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Benders Lush Yard Is Garden Of The Month

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By PENNY BRAGG, Special to the Tribune

Published: October 3, 2007

Updated: 10/01/2007 11:22 pm

PLANT CITY - Chris and Jane Bender and their daughter, Sara, of 1501 Topier Road, are the recipients of the Plant City Garden Club Beautification Award for September.

The house is on a cul-de-sac, where the angle of the house and yards is such that the eye can take in some of the back, all of the front, and part of the sides of the property.

When the Benders moved there five years ago, they had plenty of 'elbow room' because there was only one other house in the area. Since then, along with the neighborhood that sprung up around them, their plantings have matured and are providing privacy as well as beauty.

For example, along the fence in the back yard, visible from the front, is a row of crape myrtle trees; white ones alternate with pink ones along the length of the fence and are in full bloom now.

When the Benders moved from their 9-acre cattle and citrus farm in Springhead, they brought a red-blossomed jatrophe with them and planted it at the left corner of the house. It is a family keepsake because Jane Bender's father owned the original tree, which he called the 'good morning tree.'

She said her father air layered the original by removing bark to the cambium layer and putting moss in place. When new roots emerged, he was able to produce new trees from those roots and gave a tree to each member of the family.

Along the front of the house is a hedge of white plumbago with what looks to be large double blossoms. The white hedge, with the white blooms of the topiary Confederate jasmine on either side of the front door, complement the white trim of the house. Along the front of the garage is a hedge of roses. The red of the roses echoes the red of the front door and the shutters.

The Benders use roses throughout their yard.

Past a group of three slash pines in the right side yard is a fence covered with Confederate jasmine and the blue variety of plumbago. The white and the blue of the flowers on the green foliage is not only lovely, but it also provides screening from the road beyond the fence.

Against the house is an assortment of plants. A Japanese blueberry bush with elongated, deep green colored leaves punctuates the corner of the house. Next to it are Don Juan divinity roses, and above them is a wooden arbor sporting fishtail fern.

Out into the lawn is a winged elm with its cardboard-looking 'runners' adhering to the branches. Back against the house is a less common kind of viburnum called the whorled class variety. It is a compact shrub with dark green and tiny foliage that bears small white blossoms. Another Japanese blueberry turns the corner to the backyard.

A row of Hawthorn bushes leads to Chris Bender's bonsai area. He has been successful with his varieties of miniature plants including the wisteria, fichus, azalea (hanging and dogwood), Japanese red pine and Japanese black pine.

A large and lush lugustrum lends cooling shade to the screened porch.

Bender said the back yard is a work in progress.

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

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