Gators In The Garden

Saturday morning as I walked around the yard I was surprised at all the new brown leaves on some of the plants in the garden. The low that morning was above freezing and the day turned out to be ...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2011/01/criptic-cold-damage.html

I do not want to deal with winter, so I`m continuing to writing about the final blooms just before 18 degrees did most of them in. This little guy had been blooming away for a couple of weeks b...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2011/01/more-late-fall-yellows-l.html

Now that the weather has grown cold it is time for some summer memories of warmth and bright flowers. One of my favorite tropical plants is yellow bells (Tecoma stans)! This is one of the easi...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2011/01/yellow-bells.html

The year of abundance, so much fruit that the trees are still full!A hot summer with regular rains must be citrus heaven. I`ve given bags away and still some of the trees are full, especially bad...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2010/12/citrus.html

This basket of green fly orchid and fern has hung under this live oak at work for eight years, prior to that it lived in a former garden of mine. The picture was taken a couple of weeks ago an...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2010/11/green-fly-orchid.html

Just a quick flash of fall for us Southerners, since the trees won`t provide the color we let the herbaceous and tropicals do it. This grouping of Mexican cigar flowers, Acalypha Jungle Dragon ...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2010/11/fall-vignette.html

All gardeners lust for plants we can not possibly grow in our yards due to some local factor, mine is the climate of N. Charleston. FROST! Tropicals are not fond of it and yet we gardeners try ...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2010/10/favorite-ficus.html

Some combinations are happy accidents that if you had planned them would never have looked as good. Abutilon megapotamicum and an old Aucuba are just such a combo. Both are common in Southern ...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2010/09/red-green-and-gold.html

As a plant nut I usually worry about if the plant will grow here ,not what it will look like and because of that I`ve spent a lot of time moving things around. There are happy accidents where e...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2010/07/textures.html

Yellow is the color of spring for me, it jumps out and says winter is over! This shrub is my spring herald along with the daffodils. I have never heard a common name for it though there may be...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2010/04/something-special.html

He is always ahead of the rest, anxious to be the first to leaf out and often he is burned by the frost. This year he is late and the leaves will be undamaged but he is still the first. This...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2010/04/male-medusa.html

The sun is back out and actually feels warm! Too much cold ,too much wind and finally the snow have made a mess of my garden. My Chamaedorea are a mess; the radicalis foliage was broken by the we...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2010/03/winters-end.html

I love the surprises that emerge in the spring garden - those plants that I thought I'd said a last goodbye to with the first frost but nonetheless come peeking out of the ground in the spring. W...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2009/05/surprise-return-engagements.html

My mother always said that the problem with a lot of Charleston gardeners is that they just stick a slew of azaleas and a handful of camellias in the yard and call it a garden. There truly is an ...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2009/04/lowly-azalea.html

I'm not a fan of winter. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it is a necessity but it curtails the bloomy goings on in my yard and I just can't get beyond a bit of resentment over that. So I take it out...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2009/02/jump-down-pick-bale-of-cotton.html

It has been awhile since I have written anything- holidays and computer problems are my excuse. But now it is a new year so lets start with a bang of a plant. This hunk of a plant is called Far...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2009/01/elephants-of-winter.html

But it isn't my fault really. Charleston is just such a great laboratory for observing microclimates. Like this tropical hibiscus blooming today in downtown Charleston long after the hibiscus ...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2008/12/okay-so-im-bit-obsessed.html

The surprise of tropical color on a gray winters day should be enough to convince anyone in the coastal South to grow bromeliads. I've watched many a woman stop in her tracks and ask me what that...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2008/12/broms-of-december.html

The tropics are just a live oak away? Okay, maybe not. There are no coconut palm lined beaches magically appearing on the other side of my live oak tree. There is no secret door in the trunk that...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2008/12/tropics-are-just-live-oak-away.html

POINSETTIA IN CHARLESTON While we winter weather wimpy Charlestonians were turning our thermostats up and complaining about a few hours of freezing temperatures, this garden poinsettia maintai...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-cheer-charleston-style.html

It looks like a bit of spring but instead it was a crisp, fall day when this image of a tea plant (camellia sinensis) was taken at CawCaw Interpretive Center, a Charleston County park. Early in...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2008/12/camellia-sinensis-at-cawcaw.html

The mums are covered with bees and cloudless sulphur butterflies. The abundance of insects still about this time of year always amazes me Living in the south has taught me you share your garden w...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2008/11/critters.html

We always want what we cannot have and mine is a succulent garden. By my front door I have built a small raised bed out of gravel and rocks and planted it with assorted desert plants. The site is...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2008/11/garden-jewels.html

These two birds are a perfect match for my wildlife photography skill level- posing patiently in their bronze glory while I take thirty different images right up in their faces. I'm not sure wh...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2008/11/sweetgrass.html

I`ve always wanted a garden full of fruit trees, so when I bought this house I immediately started to collect all the fruits I could possibly grow in this inland suburban Charleston,SC garden. My...

http://gardeningwithgators.blogspot.com/2008/11/beautiful-mistake.html