S FL Galloping Gardeners 2007-10-22

Thank you, Val and Mark for the great picture. My, what a handsome bunch we are. If you've got it, flaunt it. If you don't have it, fake it. It works for me every time. What a nice day we had yesterday. Nice orchids, good friends, a great black grouper sandwich. Everything was perfect. What was the name of that restaurant again? I remember it being The Old something, but The Old what? Thanks for refreshing my memory.

Be good, all.
Sylvain.

I think that the name was Old Calypso. The food was really good. My salmon salad was scrumptious.

You guys really look good. Nice shot!
Molly, we know you are there in the background, but it's always nice to hear from you.
Got a picture of one of the Ginger's I got at last year. It finally bloomed so I know it's a Butterfly Ginger Hedychium coronarium. Probably common, but for me a first, that is growing one from a tuber cutting " found" in the wilds of Flamingo Gardens.

Art

Art,


A lot of the stuff I "found" at Living Color are doing great. Ain't it great?

All this finding stuff will land us in the big house one day and Gail will refuse to post bail for me. I swear, she won't. Still, if they kept those gardens in better order, we wouldn't find so much stuff hanging around all over the place.

Sylvain.

Our motto is "we do maintenance for free" . Surely they can't penalize us for that LOL

Yes, we're just misunderstood stewards, that's all. If caught, all we could do is throw ourselves at the mercy of the court and hope for the best. I can visualize it from here: "Sir/Madam, we find you guilty of Grand Theft Botanical which is a 2nd degree felony in the State of Florida". It's enough to wake up screaming in the midle of the night.

The things we do for plants!
Sylvain.

You people must be aware of the fact that the present policy of the federal government is to keep all citizens and legal visitors under surveillance at all times and to pass on to the proper state and county authorities any seemingly illegal activities that do not come under the federal governments' laws. That, plus the above admission of guilt to the crime of "gardeniosis illegiana flagrante delicto" makes it entirely possible if you are found guilty that you will be denied possession of any cutting tools that weigh less than two hundred pounds.

And be advised, that at this very moment, W may be scrutinizing the evidence.

You silly geese!!!

LOL

Hi.

Seeing as this is Hallowe'en, click on the picture and spot the horror.

Sylvain.

LOL, how did you do that? You ought to stick that in the picture contest. : )
~Lucy

Hi.

Glad you liked it. It's a PhotoShop trick: a semi-transparent layer made to fit over one of the pumpkins. It must have taken a whole of 7 or 8 minutes to finalize.

Sylvain.

Nice picture Sylvain.

Speaking of, er...grounds plant maintenance, I was out and about yesterday looking to do my share. I had previously spotted these Coontie plants last week when I attempted to visit the new Ikea store. It was packed and drivers were diverted further down the street to remote parking locations. At the intersection of 136 Ave and Sunrise, on the S W corner of that intersection is, what I think is the City of Sunrise Government park.
In front of the park at that intersection they have a typical garden planting. The background plant of the garden is very large Coonties. Deb didn't want to be bothered looking at these plants up close so I filed the location for a future investigation. Yesterday a co maintenance worker and I ventured out in the rain and wind (good cover) to check out these plants to see what we could do to eliminate the crowded growing conditions.

The first picture is the "booty" shot. There were many area's on the inside of this crowded Coontie planting, where small seedlings had taken hold. To prevent overcrowding I dug out a few of these seedling groupings. They dug out as a single large grouping without coming apart or roots showing. Also shown is a female cone which I don't think is fully ripened yet, but I included it anyway just for research purposes.

Art

The second shot is of maintenance worker Art. The shot is to show the size of the Coontie next to someone so you can get an idea of how big the Coontie is, or how small Art is, depending on your viewpoint.
In this shot you can also see the "bootie" bag off to the right.
Notice how Art is wearing his "Official" badge for id. I find this "official" looking badge helps keep the "heat" off my maintenance work.

