Boxwoods in South Florida?

CCC

As an avid gardener, I was saddened when I moved to South Florida that I could no longer have boxwoods in my garden. In Virginia, I loved and coddled my boxwoods, watching them slowly grow to maturity. Every snowfall I would be out in the garden gently brushing off the snow so their brittle branches would not be broken.

The Chinoiserie Entrance

Carolyne Roehm's Charleston Home

It is interesting to me that over more than a decade of Chinoiserie Chic, I have found very few homes to post about with Chinoiserie at the front entrance. Carolyne Roehm's Charleston home is a lovely example with several pairs of topiaries in blue and white Chinese porcelain. Since English boxwood does not like South Florida, Eugenia is used here instead and is easily found in all of these topiary shapes. Lowe's and Home Depot sell them in abundance. Also note the pair of smaller containers with English ivy. I have really been enjoying working in the garden here. It's lovely to be able to garden all year long. Gardening in sand is also much different than the heavy clay soil I am so used to. It is so much easier to plant things, but on the negative side the lack of nutrients in the sand make diligent fertilizing necessity. And this time of year armadillos are having their babies and like digging up the yard. Such unusual looking animals! And the other day there was a pair of baby sandhill cranes in the yard.

Gardening in Florida Chinoiserie Style

Carolyne Roehm

I love gardening and really fell in love with the bones of my Florida property - a very large corner lot with a huge lanai and pool sited right on a lake, with mature live oaks and gorgeous palm trees. Unfortunately, the divorced man who owned the property had really ignored the garden and it was in poor shape when I moved in - even had the painted red mulch!

Well fast forward a few months of my watering, fertilizing, pruning, and general TLC and the yard is gorgeous. I was able to keep everything I had and filled in bare spots with a camellia bed, large Eugenia topiaries, agave, bromeliads, and topped everything with nice dark brown double shredded hardwood mulch.

Now comes the fun part. I am really enjoying using blue and white Chinese porcelain outdoors here in Sarasota. So far, I have used primarily ginger jars and garden stools, but would love to add some boxwoods in blue and white Chinese planters.

Two problems - English boxwoods don't grow here in South Florida and I don't have drainage holes in my blue and white Chinese porcelain containers. I take the palms out of my blue and white Chinese porcelain fishbowls to water them. Fun fact - I chose Areca palms because I live on Areca Boulevard. Every street where I live is named after a palm.

1. Has anyone successfully drilled drainage holes in Chinese porcelain? Tips?

2. What is a good substitute for English boxwood in South Florida? Perhaps Japanese boxwood?

Next question for you gardening experts. I have three of these shrubs in my garden and they were in horrible shape when I moved in. I debated yanking them. Now they are looking much better - but what are they? Beautyberry perhaps? They have small white flowers at the end of arching stems that turn into berries/fruit as you can see. The leaves look like variegated dogwood but the flowers and berries are not consistent. My best guess as I said is Variegated Beautyberry - perhaps Callicarpa Dichomata????

And next subject.....

When I moved in, the flower bed in the lanai was pathetic with 2 dying ferns. I decided to see what a little TLC would do for them. Now I have a bed with dozens of ferns, some almost 4 feet tall. And it has turned into a little resort for lots of my gecko friends - their correct named is Brown Anoles. I even have babies. The top one pictured below has become my buddy and pops out of the ferns whenever I am over there and listens to me talk to him - they hear and see very well. I even put a blue and white Chinese porcelain water bowl there for them.

Autumn and Chinoiserie DIY

Jonathan Adler

 I have shared this one before, but it is always so popular that it bears repeating. Get a pair of these fantastic and cheap Chinese Chippendale planters at Home Depot available in both 14" and 18." Spray paint them orange - I like Rustoleum Orange Gloss. Use them indoors with a pair of fiddle leaf fig trees, palms, or ficus, or outdoors with mums or boxwoods. This is fall decorating with Chinoiserie Chic style.