Lavender Blue

Another of fall's purple blooms has arrived in My Florida Backyard - this time it's the Climbing Aster (Aster carolinianus). We've been watching the buds form over the last few weeks, and the first flowers finally opened a couple of days ago.

A. carolinianus was first documented in South Carolina in 1788, hence the scientific name and its other common name, Carolina Aster. In the wild, it's found in freshwater wetlands along the banks of streams, rivers, and lakes. It can grow in drier conditions, as it does in My Florida Backyard, but needs supplemental watering during dry seasons to thrive.

It has a delicious soft fragrance, and draws butterflies and other pollinators while in bloom, generally from mid-November through December. It blooms best when it gets plenty of sun, although it will flower in partial shade as well. The flower buds are a deeper purple, and the flower itself fades slowly from lavender to nearly white before it dies.

The nice thing about Climbing Aster is that, unlike some other climbing plants, it's pretty easy to control. It won't take over a garden like some vines will. Plant it where it has room to spread, provide a trellis, fence, or shrub for support, and cut it back as needed to fit within your garden.

Like most natives, Climbing Aster can be hard to find outside of native plant nurseries. We bought ours at the Sanibel-Captival Conservation Foundation native plant nursery last spring. It's worth the search, though, because this is a native that needs little attention and brings wonderful fall color to any Florida garden.

Brand New Life

"I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, I will always plant a large garden in the spring. Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature's rebirth?"

~Edward Giobbi

On a day when Christians around the world were celebrating rebirth, My Florida Backyard had plenty of life re-awakening as well. We were especially pleased to find that two of our new additions from last fall survived the chilly winter and are beginning to show signs of life at last.

As part of the Hillsborough County Adopt-A-Pond program, My Florida Backyard received a young bald cypress tree last fall. As all cypress trees do, it lost its needles when winter started, and we've been waiting and hoping to see new growth for the last month or so. Today, the re-birth was easily visible against the brilliant blue sky (above) and water.

The other plant we've been anxiously watching is our dwarf paw paw, which we planted last fall in an attempt to lure zebra swallowtail butterflies to the garden. Long after all the surrounding plants began to show spring green, this little twig in the ground remained brown, though a light scratch into the bark showed green beneath. Today, at last, we noticed new growth at the tips - the paw paw is reborn!

Spring has inspired poets and artists for thousands of years, and it's easy to see why. Every day brings a new surprise, a new triumph over winter, and hearts in tune with the rhythm of earth can do nothing less than rejoice!

Do You Believe in Magic?

Okay, it wasn't magic exactly. These duck potato plants were actually planted by our Adopt-A-Pond group back in August. Despite possible herbicide applications and our own inexpert planting skills, many of the plants are thriving. Click here to see more pictures from our second planting event on November 14.

Wade in the Water

The other night, our community held our first planting for the Adopt-A-Pond program. Despite a pouring rainstorm and some slightly less than helpful Boy Scouts, we managed to plant over 900 plants in less than 2 hours. Click here to see pictures of the planting if you're interested.

Although this first planting was focused on the playground area at the other side of the pond, we were able to bring home a few plants to start in the water by our house. Since we were already wet and muddy from head to toe, we plunged in and got them planted right away.

It doesn't look like much yet, but the plants will grow and spread over time. We planted duck potato, blue flag iris, canna, and lemon bacopa. We also planted a bald cypress tree:

Now we'll need to be vigilant to make sure that the HOA maintenance crews don't spray herbicides on our new plants. We'll also have to watch for invasive weeds (yup, they grow in the water too!) that could choke out our new plantings. Water planting is a new experience for us here in My Florida Backyard, so there's a lot to learn.


P.S. It seems to be dragonfly season - they are simply everywhere. I never realized before just how many colors there are - this vibrant blue fellow is actually one of the less conspicuous ones!