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"Summer Spotlights"
June 20, 2012
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Happy first day of summer! Of course, here we've been enjoying summer-like days for over a month now it seems. I just love Florida summers! Our family spent Father's Day in true summer fashion at the beach. Cocoa Beach is one of our many treasures in Brevard, and Kevin and I have vowed to visit it more often this year. As we were taking our walk on Sunday, I was reminded of the many summertime "heroes" in the plant world; there's no better place than the beach to see what takes the blazing summer heat.
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Summer Favorites
Here are some highlight of a few top performers for summer beauty in the garden. Most of these also survived some pretty cold winters in recent years:
Sea Grape: One of the best Florida natives in my opinion, sea grape makes a great screen plant or a single feature plant. Their large green leaves are often shiny and can be accented with red and orange foliage as new growth emerges. They are super salt tolerant and drought tolerant, and although they can burn in the cold, they recover nicely.
Crown of thorns: Crown of thorns bloom pretty much continuously through the year. They love full hot sun and were not affected by the freezes of 2010 and 2011. They are a great xeriscape (low-water) plant.
Jatropha: Another good year-round bloomer. Jatropha can be trained into a small tree or pruned to stay as a shrub. Butterflies love them!
Bird of Paradise: One of the most striking tropical flowers on earth! These beauties love the heat and bloom most vigorously during the summer months. A bird of paradise bloom always adds elegance to a cut-flower arrangement.
Purslane: A true sun lover, purslane comes in many beautiful tropical colors and adds great splashes of beauty in hanging baskets or as a ground cover.
Jasmine minima: Another great ground cover, jasmine minima can tolerate sun or shade. It's a terrific low-maintenance alternative to sod.
Above: Crown of thorn; below (clockwise from top left): purslane, jasmine minima, bird of paradise, and jatropha; sea grape.
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 Summer Reading
A few weeks ago, my sister sent me a wonderful surprise: a copy of "American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America," by Michelle Obama. This book is a treasure! It is beautifully illustrated, and tells the history of White House gardens of the past, shows the layout of the current gardens, and includes delicious recipes. It's like reading a good food novel!
I enjoyed it so much that I've ordered it for our bookstore here at Rockledge Gardens. Within the next week or so we should have our own copies for sale. It's a great way to get some garden inspiration.
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Summer Music
Putamayo Music, the company that provides the music that we play in the garden center, has a special promotion going on now through July 4. Any two CDs of the Americana series are just $25 (regularly $14.98 each). The titles we carry are Zydecko, Rhythm and Blues, Americana and Bluegrass. All great tunes for summertime relaxation and fun!
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This Week at The Farm
The spring season has come to an end and we have begun to clean out the towers to prepare for fall. Diana and I have compiled our list of seeds, and we are so excited about the upcoming season! We plan to add more hydroponic towers as well as more ground pots, since the fall allows us a much wider variety of produce.
For at least the next few weeks we will continue to have herbs, eggplant, peppers, and okra at the Farm Market. We also have a new supply of delicious honey from Space Coast Bees. This time it's Palmetto honey... yum! We are excitedly watching the growth of the Seminole pumpkins and sweet potatoes that will be ready by early Fall.
Below: okra blossoms, and cleaned-out towers.
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Summer E-Mails
Please don't think you have fallen off our e-mail list when you don't see "This Week in the Garden" every week this summer. We'll be skipping a week or two here and there as we travel for education and for vacation! Be sure to visit our website for our summer events.
Take time to enjoy your summer gardens! |
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See you in the garden,
Theresa & Kevin
phone: 321-636-7662 |
| Rockledge Gardens "Quick Links"
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| Summer Savings: $5 off with your purchase of $25 or more |
| Please present coupon. Click here for printable version, or if you don't have a printer, mention code 5off063012. Offer expires June 30, 2012.
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