My partner, Katie, and I continued our journeys in Florida after I was a keynote speaker for the Florida Master Gardener Volunteer Conference. We took pleasure in gathering seashells on Cocoa Beach while seeing the most recent SpaceX launch. As kids of the 60s who grew up viewing the exploits of NASA, this was really cool!We’ve made our way to New Port Richey– the locals call it NPR– simply north of Tampa on Florida’s west coast. It’s our first check out there, and we stayed at a historic hotel called The Hacienda, built in 1927. It is on the Registry of Historic Places and has a colorful history.New Port Richey was known as Hollywood East throughout the 1920s. The story goes that The Hacienda was built at the demand of silent film star Gloria Swanson, who desired a place where all her celeb guests could stay.It’s even been named by Thrillist as the most haunted hotel in the state of Florida. We didn’t see any ghosts, however one night, I’m sure I heard a heavenly voice in the corridor say, “Miss Swanson, you look magnificent.”
The important things that is striking about The Hacienda is the color of the hotel, which is a brilliant, intense shell pink.This brings me to today’s plant, which is pink muhly yard. The hotel has fantastic plantings of muhly yard with its billowy, cloud-like masses of pink flowers.Gulf Muhly grass is a Southeast native plant that really struts its stuff in fall and winter months. Likewise understood by its botanical name Muhlenbergia capilaris, Muhly yard was selected as a Mississippi Medallion native plant winner in 2010. Its distinct texture with spiky, upright leaves brings summer season interest. However it’s the plant’s last grand grow that truly produces landscape enjoyment. As long as there isn’t a hard freeze, the color will hold. Even after freezing temperature levels, the flower heads keep their airy shape.There is even a choice with billowing, white flower masses called White Cloud. My social media have actually been sharing a great deal of beautiful pictures of White Cloud this month.Consider spacing requirements. While a mass planting of Gulf muhly yard is gorgeous, these plants need their individual space to achieve that filled-in mass look.As with all ornamental turfs, there is truly just one maintenance task that can’t be overlooked. In late winter, cut the yard clumps back to 6 inches prior to spring growth starts.
This cutting clears the method for brand-new foliage and leads to a well formed clump. Don’t be lured to cut back any earlier because you will eliminate the dry inflorescences that create movement with the wind and habitat for wildlife.Now is a fun time to plant this native types, and the independent garden centers I have actually been checking out have a plentiful stock of great plants to take house with you. Success! An e-mail has actually been sent out to with a link to verify list signup. Mistake! There was an error processing your request.