Robins in my back yard, Weather, and Florida Sweetheart Caladiums at Sam's Club

For the past week, I've been watching a pair of robins build a nest in the bare branches of wisteria winding around my back yard arbor. I'm not a bird watcher and don't know the slightest thing about robins other than what I've observed over the years. And I don't usually let birds build nests in that particular arbor for sanitary reasons, but, these robins are such a charming couple, I could not bring myself to disturb them. Furthermore, they've not been daunted by Lu, so I guess they know what they are doing. I'm a bit concerned about the fate of the babies if one should fall out of the nest. Lu has a penchant for between meal snacking. I guess this is also a test run for allowing future nest building in this particular spot. This arbor is over an essential walkway. We'll see how it all turns out.

I had to wonder though, where did this pair of robins find shelter this past weekend? I know for sure they weren't sitting on the nest when ice and sleet pelted every square inch of the arbor. What a nasty mess we had last Saturday! The temps dropped to right above freezing which allowed the rain we were getting to become frozen on stationary objects. And that was just the beginning. The weather went from sleet to ice to snow to balmy and tropical within 24 hours.

At one point, my big buttery daffodils went from bouncing in the wind to being stuck to the ground in a coat of ice. Unbelievably, they are back to bouncing in the wind again. I would have thought they would have turned to mush. In fact, I went out and looked around at some of my perennials, shrubs, and trees that are in various stages of growth, and I don't see damage yet. I haven't been to the vegetable garden to check on the red onions and kohlrabi. I did notice, as we wandered out on Sunday, that some Bradford pears were broken down.

Speaking of wandering out yesterday, I happened upon a huge surprise in the seasonal aisle of Sam's Club. There I was, walking along, looking at all the great new urns and planters, when I noticed a display containing box gardens---a box with both bulbs and bare root plants with like sun/water requirements. There were two or three full sun box gardens but only one for shade. It was the shade box garden that caught my eye. (Luckily, no one was maimed as I went from 0to 60, hurtling through the aisle toward the display.)

I subscribe to gardening magazines which I pour over through the winter months. I'm always anxious to read articles about new and improved varieties of my old favorites. One particular article about sun tolerant caladiums really got my attention. I have two urns on my back deck that get full sun for about two hours a day and then are plunged into the shade again. Still, for most caladiums, those two hours are two too many. I so wanted to plant those urns with caladiums and sweet potato vine. And, here was this article, telling me that a caladium called Florida Sweetheart was the answer to all my problems.

About the first of March, as I began to visit my local nurseries, I began watching for Florida Sweetheart to make an appearance in the spring bulb sections. I checked over the past four weeks and although lots of new bulbs were stocked, Florida Sweetheart was not one of them. Bummer. I was so disappointed. My search online resulted in finding bulbs that were expensive, some as much as five dollars a piece and that didn't include shipping. So, back at Sam's---I grab the shade garden box off the shelf and lo and behold---Florida Sweetheart Caladiums!

Here's the best part: in the box were four different types of shade plants. There were three Leatherwood Fern bare roots, three Christmas Tree Hosta bare roots, 6 Oxalis Triangularis bulbs, and eighteen---yipppeeee!!!---Florida Sweetheart caladiums for the whopping price of $19.95.

(Pictured at the right is an Oxalis Triangularis (purple shamrock) I paid $5 for last spring.)

Broken down, all the plants in the box garden cost roughly .67 cents each. I always try to support my local nurseries but I couldn't pass up this terrific bargain. I thought I'd pass the information along to you as well.

Note: Another sun tolerant caladium, Carolyn Wharton, can be found at Walmart in the garden department in the bulb section. Although new varieties of caladium claim sun tolerance, I would not plant in a place that receives 4+ hours of full sun a day.