and appropriate selection of plants, roses included. I've learned much of what I know about Florida gradening from chatting with the owners of these businesses, and other nurserymen at plant shows.

Central Florida Orchid Culture

If you've read my previous postings on rose culture, you'll see that I'm a wonk of all things Rosa. I grow a few dozen orchids, too, but I don't fetishize them to the same degree: I try to practice benign neglect with them, and, by and large here in Central Florida, that approach to orchids works.

I have a pretty good collection of Dendrobiums, a few Oncidiums, reed-stem orchids that are getting huge but haven't bloomed, a handful of terrestrial orchids, some members of the Phalenopsis genus, a beautiful Vandaceous, and a few weird ones I've picked up from sales. I keep them in hanging from tree limbs or in a bright, shady spot under the canopy of a young Water Oak, in an out-of-the-way corner, on the concrete bed where the garage used to stand decades ago. My children give them wide berth, and they live there mostly undisturbed perched on old bricks I've dug out of the yard. The tree trimmer managed to mangle many of them last month when he came to cut damaged limbs from our oak tree, but orchids are very tough plants, and they've bounced back. In fact, the limbs sliced off several nearly-blooming spikes, and, to my surprise, the orchids have put out new spikes to replace them.

Aside from a once-weekly spray with a diluted foliar fertilizer (I use half-strength Miracle-Gro, balanced formula) mixed with orchid vitamins, I pay them little heed save to move them inside or to a good spot on the patio when they bloom. Most of them are planted in coir chips (coconut) -- an excellent potting medium that is slow to break down. Lately, though, I've switched to inorganic media, mostly amix of charcoal and lava rock. The inorganic mix obviously doesn't break down, as organic mixes quickly do here. The inorganic media allow the orchids to dry out rapidly from our frequent rains, and they offer better support than the organic media during heavy downpours.

As a test, last year I bought a couple of identical (cloned) terrestrial orchids, and planted one in coir and one in inorganic medium. The latter seems to be doing marginally better, and is about to bloom while the plant in the coir, while healthy, has no spikes.

Dendrobiums are, by and large, adapted to a cooler climate than here. I love their heterogeneity, though, and have about a two dozen. They bloom freely, at least twice a year, but the foliage suffers. I have to say that I'm not a big fan of Oncidiinae, but they bear up under the heat and humidity and their blooms last for weeks and sometimes months. I have one Paphio-
pedilum, which has only bloomed twice in the two years I've owned it. The prize of my collection is a red-violet Vandaceous named Henry. He blooms, reliably, twice a month with a break in September. He cost a bundle for me ($70), but no other plant that I've ever owned has so much bang for the buck. I'll post a photo in a couple of weeks when he comes back into bloom. His two keikis are almost four inches high now -- I'm hoping they'll bloom next year.

(From top to bottom: A Candy Stripe Dendrobium; an Oncidium, probably Wildcat, though I don't know for certain; The very pretty and reliable White Shavin Dendrobium, which blooms very regularly once every few months.)

Hybrid Musk Climbing Rose 'Prosperity'

left: Prosperity and Don Juan
below: A closeup of Prosperity. The pinkish center fades quickly in the heat of summer, but remains when it cools down.


'Prosperity' is a hybrid musk rose. Very vigorous, free-flowering rose that pulls out all the stops in early March. It continues to bloom, albeit spottily, all year. It makes a fair cutting flower, but there are so many blooms on each stem that it's difficult to work into an arrangement or to use on its own without resorting to wire. Lightly scented. It grows on Fortuniana rootstock here in Central Florida, and is, in my experience, very disease and drought resistant.

I have 'Prosperity' growing in full sun, along with 'Don Juan,' 'Abraham Darby,' and 'Elegant Beauty' at the base of a school bell that I rescued from my grandmother's farm in Bardstown, Kentucky.

Central Florida rose culture

The challenges for rose culture here in Central Florida are many: sandy, infertile soils that heat quickly in the summer sun; high humidity for at least seven months of the year; temperatures in the nineties from mid-May until the beginning of October; and, in many areas, rampant nematodes. There are also some things working to our advantage: Plenty of rain when it's hot, fast draining soils (sometimes too fast), and climate that permits nearly year-round rose culture. The soil is slightly acidic, and there's ample phosphorous. (Some of that phosphorous is naturally-occuring (Central Florida sands have been mined for phosphorous, especially in the 1950s), some of it is residual from the former citrus groves that used to cover the area.) I've never had much of a problem with pests in my roses.

To anyone interested in learning the lore and art of rose culture here in Florida, I highly recommend For the Love of Roses in Florida and Elsewhere by Barbara Oehlbeck. It's a quirky book with disappointing production values, but it's also charming and informative in a folksy way. Imagine your crazy aunt writing a book about her gardening...

There are dozens of roses that grow, even thrive, here in Florida on their own roots, and many more cultivars that grow on "Fortuniana" rootstock. ("Fortuniana," an Old Garden Rose related, it is believed, to the "Cherokee Rose," has produced in the past two decades a real revolution in rose growing in the Deep South, especially here in Central Florida. It's a remarkable rose, so I'll make it a topic for a later post.)

The rose to the left is "Vincent Godsif," а Bermuda "mystery rose" with a, well, sort of shocking, lipstick pink bloom. It's a bit twiggy, and prickly, but it flowers in even the hottest, wettest weather and never needs spraying.

The rose to the right, growing among the "Powis Castle" Artemesia (great as an understory for roses), is a China Rose "Ducher," named, presumably, after the very well-known French rose developer Joseph Pernet-Ducher. It's one of the very few white Chinas commercially available. Like I suppose all Chinas, this one has a somewhat sparse, very upright growth habit. The white, angular blooms have soft pink center initially, which fades pretty quickly. It would make a lovely cut flower, but is very prone to shattering. True to its lineage, it blooms in the heat and rain of August and the foliage remains virtually disease free.

I've owned the own-root roses for about a year, purchased at Seminole Springs Herb Farm, a place highly recommended for its offbeat selection of flowers and roses. I have about a dozen own-root roses in my garden ("Blush Noisette," "Puerto Rico," and several others) as well as a dozen or so roses grafted onto "Fortuniana" rootstock.

The rose to the left here, growing through a metal pyramid, is "Red Cascade." Miniature, perfect dark-red roses with matching tiny foliage and a vigorous growth habit and high resistance to disease. It grows vigorously on its own stock.

I never spray this rose, and even have one off of any irrigation (though that one has done poorly in the periods of dry weather we've had recently). Though it's usually regarded as a rambler or ground cover rose, I think it's best grown up through a pyramid where the hands of pretty flowers are held forth for inspection and enjoyment.

On October 8, my Vincent Godsif (right) is in full, tawdry bloom. We had a cool spell for a few days, followed by heavy rains from October 4-7 (a tropical wave). The hot and humid weather that has followed is an unwelcome surprise to everyone here.

The flowers are quite tight and pretty when they first open, but small right now. The hotter the weather, the smaller the bloom.

If you're interested in learning more about rose growing in Central Florida, visit the excellent rose garden at Harry Leu gardens in Orlando. It's particularly nice mid-November and through the months of February to May. The Central Florida Rose Society meets there monthly, save for during hottest months of summer when they, like roses, take a break. I've been meaning to join the Society for years, but with a busy career and family, I need to make the time.