Garden stories can arise from a single plant or a profusion of them, from a spectacular bird or glorious butterfly that visits a worthy bloom, or a new discovery made in the field that expands our understanding of the Earth. Any and all of these realms are for sharing and discussing on this blog, which we invite you to join.
Text and photos by Georgia Tasker
Lettuce now praise the raised bed garden
Wed, Mar 03, 2010 at 12:21:32 PM
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.
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| 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.
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| Weird looking, this kohlrabi is a cabbage relative. |
A tiny cauliflower is forming on our single cauliflower plant. Kohlrabi is fat as a baseball. We will harvest it soon. This cabbage relative forms a bulbous area on its stem above ground, with leaves emerging from the bulb. We can eat it raw or cooked.
Our tomatoes have been small, but our cherry tomatoes have been prolific. Two sizeable bell peppers have formed on our single pepper plant, which hardly looks strong enough to support them.
Leaf lettuce continues to grow, and we harvest tender leaves daily for salads. We mix leaf lettuce and peppery arugula with broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes and occasionally parsley, which has outdone itself in one corner of the raised bed.
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| The pepper plant hardly looks strong enough to support these peppers. |
Mint, sage and oregano seem to love the cool weather. Our okra suffered from powdery mildew in the hot weather of December, as did our purple beans. But the beans have been replanted and are growing beautifully.
I bought the cedar-plank raised bed from Miami Victory Gardens. It came with a rich supply of compost and soil. We have not side-dressed or added any other fertilizer to the mix, and are amazed at the production that has come from an 8-ft. by 4-ft. by 12-inch-deep bed.
This is one year when our home efforts at urban food gardening have been a boon and not a boondoggle.
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Aflame in late winter
Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 07:02:54 AM
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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
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| Big, waxy flowers on the red silk cotton tree. |
reach 80 to 100 feet in height. (Remember that tree roots are generally three times as long as a tree is tall.) The waxy flowers are similarly proportioned, sometimes reaching nine inches across. The tree generally drops its leaves in winter, flowers and then grows new palmate-shaped leaves in spring.
Tubular flowers on the flame vine are so bright you can hardly ignore them. This South American vine becomes woody, races to cover as much as possible, and then it ignites the landscape with color. Because it is so aggressive, you have to be an aggressive gardener should you plant it, cutting it back hard after the flowers disappear. It will grow in full sun or partial shade and it is not picky about soil types.
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Discovering secrets in plain sight on a walking tour
Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 02:55:15 PM
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.
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This cycad was given by |
Sima Siegel began her palm and cycad tour at the cycad circle. She showed us a cycad donated by Col. Robert Montgomery when he founded the garden back in 1938. It’s Macrozamia moorei, from Queensland, Australia, and it wears a lovely coat of resurrection fern on its substantial trunk. Sima also pointed out the oldest garden resident, another cycad. This one, Dioon edule, was acquired from a botanical garden in Scotland and is 260 years old, she said.
Sima leads us through the palmetum describing the intricacies and features of many species. The foxtail palms, discovered in the 1980s in Australia, have bushy fronds that resemble a fox’s tail. The lady palms create useful hedges by branching beneath the ground, and the triangle palm arranges its fronds in a triangular crown.
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| Latania seed is beautiful. |
Latania palms are among those species that are dioecious, having male flowers on one plant and female flowers on another. The seed of a Latania that Sima showed us looks as if it had been beautifully carved, but it was a natural pattern. However, buttons and other items are carved from seeds of the ivory nut or tagua nut palm. Those seeds sometimes are referred to as vegetable ivory.
Two stories are told about how the zombi palm (Zombia antillarum) from Haiti came by its name: One that the spines on its trunk are used in voodoo; and the other is that after they die, they don’t fall over but seem to remain as living dead in the landscape.
The huge fronds of the oil palms – one species is from South America and a second is from Africa – rise skyward like geysers. Oil is pressed from the seeds, and the development of plantations in Asia is among the chief threats to the endangered orangutan.
We ended our walk at the tropical fruit pavilion, where Sima pointed out dwarf pomegranates, tamarinds, guavas, Malay apples and cactus that produce the increasingly popular dragon fruit.
