Such a Bad Year for Tomatoes

 By The Plant Lady

             I don't like to admit it, but I have had two absolutely terrible years growing tomatoes.
             The first one was not really my fault. Some critters discovered my plants, which were tucked nicely into Earth Boxes (earthbox.com), and took huge bites out of them before they even started to turn red. Every morning I would go out and find another one devoured. 
            I wasn't sure what it was exactly that was enjoying the fruit of my labor, but a friend, Rusty Hayes, who owns Runway Growers in Ft. Lauderdale, and who is a champion tomato grower at home and not about to put up with such nonsense, set traps. He caught a rat and an oppossum. Ugh. 
         

  I decided a big part of my problem must be a trellis I had my handyman build as a support. It was like a highway to heaven for the neighborhood critters, who apparently climbed up easily and sat comfortably while they munched.
     Not happy with going to so much trouble to feed these pesky undesireables, I pulled my tomatoes out early. Some time later, I came across this homemade recipe, from one of the growers at the Coral Springs Farmers market, for making tomatoes critter-proof. Although it does sound suspiciously like the largely unsuccessful concoctions used to keep iguanas away, it is worth a try.
          Take three haberno peppers, and chop them up in a food processor. Put them in a gallon of water, cut up some onions and add, boil it, cool it and then let it sit for a few days. Put it in your sprayer and coat the plants when the fruit starts to appear and once a week after that.   Hopefully your tomatoes won't taste like tacos. I never got a chance to try it, because the next year, I had shoulder surgery, and skipped growing tomatoes altogether.
          So we've gone two years without a homegrown tomato  and when this  October rolled around, I was raring to go. 
          I went over to a favorite nursery and got a Better Boy plant and a Beefsteak plant and some Sweet Million cherry tomatoes. I got fresh potting soil for my earth boxes, new organic tomato fertilizer and Dolomite lime to prevent blossom end rot.
          Instead of the disastrous trellis of two years before, I went back to a type of support I first saw at Mounts Botanical Garden of Palm Beach County when I attended a seminar on vegetable growing. My yard guy built a frame, consisting of two eight foot lengths of 2x4-inch posts pounded into the ground and spaced about the length of two earth boxes apart. They were connected by a single wooden rail across the top. The earthboxes were tucked inside the frame and as the tomatoes grew, I tied gardening twine to the overhead rail, and attached it to the vines with tomato clips, available through any gardening catalog. I was so eager to get a good crop, I even had my sprinklers diverted so the tomatoes would not be as susceptible to fungus, the curse of South Florida tomato growers, from the overhead watering.
           But then it started to rain. And it rained and rained, despite the fact this is our "dry season."  I think the water got inside the covers on my Earthboxes--you have to cut openings big enough to plant your tomatoes through the plastic covers--and the soil was continually damp, not to mention the leaves were always wet.   My tomatoes grew quickly, but just as quickly, the signs of browning on the lower leaves indicated that fungus had gotten a foothold. 
           To add insult to injury, the temperatures were still in the 80s at night--tomatoes need temps from 65 to 70 at night. As a result, the plants were stingy about setting blossoms.
           Here is probably where I made my biggest mistake. Instead of buying a copper-based fungicide that had to be mixed with water and applied with a sprayer at regular intervals to fight the steady spread of crunchy brown leaves, I bought a bottle of commercial organic fungicide for vegetables that screwed onto my hose. It was 100 percent ineffective. Since then, I have found copper fungicide in a hand-held spray bottle, but that too might be a lot of work for four large tomato plants.
           Before long, my vines were full of fungus, and by this time, the caterpillars and horn worms started showing up. Thanks to the weather and the skimpiness of my plants, it wasn't even worth getting out the Dipel (a dust) or Thuricide (a spray that needs to be mixed with water). These are BT products, which stands for  Bacillus thuringiensis, a naturally-occurring bacteria that makes caterpillars sick when they eat it.  It is considered one of the safest natural pesticides you can use. But--and here's the problem--you have to repeat it every time it rains. 
           For all my enthusiasm and labor, I only got a few bowls of cherry tomatoes, and that was it. Several avid tomato growing friends have reported only slightly better results. 
           However, I wasn't ready to give up quite that easily. After I removed the horrible skimpy brown plants, I replaced one of them with a new one, just in time for our marathon cold snaps. Tomatoes may like cooler temps at night, but not in the 40s and 50s, and the days were not ideal either: mostly grey and below the optimal 75 to 85 degree range. 
            Although some friends reported success with tomatoes planted in pots or boxes set in screened in porches, I have decided the weather was just not conducive to growing backyard tomatoes this year. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
             

