Gardening with Georgia

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.

Georgia is currently traveling in the South Pacific and India. Her most recent blogs are written from location and we hope you enjoy her observations on this exciting area of the world.

Text and photos by Georgia Tasker

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Not your everyday flower

Tue, May 15, 2012 at 09:05:21 AM

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 book Aroids, Plants of the Arum Family, says paeoniifolius tubers may weigh up to 29 pounds!

Her specific name means foliage like a peony, but it seems a stretch. Certainly, she smells nothing like a peony blossom, but draws flies and beetles with a carrion aroma.

In the wild, she ranges from India to southern China, Southeast Asia, right over to New Guinea and

Phyllis in her glory.

the northern parts of Australia. In some places, people actually eat the tubers.

The flower of this aroid has the family characteristic: a spathe and a spadix. The spathe, normally a fairly simple modified leaf that protects the spadix or inflorescence, is a wrap-around number, liver-colored and white spotted on the outside and creamy on the inside. It falls open gradually to reveal the spadix, a remarkable construction with a topknot that looks like a liver-colored balloon in mid-deflate.

Today, Phyllis has been fully open. I can clearly see the yellow male and white female flowers. By mid-afternoon, golden pollen emerged from the anthers, which surround the column above the female flowers.

Following the flowering event, a single leaf will arise from the tuber, growing to five or six feet tall, and sporting a much-divided leaf blade. The mottled petiole will sport a bumpy texture, and is always quite handsome. Around November, the tree-like leaf will begin to list, until one day, it finally fails and must be carried gently to the trash pile.

A closer look at the flowers.

I give Phyllis granular fertilizer, although I remember that Craig Allen, a former conservatory horticulturist, used to give the containerized Amorphophallus titanum (Mr. Stinky) lots of aged manure and, I think, Milorganite, in an effort to produce a flower stalk of record height. Phyllis is a squat thing by nature, however, and I’ve read somewhere that her spadix may reach 2 feet after the females have been pollinated. She is no match for Mr. Stinky, but we are quite fond of her and always show her to any visitors during flowering time.

 


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The yearling

Tue, May 01, 2012 at 11:34:40 AM

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 Pine and No Name keys.

A young Key Deer in the National Key Deer Refuge.

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Quite a sight

Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 10:38:14 AM

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.

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What plants can tell you

Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 12:21:07 PM

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, and watch for clues to what’s going on in the garden.

Here are the babies, hiding among the avocado leaves.

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Biologists find orchids on the move

Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 08:59:10 AM

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 took
this picture of the exotic
Eulophia graminea.

Service, said the orchid has spread throughout southwest Florida, from the Big Cypress National Preserve to the Naples Botanic Garden. The bulbs, which are larger than softballs, have turned up in Picayune Strand State Forest, along Janes Scenic Drive in the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve State Park, and even in mulch in a large mall near Naples.

Originally from India, Nepal, Southeast Asia, southern China to Ryuku Islands of Japan, the cosmopolitan plant probably came into the U.S. when someone purchased it via the Internet, suggested Koptur and USDA scientist Bob Pemberton, who researched the orchid. Seeds, which are dust-like, spread by wind. Koptur noted at the time that the orchid seemed to prefer cypress mulch, not her wood chips from local trees. Sowell said he finds the bulbs attaching themselves to cypress trees, and even ringing the trunks, producing 12 to 20 flower stalks per clump.

The native eulophia commonly called wild coco, Eulophia alta, also grows in the same southwest natural areas, but is so much larger that the biologists on hand said they doubted it would cross with the native plant. Since the natural range of the orchid includes the eastern Himalaya, it’s likely to keep heading north, Sowell said.

Flowers of the cowhorn
orchid, Cyrtopodium punctatum.

The other orchid news from the meeting: many specimens of the cowhorn orchid, Cyrtopodium punctatum, are being replenished in the Fakahatchee Strand, which is a swamp forest 20 miles long and five miles wide along State Road 29. It is home to 44 species of native orchids. Mike Owen, the park’s biologist, worked with Dennis Giardina and Matt Richards on a project to hand pollinate  some of the 12 cyrtopodiums found there. The massive orchids were so heavily collected from 1900 to 1974 that the orchid is on the state’s endangered species list.

Owen, who has recorded the pod and pollinia parents for each cross over a five-year effort, described how the team found the first seed pod in 2009 and then spread seed by hand on the trunks of cypress trees. They also suspended a pod to allow natural wind dispersal.

They made mycorrhizae fungus traps and attached them to trees near the orchids. The fungus is needed for seeds to germinate.

Cyrtopodium punctatum
 growing on a palm.

