Gardening With Georgia

Not your everyday flower

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:05:21 GMT

A day before opening fully. She produces a flower every other year, and this is her year to do so. She is Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, the voodoo flower whom we call Phyllis. (Phyllis the Amorphophallus has a kind of reverse alliterative quality.) We've had her for a number of years. She lives among bromeliads, beneath the shade of a foxtail palm. Although she goes dormant every winter, I've never dug up her tuber, but just allowed her to remain resting in place. Deni Bown in her...

The yearling

Tue, 01 May 2012 15:34:40 GMT

National Key Deer Refuge, Big Pine Key -- When born in April or May, a Key Deer fawn weighs about 2 to 4 pounds. When grown, a male may weigh up to 75 pounds, a female about 55 to 75 pounds. The little yearling we saw last weekend probably stood about two feet tall and weighed (my guess) 30 or 35 pounds. Key Deer are the smallest of 28 subspecies of white-tailed deer, and may number between 250 and 300. Highly endangered by development, dogs and automobiles, these sweet animals inhabit only Big...

Quite a sight

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 14:38:14 GMT

Every year, the Oncidium spachelatum in the front yard gets bigger and better. This year, it has a breath-taking abundance of flowers. Here it is. Fertilize every two weeks; let Nature do the rest....

What plants can tell you

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:21:07 GMT

Mama screech owl. Early this morning, I was watering some newly planted milkweeds, when I looked at a firebush and noticed some newly deposited bird droppings. Looking up, I discovered our mama screech owl, still sleeping in the early sun. Knowing that her nest is in our old avocado tree, I found two young owlets, very well hidden among new growth, but sitting out of the nest nonetheless. They stayed put long enough for me to photograph them. Take home lesson: keep a close eye on your plants,...

Biologists find orchids on the move

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:59:10 GMT

Six years ago, an exotic little orchid, Eulophia graminea, popped up in some mulch in South Miami, half way around the globe from its home. Harvey Bernstein, a former Fairchild horticulturist, spotted it in his yard. The next year, it came up again, and FIU ecologist Suzanne Koptur, who lived close by, called it "an exciting botanical mystery." At the 2012 meeting of plant biologists of South Florida, Dexter Sowell, with the Florida Forest Biologist Scott Zona tookthis picture of the...

Wildlife photos at ENP

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:21:02 GMT

News form Everglades National Park for wildlife photo fans: The Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center Art Gallery is currently hosting a collection of stunning wildlife photography by Kevan and Linda Sunderland. Sunderland image of black-necked stilt courting ritual. Kevan and Linda Sunderland have been photographing Florida's wildlife for more than 30 years. Their images have appeared in many magazines, including: Florida Wildlife, Wisconsin Wildlife, Wild Bird, Audubon, Nature's Best...

Repotting a Giant

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:09:59 GMT

The big plant in its old pot,its leaves bunched together. How do you repot a plant that's as tall as you are? With planning and with help. Anthurium schottianum is a large-leaf plant that I have grown on the back porch for about three years. It's so large, in fact, that it nearly touched the ceiling. As the stem grew taller, I wrapped it in sphagnum moss and surrounded that with a plastic container so the roots would not dry out as they emerged. This was only a temporary Band-Aid...

One garden's tree is another's...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:28:43 GMT

Monkey's apple, Mimusops coriacea, grows throughout the tropics but came originally from Mimusops coriacea. Madagascar, Comoros and the Seychelles in the Western Indian Ocean. It is the handsome tree encircled by the walk leading into the garden from the Visitors Center. Right now, it is dropping golf ball sized inedible fruit. The specific name means leather, and the leaves are quite leathery. While we may admire it, the plant has managed to work its way onto the Global Compendium of...

A royal vine

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:49:04 GMT

Petrea volubilis. Wisteria vines were in full flower last week in southern California, and while this member of the pea family can be invasive it also can be quite beautiful. Our Petrea volubilis or queen's wreath, is sometimes said to be the tropical version of wisteria, but its flowers are much more delicate. Petrea is winding down its late winter flowering, but pretty racemes of lavender/purple flowers remain around the garden house. And there are Petrea vines along the fence by the...

Top Orchid Specialist is Festival Speaker

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:45:46 GMT

Orchid specialist Tom Mirenda. Tom Mirenda, the Orchid Collection Specialist at the Smithsonian Institution for the last 10 years, will talk about orchid pollination at 1 p.m. Saturday at Fairchild's 10th International Orchid Festival At the Smithsonian, Tom cares for and curates an extremely diverse collection of 10,000 orchid species and hybrids from all over the world. He develops and produces huge educational exhibits visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors. Mirenda trained originally...

A cycad from the Philippines

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:46:34 GMT

Cycas wadei's female cone. On a recent Saturday visit to Leu Gardens in Orlando, I found many shrubs of Camillia japonica as well as roses in flower, but my attention was drawn to the beautiful female cone of Cycas wadei. It is known as Wade's pitogo in the Philippines, where it is native. By poking around the Internet, I learned that was named in 1936 by botanist Elmer Drew Merrill, the second president of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden who spent 22 years working in the Philippines....

Blooms and roots

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:20:38 GMT

This flower is fabulous. The Brownea coccinea ssp. capitella growing next to the Hawkes Lab walkway, has been spectacular this year. Mary Collins, senior horticulturist, said it displayed seven flowers last week. This morning, four flowers and a bud were impressing visitors. There is a helpful sign next to the plant explaining that it is hummingbird pollinated and that its new leaves emerge to resemble a limp handkerchief, giving it the nickname "handkerchief tree." Meanwhile,...

President's Day at FTBG

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:23:34 GMT

Great American Egret and blue herons....

At last

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:55:29 GMT

Raindrops cling tothis tomato's bottom. What's happier than a tomato in the rain? A whole garden in the rain. And perhaps even happier is this gardener. So we didn't get a cold snap, we got rain instead, and boy has it been a long thirsty stretch. Yellow lawns and droopy staghorn ferns are normal for April/May, not January/February. The tomatoes and broccoli relish the rain, and the bok choi grew visibly overnight. If rain continues for a few days, which is forecast, then we'll...

Late winter

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:46:17 GMT

Late winter Begonia petals are peekingout from their buds. Rhizomatous begonias are sending up flower spikes, a late winter phenomenon that always is welcome. These are plants that have stems on the ground or just beneath the mulch that produce leaves and flowers on top and roots beneath. There are many fine cultivars on the market suitable for landscape use, and their care is fairly easy. They like bright shade, even some early morning sun, moist soil and controlled-release fertilizer. As Tim...

A botanist in Chile

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:47:54 GMT

Auracaria aruacana in its Chilean habitat. Dr. Scott Zona's presentation, A Botanical Tour of Chile, mesmerized the Tropical Fern and Exotic Plant Society Monday night - not only because of the botanical knowledge imparted but also the fabulous photos (four of which he graciously allowed me to use here). Scott, a former palm specialist at FTBG, is curator of the Wertheim Conservatory at Florida International University. He traveled to Chile with fellow botanists Dr. John Tobe of...

Let the chocolate begin

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:00:35 GMT

Samples everywhere. A perfect winter morning got the chocolate festival off to a beautiful start Friday. Chocolatiers in the Garden House had such tempting samples on display that few could resist. Millie with her cake. But the food vendors had some scrumptous offerings, too. Millie, the M of M&L Carib Conchs, made a chocolate cake that seemed to epitomize the event. However, there also were vegan chocolates, teas and spices and kettle corn to sample. Oncidium Sharry Baby smelled as wonderfully...

Beautiful weather for the garden

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:05:50 GMT

Long-John, Triplaris cumingiana,is in its glory right now on the Triplaris cumingiana. west side of the Bailey Palm Glade. The tree's red (female) flowers are on long racemes, and against a brilliant blue winter sky, they are spectacular. Hailing from Panama, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Colombia, this flowering tree shows off every winter. The stems are hollow and inhabited by stinging ants when in their natural setting, so the tree is sometimes referred to as the ant tree. This slender, tall...

Interior design

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:49:14 GMT

Dioon edule seed pod. Walking past the cycad circle recently I noticed that the end of a Dioon edule seed pod had fallen away, revealing a perfectly packaged interior. It reminded me of the exquisite symmetry of mahogany seed pods, which I love to find just barely opened so I can admire the design. See what you think. Mahogany seed pod....

Seeing anew

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 22:04:17 GMT

After many weeks away, it's wonderful to be back among good friends. Mt. Everest, second from right. The last posting on this blog was from Bhutan. From there, we journeyed to Nepal. It was a rather brief visit because of a cancelled flight, but we managed to view Mt. Everest from a small plane and then wander through the country's 210-acre national botanical garden on the outskirts of Kathmandu. Our guide said none of his clients had ever asked to see that garden before, and he...

The Himalayas

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:19:03 GMT

A summit on climate change in the Himalaya is emphasizing food security, energy and water security as well as biodiversity here in Thimphu, Bhutan's capitol. Representatives from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan are working on a 10-year plan that will hopefully mitigate dramatic changes now affecting them. Glacial lakes are forming rapidly, and threaten to burst at any time as glaciers melt rapidly. In 2008, a major river here flooded, causing severe infrastructure damage in Paro, including a...

The Tiny Kingdom of Bhutan

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:05:40 GMT

We have come to the tiny landlocked kingdom of Bhutan, with a total population of 700,000, after spending three weeks in the world's second most populous nation. The country's single airport is here in Paro, pop. 10,000. What a refreshing change. It is the land of the thunder dragon, where the Dzong is both monastery and city administration center, where larch and spruce and pines reach through the clouds at 13,000 feet, but so do the prayer flags. The national tree is a cypress and the national...

Palace Flowers

Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:17:22 GMT

In central India, the Mogul influence is seen in all the palaces and forts of Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur, as well as the the Taj Mahal in Agraand Akbar's magnificent tomb there. What I have loved most about these splendidly decorated places is the flower motif found again and again. At first, I tried to identify them. Lilies and lotus are pretty easy, and I managed to see a daffodil-like flower, but it turns out that most are imaginative interpretations by Persian-influenced artists. Here are...

