FLORIDA GARDENING CHIT-CHAT #180 - ALL ARE WELCOME

Here is our new brand-new shiney thread.

We came from:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1093812/#top

Be good, everyone.
Sylvain.


This message was edited May 18, 2010 11:59 AM

and here I am still a bit tired from being up late going through my mail and magazines.

Took a walk outside and am pleasantly suprised at all the growth. I'll worry about the weeds later.

One thing I need to say though, it's great to be back. Every American should have to spend some time in a non-European country and then reflect on how lucky we are to live here. As I paid the toll collector on I-75 I felt like giving him a tip. The new ride was like I was floating on air - like water bubbles running off glass - compared to the rough roads over there. I missed my large car, a copy of which I never saw in CR. They tax such large vehicles out of existence there but have buses by the thousands. Everybody is chased into public transportation.

It's good to hear English again too. At the various hotels you never knew what language a person spoke. Lots of Dutch, French, some German and English among the tourists but mostly it was all Spanish.

Thanks for all the welcome back messages.
fred

Hi, Fred. Yes, I know the feeling of being thankful for returning to the U.S. Even some countries Europe, which I shall not mention here. make you glad to return to civilization. Just driving through the border from Canada into the U.S. brings a relief to the driver because roads are so rough in the province of Québec, where I was born. The road system is in bad shape because they have performed nothing but the strictest bare minimum maintenance for decades now. We are fortunate, indeed.

Sylvain.

I will be traveling to costa rica in mid july. I love traveling but the language barrier is hard for me. My spanish is very minimal and other languages are just non-existent in my vocabulary.

Thanks for the new thread Sylvain!

Jeremy No idea what the plant is but love the flowers.

Sandy

Dan,
where do you plan to go in CR? The language was really the least of our problems as most people anywhere near things you might want to do or see (touristy things) speak some English. For me the worst was the terrible roads which lead to places like Monteverde etc. You need a reasonably good car which mine wasn't. I had a 4x4 Suzuki which road like an oxcart on an oxcart road.
Fred

Fred,
I am not quite sure where I will be staying at yet... my mother in-law is planning the trip. I am thinking she is going to be staying at this Riu Resort, the website says it is located in Playa Matapalo which is in the region of Guanacaste. I have no earthly Idea exactly where that is at but I will start doing some research soon. I have always wanted to visit Costa Rica. I looked up that Rafiki lodge you stayed at and it looks AMAZING, but a bit to adventurous for my mother in-law's taste plus my wife is pregnant so she wouldn't get to enjoy a lot of the amazing activities they have to offer.

Fred, were they still working on the new roads leading to Monteverde? When we were there in July 2009 the road was under going construction due to the earthquake. The new road we traveled in 2009 was vastly improved over the roads from 2006. We went from Monteverde to Arenal and that was an interesting trip--some very small back roads then the last hour by boat on Lake Arenal to this very rough unloading area outside of La Fortuna. No docks just rocks and a steep climb up to the highway where our next transportation was waiting. Looking back I would have to say it was an experience and fun.

Rafiki was just a relaxation point for us. No TV either. If I had my druthers I would have rather stayed at least a week at
http://www.bosquedelcabo.com/home/index.html which is way down at the tip of the OSA peninsula. Rafiki was nice but it wasn't in the same environment as the OSA delivers.

The playa Matapolo was just another beach to us but then beaches don't do much for us. We have them here in FL too. I was more into listening and watching nature's creatures the way it used to be before humans arrived.

The trouble with the trips is that you have to go there to find out what you would want to do the next time you visit.

Fred

the roads leading to Monteverde are still the same old oxcart roads they've always been with interesting breakpoints in between where the road caved in. A car with better shocks may have made that trip a bit easier but the road in and out each side is still very, very bad.
fred

I did my walk around the garden and the weeds are humongous or spread out all over the place. I can see now that plants still bare are most likely dead. Certain crotons seem to have been hit the hardest by the winter. Other types with the broad leaves are fine. Beaugainvillas need to be trimmed of lots of dead wood. There is plenty of new growth though. The poinciana tree is dead but new shoots are coming out from the root system same as last year. It's a general mess and I'll just have to take it section by section and clean up. Trouble is, just walking around made my shirt wet.

The one big surprise that met us last night was the smell. Today I see all of my gardenias hanging down with a heavy load of blooms with a heavenly aroma. All this happened in three weeks. I hadn't even notices the buds before. The sago palm which I though was on its way out, shot out like crazy too. It's definately alive and well. Caladiums came out of nowhere too.