               

Knock Out those Roses

 By The Plant Lady

           Roses are one of the most popular flowers in the world, and they've been a symbol of love and romance for centuries.
           But they are a terrific challenge to grow in South Florida. That's not to say you can't do it, just that it will take almost constant coddling. First, you need to buy grafted roses that are on rootstock that can survive Florida's harsh conditions--poor sandy soil, a year round growing season, and nematodes, which are microscopic worms that eat roots. The Florida-friendly varieties are Rosa fortuniana, Dr. Huey, and Rosa Multiflora. Anything else may start off fine, but is unlikely to last.
          Even roses suited for Florida are needy: You have to amend your soil 12 inches deep, water several times a week during dry periods, fertilize frequently and trim and prune often. Oh, and you will need to spray for fungi (black spot and powdery mildew) and insects as often as once a week. Is it worth it? 
          That depends on how much you like roses, and how much maintenance you are willing to put up with. Also, your tolerance for chemicals has to factor into the equation. Remember, roses are not the only beautiful flowers you can grow in South Florida, and most of the others are much less demanding, even orchids.
          But there are a couple easier ways to get your rose fix.  You can hunt down Old Garden Roses at nurseries that offer them or get cuttings from friends. OGRs are otherwise known as heirloom or antique roses and were first cultivated here in the mid-1800s. The flowers are not as big and flashy, but they bloom a lot and seemingly grow themselves, and you won't have to make a career out of tending them. 
            Another solution is Knock Out Roses. These shrub roses were introduced in 2000 and are popular throughout the country, because they bloom profusely and don't take a lot of care. In South Florida they bloom year round. Although the University of Florida advises that they have "good heat and humidity tolerance that allows them to grow through Zone 9," you will find them doing well right here in Zone 10 and the label actually promises that they will thrive up to Zone 11 (The Keys).
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             They are extremely popular because they are more disease resistant than most roses, especially when it comes to black spot. But while they do give rose growers relief from the the always annoying black spot plague, that doesn't mean they are bullet-proof.
            The University of Florida states that Knock Out Roses are, like all cultivated roses, susceptible to powdery mildew. This causes the leaves to eventually turn brown and crunchy. On its Gardening Solutions website, it states they can also fall victim to Cercospora, a leaf spot fungus.
             I have five Knock Out roses, and they do indeed get brown crunchy leaves on occasion and maybe some leaf spot too. No big deal. Snip, snip and it's gone.
            I have had Don Juan climbing roses on rosa fortuniana stock, and the problems with Knock Out Roses pale in comparison. I eventually got tired of feeding, spraying and watering the Don Juans, which were always thick with black spot, despite all my efforts, and I got rid of them. 
          I do very little to my Knock Out Roses, other than give them some Knock Out Rose fertilizer a couple times a year, pick off some dead leaves, and deadhead. (Don't believe the literature that claims they are self-pruning. Mine are not.) I have never sprayed them.
            Of course, in my opinion, the individual Knock Out Rose bloom, even the "double" Knock Out Rose, which I have, is not anywhere near as spectacular as the typical hybrid tea rose. But they bloom a lot, and as the bushes get more shrub-like, they make a dramatic statement. The flowers, though relatively small and short-lived, are brightly colored and cheerful. After our recent cold spurts, I had some of the prettiest blooms yet. 
            They look best planted next to each other in a hedge-like formation. They don't grow all that fast, and it make take several years to get those massive bushy displays shown on the labels. 
            But I like Knock Out Roses because they help fulfill my Midwestern yearning for roses, without causing me a lot of trouble.
            For more on the planting and care of Knock Out Roses, put University of Florida Gardening Solutions and Knock Out Roses in your browser. 
             
