Sign up for Happy Miles Card and/or attend Harvest Fest and get
a FREE STARTER KIT for the Next Year Flower that
includes:
-
Sunshine S
-
fertilizer
- Literature on Sunshine, seed germination, fertilizer
and Soil
- A pot with professional seed growing mix
- Seeds of Cotton Candy Hibiscus - a
seed pod with lots of seeds inside.
Sign up for FREE Happy Miles card and get the kit RIGHT
NOW! Hurry up while supply lasts!
1. Plant a
tree... or a shrub, even just a small perennial will do. This plant will
make you feel good and accomplished for the whole year, until next Labor Day
(or even longer!). You will always see this fruit of your work and remember
your motivation, so things are not that bad with you!
2. Pull 66 weeds.
Needless to say, you have plenty of those in your yard at the moment.
Why 66? Just do it and see what happens. If you don't see any happy results,
pull another 66.
3. Fertilize
all plants in your garden or potted collection with slow release fertilizer and microelements. Remember, this is the last chance to give them food and
strength to survive, before winter. Starting October, all leftover fertilizer
goes to storage, even in tropical gardens.
4. Apply SUNSHINE
booster to protect your plants from cool temperature, help to go into
dormancy and rest without stress.
Remember, there are products for all your pre-winter needs: Sunshine-T for improving cold tolerance, Sunshine-BC for caudex and bonsai plants, Sunshine-H for houseplants, and general booster Sunshine-E to cover all occasions... 50 and 100 ml bottles available for large plant collections.
Sunshine-Honey should be applied on all fruit trees to ensure their next
year successful crop.
5. Add extra
mulch in those areas where it was washed off with summer rains or broke
down. One day of mulch work will provide 6 months of safe overwintering for
your plants.
6. Have a BBQ
or simply a nice meal with your friends or family. Enjoy your holiday
relaxation after hard work weekend and recharge your Happiness for many days to
come.
Q: How to
grow Baobab bonsai properly? How long does it take to shape a nice little
bonsai tree?
A: Baobab,
or Adansonia digitata, is a unique addition to a bonsai collection. Native
to Africa, it has an unusual structure and appearance. Some legends say that
the tree was cast down from the heavens and landed upside down, where it
began to grow. This story is no doubt a result of its appearance in the
winter, when the upper branches of the tree look more like roots than treetops.
The Baobab has some specific needs, but if you pay careful attention to its
requirements, this tree is not difficult to grow and makes an excellent
bonsai specimen.
Keep Baobab warm, it is sensitive to freeze.
Place Baobab in a bright, sunny window. Baobabs need at least six
hours of full sunlight per day, so a window with a western or southern exposure
is best. If your house doesn’t get enough light, supplement natural light
with artificial grow lights. See article Indoor lighting for
tropical plants.
Water Baobab regularly during the growing season whenever the soil
is dry. Never water the tree when it is dormant (dropped leaves).
Prune the branches of your Baobab bonsai as often as they need it to
give the tree the shape you desire, pruning or pinching off branches that
are growing at odd angles or are too long. Trim early in the spring before new
growth appears.
Repot the baobab bonsai every year in Spring. Remove it from pot and
trim the roots back by one-third of their length, completely removing any
that are damaged or dead. Place it in a container that is twice the size of the
root ball and fill the pot with a well-drained soil like Adenium Mix.
It is believed that it takes forever to form a nice shaped tree, up to a
few years. However if you provide warmth and bright light, branches grow
very quickly, and an experienced bonsai hobbyist can make a unique specimen
within 2-3 years. And then, the tree will stay with you for 5000 years - it can
be passed from generation to generation!
From Anna
Banana: Shipping and planting during hot weather
Q: I
received email notification that my order was delayed due to hot weather. Why? And
do I need to do anything special if I plant when it is hot?
A: When
plants are shipped via FedEx Ground, it is hot in the truck! According to our
FedEx area manager information, if outside temperature is 100 degrees, inside
the truck it can be 130! We don't want to put your plants through that much
stress. We monitor the weather at destination, and as soon as it cools down a
little bit, your order will be shipped.
Plantinjg during
hot weather:
For a mail-ordered plant follow planting instructions and never
plant it from the box directly into the ground. Keep it in a pot the size of a
root ball until the plant recovers from shipping stress, re-grows root system
and adjusts from several days of darkness to a bright light. Move the pot
gradually into brighter light, eventually into a spot of its permanent home. Do
not over water the pot. Once you see new growth - the plant is ready to be
transplanted into the ground.