My grass has indications of billy bugs working the root system. Brown spots are all over the place. Weeds are also in the lawn. I thought I had all this under control but go away a bit and everything returns to its natural state in a jiffy.

My silk floss tree is alive but many branches are dead. Need to get a latter to trim all the lower ones out. One of these days this boy/girl will bloom for me.

Fred

Fred, I find that many trees and shrubs are blooming more heavily than ever before. A reaction to the cold spell i.e. survival of the plant, maybe? My gardenia is loaded too.
Glad about the Sago Palm, and my Silk Floss has never bloomed either...

One day at a time, and there are lots of guys out there looking for work that will trim trees....

Fred, it would seem unlikely that the sago would die from the cold where you are. Everyone but me up here has sagos.

I have a severe dislike for them. As a house painter in Ft Lauderdale, they were very mean to me. I climb up a ladder just fine to paint the fascia, but coming back down the ladder, I've been met in the behind by those 7 inch spikes they put out.

Not a pretty sight.

:^)))

Welcome back, Fred. It is amazing to go away for even a short time and return to a whole new garden with the warming weather.

The Hort folks at the zoo had no clue to what my UFO (Unidentified Flowering Object) might be. I've sent an email to the former Hort director at the zoo to see if it was one of the plants he left behind. I think he was the one that left the Happy Trees (Camptotheca acuminata), one of which I'm still growing despite the freezing weather being not akin to its native home in Tropical China. I will post the photo of the unknown shrub in the Plant & Tree I.D. Forum if Chuck Hubbuch also doesn't have a name for it. It reminds me of a cross between Crepe Myrtle and Tabebuia, but with leaves more like a Eucalyptus. It must have been created by a committee. LOL

Jeremy

Jeremy,

We've been talking about what's come back and what hasn't.

I was out digging a spot for a new rose bush this morning and I went to push aside the dead growth of that pineapple plant I've had for 3 years.

Every winter I dug it and brought it into the gh. This year, I just gave it up and left it out there in the ground.

Well! there is new growth coming out of the center of it. Can you believe it?????

I also dug up a bulb near the same spot. Don't know what it is so I planted it somewhere else.

That happens to me frequently. I see a bare spot and decide to plant something there, and by golly isn't there something in the ground that just hasn't woke up yet.

Molly

I still keep things pretty rough out here, no formal pathways and a hodgepodge of edging posts etc, but the jungle is coming back and you can't even see the road anymore.

It's anybody's guess as to who's diesel is traveling down the road now.

Molly,
I didn't think my sago was killed by the frost but rather by those white little buggers which suck the juice out of the fronds. The tree was turning all yellow and nothing was happening to the crown. The crown has now burst open and I need to trim the yellow fronds off and keep an eye on the new growth with organicide.
fred

PS just went shopping at Publix as we have nothing in the house. Sure is a pleasure to have wide isles and all that selection again. DW went zooming around as if there is no tomorrow.

Fred & wife,
A hearty welcome home to you! I don't know what kind of blood you 2 have but I want some!!!!!!!! I'm younger than either of you & became exhausted just reading about your hectic itinerary from day to day & you guys just seemed to keep on trucking along. Kudos! I swear that I would have had to take a week long vacation from my vacation in the middle of my vacation! LOL!

Ann

Hetty, we have also noticed that what didn't freeze is better than ever. The greenery is so full and the flowers are blooming twice what they have in the past. Sago Palm is just sitting, guess it is a goner. Shrimp plant and a couple of hibiscus are gone. We had 14 inches of snow on the ground for almost a week. Set a record. Only time in my life we have had 4 seasons. We are used to hot and hotter.

Good morning everyone.

Good morning!
Dad blasted!! My hair dresser (in Georgia) called me this morning to say she can't do my hair Friday morning. Saturday would be too late so I have to be there at 7am tomorrow ( little over 6 hour drive) and I have a baseball game (playoffs) tonight at 6. I still have laundry and packing to do. I was afraid that hosing the driveway last night was too early (regular cleanup after the Muscovies), but now I'm glad I got it done. Gave the plants a really good watering last night, but hope to once again before I go. Must admit I was worried to death a couple of weeks ago that everything had dried up and died while I was away and everything was fine. Hope I'll be as lucky this time as well. It's really scary being away and the plants not getting water for a week. I guess they're more established and don't need as much now.
Yesterday, I went to Target to purchase four of the lawn/patio chairs they have on sale for $17. Made the purchase and then could not get them into my car - bummer!! Had to return them; really short sale!! I hope I have time to rent a van from Home Depot today to go back and get them. The sale ends this week. They're not sold online. Whenever I rent a van/truck, I prefer to do lots of shopping to get the most bang for my buck, but don't want to have to drive for 6 hours after having unloaded a crapload of mulch, dirt, fertilzer, etc. It's a bummer being a single woman of 60 without a truck and with a bad back and trying to be a gardener! Not to mention having two wonderful grandkids 13 hours away!
Have a wonderful day, guys!
Marianne

Oh your hairdresser is in Georgia? Mine is in London....