Tea Time and a Botanic Garden

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:58:30 GMT

Darjeeling,India--Tea gardens climb the hills beneath trees with delicate bipinnate leaves. Leaves gently fall among the tea plants acting as fertilizer while the trees provide just the right amount of shade for the shrubs that can live 50 years. Women are the tea workers, wearing cloth bags that quickly fill with leaves. These are hung from their heads, while their index and middle fingers are bound with strips of rags to protect them. This is the autumn or third and last picking of the year,...

Traveling in the Past

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:50:57 GMT

Village life in India remains as difficult as it was centuries ago. As we have driven through Central India, where the IT, steel and coal tycoons do not tread, we have watched grain being threshed and water being lifted from a Persian well by oxen. We have seen the same oxen pulling carts through village streets and women pumping water from roadside wells. Cattle, sheep and goats are herded on the roads as trucks, tut-tuts and ancient buses vie for the same narrow and rutted pavement. Donkeys...

A Fort and a Fair

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 19:33:50 GMT

The Pushkar Camel Fair The camels used in this part of the world are dromedary camels, each with a single hump. A camel develops one tooth a year (which is how you can age them) and can pull 2000 kilograms of weight. That's 4,400 pounds. A camel holds water in three sacks in its throat; the hump is fat. Pushkar, which is the site of a shrine to Brahma and has a holy lake in which pilgrims immerse themselves, is the scene of the annual camel fair. Located on the eastern edge of the Thar desert,...

Two Types of Temples

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:47:53 GMT

A vast plain of temples some 800 to 1,000 years old lies down the Irrawaddy River south of Mandalay. The plain covers 16 square miles and includes more than 2,000 temples. This is Bagan, the most important archeological site in the country of Myanmar (Burma). In 1287, Kublai Khan and his Moguls invaded and broke up the Burmese kingdom, which had one stretched from India to the Mekong River, and for several hundred years, the jungle grew and reclaimed the stupas and temples. In 1975, an...

The Taj Mahal

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:22:55 GMT

Agra, India―Seeing the Taj Mahal at sunrise strains one's vocabulary: stunning, elegant, magical, unworldly, transporting, lyrical and even poetic perfection of proportion in stone. Built by the Mugahl ruler Shah Jahan as a tomb for his wife Mamtaz Mahal, who died at age 37 after delivering her 14th child, the perfectly proportioned monument was begun in 1633 and completed 22 years later by some 20,000 workers and artisans working around the clock. The ultimate expression of Mughal architecture,...

Tiger!

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:41:57 GMT

Bandhavgarh National Park,India-- On our last safari, we were lucky enough to find a tiger. A gorgeous female, weighing about 400 pounds and measuring about 6 feet in length, was on a late afternoon hunt when we saw her. She had left her two cubs hidden in a cave. She emerged from the jungle and crossed a dry creek some 60 feet from us, a mere 20 yards! Elegantly striped, she walked steadily and purposefully, giving no indication that she resented our presence, but her ears turned back to us...

Banhargarh, India

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 19:20:03 GMT

Banhargarh,India-- We have one more chance to see a tiger this afternoon. So far we have come up dry--although we have seen an abundance of wildlife in Bandhargarh National Park. We head out at 5:45 a.m. The que for the park must wait for all papers to be authenticated before we can enter. In this part of the park there are specific routes that the guides must follow and they must carry papers attesting to their assigned routes. Half way through the morning's outing, we have to stop and have the...

The Burmese National Botanic Garden

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 15:32:02 GMT

Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar-- An enormous conifer, Araucaria columnaris, towers over the Burmese National Botanic Garden at a refreshingly cool altitude of 3,500 feet. Once a hill station to which the British retreated from Mandalay's heat, the garden was begun in 1915. It took us nearly 3 hours to reach it from the steamy plains of Mandalay, following enormous trucks around hairpin curves of the Burma Road on their way to China, only 350 miles away. Once at the little town of Pyin Oo Lwin, we...

The Toddy Palm

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:56:34 GMT

Borassus flabellifer is called the toddy palm. Toddy, or a potent wine, is made from the inflorescences of the palm. Climbers ascend bamboo ladders that are attached to the tall trunks, cut a section of inflorescence, and attach bowls to catch the draining juice. The palms are harvested of toddy from the age of 25 to 45, after which they can "retire." The toddy is OK for women and children in the morning, but by afternoon if has become a potent drink of 5 to 7 percent alcohol. A sugary candy...

Floating Tomato Islands

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 15:36:26 GMT

Inle Lake, Myanmar―This vast lake, which is 14 miles long in the center ofMyanmar, is home to 80,000 people, half of whom live in the lake itself. They fish, farm and go to school, living in stilt houses and getting around by canoe. Tomatoes are their main crop. To grow them, they scoop up mud from the lake bottom and mix it with seaweed to create floating islands. Then they insert long slender poles into the islands and train the tomatoes to grow between them. Floating tomato islands. Many...

Inle Lake, Myanmar

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:14:37 GMT

Inle Lake, Myanmar-- The lotus in both Burma and India is a sacred flower, associated with purity. In Burma, the fragrant lotus legend is that Buddha was offered a set of monk's robes by a Brahma who had found them in a lotus blossom. Nearly a century ago in a fishing village in Inle Lake, a woman experimented with the fibers she gently pulled from a lotus stem, forming them into thread and weaving thread into lotus items, such as scarves and robes. Cloth woven from lotus thread. There is no...

Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:26:01 GMT

Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar-- An enormous conifer, Araucaria columnaris, towers over the Burmese National Botanic Garden at a refreshingly cool altitude of 3,500 feet. Once a hill station to which the British retreated from Mandalay's heat, the garden was begun in 1915. It took us nearly 3 hours to reach it from the steamy plains of Mandalay, following enormous trucks around hairpin curves of theBurma Road on their way toChina, only 350 miles away. Once at the little town of Pyin Oo Lwin, we squeezed...

Yangon, Myanmar

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:15:22 GMT

Yangon, Myanmar-- Smack in the middle of the most holy of Buddhist shrines, the Shwedagon Pagoda (seen below), is a toddy palm, Borassus flabillifer. It is the on the leaves of this palm that the Burmese developed an alphabet and writing. The letters, confusingly small circles, were developed to stay within the narrow segments of the palmate leaves and the writing continues to be plump to this day. Shwedagon itself is to Buddhists as Meccais to Muslims, and the enormous bell-shaped central part...

Traveling in Asia

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 18:03:49 GMT

Yangon, Myanmar -- For the next six weeks, I will be exploring Asia, beginning with Myanmar and proceeding to India, Bhutan and Nepal, hoping to share new worlds and natural places increasingly under threat. I will visit botanic gardens, preserves and Parks, looking for plants and their indigenous uses and meanings in these cultures. I have been taking lots of notes and photographs, and I hope you enjoy them!...

Tropical conifers

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 19:29:28 GMT

I've been working on a story about tropical and subtropical conifers, and just to pique your interest, I want to show you a bouquet of different conifer leaves. These samples come from the Montgomery Botanical Center, where botanist Chad Husby is building one of the largest collections of warm-growing conifers in the world. Clockwise from top: Calocedrus rupestris; Nageia wallichiana; Podocarpus elongatus 'Blue Chip'; Araucaria muelleri; Dacrydium nausoriense and the blue form of Cupressus...

First flowering of a small baobab

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:23:48 GMT

With pink curlicues and orange stamens, this Adansonia rubrostipa is a knockout. An exquisite flower opened on a young baobab that Roger Hammer bought about 15 years ago from Fairchild. Then it was called Adansonia fony. Over the weekend, Roger sent an email: ''The tree has grown to about 18 feet tall now, and is considered the smallest member of the genus. Yesterday it flowered for the very first time..." The tree has a new name today -- of course -- and is Adansonia rubrostipa. The flower has...

A flower of many meanings

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:09:34 GMT

Find the hooded cobra in the flower of thecannonball tree. The cannonball tree, near the cycad circle, is flowering profusely, offering a pleasant perfume to anyone who walks by. Couroupita guianensis is found in South America, but has been grown in India for centuries. Considered a sacred plant in India, the flower's complex structure is said to symbolize a hooded cobra protecting a Shiva lingam. Shiva is the Hindu god who is the Destroyer of life (only if life is destroyed can rebirth...

Keeping us on our toes

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:35:29 GMT

Irene gave us our first wake-up call of the 2011 hurricane season. Say "Good Night Irene," snag some extra water and canned goods at the store, and double check your storm plan. Remember what you should have on hand for the post-storm reckoning, and buy these now: extra shade cloth; copper-based and other fungicides; rope; chain saw with oil and gas; pruning and hand shears; gloves; hose-end sprayer and water-soluble fertilizer. Place orchids on groundbeneath shade house benches...

iPhoneography and plants

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 13:46:50 GMT

Shirley Drevich was our instructor for the iPhoneography class series at the Garden, and she opened our eyes to new ways of seeing plants. Various apps downloaded into the iPhone4 can be used singly or in combination to create a vast array of results. Have a look. Water lilies. Agave. Dioon cycads. Bird of paradise....

Midsummer plant stress

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:14:27 GMT

A weird summer weather pattern has landscape plants really feeling the heat in gardens near the coast, where rain has been irregular and sparse. For orchid lovers, be sure to water your vandas twice a day, using a light mist in mid-afternoon if it's not raining. Fertilize weekly, adding extra potassium and magnesium sulfate or Epsom salt (1 teaspoon each per gallon of water) to improve cell health. At the 5th symposium of the Coalition for Orchid Species held recently at Fairchild,...

A peacock in the garden

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:47:59 GMT

Selaginella willdenovii shinesin the rainforest. Club mosses (also called spike mosses) had a rough time in the drought. Yet, with our high humidity and some squirts with a hose, Selaginella species can succeed until the rains become more regular afternoon events. In Fairchild's rainforest, there's a glorious Selaginella willdenovii. Its blue iridescent sheen makes this fern ally a wonderful addition to a shady and moist spot in the garden. It hails from Southeast Asia. The so-called...

