Today we are visiting Nancy Martin’s garden.
I will be 72 years old in September. I live in Apollo Beach, Florida. However, I am a native of Virginia and lived there most of my life. In the summer of 2016 we moved into our current home. This house was a new build on a small lot, a blank canvas. I was unfamiliar with gardening in Florida. I had lived in a home on a large wooded lot on a lake in Virginia for over 30 years. All the plants in my Virginia home were large and well established. I soon found a grass lawn fired in the summer heat in Florida, and my yard was so small there wasn’t much room for a yard and garden too. I dug up all the grass in my backyard and planted my Secret Garden. All of my trees were started from seed and many of my plants from cuttings. I found that even full-sun plants could grow in some shade; I think they even enjoy it. These photos are a journal of my 2022 garden.
It is clear that Nancy has learned how to make plants happy in her new climate!
Apollo Beach is warm enough that a wide range of plants can be grown, including the Phalaenopsis orchid at the top, which is familiar to most of us as a houseplant but can live outside as long as temperatures stay mostly warm and above freezing.
Some of these flowers are familiar to Northern gardeners, like the daylily (Hemerocallis hybrid, Zones 4–11) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus, annual). Others, like the Bulbine frutescens (Zones 9–11) in the bottom center of this collage, are specialties of warmer climates.
I bet all these icy white flowers look cool and marvelous in the Florida heat.
Many of the plants pictured here, like the Caladium (Zones 9–11) in the top left, are familiar to Northern gardeners as annuals for growing in the summer, but they are perennial and long-lived in Florida.
Some things are the same with gardening in every climate: Plant enough flowers and you’ll get visits from beautiful pollinators like this butterfly!
Beautiful foliage is always welcome in the garden, from a dramatic variegated agave (perhaps Agave americana, Zones 9–11) to the universal favorite coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides, Zones 10–11 or as an annual).
Have a garden you’d like to share?
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Comments
Wow so many beautiful plants and flowers! And you even grew many from seeds and cuttings- I'm impressed!
I was wondering if the butterfly bushes go dormant in Florida like they do up north or if they stay green with flowers in all months?
Love your photos!
Thank you for your kind remarks. My butterfly bush does lose it's leaves in winter. We can occasionally reach temps in the 20's. Many plants that would be grown as annuals in the north can be grown here as perennials.
Thanks for answering my question!
My pleasure. 😊
Lovely pictures and range of plants.
Thank you! 😊
Thank you! Most of my neighbors grow tropical plants (gorgeous), I do have a few, but I want mine to be more like a cottage garden.
Beautiful pictures! Didn't realize Florida could get that cold! Of course, these days, weather "norms" are all over the map. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! It doesn't get that cold very often and if it does, it doesn't last very long.
Your garden is a lovely fairy land!
Thank you! I always have heard you need to leave room in the garden for fairies and angels to dance. 😊
Nancy, we're the same age and I also understand what it takes to relearn creating gardens that fulfill our inner needs of beauty! Yours are magnificent with magical blooms and the lushness of foliage. I moved from the Midwest to Denver and relearned my skills. Now we live in the low desert of Tucson and I'm working on it all over again! A gardeners life is never complete until their garden pleases their eye. Yours certainly pleases mine. Kudos!!!
How kind, thank you. I hope you are having as much fun as I am., gardening is good for our body and soul.
Your garden photos were a very welcome surprise!!
Being from NY, I wasn't expecting to see so many
familiar plants. Your photos are wonderful and I also
was pleased to see your inclusion of garden art.✨
Congratulations on great transition to a new climate
for your gardens....and "Happy Birthday"!🎂🌻🎂
Thank you, I'm happy that you enjoyed my garden. I forgot to include one of my favorite things, a little sign that says 'Weeders Welcome'. 😊 Thank you for the birthday wish too.
Thank you for sharing your lovely garden. As a former resident of Florida, I am deeply impressed with all that you've accomplished. I wish I had been a gardener back then when I lived there. All those missed possibilities. Now I'm living on another continent and much different climate zone. Finally, the gardening bug reached me though :) Thanks again for posting.
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