Monthly Newsletter for August/September 2013

Issue No. 22 August-September 2013 Welcome to Amelia's SmartyPlants Monthly Newsletter Inside This Issue Tidbits Moon Gardens Plant of the Month Specials SmartyTips Visit Our Website! www.amelias-smartyplants.com   Hours of Operation: Tuesday - Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. * Saturday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. * Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. We are closed on Mondays  Tidbits        Did you miss our newsletter in July? We seem to get lazy about our newsletters in the summer. In addition Paul and Marta took a 2-week vacation in July to go to the great state of North Carolina for a rest. What wonderful weather and beautiful trees can be found at 4,200 ft. It was a treat! We are already planning to be gone for 4 weeks next year. If you discovered a wonderful place to visit this summer, perhaps you want to share it with other SmartyPlants customers. We'd love to know about great vacation spots. They may go on "The Bucket List". Go to our Facebook page and share.   In gratitude for your continued support, we are planning to offer you some extraordinary sales for Labor Day weekend. Be on the lookout for our e-mail a few days before the holiday. Moon Gardens       Plants with white blooms are very popular in Florida. They give you a clean feeling and even a sense of coolness in the summer. A moon garden is a spin off of a color garden, but in this case all plants have white flowers. Moon gardens light up at night by the moon's glow; they are romantic, serene, and elegant.   Plants with white blooms come in many sizes and shapes, and some even offer a delightful scent. You can combine the size, color, and texture of the foliage to achieve the same thing if the plants had colorful blooms. There are plants with white blooms that can live in a shade garden as well as plants that can find a home in a nice vase or planter if you are limited in space.    The following list is a small sampling of plants with white blooms: Tahitian Gardenia - Gardenia taitensis   Sweet Almond bush or vine (fragrant) - Aloysia    Dwarf Jasmine (fragrant) - Rademachera  Plumeria Bridal Bouquet Pinwheel Jasmine - Tabernaemontana divaricata  Florida Crape Jasmine - Tabernaemontana divaricata  Arctic Snow - Wrightia Lantana (fragrant) - Lantana   Begonia Odorata (blooms in shade)  White Golden Dew Drop - Duranta erecta 'Alba'  White Shrimp - Justicia brandegeana   White Candles - Whitfeldia    Hibiscus  We offer these plants in sizes from 1-gallon to 45-gallon containers.      Plant of the Month And the winner for this month is............ Myrsine - Myrsine guaianensis. This Florida native went away for a little bit, but due to its wonderful characteristics and versatility, it's coming back a winner. Myrsine is a shrub, somewhat vertical in shape, that is dense and fairly fast growing. It can be used as an accent plant, in groupings, or as a hedge that will grow into a dense screen. It can tolerate sun or partial shade. Variable soil conditions and/or poor drainage do not dissuade this trooper from being happy. It performs well in neutral to alkaline soil, can tolerate salt spray, and even grow nicely in wet areas. What a versatile plant.  It is also beautiful. We offer it in 7-gal. containers.  August-September Specials Chamaedorea Bamboo Palm - Chamaedorea erumpens - is a nice vertical specimen which looks much like a palm (but it's a Chamaedorea) and the trunk looks like bamboo, hence its name. Plant in shady areas or in an indoor planter. We have 7-gal. plants at a 15% discount. Outdoor rugs are very popular because they wear well, are washable, and last quite a long time, or so we've been told by customers who have purchased them. These are 10% off through the month of September.     SmartyTips: This issue's tip to you and your plants is "hang on". August and September are truly the hardest months on plants (and on us humans too). Check your plants for thirst at the end of the day and in the morning. If they show wilt at the end of the day but perk up by morning, they're fine. It's okay for them to work a little. But if they droop at the end of the day and are still wilted in the morning, they are unable to replenish the moisture lost by transpiration and you need to help them by supplementing with a little time on the hose. Remember that some plants may take up to a couple of years to get well established in order to be able to withstand the intense August/September heat. Other plants, like many of the Crotons, may always need a little extra TLC in the middle of the hot summer months.   If you fertilized in the last couple of months, wait until we get steady rains to fertilize again. A light fertilizer application would be nice for the plants at the end of the summer. It is too hot and too dry to fertilize now. Remember that we are in the midst of hurricane season. Be sure to prepare your garden for the event of strong winds by properly pruning and thinning out your trees. Please do not "hat rack" them.    Thank you for your continued support. Marta Edwards and Paul Harding Amelia's SmartyPlants Your Full-Service Garden Center www.amelias-smartyplants.com Landscape Design Center * Native Plants * Environmental/Organic Products * Garden Tools and more...  1515 North Dixie Highway Lake Worth, FL 33460 (561) 540-6296 or (561) 540-6330 Hours: Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. * Saturday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. * Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed on Mondays