We took the second tour given by Carolann Baldyga on Wednesday. Beginning at the ylang-ylang tree just beyond the visitors center, she told tourists from Great Britain and New Jersey that it takes 70 truckloads of the tree’s fragrant flowers to produce one ounce of Chanel No. 5.
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| Carolann Baldyga leading a walking tour. |
At the floss silk tree, she told how the flowering tree, related to kapok, produced pods full of“lovely cottony stuff” that once was used to make life preservers. Cecropia leaves, when dried, make a beautiful addition to floral arrangements, while the tree, which may grow at a rate of 7 feet a year, harbors ants in hollow parts of the twigs. The ants feed on a special sugary substance produced by the tree and in turn protect the tree against other insects.
Crushed leaves from allspice and bay rum trees delighted garden visitors with their aromas, prompting a UK visitor to says, “You’ve pointed out things we wouldn’t have found ourselves.’’
Feathery or pinnate palm fronds and palm-shaped or palmate fronds came under study, as did the interior of a palm trunk, which has no growth rings like those found in temperate trees. “How do you tell its age,” asked a visitor. By knowing its growth habit and how long it takes to reach a certain size.
Passing bougainvillea (“the actual flower is the white part in the center”), and stopping before the garden’s tallest tree, Carolann explained that each of the garden’s plants has a record, telling the origin, who collected it and when. Tags found on the individual specimens tell the year collected, the botanical name and common name, if there is one, and a bar code for record keeping – which is the way a botanical garden is distinguished from a park, which does not maintain such records.
About half way through the walk, a possibly reluctant visitor changed her mind. “I think we should finish this. She’s excellent.’’
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A more natural way to grow orchids?
Thu, Feb 04, 2010 at 07:00:26 AM
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 prefers humid, close conditions like those deep within a swamp.
When watering, the entire mounted orchid should be irrigated for a long time, not just the roots on the lower part of the wood. “Typically people under-water orchids for fear of over-watering. But you usually cannot over-water orchids [on mounts].”
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| An orchid mounted on hard wood. |
The daylong rain that fell Monday was wonderful for orchids, which plump up their water-storing pseudobulbs during such events, and fatten their water-storing roots. “The duration of watering is the key,” he said.
In the summer rainy season, when does most rainfall occur? he asked. In the afternoon or evening. So Phillips recommends watering late in the day during warm weather to give plants on mounts a chance to stay wet longer. When watering in the morning in the summer, he said, exposed roots dry too quickly to fully absorb as much water as they need. (Most of us water early in the morning in South Florida and, in the hottest months of summer, mist orchids once or twice more in the afternoon to cool them. There could be a danger of fungal disease spreading if our orchids stay wet too long overnight.)
Phillips suggested mounting orchids on cedar or other hard woods, even upside down clay pots. He also said that melaleuca branches are great for epiphytic orchids that will tuck roots into the papery bark.
The media between orchid roots and the wood should either be sphagnum, which holds water for a long time, or green moss, which drains better. The choice depends on the type of orchid being mounted. Cattleyas that need to dry their roots between waterings should be mounted using green moss; bulbophyllums and other orchids that like their roots to stay wet longer should be mounted with sphagnum. The exception, he said, are Phalaenopsis orchids. “Phals don’t like sphagnum,’’ he said. (Many South Florida hobbyist orchid growers use sphagnum for phals, repotting annually.)
To tie the plants onto the moss and mount, use 12-pound-test fishing line.
Buy a light meter to check how high or low the light conditions are; use a thermometer to keep track of temperature; use a single-edge razor blade when removing old roots and leaves. Use one blade per orchid, discarding each after use to avoid transmitting viruses and other diseases.
If some of these recommendations fly in the face of the way we grow orchids, perhaps they could be tested on a few plants in the coming months. Seems like a worthy effort.
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Plants and People: An Interactive Garden
Tue, Feb 02, 2010 at 04:18:37 PM
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 the moment when the 25 visitors and 11 volunteers were to board the tram, the rain stopped.
Volunteer extraordinaire Bob Petzinger prepared a special talk, and walked beside the tram much of the way, as it traveled slowly through the garden.
Bob and several other volunteers and staff began training last summer with professionals from the Southeast Florida Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, learning both about the disease and how to communicate with patients (“Be direct, maintain eye contact, and talk more slowly,” Bob explained.)