Art

Asside from the satisfaction I get from this volunteer maintenance work and doing my part to "give back" to my community, I do this to attract Atala butterflies to my yard. I have had Atala's here for two years now but only this year did I actually start seeing the butterflies. Previously I had just seen the cats devouring my Coonties.

Well yesterday early in the morning I went out on my pre sunrise, yard walkabout. I have been going out early for two reasons. The first is to get a picture of hummingbird moths, which show up in the pre dawn hour and also to get pictures of Zebra Longwing butterflies in their overnight resting place in my recently created "woodsy" area in the farthest N E corner of my yard.

I didn't see the Hummingbird Moths, but I did get my first shot of Atala chrysalis on one of my Coonties. Keep in mind, I created this "woodsy" area just so the Atala cats and butterflies would have shade and cover so the caterpillars would have a place to go into chrysalis safely...of course they aren't using this area. They just stay on the plant and go into chrysalis right on the Coontie. This is my first shot of them in pre dawn taken with a flash. I was buisy the rest of the day so I didn't get a chance to see how they are progressing but I will check 'em out today.

Art

I just came in from my pre dawn walkabout. SOS except I did get a few shots of an unusual Polka Dot Wasp Moth which had different wing colors than the usual variety that frequents the yard. I'll show it next.

I did see one Hummingbird Moth but I think it spotted me 'cause it didn't stay around long enough for me to get a picture. I will have to be out there a few minutes earlier tomorrow morning and perhaps I will get lucky and finally get a shot or two of these critters so I can positively id them.

Back to my original post and the last shot from that group. This is a shot with flash used, as it's pre dawn, of ZL's resting overnight on a Firebush in my newly created "woodsy" area. This shot shows two of 'em. I have seen as many as four on this bush resting overnight, but can't get them all into a single shot. Once I start popping the flash, it's just a mater of a minute or so before they take off. I have to stay back about five feet otherwise they see, or sense I am there and flutter away.

Art

This is a early morning flash shot of a variety of Polka Dot Wasp moth that I just took a few minutes ago. Note the wing color is different than the usual Polka Dot Wasp Moth we see around here. I will check out it's variety later on.

The picture was taken of it feeding on my Buttonsage, Wild Sage, Lantana involucrate, a Fla native. I started this plant from a cutting I took early last summer. This bush is proving to be a good butterfly attractor for nectar.

I did have to zoom in and crop it to get it large enough to see in the picture. Once again I had to maintain a distance of about five feet from the moth to be able to take it's picture. If you look closely you can see the white polka dots on it's blue body. The wings were a light orange without serious dots. It was flying slow which is typical for this species. Although it moved when I tried to get in closer for a better shot, it still came back over and over again. This is the best shot out of eight.

Art

Art, those are some really great pictures, thanks for sharing. I've never seen that type of Polka Dot Wasp either. We used to have tons of the blue and red variety, buth the neighbors removed their oleanders, so no more PDW's.

The Atala chrysalis pic is fantastic!
Cathy

Hi, all.

Art, your selfless maintenance of that coontie patch brings water to my eyes. Maybe we should recommend your name to the city of Sunrise for some kind of an award. Your idea of hiding in plain sight is great. The more obvious, the better. By the way, congratulations for the numerous species your garden attracts. Enjoy it my friend, you worked hard enough at it.

Why don't you make one of these "sandwich" boards (you know, hinged at the top) to display when you go out there: Make it official-looking without infringing on official orfanizations. It could read something like Browward Coontie Maintenance Council. People, including police, would drive by and read Broward County Maintenance Council, be happy and keep going on their merry way. You could have dug way more than you got had you done that. Choosing a rainy day was a touch of genius. Police officers are less inclined to leave their cruiser in the rain. A word to the wise: avoid doing this in front of a donut shop.

We swung by Butterfly World last Thursday. There were very few people and the butterflies were rather quiet. A lot of them were distracted by their mating rituals so I had quite a few chances of taking a few pictures. I don't know their names, so please don't ask.

Have a glorious day.
Sylvain.