            

           

The Trouble with Orchid Shows

 By The Plant Lady

          I love orchid shows. I've been to four already this season.
But I am beginning to find them a little frustrating. 
          In recent years, many vendors have started putting their most glorious blooms on display as "not for sale, samples only." Okay, this is fine, sometimes these are larger plants with multiple flowers, and they want to show them off during the whole two or three-day show as the best this particular kind of orchid has to offer. 
            But instead of offering single or less dramatic blooms for sale, the ones you can actually buy usually have no blooms at all, perhaps a bud or two, but not always. Sometimes they are small, immature orchid plants that could take several years to produce flowers. I have several like this: they look healthy, they are growing steadily, but not yet ready to bloom after more than two years.
             The sad part is that these boring non-blooming orchid plants--let's face it, the foliage on most orchids is just plain ugly-- are not especially cheap. I just don't get the same thrill out of buying a homely green plant as I do out of buying a flower or at least a few buds, especially when I am paying $20 or $30. I want to know that the  orchid I am buying is going to bloom at least once! 
            The really small plants are usually a bargain--if you have the patience to wait them out, or maybe a shade house to baby them along. I find myself taking pictures of the lovely "sample" so that I can remember what I bought during the years it takes to coax a bloom out of them. 
            I much prefer instant gratification.
\           I always buy at the booths that have bloomers for sale, or at least plants with a few buds, and there still are some. But just recently I noticed that when some varieties of orchids have a nice spike or two, the prices are jumping up into the $45 range and beyond.  
             It also seems there are certain "in" species or colors that pop up all over a show. I have more than 50 orchids, and sometimes I have a hard time finding something that is not the same or close to what I already have.

Den. Roy Tokunaga 

             This year the trendy orchid at a recent show seemed to be Den. Roy Tokunaga. It was everywhere. At another show, nearly every booth seemed to have  Beallara Marfitch "Howard's Dream." Always I see my yellow and red LC Gold Digger, or something similar enough that I don't want to buy it. And the speckled Kaleidoscope Phalaenopsis: everywhere, for years. You can even find this one at Home Depot.
            I get it, selling orchids at a show where booth space is costly is a business, and if a variety is popular, you go with it. But it isn't like there aren't hundreds of varieties of orchids out there, and I can guarantee, virtually all of them are appealing to orchid lovers. I have a book with pictures of 1,500 different orchids. 
           Surely the vendors could give us a break from the blush- colored Phals, the deep burgundy Dendrobiums and the Oncidiums that smell like chocolate.
               
              

      

So You Want to Garden in South Florida?

 By The Plant Lady
              I spent a lot of years gardening in the Midwest. It in no way prepared me for dealing with a little more than an acre in South Florida. The biggest difference is that nothing shuts down in Florida. There may be a slow season when things don't grow as much, but there is no true dormancy like you have when a couple of inches of snow covers everything. 

                 For example, it is mid-February now, and it has been a rather cool, wet, atypical winter here. Yet I have new leaves sprouting on my pomegranate tree, Knockout roses and orchids all over the yard, and my bromeliads, begonias, firecracker plant and pentas are all in full bloom. Hundreds of beautiful white and burgundy flowers covered my spectacular 35-ft tall Clerodendrum Quadriloculare tree (also known as a starburst) from top to bottom for most of January and February.