Housekeeping

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:16:55 GMT

These Livistona decora,foreground, are among new palms in parking area. Visitors coming to the 19th International Mango Festival will find the lowland parking area sporting Livistona decora, Phoenix sylvestris and Veitchia species replacing the ropes used to define parking rows. New plantings also screen the area from the Visitors Center and the Lakeside Cafe. You'll also notice new palms at the garden's south entrance and the Garden Club of America Amphitheater, all donated by Manny...

Coffee grounds at work

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:37:55 GMT

Coffee grounds and coffee "tea" may be an answer to controlling the deadly cycad scale and mealybugs, warding off grasshoppers and even killing mosquito larvae. For the past several years, the Internet has been abuzz with stories about the effects of used coffee grounds on cycad scale that devastated ornamental cycads called the queen and king sago. Tom Broome, the newly elected president of The Cycad Society, brought the story to the recent Cycad Day at the garden. Broome, who owns...

A sigh of relief, maybe

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:53:34 GMT

Along the coast, we've been in a rain shadow for weeks. The interior and western suburbs have received downpours yet we parch on. So last Sunday's rain gave new life to some struggling tropical plants, especially the calatheas, which were practically panting last week in my garden. A calathea species refreshedby rain. Monday morning in the Fairchild Conservatory, the calatheas were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, with delicate flowers tentatively poking their noses out for air....

National Pollinator Week

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 21:43:16 GMT

A bee at work. How many pollinators are you caring for? How many can you name? Flies, sweat bees, leafcutter bees, digger bees, bumble bees, beetles, bats, moths, even lemurs are pollinators. But they are disappearing. So a few years ago, in response to the The Forgotten Pollinator Campaign, Congress set aside a week to focus on the big and little creatures that turn flowers into fruit, and put food on our table. Allow a few wildflowers and weeds to remain in the yard for the native bees and...

Beautifully grown plants on display

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:48:34 GMT

Every year, the Tropical Fern and Exotic Plant Society show features exceptionally well grown specimens including ferns, begonias, aroids, orchids and bromeliads. It's a plant lovers feast, really, and a chance to see how lovely tropical plants can look when given expert care. This year, it's hard to find an imperfect leaf. Many blue ribbons flutter among the fronds and flower spikes. Here are some really lovely examples: Elegant in its simplicity is thisAnthurium faustomirandae. Anthurium...

Baby Giant

Sun, 22 May 2011 17:30:04 GMT

Early instar of the Giant Swallow-tail butterfly. There are a Myer lemon and two Key lime trees in the back yard, potential larval host plants for the Giant Swallowtail butterfly. But a far-away small bowl of parsley did the trick. The reddish-orange and dark brown caterpillar with a saddle of white (more white will appear with age) found the parsley patch just right for nibbling. Hooray!...

Helping the pollinators

Sun, 22 May 2011 14:24:11 GMT

Native leaf cutter bees sleeping on southern beeblossom in the Garden's pine rockland section. Most of our native bees are not social, as is the exotic honeybee. Instead, said bee expert Steve Buchmann, "think of them as single moms with families to feed.'' Of the 4,000 bees native to the United States, 90 percent make nests in the ground, while the rest dwell in wood or plant cavities. A native bee mom digs a chamber, furnishes it with food for the young, then lays an egg on...

Connecting the ecosystem dots

Fri, 20 May 2011 23:27:32 GMT

With a temperate zone right out of Appalachia jutting into the Panhandle and a tropical zone from the West Indies wrapping around the southern tip of the peninsula, and everything from scrub to marshes in between, Florida is among the most biologically diverse states in the country. Because these ecosystems and their inhabitants have been so reduced in size as farms and cities have sprawled across the state, the Florida Native Plant Society's 31st annual conference is exploring how these...

Natives shrubs for shade...and insects

Tue, 17 May 2011 13:04:59 GMT

A Ruddy Daggerwing butterfly sips nectar fromflowers of wild coffee. Wild coffee, Psychotria nervosa, has been blooming profusely in recent weeks, attracting bees by the gazillion and nectar-hungry butterflies. The shrub that is native to South Florida is an excellent plant for shaded or lightly shaded areas, and can attain a good 10 feet in height if so allowed. It takes pruning wonderfully, however, and you can maintain it as a well-mannered hedge or allow it to billow. A leafy mulch...

If you're going to be red, be red

Mon, 09 May 2011 17:08:36 GMT

With blood red bracts and red-throated white flowers, a Mussaenda eythrophylla planted along the allee leading to the overlook is in glorious form. It was so startlingly bright that as I was hurrying along the allee on my way to an appointment I came to a screeching halt and went over to find out what was bleating at me with such vital color. Not a shy bloomer. In the coffee family, Mussaenda is particularly cold tender and several in my neighborhood have been killed over the last two winters....

Plants for table, garden at the fest

Sat, 30 Apr 2011 18:41:33 GMT

Farm fresh herbs and a mascot chicken. Organic herbs and veggies, worm farms, jars of honey, crisp fresh produce, and row after row of expertly grown landscape plants worked their charm on visitors to Fairchild's Food and Garden Shopping for Fairchild's plants. Festival Saturday. Perhaps if was Friday's rain that made everything seem so brilliantly colorful, but something nearly magical made the Food and Garden Fest special. Lectures on urban gardens in South Florida, cooking Buy...

A feast for the eyes

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:37:41 GMT

With each passing spring, our Oncidium sphacelatumbecomes more beautiful, perched in a Tabebuia. This dancing lady orchid, Oncidium sphacelatum, is a splendid example of how orchids thrive in trees. The three-foot flower spikes are loaded with hundreds of tiny yellow flowers that dance on the winds of Spring. Fertilized every two weeks with 15-5-15, this lovely specimen has large pseudobulbs to retain water, and it is seldom given extra irrigation (unless I happen to think about it). For ease of...

Flowers worth finding

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:20:29 GMT

Four plants are blooming now at the Garden that you should come and see. Napoleon's hat. One was noticed by Jason Lopez in the horticulture department, who planted it five years ago. This is Napoleonaea imperialis, or Napoleon's hat, and Jason sent an email to the staff saying it's worth a trip to plot 45 to find it. In his email Jason wrote, "This plant comes from west Africa and is found in the rainforest under story, where the twigs are used as chew-sticks, the fruits sugary...

Noble live oaks

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:36:00 GMT

Live oaks, such as this one at Maclay Gardens can live hundreds of years. Majestic is a description usually reserved for mountain peaks and California redwoods, but I vote to attribute the adjective to the native live oak as well. Truly grand live oaks are few and far between in South Florida, given our development and storms. There are a couple of wonderful live oaks at Fairchild that have been graced with epiphytes in addition to their natural coating of resurrection fern; there's a...

Is that thing really a flower?

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:01:00 GMT

Aristolochia is a genus of vining plants that produce some of the most peculiar flowers imaginable, if it weren't possible to say that about orchids, too. And like orchids, Aristolochia flowers have male and female parts in the same organ, called a gynostemium (or the column in orchids). Aristolochia littoralis with oneopen flower and buds on right. There are no petals on an Aristolochia flower, but the whole thing that can resemble a Dutchman's pipe or a pelican or a number of other...

Desert roses are flourishing

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:51:11 GMT

Adenium multiflorum flowers have yellow throats. Plants are spectacular right now. Adeniums, or desert roses, have fat caudices and weird, elongated branches, but they produce beautiful flowers. Adenium multiflorum has been quite the star for the last few weeks, blooming in front of the Gallery building. It is an African species, ranging from KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa to Zambia in the west of Africa. This slow-growing relative of the oleander does well in South Florida, Striped throat on...

Laurel wilt disease

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:03:27 GMT

Our native red bay tree (Persea borbonia) is a primary host plant for the Palmedes Swallowtail butterfly. The fruit also is eated by deer, songbirds, black bears and wild turkeys. Red bay is related to two other native trees, swamp bay (Persea palustris) and lancewood (Ocotea coriacea). These trees are in the laurel family, along with avocado (Persea americana). All of them are vulnerable to a disease that has spread from South Carolina down the coast and into Miami-Dade County. The fungal...

Peachy flowers, fallen flowers

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:10:23 GMT

Delicate flowers of the peach blossom cassia. It first appeared in South Florida in 2005, but has been a rock star ever since. This Cassia bakeriana, which the Garden is calling "peach blossom cassia," originally emigrated from Thailand as dwarf apple blossom cassia. It flowers from March through May, opening pink and fading to white. The Garden's young tree was planted in 2006. The tree, like most flowering trees, is drought tolerant once it has become established in the...

Don't let the jade fade...

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:03:25 GMT

Keeled claws of the jade vine. ... before you see it! Hanging in pendant clusters, the claw-like flowers of the jade vine are beautiful almost beyond belief. They are a striking aquamarine, opening with upturned keels. They are the color of shallow tropical seas, of rare tropical birds. And no matter how often you see them, you still gaze with wonder. Strongylodon macrobotrys is the botanical name of the Philippine vine that has three-lobed leaves and a strong woody trunk. This rainforest liana...

Honoring the Volunteers

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:52:58 GMT

Every year, the hundreds of volunteers at the garden are honored with a brunch. They receive pins for their years of service, accolades from the administration and an amazing amount of food prepared by the staff. It's a heartwarming party, full of good will and camaraderie. Here's an iPhone appreciation. Ann Schmidt helps setthe buffet table. Mary Neustein in the kitchen. Table decorations compliments of the horticulture staff. And the happy volunteers enjoying the feast!...

Quiet charm

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:59:03 GMT

Now that orchids have quit hogging the spotlight, begonias can take a bow. A pendant cluster of femalebegonia flowers. They have been blooming for several weeks, showing delicate white or pink flowers with understated charm. You'll find them in the Moos Sunken Garden, along the path near Standing Gorilla, in the rainforest and by the Visitors Center. They have eye-catching asymmetrical leaves and male or female flowers. The female flowers have winged inferior ovaries, just beneath the...

