{"id":527,"date":"2011-03-11T03:34:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T03:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/03\/florida-discoveries-4-springtime-on-the-panhandle-part-i.html"},"modified":"2011-03-11T03:34:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-11T03:34:00","slug":"florida-discoveries-4-springtime-on-the-panhandle-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/03\/florida-discoveries-4-springtime-on-the-panhandle-part-i.html","title":{"rendered":"Florida Discoveries 4: Springtime on the Panhandle…Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know, it’s only March 10th, and many of my readers (I get 50 new visitors per day now, by the way!) are still sitting underneath snowpacks. But here on the Florida Panhandle, the brief winter* we had has definitely given way to spring: complete with thunderstorms, tornadoes, allergies and weeds! Things were brown when I left for Nebraska, and were green and pollen-ey when I returned 5 days later!<\/p>\n

*YES — we experienced a real winter here! <\/i>It even snowed a little on Christmas Day in Pensacola<\/i><\/a>!<\/i><\/p>\n

I thought I’d share some pictures of the flora and fauna that have greeted us in the past couple weeks. Last year in Nebraska was especially fun<\/a>, and I hope to get around the neighborhood more this weekend and capture some of the local redbuds.<\/p>\n

First of all, upon my return from Nebraska on Feb. 27th, these shrubs in the front of the house had just started blooming:<\/p>\n

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From a distance, they look like azaleas, right? But that’s not what they are. After some seemingly-random Googling of “pink flowers Florida Panhandle” and things like that, the term “Chinese Fringe Flower” appeared and I chose it. And there you go. This is the loropetalum<\/i> plant, also known as “Chinese witch hazel” or “Chinese fringe flower”.<\/p>\n

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I have two varieties in my front yard landscaping: <\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s one with my oldest son next to it for scale. The shrubs aren’t very tall:
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I went to my favorite resource for flora information, my friendly neighborhood Cooperative Extension Service! University of Florida’s IFAS briefing on the loropetalum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I was also curious about how long these plants had been used as landscaping, since I’ve NEVER seen them until now! Here’s some historical information from Mississippi State’s Cooperative Extension Service<\/a>. Looks like only since the early 1990s.<\/p>\n

If only this blog had Scratch-n-Sniff! The flowers are quite fragrant!<\/p>\n

I’m particularly intrigued with the way the flower buds open up, reminding me of a butterfly coming out of its chrysalis, with the huge antennae uncoiling.<\/a><\/p>\n

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I know, it’s only March 10th, and many of my readers (I get 50 new visitors per day now, by the way!) are still sitting underneath snowpacks. But here on the Florida Panhandle, the brief winter* we had has definitely given way to spring: complete with thunderstorms, tornadoes, allergies and weeds! Things were brown when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[],"tags":[126,123,97,124,626,51,125],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ycQ0-8v","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":528,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/03\/florida-discoveries-4-springtime-on-the-panhandle-part-ii.html","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":0},"title":"Florida Discoveries 4: Springtime on the Panhandle…Part II","date":"11 March 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Part II = The fauna!Springtime in Florida also means the bugs and animals are all coming out of the woods, the ponds, the ground, etc. \u00a0I've already seen more than my share of millipedes in the yard and on my porch, plenty of mosquito hawks, and of course the birds\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"anole\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/_yz59FVsseJY\/TXmNgu5bLtI\/AAAAAAABRis\/2BzrByim4Gc\/s640\/IMG_6779.JPG?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":652,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/09\/florida-discoveries-19-you-cant-grow-hops-in-florida.html","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":1},"title":"Florida Discoveries 19: You Can’t Grow Hops in Florida!!","date":"28 September 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Many of my more loyal readers know that in Nebraska Dave and I were able to grow hops in our backyard. \u00a0We had a cool landlord\/homeowner who gave Dave permission to dig up part of our backyard and string up trellises to grow hops (among other fruits and veggies).In\u00a0summer 2009\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"florida discoveries\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-sKmVquO3j14\/SmfWYljsEHI\/AAAAAAAArHM\/BkLAaH-VL8o\/s640\/IMG_1627.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1959,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2013\/03\/florida-discoveries-40-the-mcguires-st-patricks-day-run.html","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":2},"title":"Florida Discoveries 40: The McGuire’s St. Patrick’s Day Run","date":"26 March 13","format":false,"excerpt":"A couple weeks ago we took part in another Florida Panhandle tradition: the McGuire's St. Patrick's Day 5K Prediction Run on March 9th. This is a race that rewards not how fast you can run, but how close you finish to a time you predict at registration time. It happens\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"fitness\"","img":{"alt_text":"Just before race time!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/IMG_5930-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":619,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/07\/florida-discoveries-15-great-blue-heron-in-action.html","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":3},"title":"Florida Discoveries 15: Great Blue Heron in Action!","date":"24 July 11","format":false,"excerpt":"First of all, I learned that it's \"heron\" and not \"huron\". \u00a0Oops. \u00a0I was wondering why my Google searches kept directing me to Michigan-related websites...Last night Dave and I went on a good old fashioned DATE! \u00a0The kids are visiting grandparents in the northeast through next weekend, and even though\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"bird watching\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-mcyQ5xOEAb8\/TiuZJ8eMNLI\/AAAAAAABYho\/kqhim4UZw7U\/s640\/IMG_5340.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":564,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/05\/florida-discoveries-11-magnolias-oleander-and-other-florida-flora.html","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":4},"title":"Florida Discoveries 11: Magnolias, Oleander and Other Florida Flora","date":"10 May 11","format":false,"excerpt":"We moved here in November, and by then most of the growing season was over. \u00a0So we've been greeted with all sorts of surprises over the past several weeks. \u00a0I've been taking lots of pictures of the pretty flowers blooming around here. Unfortunately, these past few days all my photography\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"florida discoveries\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/_yz59FVsseJY\/Tcg-zhKJFvI\/AAAAAAABVjo\/Y7W2A7ZgShc\/s640\/IMG_4610.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":537,"url":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/2011\/03\/florida-discoveries-6-azaleas-but-while-i-have-your-attention-azalea-queen-no-more.html","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":5},"title":"Florida Discoveries 6: Azaleas! But While I Have Your Attention: Azalea Queen No More?","date":"28 March 11","format":false,"excerpt":"Do we look like a bunch of pretty little azaleas to you? \u00a0Nah, didn't think so...I still have my dress today, but can't zip it up past my belly-button.At first I was just going to post pictures of the all the beautiful azaleas I've seen on the Florida Panhandle these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"azalea\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/_yz59FVsseJY\/TYue8JO4ojI\/AAAAAAABSL0\/8PUSkLxc8S8\/s640\/scan0004.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevollmerfamily.com\/MajorMom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}