Horticulture Blog

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 working on the plant sales and manage our plant records with the very able assistance of Marilyn Griffiths. 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

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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.

                                                                                                                           

My bougainvillea on November 1, prior to pruning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bougainvillea on November 19, coming into bloom

 

 

 


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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.

 

 

 

 

Painted Buntings in the Metal Safe Haven Bird Feeder

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A Plant for Everyone Who Loves Wine, Pudding, Cakes, Ice Cream, Rum.....

Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 06:23:49 AM

One of our 2011 distribution plants:
 
Hibiscus sabdariffa is one of the most useful flowering shrubs in the Caribbean.  Commonly known as sorrel or roselle, the fibers found in the stems are used to make jute, while the fleshy, red calyx are utilized in the West Indies and elsewhere in the tropics fresh for making roselle wine, jelly, syrup, gelatin, refreshing beverages, pudding, and cakes, and dried roselle is used for tea, jelly, marmalade, ices, ice-cream, sherbets, butter, pies, sauces, tarts, and other desserts. Calyces are also used in the West Indies to color and flavor rum. Tender leaves and stalks are eaten as salad and as a pot-herb and are used for seasoning curries.  The roselle produces a lovely flower, during the winter,  which is yellow to pale pink to red.  Once the flower falls, the calyces become swollen and vivid red.  This is the stage at which the calyces are utilized.  Plant roselle in full sun to light shade.  One plant will produce plenty of calyces for your use.
 Photo by Marilyn Griffiths
This plant will be available for purchase by FTBG Members this Saturday, October 1 at our 73rd Annual Members' Day Plant Sale.  For more information see: 

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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.

 

 

 

 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.

 

 

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.

 

 


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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. 


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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.

 

 

 C.  williamsii on a tree dolly prepared for moving into FTBG's rainforest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of three Cryosophila williamsii palms in the rainforest

 


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Is that a lilac in bloom?

Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 10:09:31 AM

Lonchocarpus violaceus var. violaceus is a flowering tree native to dry hillsides in Trinidad. Plants often begin flowering when only five or six feet tall. Homesick northerners will love the scent, which is somewhat reminiscent of lilacs. Throughout October and November, masses of purple to pinkish mauve flowers are borne on six-inch racemes, making a wonderful show above the dark green pinnate leaves.  This tree in the photo is located at the tram plaza.  Be sure to get a close look and smell.  The flowers are wonderfully fragrant!

 

 

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My Meadow Garden - Five Months Later

Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 08:02:57 AM

It was early in May when I planted my meadow garden under a Guaiacum sanctum (lignum vitae) and a Veitchia.  The plants have really grown into mature specimens and all the grasses are blooming.  I've weeded this area only three times this summer and the grasses are now growing so densely that soon, weeding will not be necessary - my goal!!

 

 

 Each grass was planted about 2' apart so that their rounded form can be expressed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 In June I scattered seeds of Coreopsis leavenworthii, our native tickseed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 This photo was taken in the afternoon light.  The lovegrass is blooming!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Croton linearis (pineland croton) has tripled in size since May

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Exciting sightings in Fairchild!

Sat, Oct 16, 2010 at 02:12:20 PM

In recent days, staff have seen the amazingly beautiful Painted Buntings in Fairchild!  Over the past year, we have placed feeders in quiet locations within FTBG to encourage more birds.  One of the important ingredients of the seed mix we use is white millet, a favorite food of Painted Buntings.  Both male buntings and the "greenies" (immature males or females) have been seen at feeders in the Keys Coastal Habitat, the palmetum area between the cafe and the south gate, near the Victoria Pool and in Plot 161, our native palm plot.  These colorful birds are quite shy and like places with lots of vegetation.  See if you can see a Painted Bunting during your next visit to FTBG.  They are in South Florida until early April, when they head north for the summer.

 

A colorful male and either an immature male or mature female at M. Collins' feeder

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