What's blooming in July: White flowers on the brunfelsia shrubs appear in mass, then yellow and fall and in a little time. Their cycle repeats itself throughout the growing season. Torch gingers; heliconias and costus; reed-stem epidendrums; terete vandas and mokara orchids provide non-stop color
Weed with tenacity. Cut back fast-growing shrubs that have put on what seems to be an enormous amount of growth; thin old growth from the center of the bird of paradise to keep the flowers coming.
Control snails , which appear by the zillion in the rainy season. Use beer in a saucer sunk into the ground; copper screening around prized plants; snail bait.
Vegetables to plant: Cassava, chayote, malanga, Southern peas, summer squash, sweet potatoes, yard long beans.
What's blooming in August: Geiger trees; water lilies; African tulip trees and shell gingers
Treat scale with a spray of undiluted isopropyl alcohol, horticultural oil or a systemic insecticide.
Use Cleary's 3-3-3-6 fungicide as a preventive spray for fungus on orchids. Use Banrot, Subdue or Aliette on the brown or black pseudobulbs of Cattleyas that are exhibiting phytophthora, a fungal disease.
Solarize: clear the ground of grass for your vegetable garden, wet the soil and cover the area with clear plastic 2 millimeters thick. The sun will heat the soil to kill weed seeds. Allow the plastic to remain in place until the end of next month.
Vegetables to plant: Broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, collards, escarole, hot pepper, lima beans, mustard, okra, onions, potatoes, radish, summer spinach, summer squash, tomatoes.
What's blooming in September: Yellow elder; caesalpinia; queen's crape myrtle; butterfly ginger; vera wood and buttonbush
Cut back poinsettias to increase the number of new twigs on which colorful bracts will appear; cut back bougainvilleas for the same reason, to encourage more branching and more color on the branch tips. Give both plants a low-nitrogen fertilizer.
You may wish to switch to a water-soluble bloom booster fertilizer for two or three weeks in a row to encourage orchids to set buds. Bloom booster has less nitrogen and more phosphorus (10-30-20). Many orchids bloom from winter through spring.
Cut back on the water given to your Christmas cactus. Gradual drying in September followed by 14 to 15 hours of darnkess each night beginning in October will help plants set flower buds in time for the holidays. After buds appear, water normally.
Vegetables to plant: Beets, broccoli, cabbage, endive, lettuce, lima beans, okra, onions, parsley, pole beans, snap beans, spinach, tomatoes.
What's blooming in October: Floss silk trees; lancepod; Lonchocarpus violaceus ; golden rain tree; golden shower tree (Cassia fistula ) and Koelreuteria elegans
Prepare raised rose beds by mixing half muck with 10 percent sand and aged cow manure, with 15 per cent bark mulch and composted peat moss. Or, mix aged horse manure, wood shavings, peat moss and calcinated clay in equal parts.
Fertilize the landscape before winter, using 8-2-12 with 4 per cent magnesium and small amounts of micronutrients.
Plant the vegetable garden.
Vegetables to plant: Beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, endive, escarole, lettuce, lima beans, mustard, onions, parsley, peppers, potatoes, radish, spinach, strawberries, summer squash, tomatoes.
What's blooming in November: Chinese hat plants; dombeya shrubs; Mexican sunflowers and bougainvilleas
Plant your annuals in containers and beds. When buying annuals, look for plants that have more closed buds than open flowers, healthy white roots and no leaf spots. Allow adequate spacing between plants, and add a tablespoon of slow-release Dynamite fertilizer in the planting hole. Sprinkle more pellets of fertilizer around the root zone once the planting is complete; water well. Water daily for a week, then gradually reduce frequency of watering.
Caladiums and curcumas (Thai tulips) are going dormant. Dig and keep in a dry, cool area, or simply hold off extra irrigation until they send up shoots in the late spring.
Water lilies gradually cease flowering as do butterfly gingers and their relatives. Cut Amorphophallus stalks at the base as they ease into dormancy.
Move vandas and nobile dendrobiums into more light, gradually increasing light until it is very bright or full sun. Stop fertilizing the dendrobiums during their winter resting period. Start fertilizing paphiopedilums or lady slipper orchids, which flower in the late winter or early spring.
Stop watering catasetums, cynoches and their hybrids. They need a period of dormancy, and should receive only natural rain water.
Plant cool season vegetables, such as kale, English peas and turnips.
Other vegetables to plant: Beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, collards, eggplant, endive, escarole, kohlrabi, lettuce, lima beans, mustard, onions, pole beans, potatoes, radish, snap beans, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes.
What's blooming in December: Euphorbia leucocephala, called Christmas flower or pascuita, and its relative Euphorbia pulcherrima , the poinsettia; Christmas cactus; red and yellow kalanchoes; pine pink orchids and coastal plain willows in the Everglades. What's ripening: Grapefruit
Move tropical potted plants, such as ferns and aroids, into protected areas so that wind from incoming cold fronts will not burn them.
For help with watering restrictions, go to www.savewaterfl.com , provided by the South Florida Water Management District.
Side dress the vegetables: place a little granular fertilizer, such as 8-8-8, in a band just below the drop line of the leaves. Or, use a trowel and work aged manure into the soil at the edges of the roots.
Vegetables to plant: Broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, collards, eggplant, endive, escarole, kohlrabi, lettuce, lima beans, mustard, onions, parsley, peas, pole beans, potatoes, radish, snap beans, spinach, strawberries, tomatoes.
Slideshow | What's blooming in June
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