Use only quality soil, containing lots of organic matter (compost, peat
moss); soil conditioner is beneficial (pine bark). Plant it on a little hill,
so growing point is elevated 1-1.5" above the rest of the surface.
Put a good layer of mulch around the plant, at least 1-2" thick, and not
too close to the trunk as it may cause stem rot on contact.
Water daily with a garden hose until the plant shows active growth -
then watering may be reduced every other day or less, or you may rely on
sprinklers and/or rains.
If the sun is too hot, use shade cloth (or simply a white bed sheet) to
cover the plant for the first few days (use bamboo sticks for support). It
will help the plant to establish without heat stress. If leaves start dropping
- this may be a sign of excessive light and heat. Shading is the way to
reduce it.
Use SUNSHINE booster to help plants overcome heat stress, and shipping
stress. It really works!
Remember that a plant has a very slow nature, unlike creatures from
animal world. Give it some time and never rush it into new conditions. Go slowly
and patiently - this is the only way to get a reward of a fruit crop or a
beautiful flower.
Looking for the rarest plant? This is the one!
Stifftia chrysantha is an exotic, rare flowering small tree with
spectacular flowers, endemic to the vast tropical savanna ecoregion of Brazil
called Cerrado. It grows into a bushy, attractive tree between 8 and 15 ft tall
and starts flowering within 1.5 - 2.5 years from seed. It is a very rewarding
plant that blooms 9 months out of the year, starting in Winter with great
intensity during July-September, with each flower staying on the plant for
several weeks. Seeds ripen from September through November.
The tree belongs to Aster family (Compositae) and has nothing to do
with Powderpuffs which are from Bean (Fabaceae) family. The flower has 30 to 40
green, imbricated scales with short hairs, and actinomorphic corollas are
orange below and darker above. After flowering, the inflorescence blows apart,
which would scatter seeds. The dried center remaining is very attractive, like
a small dried flower, and lasts for many months.
Stifftia can be grown in full sun to partial shade and is relatively
cold tolerant, can take short cold spells. The plant doesn't like wet feet
and heavy/soggy soils; requires very well drained, acidic soil. We strongly
recommend to use our professional soilless mix. Let soil
slightly dry between waterings. It can be grown in full sun to partial shade and is
relatively cold tolerant, can take short cold spells. If grown in a pot, try
to keep the container shaded because roots don't like to be overheated. The
plant needs monthly applications of slow
release fertilizer as well as extra iron - use micro-nutrients to
keep leaves green and healthy.
See more pictures of this beauty.
How to get shade quickly... and stay away from oaks
Q: I just
moved from Tennessee into a new house in Florida and there are no trees on
the property, the yard is brutal hot. What can I plant so I have some shade
real quick? I like Florida shady oaks, how long will they take to grow?
A: First
of all, do not rush into oak solution. Oaks are beautiful shade trees, however
they have at least 2 problems:
a) Oaks are slow growers and unless you are willing to wait some 20
years... you won't get that desirable shade that quickly.
b) We have hurricanes in Florida... sometimes. A hurricane can damage
any tree, however with oaks it may be the worse case scenario - the branches
of those giant trees are huge, hard and heavy and in unfortunate situation
when you need to remove or trim a broken tree, it may cost you... a few thousand
dollars.
These are solutions that are more economical and practical:
2) Do it right. Even if you are planting a smaller tree, 1-3 gal
size, it may become a nice shade tree within 2-3 years and start providing
your driveway with desirable shade. The keys for fast growth are -
a) Good soil. Dig as big hole as possible and fill it with good
rich soil containing compost. See planting instructions PDF.
b) Water. Do not rely on sprinklers and rains. Water your tree
daily for the first week, then at least twice a week for another month. After
that, irrigation system will be enough.
c) Fertilizer. Put a few handfuls of fertilizer in a planting hole. Then fertilize once a month during warm
season. Apply micro elements for even better results and faster growth.
3) Ask experts.Contact our office for advice. We will suggest the most
suitable shade tree for your yard based on features of your property: location,
soil, exposure, etc.
Q: I want
to grow a Dragon Fruit. Should I use cuttings or seed? What varieties do you
recommend? How difficult it is to grow? How soon does it start flowering and
fruiting?