Then, Jay Jones, an early Alzheimer’s patient, and his wife, Laura, rode with Bob on his regular tour, suggesting ways to craft the program by eliminating references to dates and numbers and streamlining the information.
“We’re trying to give caregivers a pleasant day and achieve some interaction with patients,’’ Bob said.
This week’s program was dedicated to the late Sophie Miller, whose family attended. Irma Braman, Sophie’s daughter, and Debi Weschler, her granddaughter, were aboard the tram with Lin Lougheed and Aaron Fleischman, who has generously endowed the program. Congresswoman Ileana Ross Lehtinen and her sister Nancy brought their mother, Amanda Ross; Fran Plummer brought her husband Bill; Rachel Menton, activities director, brought seven patients and their caregivers from the Seymour Gelber Adult Day Care Center, and many others were aboard.
Yayoi Kusama’s polka-dotted pumpkins were a hit, as were the cycads, which were seeding. An alligator caused all sorts of commotion, oohs and aahs, as it neared the lake's shoreline. As the tram proceeded, patients clearly became engaged in the garden’s sights. A woman named Marianne, who was seated behind me, tucked an orange piece of cycad cone in her purse, delighted with the brilliant color and feel. When stopped at the steel sculpture by Mark di Suvero called She, Bob asked if anyone could guess why the enormous piece with moveable parts was given that name. Looking at staffers and volunteers swaying gently on the swing, someone called out “Because they’re swingers!”
Through the lowlands, past the gingerbread palms from Egypt and the Loch Ness monster, the 70-seat tram traveled. At the carnuba wax palm, Bob explained how the wax taken from the palm’s leaves was used, and how Brazil controlled the distribution. “So now we know, and next week we’ll forget it,’’ Marianne said with a big smile, acknowledging the irony of her disease.
Miniature Phalaenopsis orchids were given to each person at the tour’s end.
Perhaps the person to best sum up the experience was Rachel Menton, who brought so many from the adult day care center.
“The garden is so peaceful for them,’’ she said, explaining why bringing her patients and their care givers was important. “They won’t remember being here all the time, but they will remember the tranquility.”
Seven tours had been planned for this program, but an eighth already has been added by special request. For more information, click on “Plants and People” in the garden’s Events menu: www.fairchildgarden.org.
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Taking stock of cold, awaiting spring
Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 03:51:22 PM
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.
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| Fairchild explorers took a close look 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, showing their dislike of chilling wind and cold. It has been many years since the thermometer plunged that low for such an extended period.
More than 500 plants are showing some damage. Marilyn Griffiths, the garden's plant recorder, is documenting the damage, and the data will be used to follow these plants in the future. Heliconias are being cut and they will sprout back in the spring. Many palms are showing damage to their lower fronds, with some palms gradually dropping them. Senior horticulturist Mary Collins said some palms will not show damage until warm weather returns and they push out new spears that could display some distortion.
Leaves on shrubs and tropical trees that have been scorched brown are being left alone in case there is another cold snap. They can protect other leaves. Pruning now will encourage new leaves to sprout. New, tender growth is always the most susceptible to cold damage.
At the Fairchild Farm, Richard Campbell reports that the avocados and mangos did just fine, but the jackfruit and mamey sapotes were badly damaged. The ground actually got colder than the air, he said, and so the trees were hurt through the roots and from the ground up.
But fear not, most of the garden’s plants will come back as the weather warms up. In the meantime, our staff horticulturists are carefully monitoring plants for signs of fungus or bacterial disease.
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A croton primer
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 01:39:53 PM
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| Scorched leaves hanging from twigs may mean twig 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, but it doesn’t look good if that’s what’s happening. Cut back on watering and keep crotons on the dry side for now, he said.
Generally, crotons like semi-shade and not full sun, Searle told the society. They do best in acid soils. He uses the palm special fertilizer twice a year and sprays his plants with liquid azalea fertilizer once a month. (Azaleas also love acid.)
Yellow and green crotons usually grow larger and faster than the red-leafed varieties. They’ll also do better in full sun. Crotons with pastel leaves do well in shade. (Most crotons thrive in full morning sun or afternoon sun, but not midday sun, especially in summer.)
