Recently in Reflections Category

With many of my potted brugmansia seedlings frozen back to ground level, I had to take a wait and see approach to see which ones would live on and sprout back.  After cutting the frozen plants back to the ground, the soil surface was now exposed to bright sunlight and an influx of weed seeds from a neighboring field.  Normally I would apply some pre-emergent weed preventative on the surface, but I was afraid that may interfere with the plants ability to sprout back from the roots.  I tried to stay on top of my weeding so any newly sprouted weeds would not have a chance to get established, but unfortunately my real job got in the way.  As a result, I ended with some very healthy patches of weeds this spring.

The weeds were definitely gaining the upper hand and were growing faster than the brugs.  It was time for action!  .   

As soon as I had an open weekend, I brought in a worker and we went to work.  After two twelve hour days, the end was finally in sight.  Pictured below is the result of our labor, one of the three, five foot tall piles of weeds we generated.

Now my older brugmansia seedlings have room to breath and grow.  A few weeks ago they received a nice dose of fertilizer and they are rebounding nicely.  Some are even forming buds, no doubt to reward me for the special care.  :)

This group of seedlings was in bloom last fall.  Now, thanks to our severe winter, they are at a fraction of their original size,  They have some growing to do before they start surprising me with blooms.  This was the last group of gallon size seedlings I have growing directly on the ground.  Starting last spring most of my seedlings are growing on ground cloth.

The work never ends...

While I was home for lunch today I managed to capture a photo of the space shuttle launch.  Here it is taking off over the horizon.

Even though I'm smack dab in the center of the state, shuttle launches are still dramatic.

There's a reason why my garden blog has become stagnant, it's called too much nice weather!  When the weather's nice outside, I spend all my free time working on my plants. Then when I'm done I'm too tired to blog.  I figure I have just under 9,000 brugmansia seedlings growing now.  I'm not sure why I let this number get so out of control, but every time I have a seedling bloom that is a potential keeper it makes it all worthwhile.

I have lots of notes and pictures to share in the new year so please stay tuned.  I hope to have my new website up by mid-January followed by my online store in early February.  So if you are looking to purchase some Angel Trumpets, check back soon.

Now I just need some cold and rainy weather to keep my indoors and force me to work on the website....

Gardening is my passion and right now, almost an obsession.  At one time in my life it was a career, but the great Florida freezes of the 1980's changed that.  I'll have plenty of time to reflect on that later, but right now I have to run out and make sure the snails aren't making a buffet out of my brugmansia seedlings...