Untitled

Beautiful lightening storm outside. It's lovely.

Need to water. I was able to take only a quick look at the terrace before walking the dog. The leaves were curling up. First thing tomorrow. Early.

Here's another plate out of my folio. Perhaps an insect one might see on a tropical terrace garden-- in the Devonian period.

Any guesses?

The wonderful geometry of cacti

Water-fed  cacti, desert rose and cereus. 2 tablespoons of Miracle Gro in 2 or so gallons of water.

Splashed some on the leaves of begonias and some others. Hopefully, as advertised,  the nutrients in these salts can be absorbed by the leaves.

The symmetry of the growth is mesmerizing.

Grandma -- she didn't teach me anything about gardening.

She taught me nothing about gardening per se, but her love of nature was infectious.

Her contemporary, Vita Sackville-West however did teach me about gardening. Her volumes 'In Your Garden' Vols 1-4 are a very readable almanac of the English gardening year.

The gloaming



Looking east

Nursery visits

Everglades Botanicals on Flamingo Road. UNBELIEVABLE stand of bird of paradise 40'+  with swiss army knife blossoms elbow length. A papaya with enormous leaves was entertwined in the trunks. They also have a remarkable collection of mature cycads some measuring 15', or more, from tip to tip.

b. 'Caribbean King'

I bought a robust b. 'Caribbean King' at Jesse Durko's on 70th St. in Davie for $15. He had a few different types of begonias. I've been wanting this plant for a while as it is a very tough rhizomatous begonia. At his suggestion I'm going to try to coax a Burly Marx to climb up a wall. $8 for a nice size plant. Unfortunately, I think the wind will keep this from happening. They are also quite cold sensitive. I'll plant on the interior walls which will hopefully protect it enough. I was gifted with a pull a from monstera-like climber that had sharply incised leaves that gave it a delicate look. Always nice to get a free clipping.



A smaller philodendron, with pronounced incisions on the leaf.

Lightning

Up before dawn, the thunderheads over the water showed signs of life in the darkness.

Nephrolepis biserrata, macho fern, is great for filling in the gaps. Easy to grow, it
can grow into a substantial presence in the garden. Desert rose in the foreground.

Scents of the tropical garden; Brugmansia

This brugmansia 'Jean Pasco' was planted as a 1' cutting in the backyard (of my last house). I started it with a little Root Tone and a pot of rich soil. I used liquid Miracle Gro once a week. It is a night bloomer, looking to attract some long-tongued moths.

 The scent of this plant on a warm, humid, still night, is a heady blend of vanilla, honey, with a touch of ylang-ylang. It could easily be used to ensnare the unwary.

Brugmansia; a nocturnal bloomer scents the evening air.  Deadly poisonous.
215 N. Victoria Park Road, back yard 2009
[photo: me]

Edie, she is sorely missed.
 (brugmansia in the background)

The scent of tropical flowers can be used to intoxicate visitors
[Lithograph anon.19th cen?]

...and they say it's going to rain today

Warm ocean air blowing in fairly firm this morning. The leaves are rustling. It's supposed to rain. Currently, there is a 40% cloud cover, which still has some peach left in it from the sunrise.

Noticed some scales on bamboo culms which I sprayed with a light bleach / water mix.

I'm loving my new soil mix. It's still holding some moisture from Monday's watering, but it is not compacted from the moisture. Again, that's roughly a 1/3 (x3) perlite, peat, and pool sand. The peat here is the MiracleGro moisture control potting soil which by itself has way too much peat in it. I did not find it to be 'controlled' in the way it held (or didn't hold) moisture. The rather course pool sand balances out the sponginess of the peat and the coarseness of the perlite. It drains almost immediately and retains moisture--  though, again, my mix is fairly fast to dry in hopes of beating out rot from my efforts to raise rhizomatous begonias in this humid land.

Here is the same plant 7 days later

The dragon fruit has begun to send up new shoots. They seem to be able to sprout from any edge of the branch.  One large piece that I put in with the orange rotted, or was otherwise killed as it's turning to pulp. I have enough other pieces to hopefully get my masonry partially covered with this interesting plant. The dragon fruit are climbing cacti of the genus Hylocereus and are native to Mexico, Central and South America.

Not in the tropical garden. But check out the cosistency of the 333 mix.

I've included this picture of a cactus bowl to give you an idea of the consistency of my 333 soil mix. Cactus are not tropical looking and really should be used very cleverly if at all in the tropical garden. I'm trying out a few just for fun.

Organic snail remover

Bought some Ortho organic snail and slug killer. The Ricinifolia has been hard hit though it is still growing pretty handily. It will be covered in beautiful spotless leaves in no time.

 Interesting to look at, prickly to hold, they ain't tropical looking enough to integrate into my garden.
Well, maybe one or two.

Pool sand -- be still, my beating heart.

I did indeed move the ricinifolia to another pot. I made a mix of 1/3 perlite, 1/3 MiracleGro moisture control potting mix, 1/3 pool filter sand.

It has turned out to be very fast draining, but it will be a good experiment. Hopefully there is enough peat.. one thing for sure, the rhizomes of the begonias will probably not rot in this sandy mix. 

This is from a twig of U402 ( unidentified species begonia) that's grown huge under the bird of paradise. Happy as a clam.



Watered.

6:30pm Thoroughly watered after several days of dry sun. Everything was wilting. No worry about night time chill and rot this time of year.