LOL I know what you mean Marianne.
If I didn't have to work today I could help you out with my pickup truck....

Good morning, all!

Marianne, sounds like you have an incredibly busy day! Last minute preparations can be grueling.

Chuck Hubbuch, former zoo hort director and now hort director at UNF did recognize my mystery shrub as one of his abandoned orphans. It is an intergeneric hybrid, so it seems like I was sort of on the right track with my comments that it was created by committee. LOL Here's Chuck's explanation of the shrub and a comment from Terry in Plant Files: ( http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/58425/ )

Chuck Hubbuch:

I noticed that Soon Farms carries it, Jeremy!

Do you have a link for Soon Farms? I can't find them in a Google search. I notice that one vendor is listed in Plant Files, Secret Garden Growers http://yhst-27104608415819.stores.yahoo.net/chitalpa-x-tashkentensis.html They sell a 3 inch pot for $8.50 and are sold out! Time for me to get out my pruners and start some cuttings from the tail of the cash cow plant. LOL

Jeremy

Jeremy, in my haste, I did not give you the entire name.. sorry! If you use the following in Google, it should get you there.

soonerplantfarm.com

Hetty, I apologize for not commenting on your kindness this morning. I would not have asked you to come this far out of your way, even if you had been available. Thank you anyway!






This message was edited May 19, 2010 1:45 PM

Thanks for the correction on the Sooner Plant Farms site. That's a new nursery for me. Always dangerous for me to wander into an online nursery because before I know it, I suddenly have a cart full of plants! LOL I will definitely need to start propagating the Chitalpa.

I'm trying to get a cutting from another intergeneric cross from the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. They have X Fatshedera lizei, a hybrid that occurred on its own in a garden in France that is a combination of Fatsia japonica and Hedera helix ivy. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/235251/ These intergeneric crosses make me want to get out in my garden and start some weird science projects and see what sort of Frankenstein plant I can create. LOL

Jeremy

Good morning. Sleep is overrated, don't you think?

Oh, Hetty... Being an insomniac with 40+ years experience in the matter, I have to agree with you that sleep is vastly overrated. Opposites attract. I sleep 3 or 4 hours / night whereas Gail can sleep 12 or 16 hours if she is undisturbed. It's just plain depressing.

Take care, all.
Sylvain.

Sylvain....Now you understand why most of my posts are at 3:00am! Trying to get all the new hibiscus planted along the fenceline today. Not sure that I'll be able to get it all done in one day, but really NEED to get started! The daylilys have been blooming like crazy this week, I think finally getting one day of rain has refreshed everything.

I'm curious if anyone else is observing what I see currently happening with butterfly species. Any time I am out in my garden, I see my usual horde of dozens of Gulf Frittilary butterflies. With the Passiflora 'incense' jungle that I have, I have a Gulf Frittilary factory. The caterpillars can eat as much as they can gorge and there will still be more P. 'incense'. I am pulling up the 'incense' this year as I find it and either tossing it or potting some of it up before it creates the smothering canopy that it did last year. But I haven't seen a single Zebra Longwing butterfly this year. They also feed on passion vines and I had plenty of the Zebra Longwings last year. Are they more tropical? Did the Zebra Longwings die out in the severe freezes? Did they migrate further south and haven't made it back this far north yet? I find it odd that there are none of the Zebra Longwing butterflies when they were so plentiful last year.

Jeremy

Now that you mentionne it, Jeremy, I haven't seen a single ZL since the cold spells in February.

The world is upside down. You're fighting an infestation of P. incense and I am mourning the death of mine by caterpillars. Sic transit gloria mundi.

I'll keep a sharp lookout for ZLs here.

Sylvain.

Down here there are lots of zebra longwings. (Homestead & Coral Gables)

We have plenty down here too.

I usually do not see any Zebra's until later in the year.

I just get back from a "rambal" get some pictures.

here is a little rose that I found.

I also found a patch of true wild phlox


Sandy

And this little vine.

Sandy

One of these fellows got into my lanai. I wonder how?

Nice rambling finds Sandy! Love the little patch of Phlox.

Fred, boy, I can see that little guys face! Grest photo!

Morning, all. It appears that we have reached Friday again.