Celebrating beauty

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 20:21:06 GMT

Two days of splendid weather have made for such a happy orchid festival that it is tempting to call it a celebration of Nature's most fascinating flowers. One more day to bask in beauty. Lucky us. Linda Curle received an AOS Award of Merit for thisC. Hiromi Nishi 'Que Linda' They're called Doggles. Everywhere you turn, another photo to be taken. Happy shoppers. Slc. Jewel Box 'Ricardo' in theRainforest Orchid Plaza....

Orchidology: for serious collectors

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:52:39 GMT

Orchid cells have been to the International Space Station. Vandrame. Wagner Vandrame, associate professor of Environmental Horticulture with the University of Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead, sent orchid tissue to the Space Station in 2007, and found that without gravity they do indeed grow faster than in our backyards. The experiment is part of a larger effort aimed at finding the best way to grow and conserve orchids threatened in the wild. Vandrame hosted...

Splendor in the Garden (House)

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:31:30 GMT

Orchid growers have outdone themselves at Fairchild's 9th Annual International Orchid Festival that opens Friday and runs through Sunday. There are leagues of glorious flowers on display, which undoubtedly will entice you to join the tribe of orchid lovers here in South Florida. Commercial growers have created table top displays that are works of art, and hobbyists have added a special vitality with multitudes of orchid types and colors. Here are some samples of what you will see. Grand champion...

Colorful characters

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 10:49:43 GMT

With all the color, this bromeliadsupplies fragrance to boot. You'd think that the Tillandsia cyanea, now flowering in the Conservatory, would have given its all in creating the bold pink inflorescence that opens lovely purple flowers. It is, after all, relatively small as plants go and those colors are anything but dim. But no, if you happen by it on a warm morning, you will discover its most appealing quality: the fragrance of cloves. Commonly called Pink Quill, this bromeliad from...

Beetle alert!

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:52:40 GMT

An orchid-eating beetle. Spring, it appears, has arrived early. And with warm, dry weather come beetles and thrips. Sitting brazenly atop a light lavender cattleya hybrid today was a black beetle with some light spots on its back. Two more beetles were on the adjacent flower. They've been emerging like crazy as the soil warms up, and we're finding them by the bucket load in the pool skimmer. The larvae are grubs that have pupated in the soil, munching away on grass roots. Damaged...

Pergola's spring bouquet

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 21:01:32 GMT

Clerodendrum splendens. Eliciting ohhs at the north end of the vine pergola is the magnificent specimen of Clerodendrum splendens. This vining clerodendron (the common name ends in on') is from Africa, and for a clerodendron behaves itself rather seemly. With large leaves and clusters of small flowers reaching some five or six inches across, the vine will twine around a support and dangle branches quite beautifully. The wow-power of Seen closer, the red of this Clerodendrum is...

Skirting the issue

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 12:34:58 GMT

The palm Copernicia macroglossa bears round fronds that encircle the trunk with petioles so short they seem not to exist. There is no crown shaft, just a glorious head of leaves that gradually die and fall, but stay attached to the trunk. This skirt of old leaves is the My petticoat palm, age 11. source of its common name, petticoat palm or Cuban petticoat palm. Perhaps because it carries its fronds, both dead and alive, for such a long time, it is extraordinarily slow growing. Perhaps not....

A winter's day

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:49:08 GMT

After the hubbub of the Chocolate Festival, the Garden is in repose this Mottled and twisted seed pods ofLysiloma latisiliquum, wild tamarind. week, enjoying the soft light and quiet of a January afternoon. Visitors meandered in ones or twos yesterday, content with the winding down that's apparent in the brown edges on leaves, the brown coconut fronds, and the brown coconuts floating in the lakes. There are beautiful turquoise seeds of the Chinese fan palms littering the Bailey Palm Glade...

How sweet it is

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:52:16 GMT

It's a festival that appeals to the kid in all of us, but authentic kids really love this one. The 5th International Chocolate Festival, featuring Coffee & Tea, opened today with the delectable aroma of chocolate coming from orchids, candies, candles, even from the Garden's festival T-shirt. Ummm. Barbara Lalevee shows Ryan Johnson 9, pulpy chocolate seeds . You can see the Theobroma cacao trees in the rainforest -- and volunteer Barbara Lalevee will point out the baby pod on one of them that...

Mahogany plus cream make chocolate!

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:30:45 GMT

The hybrid orchid Oncidium Sharry Baby Sweet Fragrance' is blooming and Onc. Sharry Baby now has many relatives,some of them quite red in color. releasing its wonderful chocolate aroma just in time for the Chocolate Festival. An easy orchid to grow, this Oncidium has round pseudobulbs that range in size from three to four inches, and long, strap-shaped leaves that are somewhat leathery. It sends out long spikes of mahogany and cream-colored flowers. You can grow this in a mix of...

In the January garden

Tue, 04 Jan 2011 11:04:55 GMT

December's low temperatures have taken a toll on the garden's tender plants, especially the (usual suspects) aroids, gingers and heliconias. But many plants have kept right on ticking. Should we keep a basic list of what to plant in the future? Perhaps. Modest in size but outstanding incolor is this Billbergia bromeliad. A small Billbergia (confession: I've lost the species name) is sending out a flower spike. Billbergia is a genus of bromeliad from Mexico or Brazil, and...

A glow from Madagascar

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:15:59 GMT

Aloe dyeri has scarlet flowers. The short-day plants in the Madagascar exhibit are keeping the scenery bright. Aloes are holding up spikes of red tubular flowers, while the kalanchoes are showing off yellow flowers. Two Pachypodium rutenbergianum trees are leafless and topped with white blooms, while the Uncarina roeoesliana is sheltering yellow trumpet shaped flowers beneath its texured lobed leaves. If you stand for a while and study the bizarre shapes as well as the flowers, you may be...

A new home for Fausto

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 10:34:39 GMT

The rainforest now is home to thisbeautiful anthurium. Anthurium faustomirandae, one of my favorites, has moved from the conservatory to the rainforest as preparations are made for construction of the new science village. The conservatory plants will be moved to the nursery or, like Fausto, find a natural setting. This lovely plant that is native to Chiapas, Mexico, has huge heart-shaped leaves and a leathery texture. It feels comfortable in shade, high humidity and in soil with excellent...

Why I hate cold weather

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:40:37 GMT

The back porch in its cold weather disguise!...

Very cold, so button up

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:13:11 GMT

The orchid houses are covered and tonight I'll run an oscillating sprinkler under the benches in one house to try and keep the temperature raised somewhat. High winds make it difficult to keep sheets on plants, so tie oruse bricks to keep edges down.. Cattleyas, cymbidiums and nobile dendrobiums are not likely to be bothered by tonight's chill, but the phalaenopsis, oncidiums, bulbophyllyms and vandaceous orchids have been brought insiderammatophyllums are inside, along with prized aroids that...

Cold

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 18:39:59 GMT

A cold weather action plan has been set in motion. Because this early cold front has not been preceded by rain, I have just come in from watering beneath the canopies of large trees. As water retains warmth longer than dry soil, the warmth will radiate up into the canopies tonight, creating a nice microclimate for tender trees and plants growing in the trees. Hanging baskets are probably drying out now from the wind, so bring them inside. I have several in a lychee that I'll lower to the ground...

Pineland plants abloom and abuzz

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 12:56:21 GMT

Pollen sacks full, this bee is working varnish leaf flowers. A resin-like coating on the leaves of Dodonaea viscosa sometimes gives it the common name of varnish leaf. As a result of this coating, its leaves are less likely to lose water and therefore the plant is quite drought tolerant. Of course, the shrub also is referred to as Florida hopbush, because its fruits resemble hops for making beer. This shrub, in our pine rockland plantings, is pan-tropical, and can Seed capsules are attractive....

A bittersweet little garden story

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 21:12:10 GMT

Last week, a beautiful male monarch emerged from his chyrsalis in my butterfly garden, and so I was watching two additional chrysalises in anticipation of seeing the event occur. The jade green cases were smaller than normal, but on Thanksgiving, one chrysalis began its gradual change to transparency, a sign that a butterfly soon might hatch. There's a small slit in the chrysalis,on the right side, but the butterfly did not emerge. So at 6:30 Friday morning, I set up my camera on a tripod,...

Shifting into high season

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:15:20 GMT

The place is more interesting these days. As the summer residents dwindle - goodbye to a badly battered Red A juvenile red-masked parakeet. Admiral butterfly and a dragonfly in woeful shape - new ones are appearing. The juvenile Red-Masked Parakeets are getting their red markings and the Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers are making zpee sounds all around the garden. A Black and White Warbler was in an oak tree in the butterfly garden last week, as was a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. The Zebra...

Every year it astounds

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:17:36 GMT

Tacca integrifolia, the white bat flower, is so amazing that I find myself photographing it annually. Its whiskers are bracts, its bracts are elegant, and its flowers are other-worldly. Come by the Conservatory and see for yourself. Tacca integrifolia, showing largeand narrow bracts around thedark purple flowers. The stigma is surrounded by six anthers, which concealthe pollen....

Peppers for pizza: just use soap

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 20:58:56 GMT

At the Edible Garden Festival, I demonstrated how to create a pizza garden with tomato, pepper, oregano, basil and parsley plants. I put 1 of each in a terra cotta bowl containing a 50-50 mix of potting soil and aged horse manure. I helped some pint-sized gardeners learn to work with transplants and carefully pat down the root balls, adding more potting mix as we needed it. Banana peppers. The little gardens were meant only as inspiration for larger versions, but just for the fun of it, I have...

Col. Montgomery's conifers

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:33:32 GMT

Col. Robert Montgomery, who founded Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and named it for his friend David Fairchild, collected palms for his South Florida estate, but he also collected conifers at his home in Cos Cob, CT. He donated 200 conifers from his collection to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, and recently I visited that garden and the Colonel's trees, including spruce, hemlock, cedar and yew. This sign identifies the sprucename for Col. Robert Montgomery. The conifer...

A croton by another name

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 19:10:59 GMT

Red undersides of the leaves of thisChinese croton are quite beautiful, once you see them. If it had not been a windy day, I wouldn't have stopped abruptly at the sight of the shrub, Excoecaria cochinchinensis, or Chinese croton. I've walked past it all the time and never noticed it. But the wind picked up some branches and revealed the beautiful red underside of the leaves. From Southeast Asia and China, this lovely plant has inconspicuous flowers in the axils of its elliptical...

