The morrow

brought a warm sunny day. The direct sun was very warm. That was sunday. The best of company (my oldest friend) is coming for a visit this weekend. I cleaned / organized the terrace as much as was possible for this royal visit, however large bags of soil are still waiting to be used in the large square planter. A vine is in order, mandevilla?  Haven't been able to water for a few days, it's been warm and sunny so the crowd is thirsty and there are some curling leaves. I'll try to get up early tomorrow to do the needful.



The portico at Plum Orchard. The drive is lined with Cedar of Lebanon.  

Today I bought

a Chamaedorea seifrizii, aka bamboo palm. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Anon. comments

Someone has recommended Mandevilla for the handrails-- specifically mandevilla x amoena 'alice dupont'.  After some research, it looks like a good replacement candidate for the white bleeding heart which I've had no luck with. I'm also going to step up to a larger planter, which will need to be horizontal... 70L x 21W x 17H inches would be the dimensions. I wonder about  wood in the sun and rain. They also mentioned that mandevilla was very sensitive to cholorine and should be watered with water that's been left out for a day.
I've never thought to think of the effects of chem'd water on delicate roots. 

This could be tarred on the inside (That's what we did in NYC and they got through hot summer and freezing winter). Not sure if sealing in S FL humidity would be a good idea or not. Great size.

War and Peace

Just about to watch War and Peace, the 1956 version with Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer and Anita Eckberg..!  Also Jeremy Brett who later did a very effete portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the 80's, he was very good. The music for the movie is by Nino Rota, who tops my list of film score composers. I am very interested to see the blonde, buxom Miss Eckberg flounce into the story.

Watered first thing this morning. Planters almost all around got some drink. The bamboo was given several 3L cans of water, the last containing fish emulsion and SuperThrive. I don't think plant dynamite would be appropriate for this plant.

I'm going shopping for a bamboo palm this weekend. It will be housed in the large square planter I purchased recently, behind center handrail, under portico (for lack of a better term, it is a roof which covers about 1/3 of the terrace with 3 open walls the interior wall is the side of the building).  See below. You can see center handrail here though it all looks bare as this was fairly early on in my efforts. The roof is a godsend in the summer months.

Not sure what the correct name is for this structure

Elegant Sozialismus

A visit to the Wolfsonian for inspiration. Clean lines are clean lines, in the garden and out. 

Our town,  very tidy

Fascist gargoyle, nice 

Labored to clean urn for the lady palm.. worked well into the night planting the palm. Trimmed the roots aggressively in an attempt to contain growth in the middle of the plant. Was able to keep a number of the outlying shoots. Into a pot and a shady spot they'll go. Attempted to move foxtail palm into a larger, square planter that would have suited it well for a while. There was some rot on on one side of the trunk. It was dark so it was difficult to assess damage. I could probably scrub with copper, I've done this with rot on a fully grown coconut tree that the sprinkler had eaten into. It's a small palm, probably better to start over.  Guten nacht.

The portrait of a lady

Unseasonably rainy and grey.  The garden wing of Home Depot, had a new load of roses in. The very quiet scent of rose was to be had for the curious nose. If I had a house with on a bare, sun burned lot, I'd plant HUGE mounds of the toughest rugosa that I could find and just let them grow wild.   Perhaps against the sad, plain house that baked in sun, some heirlooms would make their stand (with assistance).  Now, add bougainvillea- and don't scrimp here-- to the mean, sweet roses and you have a beautiful soup cooking. Add 1 everglades palm to a side of the property, away from bougainvillea and rose. Spanish bayonet would fit in nicely with the roses/bougie riot theme; HOUSE OF THORNS.

Bought a lady palm for a very pretty urn I've had for a while. Will need to do some work cleaning it out and preparing for planting, but it is a nice size and will hold the palm for some time if I keep the new growth around the edges of the pot trim. It will get some sun, but if the soil is kept moist, it should be ok.

and the lady is mine.. Rhapis excelsa, can take shade and in time will provide a 6' + mass of dark green .  

 

Here is one of my favorites, a mini-bracted bougie who is coming back from a rude pruning. No more! (i swear). 

