We are starting something new on this web site. I've been asked to write a blog. The blog will be an opportunity to pass along information about plants in the garden, special areas of the garden, some inside information about the projects staff members of the Living Collections and Garden Landscapes and other departments are working on and a chance for you to make comments and ask questions. I will also talk about our staff and what they do to create and maintain Fairchild.
I have worked at Fairchild since 1973, first as plant recorder, then horticulturist in charge of our three annual plant sales, the intern program, and various other duties. I am now still propagating plants year round, working on the plant sales, supervising our nursery staff and am the content manager of the horticulture portion of our web site. I hope you will find the blog an opportunity to learn more about our plants and the beautiful Eden we call Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
- Mary Collins, Senior Horticulturist
Text and photos by Mary Collins
What to do with your new plants from the Spring Plant Sale
Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 10:43:37 AM
What to do with newly purchased plants
After careful reading and perhaps some research, you have selected plants for your home garden. Most of the plants that Fairchild offers for sale have been grown in light shade to full sun. When you bring home plants do not stop on the way home and park your car in the sun. This will cook any plants that are left in the car. Go home, unload plants, make sure their soil feels moist and water thoroughly those that are dry. Place the plants in a lightly shaded location and monitor their watering until a suitable planting location is found for each plant.
When determining where to place each plant there are several things to consider:
1. How large will the plant become? Leave enough space between plants to allow for proper growth and avoid overcrowding. Learn the ultimate size and shape of each plant prior to planting. Keep this in mind when deciding the location.
2. How much sun and water is available in various locations on your property? Be aware of the shady, lightly shaded and full sun areas of your planting locations. How much sun or shade does your plant require? Find the location that fulfills the plants requirements.
3. Planting – Once you are sure of what plants are being planted and their location, move the plant into its final planting spot. Dig the hole about the same depth as the pot size of the plant and wider than the pot’s diameter. Carefully remove the plant from its container and remove the top layer of soil until you find the first root which is emerging from the base of the trunk. This is called the root flare. It is very important that the root flare be at the top of the soil level or within 2” of the surface. Examine the root ball and cut all roots that are circling at the point before it begins to circle. This will prevent new roots from circling the trunk again. Carefully place the rootball into the planting hole and backfill with the soil that was dug out of the planting hole and firm the soil to remove air pockets. Water thoroughly and let the water drain. Do this at least three times. You may add a thin layer of mulch (up to 3”) around the edge of the planting site at this time but leave the area of the top of the rootball exposed so that rain or irrigation can easily reach the roots.
4. Establishment. Newly planted trees and shrubs will require irrigation until the roots grow into the surrounding soil and new growth occurs. During the first 14 days after planting, make sure that the root ball does not dry out. This may require watering every day if rainfall does not occur. Water thoroughly so the entire rootball is moist. Gradually decrease the irrigation to every other day for two months. During final establishment plants should be irrigated 2 to 3 days per week if rainfall does not occur.
Proper planting and successful gardening requires commitment and knowledge. Know your plant, its sun requirements and what it will ultimately become. Plant at the correct depth and commit to monitor the water needs until each plant becomes established.
If you have any questions regarding the plants purchased from Fairchild’s nursery at the Spring Plant Sale, please contact Mary Collins, Senior Horticulturist: mcollins@fairchildgarden.org
Edible plants for sale!
Mon, Apr 09, 2012 at 06:38:58 AM
In just a few days, the 33rd Annual Spring Plant Sale will take place at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden on April 14 & 15 during the Food & Garden Festival. I will be posting some information about the plants that FTBG will be offering.
How would you like to have fresh black mulberries in your breakfast cereal or mulberry cobbler for an evening dessert? Have you ever cooked steamed lemon grass crab legs or chicken satay with lemon grass? Would you like to make creamy lemon grass ice cream?
We will be selling black mulberry, Morus nigra, and lemon grass plants, Cymbopogon citratus, at the 33rd Annual Spring Plant Sale on April 14 & 15.
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| fruit of Morus nigra, black mulberry |
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| lemon grass Cymbopogon citratus |
For more information about the plant sale see our website
Available soon at the Spring Plant Sale!
Wed, Apr 04, 2012 at 09:00:09 AM
In just a few days, the 33rd Annual Spring Plant Sale will take place at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. I will be posting some information about the plants that FTBG will be offering.
Fairchild’s 33rd Annual Spring Plant Sale will take place April 14 & 15 at FTBG during the Food & Garden Festival. We will have a huge variety available including 62 kinds of native plants, many which are wonderful butterfly or bird attracting species. Our native Senna’s attract the beautiful sulphur butterflies. Passiflora pallens and corky-stemmed passionflower, Passiflora suberosa, attract Zebra Longwings, Gulf Fritillary and Julia butterflies. Our beautiful lignum vitae, Guaiacum sanctum, and fiddlewood, Citharexylum spinosum both produce fruit which attracts birds.
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| Citharexylum spinosum - fiddlewood |
Grow your own lettuce - it is easy!
Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 09:44:00 AM
Earlier this month I attended a Miami-Dade County Cooperative Extension Service advisory board meeting. After the meeting, we went outside to see the raised bed gardens that Master Gardeners had planted. In some cases, unusual containers were used.
Seeing this gave me a great idea! I have an old recycling bin. So the following weekend I went to my local gardening center and purchased some young buttercrunch lettuce and red lettuce plants along with some potting soil. I picked up a few collard plants as well. I went home, placed potting soil in the old bin and planted the lettuce and collards. I placed the bin in an area with full sun. I water my plants every two or three days.
