Growing Roses in South Florida? Of Course You Can!

Many years ago when I lived in southern England, our next door neighbor grew numerous prize roses. The heavenly scent from the multitude of various roses  stayed with me throughout my adult years.

Like most people, I love roses but grew increasingly disappointed with their lack of scent.

Since I have an aromatherapy background I knew that real, Damascan roses, the oil of which is called rose otto, or rose absolute, has an incredible aroma. A delightful and powerful fragrance which is both uplifting and yet calming to the modern frazzled working person.

While living in the USA I tried to grow roses with no success at all. That was until I found the Chrysler Imperial Rose, which has a vibrant, upbeat and delicious fragrance from it's 5" crimson, velvety, blossoms. It will bloom all year long. This rose bush likes full morning sun, aeration and good drainage. I feed ours with coffee grounds and fish emulsion and it repeat its blooms very well as a result. I have noticed that a fresh rainfall seems to invigorate the production of buds more than the garden hose could ever accomplish. Roses also like banana peels and most preferably horse compost. My rose has a half sunken pot right next to its ball root where I pour the cooled, left over water from boiling vegetables.

This is not a rose bush for folks that have children. The bush can get very large and the thorns on the canes are quite wicked.

I had noticed a few years back that the leaves got a little spotted and I added a few drops of Tea Tree essential oil to the sunken pot alongside the rose bush which appears to have taken care of that problem.

The Florida Fall Veggie Garden - Let the Planting Begin!

Winterbor Kale and Packman Broccoli 

Saturday in South Florida was overcast and gloomy, loved it! The day was a tad cooler at a mere 88 deg.F and as I wrote this post at 5.00pm it was already down to 75 deg.F.

Lemon Boys, Sweet Pepper, Red Sails Lettuce and Radicchio

I thought it would be a good day to get some transplants in the above-ground-veg boxes so I made a quick trip to Home Depot. I'll explain why I'm mentioning them in a moment.





They have just about everything! Broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, peppers, zucchinis, kale, and a plethora (I love that word) of both tomatoes and herbs. Also they have a HUGE selection of seeds available which I don't remember - in previous years - being readily available until late October.

At the moment Home Depot have a sale of a 9 pack of vegs for $2.50 - that's .30 cents a plant!

When I got home with my goodies, a thunderstorm had blown up so any delirious ideas about planting was squished.

Sunday though.....

Packman Broccoli

I planted 9 of the broccoli in the garden and, as a companion plant, also sowed seeds of Nasturtium in between broccoli. 

Other good companion plants for broccoli are: carrots, bush beans, cukes, lettuce, potato, radish, onions and celery. Herbs include: dill, sage, basil, rosemary.

Note: Various sources do not recommend planting onions with bush beans.

Lemon Boy with Red Sails Lettuce and Radish seed

After the disastrous tomatoes-in-the-ground harvest of last season, I'm growing all my tomats in pots this year!

One is sharing a pot with the Red Sails Lettuce and the other is nestled in among the bush beans. I included a few radish seeds with the lettuce.

Other companion plants for tomats include: basil, cabbage, carrots, celery, chives, garlic, onions and peppers.

I buried a ripe banana with its skin on under both the tomats here. In years gone by I have noticed they take off once their roots reach the banana. The brick is to hold the pot down so the raccoons cannot dig banana up.

Flowerlady Lorraine over at Flowerladys Musings asked me how I prevented the raccoons digging my vegetables up, this is one of my techniques. The good old brick trick! And here's my other 'secret' weapon. Our fierce little guard dog Pikachu!

"Did someone mention Raccoon! Let me at 'em!"

Elsewhere in our backyard paradise. I want to show you my rose bush, Chrysler Imperial.

See all that new growth? This has occurred over a four week period.

The rose is blooming it's head off! Julie over at A Succulent Life told me she uses banana peels in her rose garden and has had fabulous success with her roses.

I followed her advice about and agree that Roses go bananas for bananas! Who would have thought! Thanks Julie!

Monday's Meanderings In The Garden

I did have a pineapple, I was quite proud of it and checked on it every day for weeks....and then one morning....

It's a shame because it was ripe for picking (as you can see), but something noshed on it in the night.

Two weeks ago I emptied out my compost bin into the raised vegetable bed that once housed the onions and cabbages. Within a few days I was surprised to see what appears to be squash plants coming up. 

I haven't had any luck for years growing squash because of the bugs that lay their eggs inside the stems, in order words I won't hold my breath.


Elsewhere in the garden I am amazed to still have quite a few thriving tomato plants. Some are doing better than others. The one on the right doesn't have as many leaves on it as it should, but it is fruiting and has plenty of blossoms. Too many leaves would indicate more nitrogen than it needs though. It's worth mentioning that I had a horrible year for growing tomatoes. The weather didn't help and it was the first time I grew any in amended garden soil. Finally my husband said 'why don't you go back to growing them in big pots?' It was already quite late in the season, but I grew 6 plants from seed and planted 4 of them in the soil and 2 in pots. The featured tomato plant is in a huge pot. It might be a Big Beef or Lemon Boy. I gave it a teaspoon of Epsom Salts to help it along.

The butterfly garden is a little overgrown (what else is new) and the milkweed plant is just loving all the abundant rain we have been getting recently.


Torenia has grown wild in my garden for years, I have to let it thrive where it will. It defies all attempts to be relocated into a hanging pot.



I planted this Chrysler Imperial rose a year ago. FlowerLady Lorraine (see my blog roll list FlowerLady's Musings) gave me some growing pointers, and so far so good. This rose has an amazing scent and loves all the used coffee grains it can get. Considering how hot and humid it is in South Florida I am very impressed with its hardiness.