Sally Scalera

Brevard County Horticulture Extension Agent
3695 Lake Drive -- Cocoa FL 32926 -- 321-633-1702

Discount store plants

May 14, 2005

After the cold, short days of winter, it’s natural to start working in the yard and planting new things. I was recently in a discount chain store that was selling boxed plants and as I looked through the selection (after all, if I see plants I have to check them out) I started realizing that many of these plants probably won’t do well, if grow at all, here in Brevard. I wrote down everything that I saw and came back and researched the ones I wasn’t sure about and here are my findings. I will divide them up into the following categories; not good for our area, might work, good for our area and invasive – not recommended to be planted at all.

Let’s start off with the plants that are not good for our area (because we don’t get enough cold weather or we are too hot for them.)

Columbine (Aquilegia sp.) is a native wildflower for north Florida and since this is a hybrid too, I don’t think this would be easy to grow here in Brevard County.

Astilbes are for USDA hardiness zones 4-8 and we are 9b.

Clematis is OK for north Florida but not for central or south Florida.

Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) needs a lot of cold temperatures to produce the flowers and it isn’t even mentioned in our Bulbs for Florida bulletin.

Hosta is fine for north Florida but down here consider yourself lucky to have any plants survive.

Peony (Paeonia sp.) is another plant that is for more northern areas. Raspberries are generally not recommended for the southeast U.S..The store had cultivars ‘Latham’ & ‘Heritage’ and only ‘Heritage’ has been grown as an annual crop during the winter in the southern parts of the state after receiving the chilling required.

Seedless grapes, the cultivars ‘Concord’, ‘Himrod’ and ‘Niagra’ where also for sale. There are a couple of problems with this plant because one) I never found any of those cultivars listed and two) we divide grapes up by bunch or muscadine and this is important because their trellising and pruning practices are different. I guess it doesn’t matter that all they say “seedless” since I would not recommend these for Florida anyway.

Next, let’s talk about plants that might work here in Brevard County.

Baby’s breath is actually grown here in Florida in mulched beds from September to Mother’s day. The only question I have about this plant is if it will grow all right through the warmer months.

Balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus) is said to grow in our zone and like full sun to partial shade and needs regular watering. I haven’t seen anyone growing this plant around the county so that is why I am cautious about recommending it.

Daylilies do well here but I am not sure of the cultivar ‘Frans Hals’. When I searched the Internet for ‘Frans Hals’ I found it sold way up north so I think it is a type of dormant daylily, whereas evergreen daylilies do best here in Central Florida.

Phlox ‘Prime Minister’ might work here since there are some other phlox that grow well here. Once again because I don’t have any personnal experience growing this and I don’t know if anyone has had any success growing it I am putting it in the “might work” category.

Here are the plants that are good for our area.

Blazing star (Liatrus spicata) is a native and a great plant to add to your landscape. Blazing star is also a great butterfly nectar plant.

Christmas fern is being grown over on Merritt Island by Master Gardener Carroll Holland. He said that it does well here and needs a shady location with moist soil.

Echinacea is another native wildflower that produces large daisy type flowers in either purple or white. It is also a nectar plant for butterflies.

Perovskia is also called Russian sage. It needs full sun, well-drained soil and is also drought tolerant.

Goldstrum rudbeckia is a good flowering perennial for us. Make sure to give it a location that receives full sun and well-drained soil. This perennial is often planted in mass plantings and is a popular cut flower.

Autumn joy sedum is a great ground cover that even has it’s own bulletin in our Horticulture Department’s fact sheets.

Red hot poker is actually a native of South Africa but it grows great in zones 5-10. t is also great for attracting hummingbirds. Give the plants full sun, well-drained soil and regular to ample water. The blooming period lasts a long time and can be lengthened by removing the spent flower spikes.

Veronica also has a bulletin in our Horticulture Department but there is a big note of caution because some types of Veronica are serious lawn weeds and I can’t say that what is for sale may not end up being one of those lawn pests! The bulletin mentions that these plants prefer partial shade and should be planted in zone 9 in March and April. They don’t recommend this plant for zone 10, which is more like Merritt Island and the beaches. Veronica is also susceptible to drought.

I have one more plant that was in a category all of its own and it is invasive and not recommended to be planted at all. The plant in question is the Elephant ears (Colocasia esculenta). The reason for this is that it spreads into natural areas and becomes a pest. It is on the Category I list for the Florida EPPC (Exotic Pest Plant Council) list. There are other elephant ears in the genus Alocasia and Xanthosoma that do not spread by runners and are recommended.

The gist of this article is that just because you see a plant for sale doesn’t mean that it is automatically good for our area. If you see a plant that you are interested in but you’re not familiar with it, then do a little research on the computer or give us a call and we will help you. The best searches are done using the plant’s Latin name. f you want to research it on your own, or over the weekend when we’re not available, then check out these two websites. The first site is http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ and the second site is http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/. In EDIS there is a search window in the upper left corner that you can type in a word or phrase and then click “search edis”. You can also search by topic index. In the horticulture department you can click on Info. center, plant info. databases and then Departmental Publication Search Engine. You can type in any word and then hit search.

Nothing is worse then buying a plant thinking that it will be easy to grow and then finding out it is actually the exact opposite.