I was cleaning up the front garden this morning - very early to avoid getting baked in the hot sun. I have a gorgeous bougainvillea that loves its spot and gets a bit overexuberant. Consequently, it tries to cover everything else around it - the periwinkles, daylilies, and my green peppers (yep, my veggies are mixed in with the flowers). Right next to the bougainvillea, or so I thought, was a jasmine vine. It has a bad habit of sprouting up everywhere in this particular garden. I've gotten rid of some of it and some I've contained by cutting them into small bushes, or so it lets me think.

Anyway, it was time to trim the bougainvillea and definitely cut back the jasmine. Imagine my surprise when I found an allamanda bush smack dab between the two. It apparently has been pretty happy to just be there, but obviously was not getting enough sun to bloom those fabulous yellow flowers. So, now what to do. Do I get rid of the jasmine, move the bougainvillea, or relocate the allamanda bush?

The bougainvillea was a birthday gift from my husband when we first moved into this house. Since my birthday is around Christmas, the poor thing got a bit neglected and was not planted until it started gasping for a permanent home. I planted it, fully expecting it was going to die particularly since it had dropped all of its leaves. It took a little bit of time, but that baby started getting new leaves and before long it was large enough that I actually had to start cutting it back. So, the bougainvillea was definitely not moving. The jasmine, while annoying with its greedy little space grabbing habit, fills an otherwise kind of empty spot. And fills it very nicely without trying to take over the stair rail, so it wasn't moving either. That left one choice. Move the allamanda, but where?

I looked over all the beds in the front and side yard and couldn't find a place where it would flourish better than this particular garden. This bed is perfect for heavier bloomers since it gets morning and early afternoon sun until about 4PM. So, I had to be creative and come up with a solution. Then it finally dawned on me. Allamande left! Just like the square dance. Alright, so it's spelled differently (allemande)- the principle is the same. The jasmine got trimmed a little heavier to make room for its neighbor and I'll try to encourage it to grow in the other direction if I can. (Of course I'm not holding my breath on that one.) And the allamanda got a roomer new home in the sun to the left of the jasmine where it can bloom to its heart's content. I'm looking forward to seeing it flower and will share a picture when it does. In the meantime, take a tip from me and practice your square dance steps with your plants. Happy Florida Gardening.