Jane’s Garden

06/22/2026

20360622, Monday.

It is officially summer! The Blue-eyed Iris have started to divide and produse new little fans on the underground stems of older perennial Iris plants.

Today, I potted up 216 baby fans in 3" D pots. There are 9 healthy little fans in each pot. Over the summer, the new plants will grow into clumps of bright green leaves.

They can grow in full sun or part shade in amended but well-drained sandy soil. They are frost hardy in USDA plant hardiness Zone 8b in the rolling sandhills of SW Marion County.

They will flower late next winter and in spring. The pretty flowers have 3 blue petals and 3 slightly smaller blue sepals.

06/19/2026

20260619, Friday.
A week ago I bought 60 'Robin Blue' cloned cultivars of redjuniper (Juniperus virginiana). I still have not quite finished up-potting them into bigger pots with well-drained, humus-rich, sandy soil.

In a couple of months, when the evergreen canopy trees adapt to our xeric sandhill conditions they will be for sale. FL reg 47227677.

The species is the host plant for the tiny Juniper Hairstreak butterfly caterpillar (Callophys gryneus). The adults rarely stray far from the host plant.

I spotted one Juniper Hairstreak crawling on the glass door in my sunroom. Here's hoping there are more eggs and caterpillars on the 60 young redjuniper trees.

Watch the video to the end when it gets in sharp focus. I do not know how to edit videos. Can anyone teach me?

06/02/2026

The red beet toot powder is a blood vessel dilator. I have been taking 1/2 a teaspoon of Force Factor beet root powder for about 18 months. I also take an orange-red oil capsule from Walmart that has 25 mcg of lutine and smaller amount of zeaxanthin. Most clinical trials have determined that 10 mcg of lutine is enough, so I just take the supplement every other day - Monday, Wednesday & Friday; or Sun, Tu, Th, and Saturday.

The story is long and may be based on a true situation. But it does partly explain how the triple supplement can improve and prevent macular degeneration.

"This actually worked, thank you so much. - Emily T."

06/02/2026

Good advice shared here

Three garden pest control methods that get shared constantly and don't work. And five that do.

What doesn't work:

- Crushed eggshells for slugs — slugs crawl over them without slowing down. Good calcium for the soil. Useless as a barrier.

- Coffee grounds for ants — ants build nests in coffee grounds. Multiple gardeners confirm this in every comment section. Use them as soil amendment, not pest control.

- Citrus peels for cats — cats walk past them. The peels dry out in two days and become mulch.

🌿 What actually works:

- Strong water spray for aphids — a hard blast from the hose knocks them off. Most never return. Outperforms soap, garlic water, and every DIY mix.

- Beer traps for slugs — shallow dish sunk to soil level with cheap beer. Effective overnight. Three-foot radius per trap.

- Cutworm collars — a cardboard tube pushed one inch into soil around each transplant. By the time it decomposes, the stem is too thick to cut.

- Row cover at transplant — lightweight fabric over hoops prevents egg-laying entirely. Remove when flowers open.

- Five-minute morning patrol — hand-pick squash bugs and Japanese beetles before 9 AM when they're sluggish. Drop into soapy water.

The best pest control is the predator team already in the yard. The second best is a hose 🌿

05/25/2026

2026 05 25, Monday. Interesting post about gardening myths and actual proven facts now available. Something to consider...

Some garden advice gets repeated so often it stops being questioned. These five sound right — and aren't. 🌿

MYTH 1 — GRAVEL IN THE BOTTOM OF POTS IMPROVES DRAINAGE:
What actually happens: adding a gravel layer creates a perched water table. Water doesn't move from a finer medium (potting mix) into a coarser one (gravel) until the finer zone is fully saturated — so the gravel layer raises the wet zone directly into the root area, not below it. A continuous mix of potting soil with perlite mixed throughout drains better than any layered pot. The fix is simple: drill more holes in the bottom and use perlite throughout the mix, not gravel underneath.

MYTH 2 — WATERING IN MIDDAY SUN BURNS LEAVES:
Water droplets on smooth leaves don't focus enough light to scorch plant tissue — this has been tested in controlled conditions and the burn simply doesn't happen at realistic droplet sizes on most plant surfaces. There are good reasons to water in the morning: less water is lost to evaporation, and foliage dries before evening when fungal infection risk is highest. Water early for those reasons — not because of a sunburn effect that doesn't actually occur. Exception: some waxy or hairy-surfaced leaves in certain succulents and ferns may respond differently.

MYTH 3 — EGGSHELLS ADD CALCIUM QUICKLY:
Eggshells are among the slowest-decomposing materials in garden soil. Coarse pieces tossed into beds sit there largely unchanged for two to five or more years before releasing anything plants can use. If you want eggshells to contribute calcium in one season, grind them to a fine powder. If you need rapid calcium availability — for blossom end rot or other acute deficiencies — gypsum or lime with a soil test is far faster. The main functional value of eggshells is as a physical slug barrier at the soil surface, not as a nutrient source.

