Turn potted poinsettias into permanent plantings
By JOHN A. STARNES JR.
Published November 26, 2005
The potted poinsettias we get each holiday always look lanky and barely bloom the next year. Do they need special fertilizer or care?
If planted in a sunny landscape, poinsettias become large subshrubs that need little care. Just be sure to plant them 20 feet or more from a street lamp or security light because they need the short days of autumn to bloom by Christmas. Don't prune them after June or you may prevent holiday blooming.
Green-thumb adjustmentWe retired here from up North, but our usual mail-order lilacs, spring bulbs, apple trees, rhubarb, roses and forsythias all grow poorly then die. Why won't they grow here?
The absence of a winter dormancy is the biggest culprit. Soil nematodes also add further stress to northern plants in Florida gardens.
Switch gears mentally and indulge in the vast number of subtropical perennial flowers, shrubs, fruit trees and old roses like Chinas, noisettes and teas (not hybrid teas) that flourish here, especially if we enrich the soil.
For happier herbsEach spring I buy dill, mint, catnip, anise, fennel, lavender, cilantro and chives as baby plants, but they always struggle then die. If herbs are so easy to grow, why do I experience these frustrating failures?
Most herbs originated in colder climates with true winter and cool springs, so they love it if here they are planted in fall and winter in a sunny spot, then fed diluted fish emulsion every six weeks or so.
Be sure to grow heat-loving herbs year-round: These include lemon grass, culantro (different from cilantro, also called"recao"), lemon verbena, Chinese chives, chocolate mint, rosemary, Mexican oregano (Lippia graveolens) and Cuban oregano (Plectranthus amboinicus). Annual herbs like fennel, anise, cilantro and dill are easiest and most economical grown from seeds.
- John A. Starnes Jr., born in Key West, is an avid organic gardener and rosarian who studies, collects, cultivates and hybridizes roses for Florida. He can be reached at johnastarnes@msn.com