Starburst Clerodendrum

                True, many trees have thinned out and lost some leaves, but only a few, like my crepe myrtles, are totally bare.  The landscape may not be lush right now, but it is a far cry from the starkness of the Midwest at this time of year.My yard  is, for the most part, still green.
                Newcomers to the subtropics may think that makes gardening so much easier. After all, everything grows in South Florida, all year round, right? What could be more fun than that? But that is precisely why gardening here is a much bigger challenge than those from low-numbered USDA zones could ever imagine. Insects don't die, weeds keep growing, and nothing ever truly "dies back." 
                I think the biggest mistake I made as a new southern gardener was spacing my plantings. Or rather, not spacing my plantings.I had no concept of how much and how fast things would grow. I bought the towering tree at the left in a 3-gallon pot about 8 or 10 years ago and pruned it vigorously until I could no longer reach high enough. 
              Almost everything I ever planted here is crashing into something else. The beautiful flowering trees I planted in my front yard rarely flower, because they are shaded by the two giant Live Oaks in the center of the yard that I figured would never get much bigger than they already were--at least while I still lived here. Wrong. 
My Firebush, which is about a million times bigger than I ever envisioned it, has completely overgrown the Firespike next to it, and is encroaching on a couple Crotons as well.
         So remember, no matter how barren it looks when you first lay out your plantings according to  spacing recommendations, it won't be a problem for long. And do a little research online, adding the word Florida to your search, because the growing tips on most plant labels do not accommodate Florida conditions.
          So here are just a few beginners' tips for starting your Florida landscape. 
          1. Don't try to reproduce the things you loved "back home." They won't be happy here. Just because Home Depot and Lowes sell roses and hydrangeas and lilies doesn't mean you should plant them. Go for a mix of native and tropical plants. The natives, because Mother Nature designed them to grow here, and the tropicals because they can stand most of the weather conditions here, or at least all but the most severe cold snaps, and will add the flash and bang that natives sometimes lack.
           2. Beware of  invasives. Once they are given a toe-hold, you will spend half your gardening hours trying to uproot them. Remember, there is no frost to kill them off. Though pretty, those cheerful purple Ruella can be a nightmare. And just because the label says they are sterile, don't fall for it: They spread by underground runners. Mother-in-law tongues, benign houseplants in the north, can take over a garden, as can those favorites of northern hanging baskets, asparagus ferns.
            Even natives can have bad habits: I once planted four small native dune or beach sunflowers, pretty little yellow-daisy like flowers with bright green leaves. Big mistake. By the time I realized they were getting out of control, I was able to fill six large garbage cans and a few black bags with what I pulled out. 
           Check the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council (fleppc.org) or FLIP (Florida Invasive Plant), a field guide created by the University of South Florida, among other groups, at plantatlas.usf.edu.
              I have to admit that although it does not make any of the official lists, the clerodendrum family of gorgeous bushes, like the one above, and the beautiful orange pagoda bush, can be troublesome. They spread by underground runners, and I have found sprouts coming up dozens of yards away from the original plant, in the middle of hedges and even in the neighbors' yard. If left untended they grow into bushes rapidly. I am careful to weed them out, and the lawnmower takes care of most of them. Although I love the flowers, I can't recommend these bushes/trees without a warning.
            3. Think twice before you plant vines. There are many gorgeous tropical vines,and a lot of people probably disagree with me about this, but my experience is that they are difficult to control. I once had a passion vine bend my fence, jump to a tree and cover the top of it. I didn't realize it until one day I saw passion flowers dangling down among the leaves of a Barbados cherry tree. 
            4. Your biggest job will be pruning, and it is best not to let it get away from you: things grow faster here than you ever imagined. Your favorite tools will be a lopper, a machete, and one of those long pole saws. 
            So good luck, and welcome to South Florida, where orchids grow on your patio, tomatoes bear fruit in the winter and gardening is a lot of work.