Volunteering at Heathcote Botanical Garden, Day 3

Heathcote volunteering Day3, was another hot hard working day. When we showed up the volunteer director walked us over to the what is suppose to be the back entrance to the Palm Walk. But the back entrance path actually steered you away from the Palm Walk. The over growth of ferns has made the path less then 2ft wide. So her plan for us today was to create a new entrance that steers you into the Palm Walk.

And then this weeks Palm Trees are the:
1. Cryosophila stauracantha , or Rootspine Palm is a solitary fan palm from Mexico south to Guatemala, that has unarmed petioles and whitish undersides to the nearly circular, deeplys split leaves. The palm is most known for it's root-spines (hence the name), or small rootlets that come out from the trunk near the bottom of the palm (in very wet, dark situations, root spines will come out the entire length of the trunk). Leaves are a bit droopier and more deeply split than the more commonly grown C warscewiczii.

2. Syagrus schizopylla or Arikury Palm has a very small habit, usually only growing up to 10' in cultivation and it's very slow at getting there. It is a very neat, attractive palm with nicely arched leaves and leaflets on a single plane (compared to most Syagrus which have plumose leaflets- on multiple planes). This is the only Syagrus with teeth along the petioles.

3. Sabal minor or Dwarf Palmetto rarely, if ever forms any trunk and tends to looks scrubby/messy all the time. In Florida the Dwarf Palmetto grows naturally in about half of the counties, mainly in the northern parts of the state, in the understory of deciduous woodlands.

The first set of pictures shows a Crape Myrtle, Cape Honeysuckles, and the invasive oyster plants.
Pic 1. 9:45 a.m. Crape Mrytle Front Shot Before

Pic 2. 11:15a.m. 5cart dumps later Crape Mrytle Front Shot After
Pic 3. 10:15 Aaron from A Yard in Ft Pierce trimming some of the bigger stuff back

Pic 4. 9:45a.m. Crape Myrtle Back Shot Before
Pic 5. 11:15 a.m. Crape Mrytle Back Shot After

Pic 6. 11:30 a.m. The Back Entrance Path with ferns taking over.

Pic 7. 12p.m. 93F and Aaron pulling out ferns, widening the path.
Pic 8. 12:50 p.m. The Back Entrance Path after thinning out some ferns.


This Weeks Palm Features!
These guys are some of the first palms that you see once you enter the back side. Located across from the "Danger Zone"

Palm 1

Name Plate of Palm 1
Full Shot

FrondsThe underside of the frond showing the white coloring.

Fibrous CrownThe roots with the little spines.

Palm2
Name Plate Palm 2 w/misspelling "Syagrus"

Full Shot
Fronds

Palm 3
A couple of young Sabal minors , Dwarf Palmetto

Young tree just beginning to trunk.

The fruit of the Sabal minor still ripening.

Close Up Pictures of a Tillandsia fasciculata , or Cardinal Air Plant in Bloom!

Tillandsia fasciculata , or Quill-Leaf , Cardinal Air Plant , Wild Pineapple are a few names I have heard this native Florida Bromeliad called. These grow wild all over the neighborhood, and while I was walking my property I came across this fallen limb that was full of them. I brought them back to the house and have been taking care of them since. These 2 have been blooming for weeks now. 1 is further along than the other. The interesting thing is that once these are done blooming they die. There are several new pups growing on this same limb so we will see if I can mange to grow the babies to bloom. Here are a few close ups of the plants growing on the limb I found.

New Palm Sprouts Today!

What a day! I came home from work and began playing in the yard. As I was walking around doing the watering I came across the first sprout of the day. My first Coconut Palm has cracked the shell and is making its first appearance. I thought these were never going to sprout. I collected these coconuts on the beach back in Nov. And finally today the first 1 has started. Next I was watering on the porch and noticed 2 spikes sticking out of the Tersmannia altifrons or Joey Palms pots. These were started on the blog back on Feb. 7 here is a link to the post on the Joey Seeds. I have also moved all of the snap tite containers to the porch and the Dypis lastelliana or Redneck Palm Seed container had 2 sprouts in it. These were started on the blog Mar. 25 and here is the link to that post on the Redneck Seeds. And I also have the first Roystonea borinquena, or Puerto Rican Royal Palm seeds that I started in the experiment post back on Feb. 1 This was one of the scored seeds from the cups. Heere is the link to the Seed Experiment Post. And since were talking sprouts this morning I woke up to find the 6th Ice Cream Banana pup just breaking the surface of the ground.

Misi Luki Banana Pup Removal Project

Back in Nov. 07 I planted a Misi Luki and Apple Banana Tree in my back yard and with a new game plan and layout for the new patio to come the trees are going to have to go. My plan is to allow the mother trees to finish growing, but I decided it was time to move the pups off of the Misi Luki tree. I have began another section of the yard for banana alley and have all of the other banana trees growing there now. And with the pups from these two banana trees I will have quite the dessert banana collection growing there.
So this was my first time removing pups from a mother tree, and I think it went pretty good. I had 4 pups that needed to be removed. Before I started I grabbed a few 3gal pots and filled them with a little potting soil. Then I took the shovel and slid it down between the pup and the mom. Then cutting it away I tried to remove as many roots as possible with each of the pups. Then I potted them up and treated them with some vitamin B1. I figured growing them in the pots for a little while will be beneficial for them in developing more roots before I replant them again. I gave one of them to Aaron from AYiFP to add to his banana collection. So here are the pictures from the project.

Volunteering at Heathcote Botanical Garden, Day 2

Today was the second day of volunteering at Heathcote Botanical Gardens. We were introduced to many of the other volunteers and the director of the Gardens today as well. Aaron and myself are now referred to as the "Palm Guys", they love the fact that they have 2 young guys in there to help out. And we are having a blast doing what we are doing. And it is official we are the Palm Walk maintainers now. SWEET!
I remembered to take a few pictures before getting started on the projects at hand today. And this is what we have been working on. Or at least this 25sq ft section. The Palm Walk is a large part of the gardens. And it is very over grown. So over grown that today when we were clearing out this part we found a few palms that had been lost to the over growth. We have dubbed this section as the "Danger Zone". Last week we began clearing this out in shorts and went home with cuts all over, so we both had pants on today. Between the Macaw or Gru-Gru Palm that has needles on every inch of the trunk and fronds, to the 20ft clump of huge Bromeliads, and an Encephalartos whitelockii Cycad which has a 10ft leaflet that has a lot of small, nasty spines on them, and we have been pretty torn up. But the time we donate to them has already begun to pay off. There are 2 large seeding Foxtail Palm Trees in this section, and they told us that we could have the foxtail seeds off the ground. This is hundreds of seeds.

Each week I going to take pictures of each of the palms in the area that we our going to be working in. This is going to help me learn all the differences between palm trees and you can check back to see new palms every week. This week I have pictures of
Livistona muelleri; Dwarf Fan Palm
Trithrinax acanthocoma; Spiney Fiber Palm
Bismarckia noblis; Silver Bismarck Palm
Acrocomia aculeate; Macaw Palm, Gru-Gru Palm, Coyol Palm
Wodyetia bifurcate; Foxtail Palm

This is the "Before" for today!

This is the "After" for today!

The fruiting Wodyetia bifurcate, Foxtail Palm

2 pictures of the very scary Acrocomia aculeate; Macaw Palm, Gru-Gru Palm

The little Livistona muelleri; Dwarf Fan Palm

This is the hairy Trithrinax acanthocoma; Spiney Fiber Palm

Last Week before de-booting the Bismarck

The Bismarck after the de-booting and clean up.