Burying the Past--A Cardboard Box Base for a Tropical Garden

"We were in April then: the weather was sweet and warm, the grass as green as showers and sun could make it..." (from Nelly's account of Heathcliff's last days above ground in Wuthering Heights)

Life grows sweeter when a difficult past is given a proper burial. We certainly hope that's the case with this new tropical style garden we are constructing in the backyard. Cardboard boxes from many moves over the past several years have been laid to rest as a base. It's a little eco-friendly trick I learned from working with the Gardening Friends of the Big Bend on the Demonstration Garden at NFREC in Quincy, Florida. The cardboard helps prevent or at least slows the growth of weeds, especially when it's covered with pine straw and other mulch. I prefer recycling cardboard to spending a lot of money on expensive ground fabric.

Secret Aging Man did the dirty work of removing the sod so that I could arrange the plants, lay the cardboard, and spread pine straw and cypress mulch to cover the whole bed. The triple-trunk palm was left by the former tenants. I'm not sure what kind of palm it is, but I have learned it's good to keep some distance between it and my skin. Another thorny plant! It serves to replace a large windmill palm that the tenants moved from the front yard and subsequently killed, either by neglect or the shock of moving it. We burned those palm remains along with some other yard debris a couple of nights ago.

Rain is falling as I write this post, washing new ashes and old regrets deep into sandy soil. It nourishes and settles the new plants we've added to our tropical garden here in subtropical Northwest Florida.

Happy Earth Day 2012!

'Get a Life!'

We now live in a tree house!

"Get a life!" Early on Saturday afternoon, these words rang out from the property across the street. I was on the front porch showing Daughter my new plant acquisitions. I do like that word better than "purchases" for some reason. Maybe it's because it doesn't cause someone else's eyebrows or blood pressure to go up. We won't mention here who that someone else is. Anyway, the "acquisitions" came home with me from a tropical plant workshop at NFREC that morning. Get a life? Who, me? Neighbor lady--that I haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet but hear yelling fairly often--do you suppose I have nothing better to do than take pictures of plants and get all excited about adding more of them to the collection on the porch? You have no idea...

It could be that the cat generates an unfavorable impression of us. Peanut does tend to irritate the dogs across the street. She's free to roam, and they're not, at least not very often. Not that she ever does wander off. There's a chance she would miss some of the excitement around here.

I spotted this beauty, Hymenocallis 'Tropical Giant,' while helping move plants from the shade house at NFREC to the main building. There were quite a few pots to shuffle in order to get ready for the plant sale after the workshop. After helping clean up in the kitchen after the event, I was glad to see this plant still available for purchase. Four dollars seemed like a reasonable price to pay for such a stellar member of the Amaryllis family. The proceeds of the sale of this plant and the other ones we shuffled go to Gardening Friends of the Big Bend, an organization which supports NFREC's research efforts and organizes events like the workshop. Do you suppose being active in that kind of group qualifies one for Getting a Life? 



Hymenocallis 'Tropical Giant'



Of course, I didn't bring my camera to take pics of the speakers, the beautiful flower arrangements designed by some of the more creative volunteers, or the many and varied plants for sale. I did, however, take copious notes of the speakers' presentations. Click on the pic below if you're interested in reading some of them.

One of the workshop presenters is a renowned ginger expert, Dave Skinner, who lives right here in Tallahassee. A retired state employee, he has his own website, GingersRus, dedicated solely to the many species of ginger, and he travels around the world scouting out and collecting new specimens.  



Ginger Costus pictus 'Red Stem Form'



Mr. Skinner had his own plants for sale after the workshop, and I decided to add a couple of them to the ever growing collection of potted plants on our front porch. They did "cost us" a bit more than the GFBB's plant selections. I've come to the conclusion that it's not healthy to be a cheapskate all of the time. Gingers are fairly hardy in this zone, but I don't want to take any chances with this investment. The past couple of winters have been especially severe, and who knows what surprises await us for this next one? 



Ginger Costus productus



I hope the 'Red Stem Form' gets a pretty flower bract like this one, but I won't be too disappointed. The spirally arranged leaves of the Costus gingers are enough to keep me fascinated. It doesn't take much to entertain me. Maybe the neighbor lady is right...