And here's another one.

Sylvain.

Isn't this one pretty?

Sylvain

This one's pretty, too.

Sylvain.

And finally, I found this tropical rhododendron that really caught Gail's eye.

Sylvain.

And finally, here are Gail and Hélène in front of BW's photo op wall.

That's it for now. See you all soon.
Sylvain.

Sylvain,
Ha ha...I am not planning on doing this for a living, although with your suggestions I probably could. In fact I am cutting (pun there) back on my cutting activities. My yard is getting full up...my nursery is getting fuller...and I can barely walk forward (vs sideways) on the path to the nursery. Additionally I have many more packets of seeds and Coontie seeds to get planted. I am now up to three bags of dirt and one bag of peat with vermiculite per month. Way too much.
On top of all that, I still have to make cuttings of many of my new plants. It's becoming a chore rather than fun.

Nice pictures!

Art

Sylvain le sinistre..

grande sinistre

Is it possible you mean Sylvain le cynique, which I am not. I am only saying that if you are doing something that could be considered as reprehensible by uninformed bystanders, one's best strategy is to make it obvious.

My grandfather always said that you shouldn't steal one of the bolts that hold a bridge together. He would recommend stealing the whole bridge. That's why there were so many people looking to sell the Brooklyn bridge at one point. He also said that one shouldn't confuse God's children for wild ducks, which leads me to think that:
a) Something gets lost in the translation; and
b) He didn't have it all together towards the end.

But I digress.
Sylvain.

I seem to have a multitude of those polka dot wasps. They hang around most things that the butterflies and orange wasps do. I didn't know they were partial to any one plant.

I went on a dusk garden walk this evening. There's a good breeze blowing out there and even though it 73 it's very pleasant. The mosquitoes think so too. The breeze didn't discourage them at all. They must be hungry because they were biting like crazy. When the gnats recede, the skeeters take their place.

I found a huge caterpillar on my Chinese wisteria plant. That thing had to be as long as my index finger and as big around too. It's fur was green as far as I could tell on the limit lighting. Same thing that was on the wild wisteria only monstrously bigger.

Art, I think yall have been babying those Coonties. We have lots and lots of them growing wild here but they are no where near as big as the one you were hiding in. Maybe now that the ones I filched from Billy's property have recovered from the rude transplants, they will settle in and grow big and tall and bushy.

I've been laying low for the week, lots of work, much to complain about and then too tired to post, much less think about what comes out of my mouth, er fingers.

Val, I think you asked about the wildflowers growing here. The ones that are blooming in abundance now were the ones I posted in the ID forum. Lots of yellow out there right now and the red salvias are finally starting to show their colors.

Did yall know that Dog Fennel when left to bloom has a lovely fragrance, much like the Sweet Almond or the Olive. I have lots of Dog Fennel now and the sweet scent on the breeze is wonderful. Personally, I think the sense of smell stores so many lovely memories and these are ones I am building now.

Molly
:^)))

You picked a good day for BW, obviously. We were there two weeks ago and it was tumultuous. Never had the opportunities you had. But you took good advantage. Your pics are top-drawer.

But Grandpa was right. You shouldn't confuse Gods' children with wild ducks.


This message was edited Nov 1, 2007 10:26 PM

Yes, BW can be tumultuous and the butterflies react to that, I am sure. A while back, we saw a little girl pick one of those blue iridescent morphos out of mid-air and crush it in her little hand. Mama's reaction: she didn't do it on purpose. Who's to blame here? Mama, that 's who! Don't get me started on parents who can't be bothered raising their kids.

It's a shame because BW can be such a quiet place at times.

Sylvain.

G'morn all,
Last night I solved a minor puzzlement about the butterflies roosting on my firebush. I had a picture of this further up http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4146184 I had dragged Deb out in the yard to see the roosting butterflies.

There were three of them on the same branch as I had seen them on for the past few mornings. However this evening three more were also trying to get on the branch. Then it hit me square in the head...they were trying to get on a dead branch. They wouldn't land on a live branch, just this dead one.

