Only a Picture

Phalanopsis spp

This past weekend the debauchery and mayhem of Key West reached its usual annual peak…Fantasy Fest. For those of you who don’t know of this insanity, let’s just say it tends to be a half naked Mardi Gras in the southern most city. Go to Youtube if you really want to know more. Key Weird is inundated by about 60,000 extra folks all bent on letting their freak flag fly for one weekend a year. That said, you can understand why many of the locals are a little edgy.

Balfour Aralia (Polyscias scutellaria) & Croton

So that preamble brings us to my little story. Camera in hand, I was walking down a tiny little lane between a couple larger streets. There are a bunch of these glorified alleyways and I’ve never had a problem on them, until now.

Chenille Acalypha (Acalypha hispida)

I came upon small Conch house, in a state of disrepair surrounded with lush tropical vegetation. A sort of hedge, untrimmed and rangy AcaIypha of varying cultivars combined with Crotons and Aralias made up barrier between the postage stamp yard and the lane. I was busy trying to focus the macro mode on a Black Aralia and as usual having little success, being as I forgot my cheater reading glasses in the truck.

Acalypha spp.

In the back of my mind I heard the old man but it just didn’t register that he was talking to me.

“Hey you…Hey!...Hey YOU!! What are you doin.”

Brassia spp.?

Finally I caught on and looked over to see and elderly man holding garden hose trained on a group of orchids I had photographed a few minutes earlier.

Emerald Acalypha (Acalypha wilkesania"Hoffmanii")

Opening my mouth to ask permission to photograph his plants I was interrupted by a pack of college age scooter riders, zipping down the lane, madly beeping their horns in accompaniment to much hooting and hollering. Why must they always do that?

Black Aralia (Polyscias guilfoylei"Blackie")

It was then that the sky opened up in a hurricane-like deluge of water. Wait sec, rain doesn’t come down in a stream. With catlike reflexes I looked back to the house. The old man had a gleeful snarl on his lips as he pointed the pistol grip of his hose, unleashing a torrent of killer water. My mind in overdrive, I instantly assessed the situation, and reacted…by saying “Huh?”

Copperleaf Acalypha (Acalypha wilkesania"Copperleaf")

My middleschool Ninja training took over when I made a few goofy skips backwards out of hose range directly into the path of the last straggler scooter terrorist. It was only his drunken wobbling of the scooter that saved us both, much to the cackling delight of the octogenarian aggressor.

Acalypha wilkesania"Marginata")

Dripping and defeated I made my way back to my truck.

Sheesh, I only wanted a picture.

Wordless Wednesday

Dendrobium spp

Hylocereus undatus

Achmea fasciata

Codiaeum spp

Treminalia catappa-Tropical Almond

Phalaenopsis spp

A Little Love

Monstera Deliciosa

Yikes, close one!! I tend to write these posts on a nifty little HP netbook when I’m out and about. I really like the small size and portability of the little machine, but it has its drawbacks, such as lack of file storage. To keep this little comp running at its best I store my pix on one of our home desk tops and keep the photos on a handy dandy flash drive to use when posting. Well wouldn’t ya know it the desk top crashed over the weekend taking all stored files with it.

Colocasia esculenta"Illustris"

Fortunately most of my images still live on that little plastic stick and none of the lost files were of any real consequence. Unfortunately my photo editing software is toast so for the moment my new pix have all their inherent flaws for you to see.

Cyrtosperma johnstonii

Let that be a lesson to you folks…back ‘em up…it can happen to you.

Alocasia spp

Thanks to the Blot. I happened upon a garden blogger that is into Aroids…a fave plant group of mine. Swing by and say Howdy to Zack and Christine at The Variegated Thumb. These guys are doin’ it the hard way, getting the tropical plant bug while livin’ in temperate climate. They have put together a killer little greenhouse to support their addiction. Well done, guys.

Monstera obliqua

So let me throw a little Aroid love out to them with some of today’s images.

Misc. Monday(Blog Stuff)

Hong Kong Orchid tree

Bauhinia blakeana

Ok, so no more whining from me about the heat for a while. The long anticipated cold front blew into the islands Saturday night, bringing the temps down to a frigid 65 degrees. How sweet it was and thus you haven’t seen my smiling face writing any blog posts, oh no, this old boy was out in the gardens, diggin’ and plantin’ an prunin’…wearing blue jeans and jean jacket no less. Sweet!!

Dioon edule female cone

In the evening I was foolin’ around with my pix trying to make some sort of order out of them. All of you blog photographers out there know my pain. Of course I haven’t been smart enough to mark any images I’ve already posted…sigh, that alone could take hours to catch up on.