Hats off to this butterfly plant

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:11:41 GMT

Here's a winter bloomer that should be added to your list of bird and butterfly attracting plants. Holmskioldia sanguinea's intriguingflowers provide color in winter. The round and fused calyx encircles the tubular corolla of the unusual flowers on Holmskioldia sanguinea, creating a shape that gives the plant its common name, Chinese hat plant. The calyx of a flower ordinarily is green and often leaf-like, consisting of the sepals that surround the developing bud. This calyx adds to the...

Beautiful fall fruit

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:56:06 GMT

Snowberry. Berries and more berries are borne on our native plants now and especially noticeable are wild coffee, snowberry and beautyberry. These shrubs are a boon for wildlife, and birds, and for a native garden they're very nearly a must. Snowberry, Chiococca alba, is a hammock native that likes some high shade. It is a sprawling shrub that bears yellow, bell-shaped flowers in the summer and white berries in the fall. The Institute for Regional Conservation cautions that it can be...

Growing a pizza in a pot?

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 18:00:11 GMT

Planting oregano Saturday to complete our pizza garden. What do you put on a pizza? How about tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano? Come on by the Learning Center Sunday at 11:30 and I'll show you and the kids how to plant the right ingredients. Then you can make your own pizza garden at home with veggies fresh from your garden....

Pretty in pink

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:14:59 GMT

This wonderful Ceiba speciosa is stopping traffic. It's at the corner of San Remo Avenue and Yumuri Street in Coral Gables. As I was taking this photo, another woman stopped to do the same, and a third walked by to say she took a picture Sunday and sent it to friends in Seattle "to show them why I return to Miami every year." A floss silk or Ceiba speciosa that has many admirers. The color is spectacular, but so is the shape. This year, the tree started opening blooms on the west side of its...

Oooooooo, Halloween's best decorations

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:41:18 GMT

Bev Murphy, left, directs Bob Brennan in the cherry picker withhelp from Josef Pommer. Bev Murphy's marvelous Halloween decorations, made of natural materials, are being installed today. Palm sheath ghosts, gourd-nosed ghouls, mangy mutts with funny socks, bats, bats and more bats, witches and spiders.... Surely these are the best decorations ever, and the most Earth friendly. They bring smiles every year, as Boo! garden-members Bill and Bev Murphy haul Bev's creations to the garden. FTBG's...

Welcome home migratory birds

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 11:13:42 GMT

Swallowtail kite visits South Florida in the summer. Caribbean Migratory Bird Day is to be celebrated Saturday on the heels of our Bird Day. This celebration is being led by the Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds (SCSCB), the largest organization devoted to wildlife conservation in the Caribbean. Many of the island celebrations will have a "Welcome Home Migrants" theme. And here's a story about a migrant that will take your breath away. This comes from the Western...

But aren't bonsai small?

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 19:14:26 GMT

This black olive has been trained into abonsai shape, albeit on a large scale. Today at the garden, the Bonsai Society of Miami had members working to construct backdrops and pedestals for their fabulous miniature trees that will be on display Saturday and Sunday for their annual show and sale. Small and even medium sized trees were waiting to be placed, when a truck pulled up. Five people somehow managed to extract a 50-year-old black olive from the van and onto a rolling cart. But it is so...

Bird Day has fledged

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 13:18:50 GMT

A yellow warbler that might steal your heart.. Dr. John Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, had more than 200 people in the Bird Day audience Sunday for a talk that was powerful and exciting. Through citizen scientists around the country reporting on birds in their backyards and the astonishing technology of the Internet, Fitzpatrick said, we can follow the lives of birds and determine the health of their ecosystems. Here are three links that will engage you in...

Small but beautiful

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:18:55 GMT

A lovely flower caught my eye today at the Garden (well, OK, more than one): Clusia lanceolata, the porcelain flower. Sometimes called porcelain flower,this is Clusia lanceolata. Clusia was actually a Fairchild plant of the year in 2007. It is from Brazil's sandy shore, and therefore is salt tolerant. The waxy flowers are small but rather elegantly turned out in six white petals that have red bases. It likes sun or partial shade, and stays in the shrub-size range or may become a small...

Jackfruit, in David Fairchild's words

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:49:24 GMT

Jackfruit Just outside the Tropical Fruit Pavilion, a jackfruit tree has a goodly number of enormous fruit still attached to its trunk. It's worth seeking out just to marvel at the size of the fruit. In his book Exploring for Plants, David Fairchild tells of finding jackfruit the "universal" fruit of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) markets in the mid-1920s. In the past, he said, he had found it rather strong. When his host in Ceylon, Andreas Nell, boasted of the superior qualities of a "honey jack,''...

Oh, those wild aroids!

Sat, 18 Sep 2010 17:56:27 GMT

This weekend the Garden House is bursting with color and weirdly shaped leaves as the show and sale of the International Aroid Society has become a treasure chest of new plants. Pride of Sumatra. Aglaonemas and caladiums are filling the house with beautiful reds, pinks, sunset oranges, and hot pinks. The colors are coming from Thailand, where plant breeders have been ramping up the visuals for some time. Aglaonema Pride of Sumatra is a beautiful example of this. Another is the long, skinny...

Fruits and Flowers of Fall

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:08:31 GMT

Native bitterbush. Our light is changing ever so slowly, and walking around Fairchild this morning, I noticed the abundance of fruit that also marks a seasonal change. Bitterbush female trees are loaded with beautiful red berries. Bitterbush is a lovely small tree of the Miami-Dade County hammocks that grows in the West Indies and northern South America as well. The compound leaves are pointed and pretty. Bitterbush trees are usually dioecious, with male and female flowers occurring on different...

Surprise!

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:14:26 GMT

When you root a cutting outside, you never knowwhat's going to join in the fun....

Late summer stories

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:57:37 GMT

It was not your imagination. In August, the National Weather Service recorded 21 days of light rain and 11 days of thunderstorms. We sweltered in heat that averaged 1.5 degrees above normal, but our maximum highs were 2 degrees above normal. We may be worn to a frazzle, but outside, the plants are growing like gangbusters. Even the new croton leaves are gigantic as a result. Golden mokara. Rainbows of mokaras are sparkling throughout Rosey mokara. my garden, pleased as punch with the rain and...

Nature's design

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:55:03 GMT

The lotus seed pod 34 days after the flower opened....

Snail season

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:22:57 GMT

Snail damage on a bromeliad. All the rain has been wonderful for plant growth and for providing a measure of relief from the heat, but it also brings out the snails. Take a walk through your garden early in the early morning and look for them. They will eat away the soft tissue of bromeliads, amaryllis, crinum lilies, and aroids. Snails also may infest your orchid collection, so examine your potted orchids and even those in wooden baskets. Baskets may appear to have tiny bumps on them, but look...

In the butterfly garden

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:22:53 GMT

Atala butterfly. The atala butterflies are back, showing off their exquisite colors. Not only are the butterflies themselves lovely, the caterpillars also are vivid red with yellow dots. The butterfly garden is full of life now and worth a visit. Just sit on a bench for a few minutes and watch. You will feel yourself relax. Larvae munch on a cyad. Atala butterfly larvae are readily spotted on the little Florida cycad, Zamia integrifolia from which they acquire a toxin. Their brilliant coloration...

Deceit is the name of the pollination game

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:48:49 GMT

Tom Mirenda is the orchid collection specialist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He was a speaker for the annual orchid symposium put on by the Coalition for Orchid Species last Sunday in the Garden House. He brought humor and fun to his talk about orchid pollination that capped a day of terrific presentations to the 70 or so people who attended. Orchids are sly creatures when it comes to attracting pollinators, and they employ all kinds of tricks, from mimicking other plants...

Lotus Land

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:50:57 GMT

Little wonder the lotus is a sacred flower in parts of the world. The Bali Red that opened at home yesterday is exquisitely proportioned and delicately colored. We acquired seeds from a gardening friend, and followed his instructions. Bali Red on its first open day. Seeds were scarified with a metal nail file and soaked in water for days in the kitchen window until the first leaf began to emerge. They were tenderly planted in aquatic soil mix but not put in the pond. Instead, we have them...

A bug's legs

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:30:07 GMT

Maypop, Passiflora incarnata, is passion vine with lovely purple flowers. It has been a great Fancy legs on this leaf-footed bug. draw at home for Gulf fritillaries, even though it has developed strategies that try to discourage butterflies from laying their Nectar glands on calyx ofa passion flower. eggs on the leaves. Its flower buds have nectaries on the edges of the calyces that draw ants, presumably to attack butterfly larvae. In addition to the ants, the plant tries to discourage butterfly...

Topsy-turvy

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:41:51 GMT

Dazzling Gloriosa superba. Hanging in Suzanne Kores' workspace in the Davis House is a giant reproduction of a 1999 stamp that depicts flowers of a bird of paradise, royal poinciana, hibiscus and gloriosa lily. Kores, who is the garden's director of program development, has taken the "stamp" with her from office to office. Outside the Davis House, a gloriosa lily is climbing a palm tree and dangling upside down flowers so beautiful they stop you in your tracks. Wavy...

Mangos star in the culinary conference

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:13:49 GMT

When you line up to taste mangos Saturday at the International Mango Festival, see if you can determine the suite of flavors that Chef Allen Susser described finding in several mangos during Chef Allen Susser Friday's culinary conference: vanilla and honey, candied lemon; apricot, papaya and a little vanilla; lush peach and pineapple with a touch of acidity. It's this fine-tuned tasting that makes him a chef. Once he has figured out the flavors, this owner of Chef Allen's in...

Rain, and its consequences

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:08:27 GMT

Great southern white male butterfly. Caterpillars are feasting on the new growth that has appeared with the onset of our rainy season. Gulf fritillaries, sulfurs and great southern whites are in the neighborhood, pirouetting and flitting, gliding and darting in the sun and shadows. Chomped leaves are a part of the show and our native passion vine, Passiflora suberosa, as well as the purple-flowering Passiflora incarnata are filled with crawly life. Alas, snails, too, are numerous, so it's...

