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Love Blossoms Into Prizewinning Garden

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By PENNY BRAGG, Special to the Tribune

Published: November 14, 2007

PLANT CITY - The Plant City Garden Club has awarded the Beautification Award for October to John and Sheri Brooks-Evans of 1203 Wheeler St. They have a love of plants and gardens and a talent for garden design.

As you approach their 1913 house, you travel the walkway paved with variegated-tan pavers and fenced on either side by a white fence. Upon going up a few stairs and passing through two large ferns on wrought iron stands and going under a mobile of rustic yellow bells, you find yourself in a little portico that is bedecked with things of interest. The couple have a knack for hanging things; they hang things high and hang things low.

Hanging on the back wall, near a cylindrical wind chime, is a large and lush Boston geranium with waxy, green leaves. A spider plant is on a stand nearby with its little offshoots going everywhere. On the wall to the left, which opens out on to a patio, is a hanging plant called string of bananas. This plant is aptly named because of its tiny green banana shapes attached to green stems.

Sending dappled shade across the patio is an old live oak tree with a young acacia tree sprouting in a niche of it and a huge staghorn fern hanging off the side of it. Growing below are other ferns and clumps of white impatiens. There are many communities of growing things all around the property that are made up of groupings of plants that have different sizes, shapes and textures.

In the opposite corner of the patio, near the house, two rubber trees stand side by side. The trees are near a huge and very old jade plant in a big pot. Other succulents are on the patio, along with other jades and an enormous pencil plant.

On the other side of the house, the property is expansive. You get to the other side via the paved walkway passing a brick wall that becomes a planter with plumbago in it along the front of the house. The couple are fond of cats and have whimsical cats depicted in every form placed throughout the house and gardens. Out into the front yard is tall and pointy iris growing next to foxtail fern and other plants. In another grouping, bottlebrush trees rise above plumbago and golden dewdrops.

There are white lattice sections in several places. For example, serving as a divider between the front yard and the back yard, a latticework complex is covered with a huge bougainvillea with fuchsia blossoms melding into a dense mass of plumbago and then a bougainvillea with purple blossoms. Toward the back of the property is an arbor with bleeding heart climbing all over it.

The arbor is near what the couple call the tiki house. It is an outdoor living area with a ceiling fan, lighting, grill, old time Coca-Cola cooler chest, wicker lounge furniture, hanging lamps and decorative birdcages. The most fascinating feature of the tiki house is the interior tropical koi pond with rock walls and plantings. This is one of two ponds; the other one has a fountain and plantings.

FROM YOU

Does your club or organization have news to share with readers of the Plant City Courier & Tribune? Send your submissions to bureau chief Dave Nicholson at dnicholson@ tampatrib.com or Plant City Courier & Tribune, 101 N. Wheeler St., Plant City FL 33563 or fax to (813) 865-4449.

Penny Bragg is a member of the Plant City Garden Club.

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