My Florida Tropical Garden

Earlier this year I purchased two passion vines on eBay. Here's one of them, the 'Lady Margaret' passiflora vine. Yesterday I got to see the first flower bloom. Similar to the hibiscus, the flowers only last a day and then it's gone. The flowers are smaller than I expected but still very attractive. Still awaiting a trellis for more growing support.



Also yesterday I treated a gall midge infestation that is preventing alot of hibiscus buds from blooming. These stupid little flies seem to come around every year around the same time. Two years ago I posted how to treat this pest and here's how you do it. You have to use a systemic pesticide spray because the larvae are actually eating and growing INSIDE the plant. A systemic pesticide is actually absorbed into the plant, it's kinda like humans getting a flu shot. The gall midge larvae are not visible until you start peeling away a fresh bloom on your plant. You'll know when you see them, but you have to look carefully. They can be white to bright orange and very small. As your opening a bloom, look for areas inside that look bruised or decayed. The gall midge larvae will be very close to that area.

For a systemic pesticide, I spray Bayer 3-in-1 insect-disease-and-mite-control (active ingredient: imidacloprid) on the plant. For a soil treatment, I sprinkled Bayer Complete Insect Killer granules. The soil treatment is necessary to kill the larvae that have exited the blooms and are now buried in the soil, awaiting to emerge as an adult midge fly.

Twenty-five months ago I purchased some tropical Hibiscus rosa-sinensis seed from Australia on eBay. The seed are a hybrid crossing from two exotic parent plants. In this case, the parent plants are Sweet Bippee (left) and Dragonsbreath (right).



After 2 years of hard work growing the seedlings in containers while protecting from two of Florida's coldest winters, I still have two of these cross-plants and now they're blooming for the first time. One of the flowers should open up today for the first time too, so it's very exciting. I'm curious to see the colors and patterns in comparison to the parent plants above. No two crosses are the same, or so I've heard. We'll find out if this holds true.

Well here it is, my first hibiscus hybrid bloom! And since I'm the grower of this new hybrid, I can officially give it a name... Red Snapper

Please watch this video I recorded of a Giant Swallowtail on our first year Purple Coneflower plants.



I started these Purple Coneflowers from seed for the first time in March. Purple Coneflowers are among the best perennials for attracting butterflies such as Monarchs, Swallowtails, Gulf Fritillaries, and Painted Ladies. Hummingbirds will come, but not only for nectar, but the small insects the blossoms will attract. Perhaps the best feature is the blooms will remain colorful for a very long time so it can be enjoyed for many days.

I obtained my coneflower seed in the summer of 2010 when we vacationed in Indiana to visit family and pickup my son from Ohio. My grandma had a few dried seed pods on her coneflower plants so I took a couple home with me. The seed can be difficult to actually harvest because of the prickly pods shown below. But fortunately the coneflower is relatively easy to sprout and grow from seed. Plants will often self-seed in gardens too. An ideal location is full sun with well-drained soil, but they will grow in partial sun.