White is Cool

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 11:14:30 GMT

Butterfly ginger. Vita Sackville-West's famous white garden at Sissinghurst Castle isn't something I aspire to, but in the summer heat, white flowers are deliciously cool looking. Two of summer's tropical whites are not only lovely but each emits a perfume that makes me want to pull up a chair sit a spell. They are Hedychium coronarium and Brunfelsia nitida. The hedychium is the famous butterfly ginger, or mariposa blanca, the national flower of Cuba, though it originated a...

Summer's rewards

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:05:16 GMT

Yes, it is very hot, but come anyway. Heliconias are lovely now. You'll find yourself rewarded with an abundance of flowering plants. Flowering in the semi-shade of the Vine Pergola now are small heliconias, which are emblematic of summer in the tropics. The gorgeous tree bougainvillea is in flower as are many of the Madagascar plants and the big baobab. Semi-dwarf hybrid heliconias are less likely to have their banana-like leaves shredded by wind, and when they travel, do so in baby steps...

Looking at our scientific work in the Caribbean

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:40:07 GMT

At work in Jamaica's treacherous hills of the Cockpit Country, Melissa Abdo,front left, Fairchild's Marlon Rumble and Howard Beckford, with the ForestryDepartment of Jamaica. Melissa Abdo, the garden's international conservation projects officer, offered a wonderful overview of our scientific work being done in the Caribbean at the last members' lecture of the season Wednesday night. Historically, she said, the natural habitats and forests of the West Indies have been plundered to...

Briefs from the home front

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:59:06 GMT

Fronds show cold damage. Cold damage is showing up on the blue latan palms. But it looks as if Ummm, a beeautiful catch. they will be able to grow beyond it. Cold took out the back of one lychee and continued down the fence line. A Latania closest to the lychee was protected, but those farther down the line were hit. I treated with copper and a fungicide, but the scars are just now showing up. Meanwhile, on a tour of the garden this morning, I saw that a small crab spider caught a sweet...

Beauties, Oddities and Other Delights

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:55:26 GMT

One of the best things about the show and sale of the Tropical Fern and Exotic Plant Society is just how exotic the plants really are. This year's show includes ferns, lycopodiums, begonias, crotons, orchids and aroids. All of them are wonderfully grown - a remarkable feat after our coldest winter and then hottest May on record. The show is in the Garden House, and not only fills a display in the center of the room, but it runs across the stage as well. Here are some of the...

Water lilies made easy

Fri, 28 May 2010 16:09:30 GMT

Amazon lilies are growing andhave produced the first bud. Come on in, the water's fine. It has warmed up for the tropical water lilies that are making beautiful displays in various pools around the garden. The marvelous Victoria amazonica (Victoria amazonica x cruziana Longwood hybrid') already has a flower, and many others are showing lavender, blue and white flowers. Ken Neugent, conservatory and special projects manager, says planting water lilies isn't complicated....

A natural sculpture graces the garden

Thu, 27 May 2010 21:27:56 GMT

The Marlborough Blue cycad isunfolding a new rosette of leaves. Try to dream up a way to package leaves with many leaflets so that they unfold perfectly when they expand, so that the miniature leaves uncoil from their natal position like fern fronds, each exactly in place along the main stem. Then come to the garden and Leaflets uncoil with precision. compare your design with that of Cycas ophiolitica, the Marlborough Blue cycad from Australia. Its new leaves are exquisitely presented, soft,...

FYI: BioBlitz turned up some amazing finds

Fri, 07 May 2010 16:36:43 GMT

BioBlitz, the two-day inventory of land and water flora and fauna held last weekend in Biscayne National Park, turned up some interesting finds, including seven candidate champion trees: paradise tree, Bahama strong back, blolly, milk bark, joewood, inkwood and pigeon plum. Potentially the largest trees of their kind are growing on Totten Key. They somehow survived Hurricane Andrew in 1992 well enough to grow into (perhaps) the largest of their kind. A press release from Everglades National Park...

Handsome Haitian palms are priceless

Thu, 06 May 2010 22:12:43 GMT

One of the handsomest sights in the palmetum is the collection of Haitian palms, Attalea crassispatha. The group was planted from seeds collected on a 1991 joint expedition by Fairchild and New York Botanical Garden. Only about two dozen palms remain in the wild, making it one of the rarest palms in this hemisphere. Carl Lewis said the palms in the grove have not yet produced fruit, but there is an Attalea crassispatha in another area of the garden that has borne fruit. He reports that five...

Summer's colors are starting to appear

Tue, 04 May 2010 17:41:14 GMT

Monarchs sipping nectar fromred pentas. As spring slides into summer, Florida is returning to "normal." Lots of flowers are returning: some briefly, such as the lovely blue-purple blossoms on the jacaranda trees and the spring-flowering amaryllis; others for the duration, such as the shrimp plants, the tropical group of acanths, including shrimp plant and cardinal's guard. The butterfly garden has been up and running for some time, full of monarchs and zebra longwings and the...

Chasing caterpillars

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:02:10 GMT

Gulf fritillary drink from a butterfly bush Butterflies are coming back and as part of my research on butterfly gardening, I've been closely watching butterfly life cycles. The phenomenon of metamorphosis still fascinates me, and I've been trying to witness the changes. Fritillary caterpillars on Maypop,Passiflora incarnata I've never seen old skin on a caterpillar split and be shed, nor have I seen a caterpillar change into a pupa. I haven't seen a butterfly emerge from...

Help catalog biodiversity in Biscayne National Park

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:19:09 GMT

Help count everything from manatees to mangroves, snappers to snails, butterflies to birds when you participate as a citizen scientist in National Geographic's BioBlitz April 30 and May 1. You can join 125 scientists and help inventory all the living organisms in Biscayne National Park, 9700 SW 328 St. in Homestead. Superstar oceanographer Sylvia Earle, National Geographic's Explorer-in-Residence, will be there, as will Kenny Broad, director of the University of Miami's Leonard and Jayne Abess...

The path to health

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:12:34 GMT

At the opening of the re-done medicinal healing garden last weekend at Nova Southeastern University in Broward County, people started taking off their shoes. Talk about a relaxed university event. Elizabeth Marazita demonstratedhow to use the reflexology path. The reason: the reflexology path in the heart of the garden. You walk over stones of various sizes and shapes (there's a handrail for safety) and it's best done without shoes. The path is the first one in Florida and the first on the U.S....

Spring forward!

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:07:04 GMT

Cardinal beneath the vines. Look no farther than the vine pergola to know that spring has arrived in South Florida. The shower-of-orchids and queen's wreath are happily announcing the season, as the cardinals are busy looking for nesting sites within them. Shower-of-orchids is Congea tomentosa and it is tumbling over the Shower-of-orchids. pergola like cotton candy. Light pink bracts surround the small white flowers of this Southeast Asian vine. If you look closely, the little flowers hold...

Seeking rare butterflies in the Keys

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:06:59 GMT

My respect for butterfly conservationists just shot up a thousand percent -- especially those who identify and photograph these aerial jewels. Tuesday, I tagged along as Jaret Daniels led a group of butterfly conservationists to Bahia Honda State Park and the National Key Deer Refuge in the Florida Keys. They were searching for the state-listed endangered Miami Blue butterfly as well as Bartram's hairstreak and the Florida leafwing, two candidates for federal listing. Armed with his...

With orchids galore, it's a splendid festival

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:38:34 GMT

A cart of orchids about to go homewith Giovanna Abreu and EdithLaRiva. Neighbors Giovanna Abreu and Edith LaRiva drove in from Doral and were bargaining hard Friday afternoon at Fairchild's 8th International Orchid Festival. "We come every year; we wait for it,'' Giovanna said. Sissy Scott drove from Orlando and sat with a full cart of orchids in the early afternoon with her friend Lori Godinez. "I'm just starting out,'' Sissy said. "I have...

Lettuce now praise the raised bed garden

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:21:32 GMT

As I watched cold batter my landscape, the one part of the garden that seemed to thrive in January and February was the vegetable garden. Beautiful broccoli. One broccoli plant measures an astounding 44 inches tall. The large head of unopened flowers sits 32 inches above the soil in our raised bed garden. We've already harvested one large head, and use the subsequent small side shoots in salads. Weird looking, this kohlrabi is acabbage relative. A tiny cauliflower is forming on our single...

Aflame in late winter

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:02:54 GMT

The flame vine puts on a show. Late winter bloomers always are welcome, especially this winter when we seem to be stuck in cold. Flowering in the south parking lot is the red kapok or red silk cotton tree, Bombax ceiba, while the vine pergola is displaying a gorgeous coating of orange, thanks to the flame vine, Pyrostegia venusta. Just the sight of these brilliantly colored flowers will lift your winter spirits. The silk cotton is a large tree that needs room to grow: it can Big, waxy flowers on...

Discovering secrets in plain sight on a walking tour

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:55:15 GMT

One of the best experiences at the garden is a walking tour. I checked out two tours recently and discovered things about the garden and its plants that I never knew. Walking tours are lead by well-informed volunteers and inevitably launch friendly exchanges among participants. Tours don't cover the entire 83 acres, but are confined to two areas easily covered in 45 minutes: the palm and tropical fruit area of the garden, and the arboretum, vine pergola and spiny forest displays. This...

A more natural way to grow orchids?

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:00:26 GMT

Harry Phillips, who with his brother Andy operates Andy's Orchids in Encinitas, Ca., made a strong case for growing epiphytic orchids mounted on hard wood when he spoke at the Orchid Society of Coral Gables this week: it's easier to water; roots grow longer; plants grow best when in situations that imitate nature. Orchid roots exposed on mounts benefit from good air circulation. The only orchid that doesn't like good air movement around roots is the ghost orchid, he said. It...

Plants and People: An Interactive Garden

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:18:37 GMT

Between drizzle and downpour, a magical thing happened this week in the garden. Plants and People did indeed connect and interact during the luncheon and tram tour for Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers. The program is new to the garden this year, initiated by trustee Lin Lougheed after he witnessed a similar program at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. During a boxed lunch in the Visitors Center, everyone worried about the rain, and a slide show stood at the ready. But just at...

