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The Color Red Makes This A Beauty

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By CASSANDRA BANNING

Special to the Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

PLANT CITY - Jamie Rucoba and Maria Fuentes on Teakwood Drive have been awarded the Plant City Garden Club's beautification award for July.

They have lived in their home for 12 years as their yard and gardens have grown and expanded. The first thing that strikes you as you approach their home is Fuentes' love of color, especially red, and not just in flowering plants but also in the colorful foliage that is interspersed with the flowers.

Curbside you see red crape myrtle, red hibiscus and loropetalum, with its red leaf foliage setting the stage for the Japanese blueberry topiaries standing tall in the front of the home. Crotons surround the trees in the front yard, with pink jatropha and pink bougainvillea supplying color near the oak tree.

Going up the walkway toward the front door is gold mound duranta planted to give the walkway the illusion of curves. The red foliage of the loropetalum adds contrast to the gold mound duranta, making a striking combination. A pigmy palm adds height and the white impatiens in the planters brighten an area that would otherwise melt into the background.

Potted plants of geraniums, Christmas cactus and allamanda announce the entrance of the home.

As we walked around the yard admiring the flowers, shrubs and acco, the couple's four daughters accompanied us. As all gardeners do, Fuentes could not help plucking an errant weed or a flower past its prime that caught her attention. It was obvious that she is teaching her daughters about gardening as they would also look for and pluck any weeds.

Azaleas and ti lants grace the side yard. The graceful scalloped flower beds of the back and left side of the house feature queen palms; variegated ginger and hibiscus, crotons, gold mound duranta and pigmy palms as well as potted containers of tibouchina, variegated dracaena and kalanchoe. Thryallis and dianella highlight the lamppost.

Fuentes has taken the time and patience to landscape not just the front of their home but also the sides and back, so they enjoy beauty wherever they are in their yard. Her use of color, texture and size of the plants as well as the shapes of the beds leads you from one area to the next.

Cassandra Banning is the president of the Plant City Garden Club.

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