Hazeltine 12th Annual Fall Festival

The 12th Annual Fall Festival took place last week at Hazeltine Nurseries and it was a smashing success!  Activities began on Thursday and continued through Saturday and included a variety of speakers and events.  Florida Master Gardeners were on hand to answer questions, a citrus expert, a butterfly garden expert provided crowds with information on those topics.  In house speakers included Stephen Hazeltine, (owner) who engaged crowds with a talk on Outdoor Rooms, Tyler Rubley speaking on Right Plant, Right
Place and a great talk from our maintenance department.

Our large greenhouse was decked out with pumpkins, orchids, bromeliads and palms adding to the festive spirit of the occasion, we even had a great Chicago style hot dog truck that offered delicious fare including polish sausage, Italian beef and chili dogs a great respite form my normal cold lunch.

Sharon sure knows how to please the lunch crowd, yum...yum.


The nursery is full and the stock is looking great, in Florida as in many parts of the country Fall is a great time for planting.  Snowbirds are on the wing in SW FL and Hazeltine is ready with a great selection of plants and pottery.





Sales are going well for me, my bigger current job is beginning to take shape, the pond is nearly complete, the pavilion is scheduled to start next week and the pavers are sitting on the dock ready to ship out of Arcadia next week.

This is one of the two cabbage palms being removed from a job I designed in Venice, the palms were removed to make room for the hardwood Flamboyant Tree that will eventually fill the yard with beautiful red blooms.  The men make short work of the tasks at hand installing jobs as fast as I can sell them.

If you follow my blog you know I chased Sandhill Cranes on my IN property trying to capture them on film for many years, in this part of FL they are common as lizards but I still find them fascinating, they are so used to people down here that they do not flee when pedestrians stroll past.

What a fabulous creature, their
vocalizations seem to be less in this
urban environment, I guess they do not feel the alarm or fear predation as
they do in more rural areas.












I was out measuring a paver job in Sarasota this week and the potential customer certainly had a green thumb, this gorgeous Staghorn Fern was one of three strung in the trees, a plant your will certainly find strung from a tree in my yard once I landscape.  This one was an exceptional in size and owners had it displayed front and center of their yard.

The first job I sold three months ago was to a sweet, retired school teacher residing about three miles from our shop, I am now bidding another job in her development so I was able to photograph our installation, I must say it looks good.  On of the objects was to hide the electrical box and these varigated
Scheffelara did the trick.  The boulders also provided homeowner Jodie with a great spot for her Halloween pumpkins.

The tropical foliage and exciting new plant pallet is a welcome change from my 30 years of landscaping in NE IN, the opportunity to just design and sell is also a welcome change from the all encompassing challenge of owning your own business.  I admit to missing the personal freedom but the last 90 days has been full of learning and excitement for me.

Courtyard Cool

Freshly Planted Veggie Boxes

The need to eliminate mowing often drives landscape design especially in smaller yards.  Installing pavers surrounded by plants and in this case veggie planting boxes will transform this North Port home from basic green to courtyard cool.  After my first go around with this design it was back to the drawing board and the paver sidewalk along the pool deck blossomed from 250 square feet of pavers to the nearly 500 square feet we settled upon.

One of Four Places Pavers Terminate

The paver walkway wraps from the pool deck patio around the pool to this side of the pool cage, taking a soft left turn to the back gate and finally winding around to the side gate.  Picking up the downspouts and burying them under the paver paths will eliminate an ongoing water issue.  The transformation should be stunning.

Great Pergola

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have driven by and admired this landscape design at the entrance to Plantation Lakeside off
Toledo Blade Blvd. in North Port, finally I had business in the addition and was able to stop and snap a few pictures.  What a great display of bougainvillea.  There is a sweet fountain off to the side that really sets this design apart.



The first large landscaping job I designed and sold is well under way, this one should be fun to track on the blog.  It has everything you could want;  a water feature, a fire pit, a huge pavilion, built in seating, a bar and an exceptional paver patio.  We have finished the backyard demolition which included dividing and moving this 25' clump of black bamboo.  First the men Shaun, James and George dug a trench around the plant then put the forks on the skid loader and popped it out, the perfect tool to make short work of this monster plant.

First the Trench

Lifting Out Bamboo

Bamboo Divided and Planted

Setting rough grade allowing for the 7-8" of paver base, sand and 2 3/8" pavers that will be installed after the pond and pavilion are built.  The grade appears low but once you add it up it is easy to see how everything will  fit together.

George on One End of The Grade Stake

This landscaping is only 12 years old but the new home owners are not satisfied with the look, they especially do not like the topiary, which is admittedly outdated.

New Landscaping Please

Saving the palms is a definite, orange bird of paradise and few other select plants is a as well but most of the other small plants will be removed.  The crape myrtle tree dead center has really outgrown the original planting and is blocking more than just the view.

While the heat is relenting business is heating up as the snowbirds flock south.  Soon there will not be enough hours in the day or manpower to satisfy demand but try we will and succeed we must, as we take shovels in hand and dig in for season.

Florida Flower Power

Sunset Charlotte Harbor

The variety of flowering shrubs and plants available for landscape design in SW Florida is an exciting new avenue for me to pursue, many of the plants I dealt with in Indiana are also grown in the south.  I snapped some stellar photo's of pristine plants when I attended the landscape show a couple a weeks ago.  The leaves were polished, the blooms at peak and presentation was top notch.

Swallowtail Definitely Going In My Yard

Which Bougainvillia Is The Question

Familiar Annuals

        

Digging The Use Of Peppers

Ginger Always A Favorite From The Islands

Amazing Mother Nature

Caladiums Are Field Grown In Florida

          

Double Hibiscus Show

Guaranteed To Blow Your Mind

Beautiful Bromeliads

Stunning

These are a few of my favorite things...now the most exciting part will be getting to use these varieties which are new to me.  I can hardly wait to get started in my own backyard, but customers first.

Freshly Planted Ixora Hedge

This is part of a small job we just finished for a sweet couple with a new home in North Port, part privacy and full color. 

Island Near House

Later this month Hazeltine Nurseries Inc, has it's 12th Annual Fall Festival, should be exciting we are offering classes in the greenhouse, lots of pumpkins, decorations and guest speakers should be fun and educational.  My job is to help write a speech about "Outdoor Rooms".

Next week we begin a job I designed that features several outdoor rooms including a large pavilion, firepit, koi pond, seating benches and huge patio it is going to be awesome.  There will be many photo's following the installation from start to finish.