Hester, nice to see you back sharing your garden and your experience with plants. I miss yours and Anna's postings...

I like that groundcover, in the picture is that the pink and purple variety? I have a spot where it might work for me.

Beautiful red holiday wish!

Silvia

Hi Silvia,
Thanks for your kind words....I know I've not been posting lately but always lurking! I took up tennis again this summer and it cut into my gardening time. Now I'm back to repair my yard!
The first photo has the pink variety in the foreground and the purple in the back. I though I had planted all one color, but obviously not! The second photo has the purple only and has taken over my back yard.
Hey Ana, if you're out there - we all miss your pics!!!!
H

Hester, that orchid is beautiful. Welcome back. :o)

...I've tried 3-4 different ground covers in an area of heavy shade, with no luck. Do the local big boxes carry this?

Sign me desperate in Seminole,
Bill

Hi Hester, your post is just what I have been looking for
under a large oak tree. Do you have any idea where you purchased & was it the plant or seeds.I looked it up & there is one Nursery with plants but coral in color and I am needing pink or purple. Iwas able leave a message @ an African Botanical Garden re: seed availability. I Will follow up post as soon as I get a return message. I know there are a lot of us with problem area's ..thanks, Davie

I had that plant for a while, but after a couple of years it became a pest for me. Seedlings showed up everywhere to be weeded out. I finally took it out. It was very pretty, but grew too good! Perhaps if you get freezing temps every year it will kill some of the seeds off and would be easier to control, but I don't.

Hester have you heard from Anna, is she ok?

I found these plants at a local nursery here in Sarasota - its' a small operation, mainly wholesale, (doesn't have a name!) but I will be happy to post directions if anyone is interested. The other place that has them is Big Earth, also in Sarasota. I've never seen them at the box stores. The coral one is native, so try a native plant nursery in your area. The pink and purple are hybrids but again, a local nursery should be able to get them for you from the growers in Homestead.
Katkin - I know Ana lives a busy life. The last time I heard from her was about a month ago, but I think I'll email her right now and tell her to post here!!
Thanks,
Hester

Hester, that orchid is just gorgeous! The color is so pure and I love the nice, open shape of the flowers. The barleria is pretty too.

Hi everyone, thanks for thinking about me. I'm fine, just busy with stuff. I will try to start hanging out here more often. Just kind of lost the habit because of a lot of other stuff, but it's time to come back. When I can I'll take pics, but my garden is really pretty quiet right now. Too much shade this time of year. Hope everyone's fine!

Anna

Anna - Hope to see your beautiful garden pics when you are ready...
When we had the October garden party, the begonia that you sent me some time ago was very popular. I gave cuttings to a lot of gardeners.

Silvia

Anna good to know you are well, just busy. :o)

I went looking for barleria repens today in Seminole (Pinellas) without luck. Anyone know of a nursery in Pinellas that carries it?

I went looking for barleria repens today in Seminole (Pinellas) without luck. Anyone know of a nursery in Pinellas that carries it?

Thanks, Katkin, I'll try to get back into GW more. I've always loved it.

Anna

I went looking for barleria repens today in Seminole (Pinellas) without luck. Anyone know of a nursery in Pinellas that carries it?

Hester - do you mind sharing the address / location of the local Sarasota nursery? I live in Sarasota and have been searching for the barleria.

I've given up trying to find it; looked far and wide. I'm going to do what gardeners do when they are out of options....plant wedelia.

Forgive me but sign me....desperate in Pinellas

dmby - the nursery is on Lockwood Ridge Rd at about 49th street - the sign says dryman's fruit nursery but that's just a part of the place. Tell Joe I sent you!
Also Big Earth (just east of 75 on Bee Ridge) should have the plant.
I will say that the guys at the nursery told me that it's hard to find this plant now - seems growers are cutting back.
Billbrandi - you may regret the wedelia! Although, in the right spot, it can work. I have a lot of it.
Hester

Hester - sorry to bother you again! Thank you for location of where to find Barleria Repens. Big Earth is down the street (we're in Laurel Oaks). We are trying to decide between the Barleria Repens and the Woodland Violet (Viola Hederachea) recommended by Anna for a mostly shady spot. We are really worried about Lawn invasion (we have 1/2 acre back yard and despite having purchased over 1,000 plants, we still needed to put down 17,000 sq feet of zoysia - YIKES!). The shady spot in question abuts the lawn and we'd hate to end up having to weed it out - we don't have a lawn-service for our back yard as we have 3 little kids ..so we've been trying to do it ourselves organically and we're 1st time gardeners (yikes again ;->).

By the way, I have no idea how to take cuttings but if you ever want bits of anything we've purchased, you're welcome to it. You can see some of the plants we've put in the various beds here http://pinterest.com/dbwilding/ (the boards labeled 'BED: ...' are the plants we've got ... the other boards are inspiration and plant ideas)

Here is a link that might be useful: http://pinterest.com/dbwilding/

Hi neighbor in Laurel Oaks!
I loved seeing the photos on pinterest - wow, your gardens must be spectacular with all those plants.
Regarding the bareria....you may find it too high maintenance. It does require cutting back a lot to keep it in place. I use it because I am a nature gardener and like the wild, out of control look. You might do well with Anna's suggestion - I have never used woodland violet as I don't have much shade.
thanks again for posting the pics - I will use it for reference!
Hester

Thank you! By the way, I did want to share 2 plants that we were utterly transfixed by. We bought them both on a fluke in October 2012 because some of the plants we planned were not available. They are Scaevola Amula 'PUrple Fan' and Dipladenia (the pink 'shrub like' one). Both available at Mariposa Nursery in Bradenton - right by Lakewood Ranch.

They have both literally bloomed NON STOP since October.
The Scaevola Amula 'Purple Fan' is a low growing ground cover (about 6") with purple flowers - its created a swath of non stop purple on a slight birm we have - it gets sun in the morning and late afternoon (bright dappled shade midday). Each plant has spread about 1 to 3 feet. They are not competing with the Salvia or Angelonia planted next to them and instead create a purple carpet.

The Dipladenia pink we put right next to our pool cage - they have dark green shiny leaves and dozens and dozens of pink flowers (pink range in color from pale to deep rosy pink on same plant). They are about 2 1/2 to 3' tall and about 2-3' wide (the brances arch up and outward). Again -- they have flowered non stop since October. This area is in bright shade until around 11am and then dappled sun / direct sun in afternoon.

I wanted to share these two as I spent months researching on Gardenweb before buying over a thousand plants and as noted, these 2 were just flukes ... they've turned out to be the best non stop color so far (Oct-April...we'll see how summer goes). The Blue Daze and Lantana Alba (low growing) have also flowered non stop but the Scaevola is more flashy then the subtle tiny flowers of Blue Daze and the Lantana goes through phases of kinda looking ratty. The Scaevola and Dipladenia are prettier and have required absolutely zero maintenance.

Sorry for the long email -- its just exciting to be able to share something that worked ;->!!!