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| Mrs. Iceton is a pastel croton that does best in shade. |
There are about nine different leaf shapes, Searle said, and they range from huge broad leaves
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| Irene Kingsley is a croton with oak leaf-shaped leaves. |
(General Paget) to recurved leaves (Ramshorn). In between are oak leaf (Irene Kingsley) and semi-oak leaf (Sybil Griffin), spiral leaf (Dreadlocks), narrow leaf (Stoplight), very narrow leaf (Majesticum), small leaf (Aureo Maculatum) and interrupted leaf (Interruptum), which has a narrow piece of midrib between most of the leaf and a rounded leaf tip. Because crotons are so genetically unstable, different leaf shapes and colors may occur on the same shrub. New to crotons are Thai hybrids, which are wonderfully curly-cued, but very slow-growing.
Croton scale is a new and aggressive problem for the plants. A natural enemy called the mealy bug destroyer does feed on it, but the scale may out-run the enemy. Horticultural oil is recommended for the crawler stage but requires several sprays; Bayer’s Advanced Tree and Shrub insect control can be used as a systemic drench.
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More on the aroid front, and a class
Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 12:31:31 PM
Cold damage creeps on little cat feet, it appears. More yellow-then-brown leaves seem to reveal
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| This bird's nest Anthurium was not 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 A. schlectendalii) appear to be the hardiest,’’ he wrote, while dieffenbachias and aglaonemas suffer in cold and need protection.
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| This aquatic aroid sat in warm water but was killed anyway. |
Although colocasias, caladiums, alocasias and xanthosomas may be damaged and “go down in winter,’’ he continued, “they come back in the spring and can provide an excellent landscape accent.”
A lot depends on exposure and overhead canopy, wind protection and other factors. I’ve seen some totally brown monsteras and others that are unscathed. A tiny Anthurium clarinervium, one of those lovely velvet-leafed species, was killed in my shadehouse, while a mature A. magnificum is fine.
Chris Migliaccio, who will teach a Tuesday, Feb. 16 class called “Aroids from A to Z” from 7 to 9 p.m. at the garden, said “Generally heavy leaves are more hardy.” He plans to water less now, about once a week, and fertilize in March.
Deadline for online registration for Chris’ class is Feb. 12, and he will have a much better idea of survival rates then.
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Chocolate dreams come true
Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 03:26:38 PM
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| Paris Parise holds a chocolate cupcake 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 came over from Naples, and women in red hats were well represented at lunchtime.
The garden house is full of chocolate makers and chocolate
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| Jennifer Hernandez beholds M&M-covered candy apple. |
sellers. Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, which really resides in The Falls shopping mall, brought chocolate and caramel covered apples decorated with sprinkles, M&Ms, white chocolate and more. Wendy’s Chocolates had lots of kid-sized cupcakes, and New York chocolatier Oliver Kita brought handmade chocolate Buddhas, Valentine’s boxes filled with such exotic flavors and passion fruit and lychee bonbons, and even chocolate dipped whole caramelized almonds on white chocolate disks. Forget the New Year’s resolutions.
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| An entry in the chocolate cake contest celebrates Yayoi Kusama's art in the garden.. |
Sugar Shack entered the cake baking contest with a fabulous concoction of miniature Yayoi Kusama flowers and pumpkins, while the Cruz sisters – Isabella, 5; Victoria, 10, and Christina, 11 – entered cakes polka-dotted with Girl Scout cookies – which they just happened to be selling outside. More cakes were on their way for later entry.
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| Christina Cruz disguised as a Girl Scout cookie. |
There are real chocolate trees to buy, along with tea plants and coffee trees; cooking demos, where you can learn to make everything from chocolate chili (Saturday) to chocolate truffles (Sunday); listen to Barbara and Terry Glancy talk about tea (Saturday afternoon, 2:30), and Richard Campbell tell you how to grow coffee in South Florida.
Drink a chocolate martini and go to the chocolate spa.
There couldn’t possibly be a more sensual, satisfying festival anywhere else on the planet.
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And the effects of cold keep on coming
Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 06:51:18 PM
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After three days of dropping |
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
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| Borneo giant shows how it disliked the cold. |
Ree Gardens with his wife Marie, to ask about my damaged and drooping philodendrons and other aroids. Cut back to the stem and use fungicide where you find soft tissue, he said.
Aye, sir.
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