The Wintry Look of Myrtle Glen



This is a tour in pictures of Myrtle Glen in January. So far we did not have to deal with arctic freezes, just a couple of cold snaps with lows at 30F. Not cold enough to kill, but cold enough to nip at the tropical plants and make them look ugly.


Here's the meditation area, the different ginger varieties are hibernating






The water garden still looks green, but requires some work, the Umbrella plant needs to be re-potted and the Shell Ginger clump will need some tackling so not to take over the entire area. You can see at the right of the picture is one of the makeshift green houses done with heavy duty plastic sheeting and heated with a space heater when needed.





Looking through the empty arch, I cut back the vines that covered it during summer. Clean up of the Streetside bed is still on my to-do list





Here is the back area of the water garden. I am happy with the mild winter,  the Victorian Brake fern is looking pretty. This one took a hard hit during last year's mean winter, while the Japanese Nest Fern doesn't mind the cold at all.






The overgrown vines will be chopped back, but after the danger of frost. The little Ackee tree is doing well, but froze to the ground last year. This year we are prepared, hubby created a tent made of plastic and pvc pipes, and adding a heat lamp will keep it safe.






The Dombeya wallichii is high on my list of tropical favorites. The leaves are a bit frost bitten, but  we could enjoy the wonderful flowers, huge pink balls smelling like  sugar cookies. I feel sad that I will have to trim this bush back but it would grow way too large for our little yard.






The Lotus is hibernating in its lotus bowl, but the Cannas are doing good and the single banana trunk you see on this picture I just planted not too long ago. Protected by the other large plants it is doing ok.





Not so my Kumquat tree, I don't know what the problem is, it just looks sick.  The Mexican Sunflower Tree seedlings I left since they give some protection to a milkweed plant I don't want to lose. And the little coleus plant to my surprise still looks pretty so it can stay of course.

The street side bed in the background still needs some clean up.



Another makeshift green house in the background, this one is the hoop house over my bromeliad collection.

Not much going on in the Sausage bed, this Kumquat is looking even worse than the one in the picture above. I am thinking of giving up on citrus, I just kill them all /sigh/




And here you see the result of my chopping frenzy. Poor Duchesse De Brabant, I hope she will forgive me.



Keep walking the garden path and you see the Florida bed, named because of its shape. I cleaned this one up already, the Mexican Tarragon and Toad Lily are cut back, and I am just waiting for the salvias do finish blooming then I'll cut them back as well.




Cleaned up and ready for ferns and bromeliads, this bed was well hidden under an overgrown white Powderpuff bush. We trimmed the lower branches I am planning to shape it into a small tree.




At the other side by the house is this passion vine, this one will need some serious trimming so not to take over our house and the neighbor's home as well.






That's it for now, I will show the front yard pictures in a future post.



10 comments:

  1. Thanks for visiting and leaving comment on my blog recently. You have a very beautiful garden. I especially love the water bed area, so peaceful and pretty. I have very limited garden space, wish I can have a water bed too. I added your blog link to my list too. We are having a wonderful winter, aren't we?

    Enjoy and happy gardening!

    Ami

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  2. Thanks Ami, for stopping by and your nice comment, and thank you for linking back :)

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  3. Thank you for the visit through your garden and the identification of the plants, just as if we'd been there.

    You winter is not as fierce as ours and this year ours hasn't been terrible at all. One night we did have 23 degree F low, but it was brief. We had barely freezing temps Sunday night and now another respite. I keep waiting for the really bad.

    I have lots of pruning to do.

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  4. I enjoyed the tour of your garden! I think I could love dombeya wallichii for its name alone! But a plant that smells like sugar cookies? Now that's a plant I wish I could grow in my woodland garden! I am also wishing I could grow kumquats. i think I am a tad too far north for them, but I have been tempted to try. I fell in love with kumquats on a trip to Seaside, Florida last year.

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  5. A great tour of your garden! It looks pretty good for winter! A tree with flowers that smell like sugar cookies? What a fabulous tree! I also love the streetside bed with the stepping stones leading to somewhere unknown..

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  6. Evi dein Garten ist herrlich sogar in dem
    Wintermonat

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  7. yes, freshly baked, just out of the oven, sugar cookies *yumm*... sorry to say, the bush flowers only once a year, during the winter months. And if the winter is as harsh as it was the last two years, there will be no flowers at all :*(

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  8. Danke fuer das Kompliment, aber in ein paar Monaten wird alles schoener sein :-)

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  9. Your garden looks so green and lush! Love your water garden. I even love the passion vine. I love those unusual flowers. Enjoyed the walk around. I look forward to seeing the front.

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  10. What a wonderful garden & blog! Funny that I have not bumped into you before now! I read many of the people on your Versatile Blogger list too. I love the second and third photos in your post - magical FL. Happy to make your acquaintance!

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