In 2009, five mother plants were pollinated, and in 2010, there were 14 seed pods produced. Six were collected and sent to the Atlanta Botanical Garden for germination, while eight were allowed to remain in place.

One of the pollen parents was stolen last year, but 88 progeny are carrying those genes. The plants were shipped back from Atlanta and attached to trees in the Fakahatchee. This year, 98 young plants have been “out-planted” in the swamp.

There are several Cyrtopodium punctatum specimens in the garden. One across from the edible garden is currently in flower.

 


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Wildlife photos at ENP

Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 04:21:02 PM

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 Photography; in Everglades National Park and U.S Fish and Wildlife publications. When not taking photographs or in a boat in South Florida, Linda works for Broward County as the Aquatic & Wetland Resources Manager. Kevan is a 29-year veteran of the Sunrise Fire Department in Broward County.
The exhibit will be on display at the Ernest Coe Visitors Center gallery, 40001 State Road 9336, Homestead, Florida, through April 30, 2012; daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.


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Repotting a Giant

Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 12:09:59 PM

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 – a trick that Steve Nock taught me. When roots emerge on self-heading anthuriums and philodendrons, they will harden off and fail to function if there is no medium to protect them.

 So when this stunning plant finally reached 5-feet six-inches tall from soil to ceiling, I decided to tackle the problem of repotting.

 We are not talking a small pot.

 To begin, I tied up all of the leaves. The largest heart-shaped blade measured 38 inches by 27 inches at its widest part, so I used a nylon rope to lasso the gang. I put an old shower curtain liner on the back porch so the mess would be easy to clean.

 Next, I took a long butcher knife and ran it around the pot, between the soil and the container to make

Moss and old container
promote new roots.

sure the root ball was not stuck to the sides. I had not watered it for a few days so I could more easily handle the weight. Then two of us lowered the potted plant to the ground and removed the container as well as the “temporary” pot around the top of the stem.

Meanwhile, in a big washtub, I combined ProMix (a potting medium), Perlite and pine bark mulch. The ration was about 2:1:2. Using an old cooking pot, I scooped plenty into the bottom of the new container where I had placed large pieces of broken crockery to secure drainage. Then two of us lifted the plant into its new home. As Sandy steadied the plant in the center, I filled around the root ball with the new soil. I had to blend one more tub of soil to complete the job.

I removed an old bottom leaf and then, using a length of green twistee wire, tied up the petioles to a stake to properly display the leaves.

Anthurium schottianum now looks quite regal.

You might think that the job was done. Wrong. Just outside the screened back porch where my Anthurium lives are lots of shell gingers. Since I noticed scale beginning to appear on an older leaf, I cut down almost all the gingers so more air could circulate around my prize plant.

That’s what happens in a garden – you do one thing and it leads to another. But with a plant such as this Anthurium, the effort is worth it!

 

           

 


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

Tue, Apr 03, 2012 at 01:28:43 PM

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 Weeds. It has become naturalized on the island of Mauritius, a part of the Mascarene Islands east of Madagascar. Mauritius and Rodrigues islands were studied by a forestry team from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which found Mauritius has less than 1 percent of its native forest remaining. Totally forested until humans arrived, the island’s flora has lost 39 plant species to global extinction. Mimusops has become naturalized in coastal areas, and should be monitored carefully, according to the 2002-03 study. Other weeds found there are thick stands of guava, Brazilian pepper, pink tabebuia, travelers palm, Lantana camara, gum Arabic or prickly acacia and Sri Lankan privet. Our islands seem to be showing us the way of the future.

Fruit of the monkey's apple tree turns yellow when ripe.

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A royal vine

Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 10:49:04 AM

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 pergola, including a white one. The corollas fall away rather swiftly, but the calyces stay in place for a long time. Petrea is an assertive vine that will lay claim to the nearest fence, trellis or tree, and it may be cut back quite hard after flowering. Full sun and fast-draining soil will provide for its needs; mulch and a palm special fertilizer will keep it happy.           

 


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Top Orchid Specialist is Festival Speaker

Fri, Mar 09, 2012 at 06:45:46 AM

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 as a marine biologist, but switched to plants and orchids in his late 20s while living in Hawaii. Since then he has worked with orchids at New York Botanical Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden and an extensive private collection at Greentree Estate in Long Island.

If you are an orchid lover, you will recognize him from the two columns he writes each months for Orchids magazine, the publication of the American Orchid Society.  He is passionate about orchid conservation and getting botanic gardens, orchid growers and scientists to work together to protect orchids and their habitats. So this year, as the American Orchid Society is relocating to Fairchild from Delray Beach, Tom will have a great message for us.

He promises to bring enthusiasm and wonderful images to his talk in the Corbin Education building. You won't want to miss him!

 

 

 


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