Taking stock of cold, awaiting spring

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:51:22 GMT

The effects of the 10-day blast of cold air are showing up throughout South Florida, including our tropical garden. Yellow and brown leaves are revealing how sensitive tropical plants can be to to four days of below 40-degree temperatures, especially after very warm days in November and December. Fairchild explorers took a closelook at cold damage in the rainforest. The rainforest understory was hard hit, with heliconias, gingers and many plants in the aroid family, such as small philodendrons,...

A croton primer

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:39:53 GMT

Scorched leaves hangingfrom twigs may meantwig or branch dieback. Jeff Searle, a nurseryman known for his exotic palms, has been growing crotons rather feverishly over the last five years, and he gave a whole course in growing them for the Tropical Fern and Exotic Plant Society this week. Cold damage was the hot topic, of course. And he said leaves falling off are a better sign than leaves dying and hanging onto their twigs. Scorched and clinging leaves are not a guarantee that plants will die,...

More on the aroid front, and a class

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:31:31 GMT

Cold damage creeps on little cat feet, it appears. More yellow-then-brown leaves seem to reveal This bird's nest Anthurium wasnot covered for the cold. themselves daily. Back in 1980, the International Aroid Society's journal, Aroideana, published a small field study by Mark Moffler of the degrees of cold damage on aroids he was growing in Tampa. "The self-heading or arborescent philodendrons (Philodendron selloum and P. x evansii) and the birds-nest anthuriums (Anthurium hookeri and...

Chocolate dreams come true

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:26:38 GMT

Paris Parise holds a chocolatecupcake and nibbles on a ladybug candy. A true gift of the rainforest, chocolate has tickled taste buds for hundreds of years. In celebration of this rainforest treasure, all things chocolate were delighting youngsters and oldsters at the garden Friday at the start of the 4th International Chocolate Festival. A teacher's workday freed lots of eager young chocolate tasters, but children weren't the only ones to pursue the seductive flavors. A bus of folks...

And the effects of cold keep on coming

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:51:18 GMT

After three days of dropping leaves, the black olive looks like this. Among the damaged: Pithecellobium, Pseudobombax, Pritchardia, Podocarpus...are all the P-plants doomed? Naw. Ficus, gumbo-limbo (some), African tulip trees, some coconut palms, royal poincianas, the list goes on. The damage likely will continue to appear. I called Steve Nock, aroid hybridizer and expert who owns Borneo giant shows how itdisliked the cold. Ree Gardens with his wife Marie, to ask about my damaged and...

Reaping the windfall benefits of cold

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:12:36 GMT

The black olive felt outside its hardiness zone this weekand is complaining about it. Ragtag and bitter winds played hopscotch during last week's cold spell and now we can watch mulch being made right in our own backyards! Several months' supply is being dropped on the patio by the West Indian black olive tree. The bougainvillea, sacred bamboo of Bali and, alas, many of the Vanda and Bulbophyllum orchids also are donating to the cause. This is really lemonade from lemons,...

The weekend that was and what lies ahead

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:23:40 GMT

For plants, pets and plant lovers, it was a weekend of stress. Trying to get the floodlights and heaters set up in cold drizzle was a challenge. Now comes the next event: helping the garden recover, if we're lucky. If palm fronds turn brown, remove them. However, if only part of the frond is brown, remove that part and allow the green to stay in place. All available green is needed for photosynthesis. The same is true for fronds with brown spots of cold damage. Get out the copper fungicide...

What to do with your plants in this cold weather

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:28:32 GMT

This week is bringing the coldest weather we've experienced in nine years. To help prevent cold damage to your plants, cover tender plants, either with old sheets, paper or boxes. Do not use plastic, as any plastic touching leaves will carry heat into the atmosphere away from the plants. At night, a floodlight beams heat into the covered sealing wax palms. I have covered the tender palms, such as the sealing wax and Pelagodoxa henryana, with sheets and put floodlights beneath the sheets to...

Holiday flowers are really tropical bulbs, so plant them

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:29:18 GMT

This year's amaryllis (Hippeastrum cultivars) have produced spectacular flowers for the holidays. What to do with them when the flowers fade? Plant them in the garden This amaryllis, a Hippeastrum cultivar, is called Papilio. I have always loved these flowers, and now have them in beds throughout my garden. They don't bloom at Christmas, but in the spring. Last year, some of mine began to open in February. Others waited for a couple of months. So the show is on-going. All you need is...

Colors of the season

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:12:05 GMT

Maybe it's just me, but I keep noticing red and white flowers this month that resonate with the holiday season. White candles. Just beyond the visitors Center in Plot 50 is a shrub that holds up charming white flowers, a Whitfieldia, or white candles. It hails from the rainforests of Africa but makes a lovely guest in South Florida. Dark green leaves set off the panicles of flowers that are held upright, resembling candles. The flowers are tubular, emerging from fuzzy white bracts....

Garden of delights

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:45:43 GMT

These flowers bloom by dayas well as night. With Nessie rising from Center Lake and Big Foot stomping out of the rainforest, with giant polka dotted flowers and pumpkins delighting the eye, the garden is brimming over with color, life and liveliness these days. Sweet almond bush is blooming at several locations around the garden, including the butterfly garden. It is Aloysia virgata, a member of the verbena family. Its aroma is rather noticeable, as if a cloud of fragrance hovers above each...

Winter white in the garden

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:36:29 GMT

A brilliant blue sky perfectly sets off the charmof Euphorbia leucocephala, the littleChristmas flower. Call it little Christmas flower, snowbush or snowflake, or flor de leche, this shrub is in full glory now in the garden. Several together are dazzling in their showiness, especially when seen against a deep blue winter sky. Euphorbia leucocephala, a poinsettia relative, is as dependable as its red cousin when it comes to telling us the season. Delicate white bracts surround tiny green flowers,...

A red-letter Friday, not a black one

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:11:36 GMT

Wood ibis. Calathea Burle Marx. On the gorgeous day after Thanksgiving, not everyone was contributing to the shopping frenzy of Black Friday, but many were happily exploring the garden. As the Yayoi Kusama's delightful pumpkins were being set up near the arboretum, wood ibis were playing tag in a buttonwood by a lake and a soft-shell turtle swam next to shore to ogle us tourists. We found the red cassia (Cassia roxburghii) is in flower; the Christmas bush (Euphorbia leucocephala) is so...

Rockin' lips and rollin' sepals

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:00:06 GMT

It's getting to be flowering season for an enormous group of orchids: bulbophyllums. These orchids are found throughout Southeast Asia, but turn up also in Africa, tropical America, even Australia. The number of species is something like 1,000, give or take. These Cirrohpetalum flowers look as if they're sticking out their tongues. A fascinating feature of many of the flowers is the motile or rocking lip. Cirrhopetalum is a section of the Bulbophyllum genus, but still is held by some to be...

On the cusp of a new season at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:16:39 GMT

Eulophia alta, a terrestrialorchid, still in flower. Alligators were not in sight, but orchids were plentiful last weekend in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. The November blue sky overhead was filled with the delicate sounds of warblers, periodic announcements from red-shouldered hawks and the occasional crank of an egret. We spotted Eulophia alta next to the boardwalk as we crossed the open, sunny prairie between pineland and cypress. Full of seedpods, the Eulophia's last flowers were damaged...

Botanical art exhibition at Everglades National Park

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:52:17 GMT

Artist Kathleen Konick-Moran has spent eight winters working as a volunteer at Everglades National Park to document rare and endangered orchids, bromeliads and other Everglades plants. Her art exhibit is now open and runs through the end of November at the Park's Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center, 40001 State Rd. 9336 Homestead. Kathleen is a botanical illustrator, working in pencil, pen and ink and watercolor. A video about her work in the park and her art can be found on the Park's website under...

Plants for the birds

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:29:35 GMT

The necklace pod is attractive tohummingbirds. Insect-eating birds, such as warblers, gnatcatchers, flycatchers and vireos, love wild tamarinds. And so that tree will be among the bird-attracting plants Leslie Veber's Jungle Garden is providing for Bird Day's plant sale. These little birds also are attracted to shortleaf fig, green buttonwood, satin leaf, firebush, wild sage and Florida privet, so these are going to be on sale, too. Leslie worked with Roger Hammer's list of...

Sneak peek beneath a leaf

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:52:29 GMT

One leaf of Anthurium clavigerum. I was prowling the rainforest the other day and saw an awesome leaf on Anthurium clavigerum. An epiphyte, this aroid possesses the largest leaf of any anthurium in Central America. With lobes so fanciful they appear to be separate leaflets, this single leaf can theoretically reach about seven feet across! As a big leaf fanatic, I have just found another desirable garden specimen. The swollen areas supporting the leaf blade allow the leaf to move. . The underside...

Flame thrower

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:39:11 GMT

Coming into flower in the rainforest: Ruellia chartacea. Called a "scandent shrub," Ruellia chartacea is setting little fires on the edge of the rainforest with its scarlet bracts and orange-gold flowers. It is sometimes called the red shrimp plant, and is in the same family as Brazilian red cloak, shrimp plant and wild petunia. After the gingers and heliconias have put away their flowers and while the begonias are saving up to form theirs, this shrub is one that will put some spark...

Urban Oases bird project is proving fruitful

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:28:33 GMT

As we near the end of fall migration, birders who have been scouting Fairchild and Matheson Hammock since late August for important food plants for songbirds have come upon some surprises. Wild lime, soldierwood and the caimito, as well as its cousin satin leaf, are among the plants playing a large role in fueling birds heading south. A tropical catalpa and native and non-native figs in the Arboretum are also providing nourishment to such birds as black-throated blue warblers, parula warblers,...

Blooming right on time

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:31:17 GMT

Fall is the time of year for delicate clusters of lavender flowers to appear on Guarianthe bowringiana, an orchid in the Cattleya alliance. Because of its seasonal blooming, it once was called Cattleya autumnalis. It is festooning the Conservatory's epiphyte tree and display room. A beautiful fall-blooming orchid, Guarianthe bowringiana is aneasy orchid for beginners. Gua or guadia is from the Aztec language and it means tree. Anthe is from Greek meaning flower. So understanding that, said...

