Re: Big Weekend

I don't think that should be an excuse for marketing gallon pots with slight twigs growing in them. If it is, then I could pot up a lot of weeds around here. I don't expect all plants on sale to look like rose bushes, but I do expect them to look like plants.

On Sunday, April 25, 2004, at 08:41 PM, Donna wrote:

Gees Jim, don't let me have to explain to you the importance of
Natives....

"> > sellers were native plant types and their wares were, well, not
attractive" 

They are not meant to be attractive!.. They are your background,
backbone of any great garden. They take the no work, yet they add
another dimension to the total picture. They add the windbreaks, they
add the sounds of wildlife, they add shady areas, they are totally
unnoticed, yet without them what would your fancy exotics use as a
backdrop.......

Hum........ I will leave it at that for today.....

Donna



Today was one of those beautiful subtropical days. Mid to low 80s,
not
humid, gentle breeze.

We've been propagating, growing, and training a white-flowered
oleander
standard for a couple of years now, and today planted it in the
ground.
It's past due for a moderate-to-severe pruning, but we decided to
wait
until it's had a few weeks in its new home. So far, I'm rather
pleased
with it.

We planted it across the yard from the Florida room [that sounds
kinda 
funny--they're all Florida rooms here, right?], so the short one can
keep an easy eye on it.

We also cleaned out the cutting beds to make room for Petrea
cuttings
in late summer. We want to try to root a few of these to sell when
they 
are blooming next spring. I got the bull's horn acacia planted and
together we got the 24" pot with desert rose moved from the middle
of
the back lawn to the back patio [no easy task].

Yesterday, we drove to Naples to visit that city's new botanical
garden. They have 160 dedicated acres, of which they have improved
1.5
acres--1 percent. We were very impressed by what they've done so
far. 
For example, they've used arbors to shade many of the walkways and
vines, such as stephanotis, to cover most of the arbors. And
everything
is either tagged or labeled or both.

Of special interest to me was a small stand of Timor black bamboo
[Bambusa lako]. Truly fantastic. The canes are jet black and, if one
rubs the blush off, they glisten like Japan lacquer. If I can figure
out where to put one--and where to get one--I will.

On the way down, public radio touted a native plant sale at the
Naples
Conservancy, so we sought directions from the botanical garden
folks, 
and sought it out. It was really a fun time, although the only plant
sellers were native plant types and their wares were, well, not
attractive. But the rest of the extravaganza was a lot of fun.


Island Jim
Southwest Florida
Zone 10


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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
Zone 10

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