Malvaviscus arboreus 'Dwarf Pink' Turk's Cap



I was glad that NFREC's own Dr. Gary Knox talked a little about his work with tropical plants. He offered visitors a tour of the display gardens around the main building to give them an idea of what kinds of plants do well in this region. Hibiscus plants have always been a favorite of mine, but the kind that most nurseries sell are meant for real tropical climates. It's nice to know that there are hardy varieties we can grow right here like this Dwarf Pink Turk's Cap. According to this Floridata article, it's better suited for Zone 9 or higher, but it will grow and bloom in Zone 8. Even if frost nips it back, it's still fine underground and will send up new growth the next spring. Blooms might appear a little later in the summer than usual.

The other speakers besides Mr. Skinner included Hayes Jackson, an Extension Agent from Alabama who described his experience with a number of plants suitable for "tropicalesque" gardening. What does that mean exactly? According to Mr. Jackson:

"It's a landscape with a tropical feel to it."

"It's the utilization of tropical plants with bold textures and colors."

"It's the result of an overwhelming need to recreate a tropical resort in a climate not necessarily ideal for growing tropical plants."

Given the weather that many parts of the country have endured these past few winters, it's not unreasonable to expect that most people wouldn't mind escaping the harshness of winter to spend some time in a tropical resort, real or imaginary.



Secret Aging Man, a true Florida "afishionado"



While various gardening aficionados were spending time on Saturday morning learning about tropical landscaping, other "afishionados" were busy getting hooked (again) by their own particular passion. It's not unreasonable to expect people (especially those married to each other for a really l--o--n--g time) to have some different interests in life. I just wish I knew how to share that idea (politely) with the lady across the street. Do you think the offer of a few fish or--even better--a dinner invitation would help?

Keeping It Short, Simple, and Sweet--Seriously--'Orchid' You Not!

Winter makes me long-winded. It must have something to do with those cold blasts of air sweeping out of the north and taking my breath away. I'm sorry! This short post will make amends, I hope. At the Gardening Friends of the Big Bend meeting last week, SAM and I had our first encounter with an orchid enthusiast. Mr. Jodie Shumaker of Florida Star Nursery and Supply Company in Marianna, Florida, presented a program that made me sit up and take notes. I'm pretty sure SAM enjoyed it too. What's not to enjoy about Red Velvet Cheesecake, among other snacks?



Wilsonara Lisa's Delight 'Rayna' Orchid

 As noted on a simple pad of paper, here are some of the things I learned (I hope I heard what was said and then read my chicken scratch correctly!):

• Orchids have a lip or landing platform that attracts specific pollinators
• There are only 4 pollen capsules per blossom but 25,000 pollen grains in each one
• 100,000 seeds may form per seed pod and are carried by wind
• Most orchids are epiphytic, meaning they live on other plants such as trees, often high above the ground
• Some of them are terrestrial (the vanilla plant being one of them)
• There is no food reserve stored in the seed as in most plants. A special fungus attacks the seed, sending its hyphae into the seed cell, which then acts like a guillotine, cutting the hyphae for its own consumption of the sugars and nutrients stored in the hyphae
• There are even subterranean species living underground
• A small clump of cells from the orchid's meristem can grow hundreds of plants, known as mericlones
• Many intergeneric crosses may be created, and the Royal Horticultural Society keeps a register of the patents
• It would be easy to get carried away with purchases when provided with as many choices as I had that evening. Good thing SAM was along. I bought one. That's it! Wilsonara Lisa's Delight 'Rayna' is a cross between Cochlioda, Odontoglossum, and Oncidium orchids

My Japanese blogging friend Sapphire (Through the Sapphire Sky) published a most interesting post last week to celebrate her upcoming blogiversary. She shared some of her favorite bloggers' sites, including mine! What a sweet thing to do. Seriously. She is kind, gentle, and modest. I love learning about Japanese art, culture, and just life in general through her eyes.

There is another special event taking place this weekend at the North Florida Research and Education Center. It's open to anyone with an interest in nature and gardening who lives in or might be passing through the Tallahassee area. A workshop on "Butterflies, Bees, and Bats" will be presented on Saturday morning. Here is a link with the specifics. I've heard there's to be a plant sale after the presentation. Do you think our porch at the apartment is full enough? Nah!

One more thing (I promise):  Mr. Hammons has provided a list of blogs where all of the clues to his mystery may be found. Click here for the list or click on the picture of the sailboat on my sidebar. Happy clue hunting and Valentine's Day!