Signs of Life

As yet another cold snap hits the Bay area, I'm pleased to report that the plants in My Florida Backyard are soldiering on, and even the slowest to recover are finally beginning to show some green.

The hibiscus has been the slowest of all to show some improvement, but in this weekend's warm sun, I noticed some leaf buds finally beginning to break along the branches. If we could only get some more warm sun, instead of these everlasting 50 degree days, the hibiscus would be putting out large green leaves in no time.

The Christmas Cassia is also starting to recover nicely, coming back from the ground slowly but surely. I'm working hard to get some cassia established in My Florida Backyard this year as larval plants for sulphur butterflies. I'm hoping Florida's hot summer will help this plant be a small shrub by the time late fall rolls around. Sulphur caterpillars are some of my favorites, and I'd really like to be able to raise some bright yellow beauties when the Christmas Cassia flowers late in the year.

The Candlestick Cassia is coming back as well, giving me hope that it will be able to rival its former glory by summer's end. We actually had a bunch of sulphur eggs on the Candlestick Cassia around New Year's, but the freeze, of course, made short work of both plant and eggs, leaving us to start again from scratch and hope for better luck next time.


Gardening in My Florida Backyard for the last few months has been all about waiting and hoping. It's nice to see some of that waiting and hoping pay off, although we just can't wait for this wretched winter to finally end!