A:Dragon Fruit, or Pitaya is a highly prized, vining, fruit bearing
cactus, extremely unusual terrestrial/epiphytic plant. It has magnificent flowers,
stunningly beautiful fruit with an intense color, curious shape, and a
delicious taste. The night blooming white flowers can be up to 14 inches in
length. The fruit is most often eaten chilled and cut in half so the flesh may be
spooned out. The juice is used in frozen drinks and it is in a new Tropicana
Twister flavor. It is a must have for any collector or gardener with the flair
for the unusual.
It takes 2-3 years for seedlings to fruit, besides the variety pay not
come true to seed. We grow our plants from cuttings that are easy to root.
We offer many selected varieties, most of them self-pollinating. The plants are
ready to flower and fruit this year, or the next year.
Dragon Fruit Cactus is easy to grow, doesn't need much other than strong
support, full sun, well-drained soil - adenium soil mix works great - and fertilizer during hot months, and SUNSHINE-Honey applications for growing sweeter fruit. For larger fruit
bud thinning is recommended.
Q: I want
to order a plant that you have only one left in stock; however the weather is
extremely hot in my area right now. Do you have any temperature limitations
when you ship your plants?
A: We ship
plants year around and do our best to watch weather forecast at destination.
However the forecast may change to worse within a day or two while a plant
is in transit. To ensure your plants have a safe trip during extreme weather,
follow these steps:
- notify us if you want to wait until weather permitting so we hold
your shipment until further notice;
- make sure to track your package and be at home at time of delivery.
The only time when a plant can get temperature damage, from our experience, is
when the box is left on your doorstep while too hot (or too cold) outside.
- you may use your business as shipping address if no one is home
during regular business hours of delivery.
- unpack the box immediately and follow planting instructions. Keep
plant in shade until recovered; never plant directly from a box into the ground;
never plant into hot, full sun: protect a new plant with a shade cloth for a
few days until established, and water as needed.
- use SUNSHINE booster to help plants recover from shipping stress. It really works! For only $4.95 with FREE
shipping!
On the photo:
Adenium is the easiest plant for shipping!
Q: I’ve
just moved to Louisiana and have been wondering whether it
would make sense to plant some tropical fruit trees in our
garden. Average lows in New Orleans are 41 deg F in
January and February, although we did hit 25 once with the
Arctic vortex. I’m interested in litchi, longan,
rambutans, and persimmons. Do you have varieties that can
tolerate Louisiana’s temperature range? I’d love
mangosteen but I don’t suppose they will survive. Do you
have any suggestions on tropical fruit trees that I could
try?
A:
Average temperatures are for statistics only; it is actual
temperatures that may hurt your cold sensitive plant. This
is what you should keep in mind when starting your
tropical fruit collection:
Ultra-tropical plants like Rambutan can not survive
winters below 45-50F. However, they can be successfully
grown in containers in a greenhouse or moved indoors into
a sun room during cold periods.
Tropical plants like Litchi and Longan may take some light
frost once established. Still, for areas with freeze our
advice is - keep them in pots and move inside in case of
cold.
Remember that plant's ability to survive winter depends
on several factors, not only temperature itself. Important
factors are: wind protection (chill wind kills rather than
low temperature itself), exposure, how close the tree is
planted to the house, plant maturity and its overall
strength and health. If a plant had received good
nutrients during summer, has well established root system,
planted in enclosed area protected from winds and has
plenty of bright sunlight - it has better chances to
survive than a weak plant in warmer conditions.
Use SUNSHINE plant boosters for
improving cold tolerance of your tropical plant. It only
takes a few drops, and only costs $5!
Q:
My super sweet white sapote died back all the way to the
roots but it’s growing back from the roots and I'm
wondering if that's just the rootstock growing back or if
that’s good fruiting wood that's going to make a nice
healthy super sweet tree?
A:
The "super sweet" White Sapote, or Casimiroa edulis, was
probably variety Young Hands, Super Sweet White Sapote. It
was grafted on seedling of White Sapote that has a
pleasant somewhat-sweet flavor. The grafted variety you
had is a little sweeter than that. So to answer your
question, it is worth to give the tree a second chance as
far as fruit quality is concerned, although it won't be
the a grafted variety, if the new growth coming from under
the graft point. The only problem is, non-grafted tree may
take longer until it fruits. Grafted trees may fruit right
away, seedlings may take a few years.
We suggest to use SUNSHINE-Sweet to enhance
flavor of your White Sapote fruit, and make them sweeter,
better tasting!
