Le Cafe

Olive atop a made-to-order mosaic tile table from Further Furniture in LA. Haste Garden chair.

Jet trail mapping

If the jet trails are very high and coming from the northeast my guess -- Paris to Mexico City.

The 6 year old scrappy blood orange tree is blooming heavily-- nothing sweeter.

The tree isn't the healthiest. White fly and black soot on the leaves have taken their toll. What to replace it with.

London to Montevideo.

Why are you reading this?

Not a cloud in the sky..

 A taste of winter's clear, cool weather the past few days..  The garden takes on a smarter look, coming out of a very wet summer.

The fresh lemon of the parrot beak vine. Bloomed from spring to November. If you have the room, and a nice large pot, you couldn't get more bang for the buck. 

The parrot vine above and the soft beauty below-- the color of Liz Taylor's eyes-- were purchased a week ago at Living Color Nursery on Griffin Road.

FYI, All of their vines have been moved to a huge field beyond the shade houses (underneath the pylons)  in a back field.

rotting fruit fermenting on the wet ground

The mangoes are gone- except for a scattered few under the mango trees half eaten; rats? Another season past.



I wonder if they would have made fine tropical clafoutis - with a fine cup of strong black coffee.





In lieu of ripe mango, here we have peaches and blueberries. This homemade tart has a big busty flavor. 

The fourth quarter:

The sun is reclining in the southern sky

The days are shorter and shorter

Dollie Parton is a genius

Surely as great as Cole Porter

Heavy weather

Some more heavy moisture looking ESE. Probably shuffling straight in from the Straights of Florida

RSCG

The Royal Society of Container Gardening-- join now, send me a dollar.

luminous moisture 6p or so

ESE

WSW

Tricky, very tricky.. these dog days

Hello, how are you?

I'm fine I suppose for one working in a container garden wrapped in the over-powering bear hug of a Caribbean summer.

Strong sun poached in 99% humidity.

The large pots are sturdier given thorough soaks, the newly planted -- the newly canned.

Take your hat's off

for this fool. I must be the only dumb ass that continues to try grow begonias on a windy terrace with searing sun..

Second wind?

I vacuumed out algae water with rotten leaves in the pot saucers and dumped the water in a trash can.

It's about 3 gallons of rotting water. Into which I've poured fish emulsion. A day in 90 degree heat, add another gallon or two of water and I'll have a nice bacterial tea.

A rotting rejuvenator.

Peppered pots with Alaska sea weed pellets. Strong roots-- just a hunch.

another word about rhizomatous begonias

Only water the porous well-draining soil when dry.

I was just told that blogs are now old school "post your pictures on Pinterest", etc.
No. Go read somewhere else.

Here are some shots of the ever changing collage of my plant collection

summer morning sky on the upper east side

the wild west

Daddy's little girl Olive. A shoo-in for best in show. 

When is enough enough? When there ain't no more shade

How many begonias in this picture? (7) Tucked beneath the blood orange tree

Listada, U402, Selph's Mahogany, b. cubensis under the parrot vine

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari..

Hopefully will give my b. listada a protective dormitory in its formative years.. It appears that the hours of exposure to morning and afternoon soon will not be excessive. 

My  Wardian case. The moisture has already steamed up the sides, great experiment. I drew a thin line of glue around all seems. It tightened  the case up significantly. Wardian case in S Florida.. too much moisture?

keywords: listada cubensis rex tremendae worm castings vermicast selph's mahogany homemade potting mix perlite russian political activism argentinian beef gay pride

1. cubic foot potting soil (rich in peat, bark, coir, etc.) used about 3/4 of the bag.

2. 8 quarts of perlite

3. 7lb worm castings

4. Ok, you have a light mix that is oooh so rich and snuggly with worm shite.

5. In a  wall planter (Home Depot) lined with coconut fur.

6. Fill bottom of planter about 2-3" small stone top with weed blocker allow free flow of water while holding in soil.

7. 2" planting mix, lay in small potted plants, fill in around these.

8. Rhizomes next pat down, fill around and over with light layer.

9. Cuttings, break above node dust with root tone I like them to be fairly long with poke them in 2" or so.

10. Water in.

11. Hang in a protected nook a little sun and a little air to keep water from sitting on the leave.. especially the hairy leaves of the b. listada. I will bring out slowly to final spot in 2 or so weeks. The final spot will get 2-3 late afternoon sun.

Plants:

b. listada
b. cubensis
b. u402
b. Selph's Mahogany
Some hanging thingy that looks like maiden hair fern:

Very humid and warm, these b's love it.

The summer solstice will  be here soon.

However... some b. listada and b. cubensis arrived in the mail from Taylor's Greenhouses, nicely packed, healthy plants. Reasonably priced. What's wrong with that? Nothing.



Temporarily stuffed together in a moss pot-- b. listada and cubensis, two species. As per the growers they'll remain in original pots for at least 2 weeks from reception. They will be planted in a free-flowing humus perlite bed.