Tropical garden #6

i am just north of downtown. i love going down to homestead to shop for plants. you must know all the good nurseries down there you will have to let me know some of your favorites. especially aroids, and bromeliads.
cassie

fredrump, very beautiful yard, with interesting and happy plants. I especially like the view from under the umbrella, thanks for sharing it with us
last summer.

candela, the orange bloom on that bromeliad is so different from all the others that I have seen . I like it very much.
I went to check on my little amorphophallus bulb, nothing showing yet.
Here is what it looked like last summer.

blue sky vine in the GH.

Beautiful pics everyone! Ms. Rita, I love your lime zingers....they're huge!

Are those bromeliads in the ground? http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=4655943

I was thinking about planting mine in the ground this year.
Rj

have yall thought about putting some of these pics in plantfiles???

all of my bromeliads are in the ground. that one actually gets a blue tip eventually.

dhs i have put a few pictures in plant files, but i usually am not to sure of their names.

rita that lime zinger you gave mem is doing great.

ashleykelly, candela, the lime zingers are good in pots too.

My birdsnest ferns are especially big this year. Is this because as they get older they get bigger? Or something in the weather?

Fred

Yes, the older they get the bigger they get. Wait till you get a 10 foot leaf!

Your kidding me with that 10 foot leaf, right?
Fred

Ask the folk in Hawaii...they get gianormous

As does EVERYTHING in Maui.

Before I die I guess I should go there to see this stuff. It must be a tropical paradise.

Fred

ooohhh! ms. rita, the lime zinger looks so pretty against that dark coleus. and i hate to ask you this because you make everything look so easy, but are the crown of thorns easy? i'm thinking of trying some this year.

candela, what type of soil are your bromeliads in when you put them in the ground?

fredrump, a very stunning foliage anthurium, very healthy looking. I wish that I could get mine to look like that. I have had it for more than 5 yrs. It just sits there even though I fertilize, mist, talk nicely to it and play jungle music.
A 10 ft. leaf is only a fantasy for me.

ashleykelly, the question about the crown of thorns is another one for candela, she grows them. I am still trying to get a cuttting rooted that she sent me.

Fred, If you go to Maui you will think you have already died and gone to heaven.
It is definitely your kind of place. Braveheartsmom on the Tropical Zone was our hostess. She and her DH made sure we saw as much as possible in a week. Don't know if a month would be long enough. Of course staying with someone that lives there made a real difference. AAHHH still glowing from the trip only 3 weeks ago. A Ti plant is actually a tree.
Christi

Christi,
is now the best time to go there? I normally travel by motorcoach with Hawaii being off limits as the thing won't swim. A week or two sounds good. I guess everything is very expensive over there, right? I'm going to see about hotel/motel costs in a moment.

Should we spend our time on one island or what do you suggest?

Fred
PS Just re-read your message. You actually stayed with a local? Must have been wonderful.

Fred, I would go to Braveheartsmom's home page and just send her a d-mail.
Tell her LouC is still raving...she will understand. She is a doll. A couple of days a week she works at the reception desk of one of the most beautiful condos. Right across the street from the ocean. Have no idea the rates but that's the way I would go if I had not stayed at her home. She is all over the Tropical Zone Forum. We went in February because the humpback whales are there with their calves. Don't know just when they start back to Alaska. Went on a whale watching catamaran. What a thrill. The temp is 70-80 all the time. No seasons.
Jenny is an absolute doll. Actually, we met here on DG. Right now she has a thread running titled "a couple of blooms". Let me know if I could steer you again. BTW am told Maui is THE island. Honolulu and Oahu are like Houston TX very crowded and commercial, The Big Island is very rainy. AlohaHoya is in the states right now but she lives on the Big Island and came to Jenny's so we could all spend a day together. What a great time we had!

Christi,
I was so confused by all the Hawaii info about lodging etc that I had already sent her an email asking for advice. Prices seem to be around $250/night for a one bedroom anything. I'd like to stay two weeks and that can run up there.

Fred

ashleykelly the soil around here is pretty sandy and drains pretty easy for the bromeliads. the crown of thorns love full sun and like to stay on the dry side. they flower nonstop and are a pretty resilient plant.

christi, sounds like great time hawaii . do you have any pictures?

rita do you recognize these?

i am doing the happy dance this morning because when i bought a double rangoon creeper last month i cut off this small peice to see if i could get a second plant from it. look can you see the new leaves growing.

the lobster claws are opening

That is just beautiful candela!

this is a raggedy ann copper leaf.

some unknown ee coming up

candela, I can see that my baby is well taken care of, my how she has grown. The lobster claw heliconia picture is outstanding , you are qiute the photographer. I could never get the rangoon creeper to grow from cuttings and I have tried several times. Is the raggedy anns' leaf bigger than the regular copper leaf? Quite a interesting and new plant for me.
hibiscus High voltage.

I was trying to ID your alocasia, but there are so many that resemble one another that I cannot confidently specify which one it is. I can only hope that someone can identify it for you.

candela, i love your walkways. they look so inviting. your ee kinda resembles gloriosum?? nice pair you got there ms. rita!

asykelly, you are funny. This is a philodendron gloriosum, it might be a alocasia cadierii or a alocasia grandis.

New cordyline rescued from HD. I bought it for the purple leaves because I had never seen one with this color before. I do not know if the damage was caused from too much sun or cold. I know that it will look better with a little TLC.

crinum Procerum splendens.

noid salvia and variegated hibiscus.

hibiscus in the GH

in the GH.

Fred the best way I found was to cruise the islands!!! You get a whole day at each island. The food on the cruise ship was great.

We cruised from San Diego which was a little adventious because of 12' seas but the old sea dog that I am it didn't bother me a bit. It was a 16 day trip with 9 of them being at sea. Other people flew to the islands and caught a cruise ship there and if you have a problem with sea sickness I recommend that route.

I want a cruise ship that we can take the motorhome on too. Wouldn't that be fun!!!

Jerri,
a day per island would not do the trick for me. I'm not into the typical tourist views. I would like to visit botanical gardens and spend leasure time there. The whole thing for me is to see nature in all it's beauty. I think we'll do a week on Maui and another week on another island and leave the rest for another life. I've learned long ago that I never have enough time to see the things I really want to see but I never get to go back there again to do that. So it's better to do that the first time around.

Fred
PS I've been in touch with braveheartsmom on maui and she will help us organize the trip. We've put it off til next year though.