Three weeks later, I have been picking fresh, tender lettuce every day! It tastes so good! This kind of mini-garden could be placed on a sunny balcony or patio. I know that I will save money as I had been purchasing lettuce mixes at the grocery for $3.99 per bag. This simple gardening project could be done by homeowners or apartment dwellers. Just be sure to place the containers in full sun. Before long, you will be enjoying your own, home-grown lettuce!
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The Keys to Growing Beautiful Bougainvilleas
Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 05:40:46 AM
Bougainvillea, in all the vivid colors of the tropics, is very easy to encourage blooming. The keys to promoting flowering in bougainvillea are:
1. Prune
2. Fertilize lightly
3. Less water.
Remember this: bougainvillea blooms on new growth. Prune back your plant and lightly fertilize. This will promote new growth and flowering. On November 1, I pruned the bougainvillea next to my house. The next day I applied some 8-3-9 granular fertilizer and watered lightly.
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My bougainvillea on November 1, prior to pruning. |
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| Bougainvillea on November 19, coming into bloom |
They are baaaack! You can have them too!
Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 06:25:26 AM
I've been busily preparing for them for a few weeks now. I was filling my two feeders with white millet seeds, the favorite food of our most colorful bird native to North America. They come down beginning in late September and stay until mid April. Much to my delight, early evening yesterday, I looked through binoculars to my bird feeders in my back yard and saw three Painted Buntings! Two were the incredibly colorful males and the third was a 'greenie' either an immature male or a female.
Some keys to successfully attracting Painted Buntings to your yard are:
Lots of shrubs and small trees. I have planted a mini-hammock which includes Simpson stopper (Myrcianthes fragrans), wild sage (Lantana involucrata), Mexican alvaradoa (Alvaradoa amorphoides), fiddlewood (Citharexylum spinosum) and wild tamarind (Lysiloma latisiliquum). Buntings are very shy birds and love to dart in and out of dense plantings. I placed my feeders on the outside edge of the woods.
A feeder which excludes big birds. I have a Metal Safe Haven bird feeder made by Duncraft. It is expensive but is very durable and has the capacity for about 6 pounds of seed. I have had this feeder for about 10 years. It is worth the investment! I purchased mine online. Sorry to say this, but many larger birds such as Blue Jays and Grackles are pigs and just push the buntings aside.
Fill the feeder with white millet seeds. This can be purchased in local feed stores such as Robbies Feed store or OK Feed store, both located in the Redland. Pet stores may also supply millet. Be sure to use white millet.
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| Painted Buntings in the Metal Safe Haven Bird Feeder |
A Plant for Everyone Who Loves Wine, Pudding, Cakes, Ice Cream, Rum.....
Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 06:23:49 AM
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| Photo by Marilyn Griffiths |
Pine rockland plants, poor things!!
Tue, Aug 09, 2011 at 06:32:24 AM
I've often mentioned to my fellow horticulturist, nature-loving friends that plants growing in the pine rocklands of south Florida are stunted due to the poor growing conditions. We are growing many plants native to this special habitat in our nursery, the grounds of Fairchild and in our home gardens. It is simply amazing how different the same species looks when grown in good soil versus the rockland. Here is one example. The first photo is Ocimum campechianum, wild sweet basil, in pine rockland habitat in Everglades National Park.
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| Ocimum campechianum in pine rockland habitat, ENP |
Here is a photo of the same species that was growing in our lowland pineland garden. This is not rockland habitat. The area was raised with fill received from the county around 2001. It actually has soil versus the poor rock habitat found in pine rockland.
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| Ocimum campechianum growing in fill in FTBG pineland |
This illustrates just how tough the growing conditions are in the pine rockland habitat. Only the strong survive! I've been simply amazed at the beauty of many of our native wildflowers which are typically found growing in pine rockland. Grow the same species in decent soil and you might not recognize the plant! More examples to follow! Oh, we will be selling Ocimum campechianum grown in good soil, at Members' Day Plant Sale, Saturday October 1.
Summertime is the best time to........
Thu, Jul 14, 2011 at 11:36:47 AM
We are definately in the midst of our summer, rainy season. This is a great time to take care of some gardening tasks. To avoid working in the heat of the day, work outside either very early in the morning or in the evening. This is the time to cut back shrubs which have become leggy. Plants such as beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) and firebush (Hamelia patens) can be cut back to promote a fuller, better looking plant. By trimming shrubs now, the plants will have time to put on new, more compact growth before cooler temperatures arrive in the late fall. Some of the plants I cut back at this time of the year include: bougainvillea, lignum vitae, salvias, brunfelsias, black mulberry, just about any shrub or vine that I feel a need to control.
Sometimes I apply some fertilizer to recently cut back plants to encourage healthy new growth. You will be amazed at how fast shrubs respond to a hard pruning during the summer! Just remember to cut just above a node where leaves emerge.
Moving plants
Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 05:39:27 AM
To prepare for the the new state-of-the-art Science Village, Tropical Research Labs, Café and Conservatory the horticulture team moved several important plants. We realized that this would be necessary to make room for the new buildings and Conservatory shade house.
Among the palms to be moved were five Cryosophila williamsii, wild collected in Honduras by Dr. Scott Zona. This species of Cryosophila is restricted to steep, high-rainfall slopes of the Lago Yojoa watershed in west-central Honduras. We needed to move these special palms carefully and get them established in their new home, Fairchild's very own, rainforest. They appear to be thriving in their new location.
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C. williamsii on a tree dolly prepared for moving into FTBG's rainforest. |
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| One of three Cryosophila williamsii palms in the rainforest |
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