Night time is the right time

Hosed down the garden after work, in the dark. The temp won't go below 70 so I'm not too worried about fungus, though I tried to be very careful not to get the begonia coccinea wet as I'm trying to let it dry out completely between waterings. One of the night blooming cereus that has cemented itself to an interior wall has begun to send out new growth. The plant has grown up the wall and is growing across the ceiling hopefully these new sprouts will have a chance to really get glued down good. What a spectacular point of interest to have this branching out over the walls.


This was the beginning of the cereus. Note the sprouts of growth coming off main arms.



The real thing in the wild what a gorgeous plant.  (not mine, not my photo)

 

On a desert island

Aruban entrails

A palm in the soft air ( lesson from a great master)

Of Mere Being

The palm at the end of the mind,

 Beyond the last thought, rises

In the bronze distance.

A gold-feathered bird

Sings in the palm, without human meaning,

Without human feeling, a foreign song.

You know then that it is not the reason

That makes us happy or unhappy.

The bird sings. Its feathers shine.

The palm stands on the edge of space.

The wind moves slowly in the branches.

The bird’s fire-fangled feathers dangle down.

Wallace Stevens 1955

Not a palm is it?  It's a carribean king who has begun his winter show. 

Stage right

A new edit to the scrim. Removed a purple bougainvillea on the left side of center handrail. A lot of soil and prunings get hauled out of this apartment. Luckily I'm near the trash shoot and can shove the debris down the hatch. Good practice for when I have a body to dispose of. With this bougie out of the way (it had become quite ratty looking), I have a beautiful 24" square planter to populate. Deciding of what to plant is a  luxurious place for the mind to be.


Oink! that's a pigskin begonia- old Art Hodes, what kind of flower is he going to sport? 

Friday

Friday, looking forward to the possibility of planting the 24" square planter purchased last week. I'll shop around for something interesting to plant, I have a white and yellow bougainvillea but i'm thinking it might be best not to put all of one's eggs in one basket-- in this case the bougainvillea basket.

Low 70's with a balmy ocean breeze passing through. Really lovely.

Darkness

Watered in the dark as soon as I got home from work. I have a new spray gun and I enjoyed having more directional control over the water stream. I couldn't see the pots completely, but I could plainly what a large beautiful shrub, the shrub-like U402 has become. It's coming into bloom now and the small pinkish white flowers are ENCHANTING. Rinsed everyone down with a hardy spray. The garden really loves a shower.


Miss Venezuela (rear center)

1. Plumeria grow best left alone- too much water and food make for a leggy, bare stalks.

Watching Eisenstein's Ivan part I. A must for the novice gardener. So much intrigue, rather like planting a new wart fern. Music by Prokofiev -- masterful collaboration.

Going to a garden party, what to wear.. what to wear?

Siberia

oh child, say that belly isn't so! 

In the middle of winter here. Chilled to the bone, I slapped on my ushanka and took a sled to the tennis court. 

No time this past work week to do much in the garden. Sprinkled a little Plant Dynamite to keep those bellies from getting too small. The days haven't grown cold enough to stop growth, though I'm sure the shortness of daylight hours probably tells everyone the time of year. But for the most part, this is the magical land where annuals can become perennials, and where the blooming can continue through all 4 quarters of the year. 

I'll post some pics of the newly planted bougies in the large square planter on center handrail. On the other side of said handrail, where the other large square planter will go.. I'm thinking about something other than bougainvillea.. maybe something .. I'll keep you posted.

l'orangerie

Here is the new large square planter on left side of center handrail. Another like will be on other end, though I'm not sure what will be planted there. You may think that this is the orange/coral combo I've written about fairly recently. It's not, it's more of the elegant color combo. The wart fern will crawl up and over, and begin to hide the fiberglass planter ($90 at Home Depot). They aren't bad looking but always best to have foliage hide the container if you ask me-- which you probably didn't.

The lush life

你的植物都可能在新的一年裡身體健康

पहले फ्लश दार्जलिंग एक कामुक उत्तेजक है, तुम हमेशा बर्दाश्त कर सकते हैं सबसे कीमती चाय पीते हैं.

.^{[2]  Imaginary readers... I wish you an intriguing new year.} 

^{Please don't forget to use your imagination and exercise the gift of curiosity, for God surely will.}

رزمندگان فارسی را شوهر خوب