This morning I confirmed what I had seen the night before only this morning there were four of them crammed on a tiny piece of dead branch. Some time today I will get out there and attach a few dead branches I keep lying around to hold up plants in pots, to the firebush in the vicinity of the other branch and see what happens tonight.
BTW, it appears I can get a better picture at night, but I might have to zoom in to do it. I don't want to scare them off and have them be afraid to roost there due to intruders.

Next, I finally got a picture of the subject of all of this nonsence in the first place. You probably don't remember, but I was originally out there in the early morning to get a picture of the Butterfly Hummingbird Moth. Well this morning on my second walkabout there was one feeding on the Porterweed where it usually feeds here.

I took a dozen shots of this critter, that in itself a difficult task as the critter is so small and moves so fast I can't spot it in the rear viewer or even in the eyepiece viewfinder .

A SLR would have made the task easier but we have what we have so it's trial and error, mostly error. At any rate, here is the Butterfly Hummingbird Moth.

Art
edited in. It is a Hummingbird Moth, not Butterfly Hummingbird Moth.

This message was edited Nov 2, 2007 11:11 AM

Today and tomorrow.......................Mounts Plant Sale.....................

Joanne and I just returned from Mounts. It is without a doubt the biggest and best Mounts' sale we've ever seen.

Don't miss it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can someone make 2 Sundays for me this week?

Hi Sheldon - Nancy
Our butterfly count this morning went well. We saw several new species we had not seen our last three counts. Beautiful weather for it too. Nice dry crisp morning at the Long Key Natural Area.
Lunch at a dinner then home for the afternoon to get cranking on the lawn. I have two pictures for you from the count. The first is the group shot. L-R Candy, MG Barbara, MG Art, Jeanette, MG student Mariana, MG Betty & MG Barbara.

Art

The second picture is of a bug that had attached itself to a small branch containing 5 seed pods. The seed pods were very thin so I was surprised I didn't see the bug before I put the seeds in. Looks like a beetle, but not sure. Very nice colors.

Sheldon, I will be up there late Sunday morning. I hope we bump into one another there. I have a red crape myrtle hybred I have been growing for you and Joanne. I will bring it along.

Art
edited in, oops wrong picture. Sorry about that.

This message was edited Nov 3, 2007 7:09 PM

Sorry about that. Here is the bug.
Art

Art: We were today, Saturday, in the a.m. Won't be there tomorrow, Sunday.

Stop by at our house on your way to or on your way back.

Rats, I'll miss that Mounts sale. I went to Butterfly World yesterday with canadian visitors who had heard about it. We always like going there. It was worse than kindergarden on uncut crack cocaine: 3-foot monsters running and yelling all over the place. I watched helplessly as a little girl ran around, trying to smack butterflies between her hands in mid-air. The butterflies didn't stay in place and who can blame them?

At one point, I used my smoothest voice and asked a very pregnant lady pushing a stroller: "Is that your son shreiking at the top of his lungs over there, by the goldfish?". She smiled and answered "Yes", to which I countered "I wouldn't brag if I were you". Gail, seeing the direction the discussion was taking, wheeled herself away as fast as her scooter permitted. How that little screaming terror managed not to climb the railing and fall into the pond, I'll never know.

Many of you know this about me: I sincerely believe that lack of parental guidance and sugar highs will produce that behaviour in kids. My solution: Put the kid on sugarless products and raise them a little between two cell phone calls. But again, what do I know? I know how to make kids but we never had any because I can't stand rambunxious kids.

But all was not lost because I purchased a passiflora macrocarpa in a 7-gallon pot that is going to replace the passiflora coccinea I recently removed for failure to bloom and collapsing the trellis it climbed: crazy plant! This one will have a very sturdy trellis and the blooms are just amazing.

Gotta go, we'll be leaving for Key West soon. We'll be back tomorrow night.Take care, all.
Sylvain.