Baby Hawaiian Wood Rose

Argyreia nervosa

I’ve noticed that in the comment section of Liz and the Prof. you fine gardening folks ask me to identify various plants that I have posted images of, I will try to rectify that oversight in the future by captioning each pic (or at least most of ‘em).

forground Song of India-Dracena reflexa

background Lady palm-Raphis excelsa

Let me take a second here to thank everyone who takes the time to pick a post, fave my blog, become a follower or leave a comment. That few moments of time it takes to provide some feedback is what makes this blogging stuff worth the effort and I will try to comment on others blogs more often.

Nerium oleander-double pink

So after a weekend of heavy duty gardening, evidenced by a sore back and a bunch of new fire ant bites let me get to the posting of some images.

The Garden Trap

Spanish moss(Tillandsia usnoides)

Ahhh…a nice long weekend. Time to go boating, maybe take a couple of naps. Life is a breeze in the Florida Keys.

Liz asked me to make sure the boat is ready to go. Ok. As usual the stupid boat won’t start.

Golden Shower(Cassia fistula)

“Hey, baby, let me just put the charger on the battery for an hour or so and we’ll be ready to go.”,I tell her.

Meanwhile I’ll clean up the yard a little I innocently think…Right…I’m a gardener remember. And so it begins.

It seems on every property there is that one area that gets very little attention from the gardener…on my property there are a few of those areas. The trap was set. This section is about 25’ feet wide by 60 ‘ long and is the deepest shade on the property…the reason being... I tend to ignore it, thus it is severly overgrown.

It all started innocently enough, I walked over it to pick up an errant soccer ball. Simple enough you say grab it and walk away. The unfortunate thing was that I had a pair of Felco clippers on my hip from cleaning up a deer munched banana plant. There were a few palm fronds in my way to get at the ball, no problem just prune the offenders…wait, I can’t leave the palm lopsided, can I. I’m taking the bait. Next thing I know I’m in the midst of a pruning frenzy and the trap has been sprung.

                                       

Monstera spp.

Grab the trash cans, pull out the loppers, bring in the chipper/ shredder, time for the chainsaw. Two soaked tee shirts and several hours later I have a nice canopy to work under.

Liz again asks, “Is the boat ready?”

”Ummm, let me check…yup, fires right up. You get the boat bag, cooler and dog. I’ve just got a few more branches to cut.”

Red Ginger(Alpinia purpurata)

Twenty minutes later I watched the boat with Liz and dachshund aboard pulling away from our dock.

“Hmmm, guess she got tired of waiting, don’t blame her. Where was I, oh yeah, that sea grape tree. I can plant a ton of aroids under this shade... and ferns…yup, ferns over there and maybe an Alpinia in that sort sunny spot."... Somehow I never even noticed the trap.




 

Fantastic Foliage

Alocasia Plumbea"Indica metalica"

“Splat!!” An over-ripe guava, hurled across the driftwood fence had just torn through the newly unfurled leaf of my Alocasia Plumbea and exploded in a gooey impact on the trunk of a Bismarkia palm next to my head, covering my face and chest in sticky, stinking shrapnel.

Bismarkia nobilis

“Farrel, knock it off!!” I yelled at my 70 something neighbor, a former crab fisherman now turned scrawny garden troll… one Mr. Farrel Torchwood.

“Better duck next time, ya fish belly swab. Ya knows I’s at war with them iguanas.” came the screechy reply.

Wiping the glop off my face and shaking my head at the old pirate’s antics I returned to my digging, trying to carve a new home to my formerly perfect Alocasia, while keeping one eye open for incoming fruit.

Dracena marginata"Tricolor"

This event happened many years ago. It came to mind when I was gazing at a killer Alocasia in a Key West garden. It also reminded me to tell you folks some many stories, or the Torchwood Chronicles, as I like to think of them, regarding Farrel and Randia Torchwood…but those are for other posts.

Monstera deliciosa

Tropical gardening, like temperate gardening is often about the stunning flowers that we are able to incorporate into our landscape. Both types of gardens has their share of vivid colors, hues and shapes of blossoms that are sure to turn the heads of even the most jaded, concrete jungle dwelling, bright-lights of the city loving, urbanite.

Codiaeum varigatum "Croton"

However, in this chilled out, coral rock digging, star-light loving, islander’s opinion tropical gardening leads the pack in the foliage department. We have immense array of vibrant colors, soft or crisp textures, wispy or audacious shapes from which to choose when conceiving of a whole development sized landscape or a small corner vignette.

Crinum spp.

Now don’t think for a second that I disparage the temperate gardener, those hardy souls among you that have to deal with frost, winter’s bitter chill and snow. Oh no, these fine gardeners ALWAYS find a way to incorporate magnificent foliage into their gardens, it’s just that I feel nature has blessed the tropical gardener with a larger foliage palette to work with. So enjoy a tiny sample what we are given to play with.

Platycerium spp."Staghorn"