The begonia in the pot with the orange is getting torn apart by snails. I'm moving it tomorrow into another pot.

There was an old book shop in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, that had stacks of old plates that had been cut out of a horticultural folio of some type. There also were a number of insect and animal prints. I bought as many as I could afford. Here is one of an unidentified seed pod.

The coming fall - a hint of cooler air

After weeks of rain, the air is dry and the sky clear. It seems to have been a beautiful day from what I could tell after work.

I'll water in the morning if there are no clouds. 

I think I'm going to put up a row of cat palms or dwarf fishtails to hide some electric lines that are visible when you first walk into the apartment. The views through the other sliding glass doors in the apartments are lush. This dead-on view over the street needs a scrim of green. It will also make it more pleasant when we're outside eating. 

Planters will be the challenge, how to get the largest planter in the tightest space on the terrace. Due to the table there is maybe 3.5' from the edge of the railing to the table. It will be tight. I'll have to move the small rectangular planter that currently is home to jasmine, gardenia vine and bleeding heart growing on the handrail, though not very thickly. 

 Vertical plantings that work on a terrace are important finds. 

Speaking of narrow spaces, here is a picture by the late Bernard Lipscomb. His Greenwich Village apartment  was no wider than 20'. Using only a glue gun, lots of hanging hooks, bolts of fabric, oriental rugs and good many of his own paintings, he had turned the narrow space into something seemingly spacious and elegant. In truth you had to turn sideways to go up and down the stairs in the apartment.  Bernard had the terraces of both his and the neighboring apartment. Sitting on his terrace was like sitting in a field of wild flowers. This can make all the difference living in the city.

No title

‘Twas a sunny, dry day. No watering—everything needs to dry out after several weeks of daily rain.

Need to get some pool filter sand to try to make up a mix for cacti. It will be an interesting experiment to see if some of these will like my environment (rain, humidity, hot sun).  There are certain types from the tropics that are probably amenable to my clime. I was surprised to read that many cacti like bright, indirect light. When I think of cactus I think of the saguaro growing in the middle of the desert.

The dragon fruit are starting to wake as I see rootlets breaking out of the ends on two stalks. The first one that showed itself last week has rapidly grown and is sending branches of the growing root.  

Worms are good.

Gardening 101, my introduction to the garden

Mom- her love of plants and their flowers was a great gift she freely shared.

Edie and John aboard the Dungeness, Cumberland Island 1968
[photo: P.B. McDowell]

Just (rotting) offal !

At my friend David's today, we found this foul smelling, though interesting looking member of the Milkweed Family (Asclepiadaceae).

Here is an interesting site about the realm of the carrion flower:
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ww0602.htm#starfish

Stapelia gigantea

I tell you no lies

A very odd thing happened today.  It was very windy and a slip of paper had gotten caught in the plumeria. On it was written the following:

"Dear A,
As regards your question, the mangoes were late last year. The season was over in late August. By September there was rotting fruit scattered ALL OVER Fort Lauderdale. The evening air smelled like a sweet dessert wine. Sitting in the backyard, facing the telephone lines, a rat from time to time would run across the cable and hop onto a branch of the mango tree and disappear. This was how the summer ended. Let me know if you need more info.  So glad you're feeling better. All love, J."

That's all it said. As soon as I had read it, a gust blew it out of my hand and away.  See below.

The note was caught in the plumeria shown here.

Cereus sending out feelers

The cereus laid on the top of the soil has begun to send out tiny green-tipped feelers crawling along top of the soil.

Yellow Shrimp plant with a purple Bougainvillea harmonizing nicely 

And, while I was taking that pic, I had to take another of an old southern favorite:

Intermittent sun tucked into the never-ending, heavy, thunderous clouds

There's really nothing to say. It's the season and it is wet. I've been a year now so the changes in the weather has begun to say something to me about what and when I can grow particular plants.

Begonias will not shine in the very humid summer. This year it's been especially humid and the rotting leaves have given me pause regarding growing them at all. The begonias heracleifolia and ricinifolia have been real troopers though. I’m looking forward to them putting out in the late winter. I don't think the especially hairy leafed nor the very smooth leafed begonias are suitable for my environment.  The hairy leaves hold rain and the leaves rot, the smooth leaf types, like ‘Red Fred’ have been very sun sensitive and will suffer if there is any water on the leaf when hit by the sun.

However, the bougainvillea, orange, the gardenia, the bamboo, the oak leaf croton, and others, have gotten along fine-- except during a spell of hot, dry sun. The summer sun without any passing cloud cover or cooling rain is not friendly.  

Vietnamese Gardenia

The scent of this blossom resembles the indescribable scent of the Ylang-ylang tree.  The scent is profound and evokes a peaceful response in me.

Codiaeum Variegatum

Here is a picture of the oak leaf croton. It is bi-color, an emerald green with elegant yellow veining. A beautiful shrub. It's planted in a fabulous glazed pot. You gotta have a great pot for a specimen plant.



Stretching the garden theme of the blog, I’ve included a picture by A. H. Gorson, ‘The Lucy Furnace’.  Google the artist, his choice of subject matter is wonderful. It is important to have paintings, if possible, near the garden.

'The Lucy Furnace' A. H. Gorson

And lastly, with a little care for the plants, the terrace can add another  "living"  room to the apartment.
As Leonard says "all they need is to be watched".
  

A terrace adds another room to the home