Front Porch Flowers

10/13/2026

10/08/2026

Did you know that this beautiful shrub is also known as Petite Butterflies Sweet Pea Shrub?
It has been so hardy through our really tough heat and intense sun - which is quite a statement for a plant bound to a 2 gallon container and wanting to stretch its roots!!!!

This shrub can provide the cohesive thread to bring your garden design all together. Repeat this in your background in 3 to 5 different spots to have your yard look like you paid an expensive designer!!! Your flowers will really pop against the beautiful greens, and the flowers are so delicate, they won’t compete with some of the super star flower power!!

Planting now will give them a chance to be rooted and established and…help with soil erosion when the rains come!

Likes full to part sun. Water when the top 2 inches of soil are dry. Will grow to about 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide! Come on in to Oceanside ACE Garden Center!!!

10/07/2026

It has been HOT in All of San Diego County!!!! Here in Oceanside, so many of us don’t have air conditioning because we simply don’t often need it. Which means we have been feeling the heat, and so have our plants!

It is super hard to keep potted plants in the Garden Center alive, just like you are experiencing at home! But don’t give up the fight!!!!! There is still hope!!!

For this sad toasted mum, I’m going to trim off the dead blooms and totally dead branches. I’m not going to trim it all back - I don’t think any tender new life could survive without some protection from even a few dead branches shading them.

I will often put these plants in a saucer so they can soak up the water. Oftentimes, a plant where the soil is super dry, can’t retain water. If I simply water this and put it back on the shelf, the water is going to flow through and really not do much good!

Just like we go prepared with a hat, water bottle and sunscreen - take steps for your plants inside and out! Break out those extra beach umbrellas to shade your most sensitive outdoor plants.

Group smaller pots together for a bit of shade and easy watering. If you can, find unused saucers or wide shallow pots and place your smaller plants in them to retain water. Or come on in to get some of our amazing saucers and clear pots.

Don’t fertilize! No need to encourage new growth, only to have them burn in Sheol!

Mulch, mulch mulch! Not only will that be good to retain moisture now - it will also help retain soil in the rains that are coming!

No pruning right now on shrubs, palm trees, ground cover, etc. Let those leggy branches be added protection!!

And…appreciate the fact that we get to enjoy the best weather MOST of the time!!!! Makes me appreciate our neighbors in Arizona, Death Valley, Palm Springs and …happy they can come escape what they often experience in our (usually) divine coastal climate!!!

And keep your hat on outside!!! Note to self….

10/06/2026

I love houseplants!!!!! It gives me such joy to buy houseplants in smaller sizes, and watch them grow!!!!

Next week on Tuesday we have a new order of plants coming in and houseplants are included! I have a couple of special ones I am super excited to see!!! So come on in and enjoy our houseplants ❤️

10/01/2026

The dotted paropsid eucalyptus leaf beetle (now that is a mouthful) has just recently shown up in my yard, eating our Eucalyptus tree leaves. If that wasn’t horrifying enough, I have now seen them below our trees on my agave, flowering plants and our mini date palm 😱😱😱!

I contacted the UC Master Gardners and they recommended contacting an arborist to apply a chemical drench. They also recommended Captain Jacks Deadbug Brew for the home gardener. It contains Spinosad which should affect the beetles, but it can be a dangerous to bees - so be careful.

Captain Jacks is approved for organic gardening - safe on berries, vegetables, citrus, flowers and ornamentals. Check the list on the packaging.

We just stocked some on our shelves to provide our customers with an organic gardening approved spray. Those darn beetles covered my agave, leaving little bite holes - but were gone the next morning, after I sprayed. I am being careful to spray the ground where I have leaf debris, on my agave, but not on my flowering plants. Spinosad is a naturally occurring bacteria. It can be highly toxic to bees when wet - so be careful to avoid that.

So there you go! We are always happy to help - keep you and your garden safe!! Come on in and grab a bottle of Captain Jacks Deadbug brew!!!

09/30/2026

Do you have hanging pots at home where the plants in them are sadly dead? Then come on in to Oceanside ACE and fill them up again!!!!

Or, purchase one of our own hanging pots. This one is all ready to go with its own coco liner - it will love the ability to breathe!!! The wire is rust-resistant, a must in our area. Fill the pot with our Happy Frog or Ocean Forest soil and add some of our Chunky Perlite - it is just a premium potting mix additive! Perlite, especially the chunky kind, reduces soil compaction and allows plants more breathing room to develop a healthy root foundation.

Then plant our beautifully draping asparagus fern and compact Mandevilla in pink or red. Both plants love full or partial sun. The fern will flower with the most diminutive flowers! Just water them less in winter - whenever that decides to arrive!!

Oceanside ACE Garden Center at the corner of Oceanside blvd and College - we are happy to help!!! 😀