A real American beauty

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:15:25 GMT

Birds are attracted to this native, American beautyberry. American beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, is a native shrub that postions itself at the edges of hammocks and pinelands. It attracts butterflies in the spring and summer with delicate pink flowers, and then supplies grape-colored clusters of fruit for mockingbirds and catbirds in the fall and winter. Its leaves are fairly large with serrated edges, and the twigs sometimes stick straight out before elongating to droop and create a...

Seeing Anew

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:48:29 GMT

This unknown species of Acalyphais transformed by mid-morning sun. Sometimes it takes just the right bit of light to draw your eye to a plant you've walked by a hundred times without paying it much attention. That happened the other day when I was outside the Corbin Building. Sun shone on an Acalypha with crested leaves, and in that certain slant of light, they were as lovely as stained glass. Acalypha, which is in the Euphorbiaceae or spurge family, displays a remarkable variety of leaf...

A very likable bat (plant)

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:27:33 GMT

Whiskers are really modified leaves as are the "wings" ofthe bat. Here's a reason to celebrate: the bat-plant is flowering. Its upright white bracts hover like wings above a cluster of flowers draped with long whiskers (really The white bat-plant with one of its flowers open. bracteoles or little bracts that are modified leaves). The whiskers remind me of drawings of the wispy beards of Chinese elders, but for most people, they resemble cats' whiskers. The flowers' anthers and...

Love those leaves

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:01:36 GMT

Susan Schock with the aroids she plans to transport to her Key West home. Susan Schock drove up from Key West to buy a wagonload of her favorite plants, alocasias, at the International Aroid Society's annual show and sale that opened Saturday morning. "I came here in 1996 and saw the Fairchild Garden, and then drove to Key West and decided that's where I wanted to live,'' she said. Originally from Tucson, AZ., and then New Mexico, Susan was captivated by the tropical greenery. Today, she works...

A giant in the garden

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:27:27 GMT

Aroids, to my way of thinking, are an integral part of a tropical/subtropical garden. They range in size from petite to giant, and the shapes can be as slender and minimalist or as ruffled and rococo as you prefer. They climb palms and trees throughout my garden, and they hold up strikingly patterned leaves from hanging baskets, from the ground and from the pond. Among the most impressive size-wise is Alocasia macrorrhizos 'Borneo Giant' in the background; Cyrtosperma johnstonii at right, an...

Vignettes

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:15:13 GMT

Gardens are full of beautiful vignettes, surprises and delights - if you take a few moments to look for them. Strolling with my camera through Fairchild not long ago I came upon two such garden moments: a curled Cecropia leaf and lichens on a palm trunk. Lovely Cecropia leaves, even when fallen. Cecropias are pioneer trees in the rain forest. They have short-lived seeds that germinate in the full sun of a light gap and then race upwards at a dozen feet a year. There are several species of...

Small but beautiful

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:53:06 GMT

Episcia cupreata is a Conservatory beauty.. You have to stoop down to really see them, but the flowers of Episcia cupreata are dramatic once you make the effort. Their tubular flowers have fringes on their edges and red markings in their yellow throat. In the Conservatory, the bright "flame-violet" nestles near the pineapple ginger. Episcia is a member of the gesneriad family, tropical herbs that are often found in the under story of rainforests where humidity is high and light...

A nifty native

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:48:47 GMT

Fruit of the Simpson stopperis brightly colored and at-tractive to birds. Among the Florida native plants surrounding the Museum House are Simpson stoppers, now bearing bright red berries that are attractive to a wide variety of birds. Stoppers are under story trees of the evergreen hammocks that generally bear small leaves, white flowers in spring, followed by orange or red fruit. Simpson stopper is Myrcianthes fragrans, and it is useful in a number of ways: as a small tree; in a grouping of...

Saving our songbirds with trees

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:29:52 GMT

Can warblers find food here? Guided by the stars, the winds, and the Earth's magnetic fields, migratory songbirds - the warblers, thrushes, vireos, tanagers and buntings that spend the summer in North America and the winter in the Caribbean and South America - are beginning to pass through South Florida now. Traveling from 30 to 100 miles a day, the birds need twice the amount of food during migration as they otherwise require. But will they find enough food here to help them...

Put what in your pipe?

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:04:47 GMT

Blooming on the vine pergola is Aristolochia maxima, the Florida Dutchman's pipe, which has the Aristolochia maxima showshairs that trap flies. shape of an old-fashioned meerschaum pipe. It is not native to Florida - it grows from Mexico through Central America and into Venezuela -- but has naturalized here. The clusters of flowers on this woody vine, or liana, are brownish, without the outrageous liver color and really bizarre shape of the larger flowered species, such as...

The state of orchids in the wild, brought home

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:42:38 GMT

The Coalition for Orchid Species' annual symposium Aug. 2 brought speakers from California, Texas, New York and Miami to the Garden House. About 80 people happily spent hours focusing on their favorite topic: orchids that occur in the wild. Because of habitat destruction, orchid species are sought by growers and collectors looking for increasingly rare plants. COS was organized in 1990 to stress conservation and educate the public about the diversity of the flowers found in nature. Lee Moore Lee...

Saving a Cycad Isn't Easy

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:37:27 GMT

Microcycas calocoma is the handsome dark green cycad in the center of this photo. It is complimented with bromeliads. Surrounded by a bevy of big bromeliads, this beautiful Microcycas calocoma is just south of the Visitors Center. A native of the province Pinar del Rio in western Cuba, this genus has only one species, and is extremely limited in its natural range, according to Loran Whitelock's The Cycads. As late as 1998, there were believed to be about 1,000 left, with reproductive...

Stamp of Approval

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:12:50 GMT

Fort Jefferson's light will shine on your letters. Our very own Fort Jefferson Lighthouse in Dry Tortugas National Park has its very own stamp now, with the first day issue ceremony held last week at the Key West Post Office in Key West. The lighthouse also is called the Garden Key Harbor Light. The original was built in 1825. The existing light is a hexagonal wrought iron tower, although the light no longer is an active aid to navigation. The first day of issue postmark is a pen and ink drawing...

90 Miles south of Florida: Orchids of Cuba

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:13:20 GMT

Betty Eber Betty Eber, a long-time Coral Gables orchid grower and teacher of orchid culture, spoke about Cuban orchids Monday night at the Coalition for Orchid Species meeting at Fairchild. Betty's map of Cuba also featured a purple star near the town of Cienfuegos, with the notation: Betty's Birthplace. Orchids of Cuba are generally small and many tend to grow in coastal scrub. Some, however, are high mountain denizens. Some also have wonderful color, such as the intense yellow...

Happy Campers at Fairchild's Farm

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:26:13 GMT

Summer camp at the Fairchild Farm is underway, and on the day I stopped in, the kids were studying worms. Worms! Noris Ledesma had collected earthworms so that each child could have his or her own worm and learn how to tell the head from the tail. Once they got over the shivers just looking at the worms, the children found they could handle them, dangle them in the air and even use them as face decoration. Elizabeth Garcia, 7, knew why it's important to have worms in the garden: "So...

Savoring summer's best fruit

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:04:11 GMT

A perfect mango morning: hot and sunny with flavors ranging from spicy to sweet. At the 17th International Mango Festival, Saturday's crowds found what they've waited all year for: mangos to sample, to taste and trees to buy. Lines of taste-testers were busy sipping sugar and spice on toothpicks as they ranked their favorite mango flavors. Ann Parsons, director of The Kampong, found her favorite among the samples: Keitt. After that, she liked the Fairchild Emerald, then Osteen....

Naturally South Florida -- According to Roger Hammer

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:02:20 GMT

Distinctly Hammeresque humor peppered Roger's recent talk for the Dade Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society as he recounted early history of South Florida to a standing-room-only crowd: The Florida Keys: "A drinking community with a fishing problem.'' The now-extinct American lion, the largest mammal predator ever, once roamed Miami-Dade County: "As a naturalist, I live for American lions to make a comeback.'' But seriously, folks. An...

Bold flowers yes, but borne gingerly

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:13:29 GMT

A baby inflorescence Pineapple or Indonesian Wax Gingers Putting on a spectacular show in the back of the Conservatory is the pineapple or Indonesian wax ginger, Tapeinochilos ananassae, a member of the costus family. Some two dozen brilliant red pinecone-like inflorescences are standing proudly in a group, having arisen on their own leafless stems or scapes. They're almost shockingly bold, composed of bracts that house golden yellow flowers. The plant's real stems, meanwhile, tower...

Back yard plants that really are medicinal

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:01:49 GMT

David McLean There's a drugstore in your back yard and Broward County nurseryman David McLean mixed humor and home remedied for the Tropical Fern and Exotic Plant Society's last meeting of the season. Plants throughout time have been the source of medicines and remedies for people everywhere. For scratches or wounds: "McLean's three mix" is a combination of aloe, avocado and tea tree oil, stirred together in equal parts with a little water. Cut a slice of the succulent leaf in...

A Gem from Jamaica

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:00:13 GMT

Portlandia grandiflora Pure white bell-shaped flowers are gracing the shrub Portlandia grandiflora near the vine pergola. This gardenia relative is commonly called bell flower and it is from the limestone or karst hills of Jamaica. Wonderfully fragrant at night, it most likely is pollinated by night-flying moths that typically are attracted to white flowers that emit perfume after dark. The tall shrub (it grows to about six or eight feet) is initially rather spindly but fills out to become more...

The Mango High Five

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:00:40 GMT

Noris checking out Southeast Asian mangos Noris Ledesma, curator of tropical fruit at Williams Grove, has spent years tasting different kinds mangos, often 20 different fruit a day during the season, to school her taste buds in the flavors that range from sweet to tart. Here's her take (developed with senior curator Richard Campbell) on the five basic flavor types, each named for a region, a mango most representative of the flavor or the strongest tasting. Myanmar type These, such as...