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Garden at Lutz home fills with rare plant

 
The gardens of Barry Schwartz and Debby DeGraaff in Lutz surround their home with an amazing and year round colorful landscape.
The gardens of Barry Schwartz and Debby DeGraaff in Lutz surround their home with an amazing and year round colorful landscape.
Published Nov. 25, 2016

The gardens of Barry Schwartz and Debby DeGraaff in Lutz have been growing for 21 years with gorgeous and very unusual plants.

Before they built their current home, the two had already been gardening for 15 years. When they moved their plants to the new place, it took 60 loads to get them there. And they have multiplied greatly since.

Debby specializes in her crinum lily beds and at least a half a dozen were blooming along the road before we turned into the driveway.

Debby met Barry when he was teaching classes on horticulture at the University of Chicago. They both worked for the same company.

Barry has been in nature and plants for most of his life. As a child he grew beautiful perennials and annuals in New York. He retired three years ago and the gardens are now his first focus. Barry has breeded ti plants (cordylines) and has selected a number of amazing new varieties. He is very involved in the Aroid & Tropical Plant Club of Tampa and has given several programs on these plants. He is also proud to be a member of the International Aroid Society and a former board member.

He is also part of the Rare Plant Network in St. Petersburg. Never have I seen so many uncommon plants. One of the most interesting is the cassabanana (sicana odorifera), a vine that can grow 50 feet and can suffocate a tree. Barry had started his from seeds in the spring. It has yellow flowers that turn into a cylinder that can get up to two feet long and five inches thick.

His were about a foot long so far and still glossy green. When ripe they can turn red, maroon, purple, even black. It takes a machete to open them, but the yellow flesh has the taste and texture of cantaloupe or peaches. He can't wait to taste it. The fruit has a sweet fragrance. He got the seeds form Baker Creek Nursery on the web.

Gardeners who come are overwhelmed with the unusual plants, the many different philodendrons, crotons, and especially the ti plants with so many different colors and shapes. Those who are not gardeners would only see a lovely home and neat and colorful landscape. But even they would be surprised at the size of the gardens, 3/4 of their 1.1 acre, and the thousands of plants. Barry has 1,200 pots of ti plants. He also has zinnias and a thriving vegetable garden.

Behind the house is a lovely swimming pool in a screened enclosure. Barry had put out a few of his stained glass mosaics, also of plants.

This man must work from morning to night but he seems completely happy about it. He and Debby work together and share the fruits of their labor, especially the vegetables and fruit trees.

Two greenhouses contain 50 years of acquiring and growing rare and unusual plants. The bulk of the collection is mostly aroids and palms as well as many families of tropicals. His cordylines and crotons are colorful year round. Who says we don't have fall colors here in Florida.

They water by hand! They do have the greenhouses on a simple timer and generally feed plants with many different things depending on their needs. It is hard with so many varieties.

It is impossible to say what plants they like best because they love them all. They feel that gardening enriches their lives in many ways, allows them to meet the nicest and most interesting people and to revel in the wonders of nature.

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Monica Brandies is an experienced gardener and author of 12 gardening books. She has a degree in horticulture and is an alumni fellow from Temple University. She can be reached at monicabrandies@yahoo.com. Her website is gardensflorida.com.