MYTH 4 — USED COFFEE GROUNDS ACIDIFY SOIL:
Brewing extracts most of the acid from the grounds. Used grounds test close to neutral pH. They won't lower soil pH for blueberries, azaleas, or rhododendrons the way most gardeners assume. They are useful as a nitrogen source in compost. Don't spread them thick on the soil surface — they form a dense hydrophobic crust that repels water. Mix them into compost or work them into the soil instead of using them as mulch.

MYTH 5 — MARIGOLDS REPEL MOST GARDEN PESTS:
French marigold (Tagetes patula) roots release alpha-terthienyl, a compound that suppresses specific plant-parasitic nematodes in the soil. That is real and documented — but it's underground, it's nematode-specific, and the effect requires growing marigolds as a cover crop and tilling them into the soil at the end of the season for maximum impact. Marigolds don't repel aphids, beetles, caterpillars, or the vast majority of above-ground pests. The visual presence of marigolds among tomatoes is not a pest deterrent for anything except those specific soil nematodes. French and Mexican marigolds (T. patula and T. minuta) have the nematode-suppressing effect; African marigold (T. erecta) is much less effective 🌱

Five corrections. Same garden. Better decisions.

05/23/2026

Jane went for a walk through a local park today.

She briskly looped a few kilometers around the duck ponds where the mallard dabblers were busy doing their mallard things. Even spotted a single common loon quietly floating along — no call, just peaceful company.

Sometimes the smallest wildlife moments end up being the sweetest part of the day.

Thank you for such amazing pictures Jane.

05/10/2026

🌿 Happy Mother’s Day from Jane’s Garden!
Wishing all the moms a day full of color, calm moments, and something beautiful to smile at.

05/10/2026

Always looking for beauty!

Every season brings something new to notice — a color that catches your eye, a species you’ve never seen before, or a bloom that reminds you why you love this time of year.

Researching what grows around us makes each walk a little more meaningful, and every discovery feels like a small gift from nature.

05/07/2026

🌿 Seeing the world one vision at a time

Sometimes the most beautiful moments are the ones we slow down enough to notice — a quiet swing, a mountain view, a burst of color in the woods.
Every corner of nature has a story, and every vision reminds us just how much wonder is waiting right in front of us.

Here’s to taking it in, one peaceful view at a time. 💚✨

— Jane’s Garden

05/01/2026

2026 04 30, Thursday.
Concerning the status in Florida of Blanketflower (Gaillardia puchella), Gemini AI has the following information:

" While Gaillardia pulchella (Blanketflower is no.longer called Indian Blanket) was long considered a Florida native, botanical consensus shifted significantly in 2020.

Where did it come from?
Gaillardia pulchella is actually native to the South-Central United States and Northern Mexico. Its true home range centers around Texas, extending west to Arizona and north into Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska.

How did it get to Florida?
Botanists, most notably Alan Weakley (2020), concluded it is an introduced species in the Eastern U.S. for several reasons:

Historical Gap: It was never recorded by early Florida botanists or explorers. For such a colorful, conspicuous plant to go unnoticed until the early 20th century is highly unlikely.

The "Escape" Record: The first documented specimen in Florida dates back to 1904 at Cape Canaveral, where the collector explicitly noted it was "probably escaped."

Cultivation History: The plant was popular in European gardens as early as the 1780s (grown from Texas seeds) and was widely sold in U.S. seed catalogs by the mid-1800s. It likely hitchhiked or was intentionally planted as an ornamental and quickly naturalized in Florida’s sandy, coastal soils which mimic its native Texas dunes.

Where did it evolve?
The genus Gaillardia is entirely restricted to the Americas, with the greatest diversity of species found in the Southwestern United States and Mexico.

Evolutionary Origins: It evolved in arid and semi-arid environments. This is why G. pulchella is so "pre-adapted" for Florida's coastal dunes and sandy ridges—it evolved traits to handle high heat, poor soil, and drought long before it ever reached the Florida panhandle.

Genetic Relatives: DNA studies place G. pulchella firmly within a group of species native to the desert southwest.

A "Truly" Native Alternative
If you are looking for the version that was here before the 1900s, look toward Gaillardia aestivalis (Lanceleaf Blanketflower). It is the only member of the genus currently recognized as truly native to Florida. It’s a bit more subtle than the flashy G. pulchella, but it belongs to the original Florida landscape.

It's a bit of a shock to the system given how often it’s included in "Native" seed mixes, but it’s a perfect example of how our understanding of "native" status can evolve as we dig into historical records!"

Thanks Gemini for the research and analysis of this pretty and useful wildflower.