CRESTVIEW — Confederate roses are in bloom, at least for some local residents.
Larry Williams, an agent at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension office in Crestview, wrote about the flowers for the News Bulletin's Oct. 28-30 Midweek Edition, and a number of readers responded to the column.
Click here for William's column.
Some of our Facebook fans expressed favorable results.
"We have one in our yard … love it," Vickie Baker Johnson said.
"I love ours," Cam Milligan Sasser said. "It blooms throughout the month of October. Sometimes, a freeze comes and ruins all the remaining flower buds and that's it for the season, but usually it's done blooming by the time it freezes."
Other residents said they had difficulties with the plant.
"The deer keep eating mine down to the ground," Silvia Clem Womack said.
"Someone just gave my dad this plant, and since putting it in the ground the leaves have begun to turn brown," Heather Moore said.
"The buds were wilted, but one of them still bloomed a few days after putting it in the ground."
With proper care, a Confederate rose should grow into a 15-foot-tall bush during a single season, Williams said. But expect the entire plant to be killed to the ground during the winter.
"It usually sprouts rapidly from the base of the plant the following spring," he said.
But be careful — too much fertilizer can result in lots of leaves but few blooms, Williams said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Confederate roses in bloom across Crestview