manage a trois

Winter solstice 50's at night 75-80's day. 

bougainvillea and Madagascar palm 

Secured 'miss joachim' to a 4" x 50" dowel

Under the colusia

What do you call a group of orchids? a murder? a pod?

Too lazy to look up and list all here are a few hanging under the colusia; bulbophyllum faschnator, leptotes pohlitinocoi, brassavola nodosa, etc. Colusia is a great potted plant for the terrace that gets direct sun. It can take a beating, if you keep it hydrated. 

Oncidium zelenkoanum
Purchased from Andy's Orchids, they arrived looking like they had been buried in the back of the greenhouse. Leaves weren't clean, there was a little black spot. I water, the wind and the dappled sun dries. If there's anything that will bring these bitches back to 100% it will be dappled sun at various times during the day and a near constant breeze around the plant to keep leaves and exposed pseudobulbs dry.

I've bought from him before and the plants have been beautiful, not sure what happened here..

December

Heading toward the winter solstice. 

Brassavola subulifolia

Sweet thang early in mornin'

A handful follow in the following weeks

drilled a hole in heavy driftwood, bent a coat hanger and wrapped some moss tied with stretch tie etc

Mounted brassavola 'yellow bird' 

Oncidium

Oncidium -- sweet vanilla scent (hybrid of incurvum?)

  

East Everglades Orchid Show

Small but friendly show. Wonderful scented cattleya, brassavola, vanda, etc.

Today's purchases were both bought because they favor very bright light.

Myrmecophila tibicinis nee. Schomburgkia. tibicini -- has bright yellow pseudobulbs and grows high in the treetops of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica, Venezuela and Colombia.

 tibicinis

Cirrhopetalum  (bulbophyllum) fascinator

12.5.2018 several flowers emerging

Sun

4pm full sun brassavola subulifolia

Water

I'm using Zero Water filter for orchid spray. 1/2 cap full of kelp w 1/2 diluted fish emulsion (quite diluted) per 1-2 gallons. Ideally let this sit overnight. Every 2 weeks or so, I'll add a few drops of SuperThrive.

Are the high NPK fertilizers necessary for blooming?

It's the dog days of summer and near impossible to over-water. A constant ocean breeze keeps air around roots circulating. 

Tropical Storm Gordon blusters by -- a very rainy day

Stuck inside

new combinations

Large pot with sea grape in center, spindle palm in back, fern, thunbergia, burly marx, primrose, bougainvillea, etc. Sea grape has several 'trunks' all vertical, a handsome habit. 

Just enough shade to tuck this ginger in next to a big pot of macho fern. Both easy to grow.. 

Papilionanthe teres x Papilionanthe hookeriana

rhyncholaelia digbyana

Ascocentrum / garayi Thailand

From Andy's Orchids on a Stick. Not cheap but fairly quick to bloom. I'm willing. 

A few hours of dappled light. 

sweet

Cleisostoma arietinum

my sweet little terete

leptotes pohlitinocoi sheltered under bougainvillea

The garden as mitzvah; a little healing for this fucked up world?

Pandorea jasminoides

Colors usually like the sun

.

Thunbergia

epidendrum radican-  I love orange.. and an easy growing orchid

Smart

1. Trimmed parrot vine sharply. This shrub can overwhelm.. though it is one of my favorites.

2. Regarding the bougainvillea, I had put some feed and protect (for insects) in a small bag created with panty hose in the large bougainvillea pot. This is the 2nd treatment within a month or so. Its beginning to keep leafs and bracts - they are not being eaten before maturing.

3. Repeatedly soaking pots.. around the sides, in the middle of growth. Over an hour of watering. 

4. Caring is work.

Notice new coned Eugenia below hanging baskets of striped purple spiderwort (tradescantia zabrina). Pretty smart looking.

deep drinker

Areca for screening

prune the bougainvillea canes looking forward to summer growth

Getting bougainvillea ready for the growing season. planted orange bird of paradise for the form of the leaf

2 months later

Still in bloom

Several different types of begonias here. most obvios U402 and one that looks like Selph's Mahogany.. or another type of erect rhizome.

In bloom for over 2 months

New Growth gaussia gomez-pompae

New frond opens

Healthy heart -- a new shoot.

after 3-4 weeks a new frond ready to open

Roots

Did I cut the root ball back too much on palm? mmm.

Palm Vita-Mix (my recipe)

2 part manganese

1 part garden lime

1/12th part Nurserymen's Sure-Gro 12-4-12 Palm food

Mix 1/8 teaspoon with a drop of Superthrive in 2 gal water weekly.


Surely the Gaussia will like the touch of  lime in this smoothie.

Container Palm Nutrition

gaussia gomez-pompae

I saw this in Barbados (andromeda botanical garden barbados). Had to try it-- spindle growing in a small concrete planter.

s

I left the house looking for a candidate today.. actually only for a suitable planter.. and I hit gold at Jesse Durko's nursery 5151 Viele Rd, Davie, FL 33314.

Looks like a great candidate for a pot.

Gaussia Gomez-Pompae  grows in the limestone cliffs of Oaxaca, Tabasco and Veracruz.

Jesse has a great selection of specimen palm and wonderful beds of begonias and others.

Happy New Year!

January cruise - first time to Martinique

Rain forests promote fern trees over 20' + high

The main attraction Jardin De Balata

(WIKI) The garden was begun in 1982 by horticulturist Jean-Philippe Thoze and opened to the public in 1986. It is set on former farmland with picturesque views of the Pitons du Carbet. Today the garden contains about 3,000 varieties of tropical plants from around the world, including 300 types of palm trees. It also contains good collections of anthuriums, begonias, bromeliads, cycads, heliconia, mahogany, Musa nana, and bamboo (Dendrocalamus).

A  rain forest garden with some formal training

words escape me

Pretend my  eyes are open

There is a fabulous rope sky-walk that winds through a bit of the garden providing fabulous views and not a little excitement on the swinging bridge 50' above ground.

Way up high

I left a bit of my heart at the Jardin de Balata. Just to see this garden again would warrant another visit to the island.