Tropical Garden #3

candele, IT's a ( STUUUGART ) variegated canna. Jerry

JPlunkek or Placenciarita, CARAMBOLA is that STARR FRUIT ?

TBL, yes carambola is Star Fruit (not Kenneth Starr, though...). The cross section of their five lobes is that of a star. Flavor is slightly tart, sweet when fully ripe, but very mild; a tiny bit of astringency when not ripe enough. The core has a few little seeds, and can have a small fibrous part --not a problem at all if you eat cross sections, but when you want to devour an entire fruit, as my sons do, you'd want to discard that bit.

new plant, Anthurium Crystal Hope.

Nice!
I love leafy cool plants.

What is the dark blue? A.V. in the background?

Stunning new plant too.

Rj, I planted my papaya seeds yesterday, thank you.
Did you ever get a brugmansia Maya?
Mitch, I do not know the name of the A.V. I buy them for a little color in the house.
Here is another philo. It is just now starting to grow, I had it for over two years.

I grow a few A.V. for color here to - I have been told if you keep a year round greenhouse they love to bloom their heads off in there.

Oh great! I think I'm going to pop a few in the seed tray too.
No, I have not gotten a Maya, and have been wanting one for sometime now, particularly after reading about their heat tolerance as a brug.

Was trimming the Rangoon Creeper, and look what I found on the Beaumontia Grandiflora

In fact, there are a few. I

wow! it won't be long. keep us updated. what would you say is the more/most heat tolerant of all the brugs? that's always been my problem...scorching heat!

In my collection Dr. Seuss hands down...it blooms all year long...but I hear the Maya, can thrive in our neck of the woods..and you know when it's summer here, the brugs are hiding.

Rj, I would love to see those blooms. I planted a few seeds of the Beaumontia Grandifloria today. I don't know when they will bloom.
Brug Maya.

This message was edited Jan 28, 2008 7:00 PM

Maya

a few blooms

okay..I'll post them if they make it....I think the vine definately has need of a maturation period before producing blooms. Usually after developing for a couple of years, it will blooms after the vine has achieved a certain size and thickness.
These are from a couple years ago

Maya is very beautiful!

Those are beautiful, Rita, and Randy! Sooooooo pretty!

Thanks Texasgal77
Rj, WOW. those are beautiful. I don't want to wait, will start searching for a slightly bigger plant. Do they have a scent? Brug. Maya does, especially in the evening.

that maya looks gorgeous. is it varigated?
RJ the picture above is that the beaumontia grandiflora?are they fragrant?

Yes, the beaumontias have a lovely scent.
I haven't been successful at cuttings on the Beaumontia, but then the vine was alot smaller. There's enough now for a cutting. I can either send the cutting to you or try and have Wayne from Zone9 tropicals help me root one for you Rita.. If that's successful, I can take a couple more for other folk.
We have put a bunch of Hawaiin wood rose to root. Will see if that works too, the vine thickness is similar. A bunch of them are at Waynes in a cutting mister area he has. Mine in the green house didn't look so good, so I moved them in to the heat mat today. I also stuck some around in the garden bed as an experiment. I did this last week, and noticed some in the garden beds are still green. Propagating these thick vines are a new experience. We put root hormone on them. I know Wayne has done Beaumontias before. I bought my vine from Topstropicals 5 gal, as I tried the seed route before...a large sized plant is definately the way to go.
This is the right end of the vine...it is like a snake, moving around all day long...it's been twining it's way in the bougainvilla...

Rj , It would be very nice of you if you could get it to root at Waynes Nursery. I am not very good at rooting plants. I check them out at Top Tropicals,and they implied that they were hard to get to bloom. I guess you really have the magic touch.
I am also interested in what they had to say about the beaumontia murtonii, such as being shorter and a profuse bloomer.
I am not familiar with the wood rose plant , but will look them up. Good luck in getting them started.
Here is a picture of a little Brug. snowbank. No blooms so far, maybe this summer. thanks, Rj

candela, The maya is variegated and is easy to grow and very fragrant. However,I find that the Brug. snowbank has more variegation to it.
That's a very unusual plant in your picture, it looks like a starfish. You have another bud in there.

Okay, will take some cuttings. I am going to wait until I see where all the blooms are at, and then go from there. Will take some murtonni cuttings too, I don't see any blooms on that one yet.
I think the Beaumontia is hard to get to bloom because oddly for a tropical vine, it really comes from higher altitudes of India, and requires a cold period before producing blooms. Now the definition of cold is kind of ambiguous. I will say that the couple of frosts didn't seem to bother either vine much.

Snow bank is a very nice looking brug..

This is from Michael D Ferrero who is a Botanist in Thailand

"B. murtonii is endemic to the low lands of Thailand and is a repeat bloomer with very flat held wide-opened flowers that do not come in a tubular(trumpet)shape, and the B. grandiflora is from northern India- it does not blooom in heat,it likes to bloom where it gets chilly and it blooms but once in the year, straight after the onset of cold."

Rj Good luck with the cuttings, and remember to take more pictures of them in their glory. I guess that they will be the last pots going in the greenhouse in the winter and the first to come out in the spring.
The strong wind blew the clips off my greenhouse yesterday and made big holes in the plastic, I had to duck tape them up, until I can do better.

Thanks,
the woodrose cuttings at my house leave much to be desired..I haven't checked at Waynes yet.
I'm sick of this wind..it's blowing stuff all around the garden here too.
Just think..in 2 short months we'll be posting spring pictures...!

I have the sprinkler system going because I am afraid the idiot that set the grass/fence on fire yesterday will come down the street and throw out another cigarette. The wind has finally died down to about 15-20MPH. Seems like nothing in light of the last two days (including today). The local news is telling lots of tales about additional fires today...all set by cigarettes. Can you tell my hair is standing on end it makes me sooooo mad.

LouC , you are not alone in this. My dh, a retired fireman, agrees with you.