Hi Melissa

I will be at the Leu this weekend, it is a fun trip for me and I can get plants too!

Silvia

Thanks for reminding me. I will be there for sure. I will try for Saturday morning, early.

That is too funny, ---- enough plants!! I haven't been to Leu in a long time, wonder if I could get hubby to do a road trip.

Tom. I know where you are going to be, around the butterfly plants! :)

Kathy, if you get Ralph to come to the Leu, maybe we can get together and have lunch...

Silvia

Yes, Silvia, butterfly and hummingbird plants for me. I will be there at 9 am on Saturday. Hope to see you there. This is a great plant sale. Normally there are around 40 or more vendors and Leu Gardens, of course, is beautiful at any time of the year.

Unfortunately this is the same weekend as the Ocala Spring Garden Festival. With my limited gardening allowance (which I always seem to break), I can only do one sale at a time and tend to pick the Ocala one since there are quite a lot of vendors there. I know that the Leu Gardens sale will be more likely to have some of the more uncommon plants, but I'm not really at the point with my yard where I'm worried about having a rare plant. Maybe next year if I'm 'happy' with the structure part of my beds.

Silvia, Ralph reminded me my grandson's football game is this Sat, so we won't be able to make it after all. I would have loved to have had lunch with you and Willy. It has been forever since we've seen each other.

I love the all the spring plant sales: last week was USF members sale, this weekend is Leu, end of the month is USF Spring...so much fun! Nothing I love more than walking around in the spring weather, looking at plants, talking plants and buying MORE plants!

I just came back from the sale, it was good as usual and I had fun! Tom, I did not see you, but then I was there around 10am...
And I got my wagon full and then we left.:)
Silvia

I went, too and had to make two trips to the car! It was my first time at Leu and it's absolutely beautiful!!! I will definitely go back to take a better look at the gardens and the next plant sale. I actually think it might even be more beautiful than Fairchild ;)

I got two plants that I really liked--and a few more for good measure. I purchased a large, flowering, yellow Chinese Hat Plant ( Holmskioldia sanguinea). I had been looking for this plant since last year. I read that it is an excellent hummingbird plant. I got the yellow one because my garden needed that color. I have too many red plants now.

The real find, though, was a pink or lavender firespike. I had heard people mention this plant before, but I wasn't sure I believed them since I had never seen one...and then there it was! I had a friend send me some cuttings of a magenta firespike a few weeks ago. (Thanks for your offer, Silvia. I may still need more cuttings if these don't take.) I already have purple and red firespike and now I have a pink one. I love these plants. They grow almost anywhere and are excellent hummingbird plants and good butterfly plants as well.

I will be interested to see how these new ones grow, when they bloom, how big they get and if the hummers and butterflies really do like them.

In my garden the red firespike (odontonema strictum) blooms starting in mid August; is at it's best in late November and finishes blooming sometime in late January. The purple one starts in early February and is now in full bloom. The purple one gets quite tall--maybe 12 to 15 feet. The red one gets to be about ten feet. Both like light shade.

If your Firespike cuttings don't take, try avoiding dousing them with gasoline next time! :)

Seriously, I've had a leaf that fell into a pot while pruning take root. The other day I was tumbling my compost and found one of the stems I was 'sure' was both frost burned and dried. It was rooted and leafing. These things are crazy easy to propagate from cuttings, which is why I tend to dry them out before putting them in the compost.

Tom, you did good at the sale! and I agree with you about the firespikes, what a great addition to the garden, great plant with little effort and remember if you need more cuttings, I will get them for you.
I got a mix of everything and the three of us in the family decided, some african violets, some herbs, a Hawaiian ti plant, a crotton to go with that, a lipstick plant and a huge iron stand for the pots. When the wagon was full, we had to go.:)

Silvia

Had a ball at the show. Got home Saturday and it was all I could do to unload the truck before collapsing yesterday. Got some hardy (in zone 8b) gingers and a Fire & Ice Heliconia. Picked up a few more bromeliads from TropiFlora. Most of the ones I bought last year were either covered or brought in when we had the nights that went down to 20 degrees. I did miss a few but almost all of them survived the low temps. I was told at least 3 times I needed to move down to Florida! I guess I have a tropical appetite but live in a sub=tropical zone!

Ive never had good luck with Fire and Ice and I live in N Central FL (zone 9a). Good luck with yours! The sale was great though, I got a few bromeliads from the society and some palms from Leu Gardens (Brahea nitida)

Oh no, don't say that! It's my only chance to have a Heliconia in the ground here! Did it not like colder temps or something else?

Killed to the ground with freezes even in a protected location. If I were to try it again I would give it full sun and very rich soil with lots of water. Overall I think this plant is a lot of hype. From My understanding it won't even flower unless you protect the stems. I understand about wanting Heliconia, I live very close to where they can be grown but they won't survive for me. I use a lot of Alpinia and costus instead.

I was talking to a vendor at the Ocala Spring Festival about her Heliconias (Lobster Claw and Red Christmas) and she said to mulch deep around the base during winter and the Heliconias should return from the rhizomes in Spring. She was specifically talking about the Lobster Claw though and said the Red Christmas was a little hardier and might go through winter with little damage. So mulch deep and cross your fingers!