Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Secret Palm Tree Garden! Part 5 Phoenix

A few different Phoenix Palm Trees, some are true and others are hybrids. I heard the red fruited reclinata is a true form, not a cross.



And still 1 more post to go!

Saturday, August 30, 2008

The Secret Palm Tree Garden! Part 4 Acoelorraphe wrightii Paurotis Palm

Part 4 consists of a few different Acoelorraphe wrightii or Paurotis Palm and Everglades Palm. These guys are native to Florida.

Acoelorraphe wrightii

And still more to come!
Part 5 coming soon check back later!

The Secret Palm Tree Garden! Part 3 Zombie Palm

Part 3 consists of an assortment of palms. The first palm the Zombia antillarum or Zombie Palm takes 15 years before it starts to show trunk.

Zombia antillarum The Zombie Palm

A Very Tall Bismarckia nobilis

The Crown

I think maybe Licuala spinosa. Wind blown from TS Fay


And 2 NOID's
Maybe you can name them


Thanks for stopping by!
More to Come

Friday, August 29, 2008

The Secret Palm Tree Garden! Part 2 Hyphaene crinita

Part 2 is only going to consist of 1 palm it is the Hyphaene crinita. This clump consists of 4 trunks and 5 crowns. One of the trunks has begun to branch. The Hyphaene palms are one of the only branching palms. I have fallen in love with these kind of palm trees. I am currently growing 2 Hyphaene compressa palms, very similiar tho these, but still seedlings. Be sure to look in the background of all of my posts to see many other tropicals and palms.

Hyphaene crinita

The clump.

The branching trunk

The trunk begining to loose the boots.

The split.

The inflouresence.

The Secret Palm Tree Garden! Part 1 Copernicia's

Today I am starting the Secret Palm Tree Garden post. This will be a series of posts because of the number of pictures that I have of this truly incredible secret garden. This garden is almost 50years old. And it is full of very Mature Palm Trees. So many palms and tropical plants. It is just an amazing place but I will let the pictures tell the story. The first post will be on the palm genus Copernicia. There were 4 species growing here.
Copernicia
Copernicia macroglossa , Petty Coat Palm


Copernicia alba , Caranday Palm Tree


Copernicia baileyana , Bailey Palm Tree

Copernicia hospita , Cuban Wax Palm

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Transplanting A Palm Tree at Heathcote!

Today, getting back into the swing of things at Heathcote Botanical Garden, Aaron and myself volunteered for 3 hours. Cleaning up fallen limbs and palm fronds from Fay blowing thru last week. We also worked on a project that we haven't had time for in the past few weeks. Heathcote has 2 Chambeyronia macrocarpa Palm Trees in the Palm Walk. One is very happy living its life in the shade while the other one is not so happy since it was planted in the full sun. So after a talk with the volunteer director she agreed that it needed to be relocated. We were finally able to get that done today. I have progress pictures of the transplanting project with the palm tree today.


The Flamethrowers original home. You can see the sunburn the leaves have.

The hole!

The removal.

Water is the key to any successful transplant.

Mulched and watered again. It should be very happy in its new shady home.

New exposed trunk.

The other very happy Flamethrower Palm.

Thanks for stopping by!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

The Clean Up after the Storm! & Maybe the 1st Casualty

Last night just before dark the sun and a double rainbow appeared. The sun is something that just has not been visible for the past few days. So today I went into the back yard to start some clean up and I still saw a foot of water. It stinks, and is now full of tadpoles. What makes me mad is all of my neighbors yards are nice and dry. Finding out I have the low yard . Great all the water drains into mine. So with all of this rain, the inevitable is coming. Mosquito's should be hatching in the next few days and with all of this standing water we are going to be inundated with them. I decided to rent a pump and 150ft hose for $50 and pump all of this water out to the drain on the street. And I think I have my first casualty from the storm. My little Persian lime tree was almost completely submerged under the water for 4 days now. It still has some green sections but mostly looks Horrible.

The double rainbow last night

The sunset from last night

The water this morning. note the nice and dry yard in the background

same shot after the water was pumped out

Note the other green dry yard.

Me standing in the stinky water

Bye Bye Stinky water

a few of the trenches I had to dig to funnel the water to the pump

My submerged Persian Lime Tree

Maybe the first casualty