Finally we got some rain yesterday afternoon and last night. Raised the level in our catchment tank by about 4 inches.
All plants and weeds have grown about a foot in 24 hours. Rain plus humidity plus 80f temps will do that.
The new garden room in the forest now has a path called the Moss Grotto, the path loops around from the back of the garden and comes out in another garden room that needs attention. With this rain the moss along the new path (its more of a jungle tunnel) should darken up and look like a green haze. Pictures at a later date.
Today I started walking pots of plants into the forest to start filling the new cleared area, gingers, elephant ears, Peace Lilies, Diffenbachias, Alocasias, bromeliads, Costus. All harvested from my own plants. Mentally I go on a shopping spree and then try and price my haul. I would be broke if I had to pay for them.
Watched a video recently about propagating Anthuriums by sticking the bloom head stalk into a slice of banana and then planting it in a pot. (leaving the bloom attached on the top of the soil) The potassium in the banana creates roots and a new plant. Definitely will try it. It might work on other plants too.
The Angel Trumpets are blooming again. The dark pink below has finally got its act together. 14 blooms this time. Just about ready to take cuttings.
Giant Philodendrons are doing well. Finally took photos. Need plenty of room and trees for them to climb.
Orchids are starting bloom here and there. The small red one below is about the size of a quarter and is a cluster of blooms. I think its Bulbaphyllum. I have two varieties. The while hairy one is not blooming at the moment.
Repotted 8 eight small Anthurium seedlings yesterday. Not the blooming kind. They are grown for the leaves and can get quite big.
Most of my activity right now is clearing forest, otherwise just walking around watching everything grow
Have not got the hang of labelling the photos, The first couple are orchids, following I think by Begonias, then philodendrons and the Angel Trumpets. The last one is looking up at the underside of a tall Australians Tree Fern against the blue sky. The last one if a philodendron gloriosum.
Time flies, but if I did a blog each month for the past eight months that would be 4 hours of lost gardening time.
House maintenance went as planned, started March, finished September. Exterior of house and roof all painted. Never known a contractor stretch out a job. I still have some painting to do but nothing critical.
I'm obsessed with the Aroid collecting phenomenon that is on going. Houseplant fantics got entrenched during COVID. They are collecting anthuriums, monsteras, and philodendron for house plants and all those grow outside here in Hawaii. So I have been clearing forest to expose trees and planting areas and ordering plants online, but mainly going through the local big box stores and garden stores grabbing anything I can. Getting to the point now where the rarer varieties will cost me money. Also getting a few Alocasias. Right now we are in the middle of a dry, hot spell so have to watch what I do with moving plants but ideal weather for creating garden rooms and weeding.
The zoo plant sale came and went on April 1st and another on September 30th. Always well supported and we have added a couple of new vendors. Next one should be last Saturday in March.
One of the vendors is a good friend with a very large orchid nursery. Like 100,000 pots. He imports the orchids from Thailand in glass flasks as tissue culture seedlings and then grows them on for sale in about 3 years. He called a few weeks ago and said would I like a few trays of plants that needed to be rescued so of course I said yes. The drive out to his place is over very rocky unpaved road, so although the plants are free the toll on my van might not be. Anyway ended up with about 90 orchid plants. I constructed a monolith built of Australian Tree fern trunks to mount them on. See photo.
While at the nursery he asked if I would like some Ti cuttings (Cordalines). So "yes please" but would have to come back as he was not ready to cut them down right then. So a week later he says come get them. By that time I have contacted a friend with a large pick up truck. We drove out and loaded up about 250 Ti cuttings of many different named varieties ( he sells them online for up to $30 for a six inch cutting) He wants to clear the ground for another orchid greenhouse. After loading the Ti if gives us a tour of his fantastic tropical garden and starts to offer us cuttings of giant philodendrons and other plants. By the time we had finished the truck was loaded to overflowing.
If anyone wants to google philodrendron Giganteus of philodendron Lynette you will get some idea of what we scored, all for no cost.
Otherwise life is normal, Lost of Tradescancia hanging pots doing well, bamboos have had a good season. 3 ton of gravel delivered last weekend for forest trail maintenance. Still propagating too much, 30 pots of giant butterfly ginger in pots from seed, getting into begonia propagation by leaf cuttings. have one tray locked inside a clam shell (ate the pastries). should be rooted by end of November.
Buying too many succulents now that I have a partially covered area in my potting greenhouse. Problem is that every leaf that falls off creates another succulent and I can't throw them away.
Have built a good collection of Peperomias and added two ZZ plants, one black one green.
Making an attempt at building a stumpery, (see photo) or really a loggery from a tree that fell down, but I think it will get too much direct sun to get it covered in moss and fern. Still a work in progress
I could go on. Will upload some pics if I can find them.
Around last December the rain stopped and we had week after week of dry sunny weather. Initially it was great, get outdoors, clean the yard, cut down some more trees to make way for plant, really made progress. As the weeks passed the catchment tank got lower, the hosepipe was a friend and water became an issue. We ordered a delivery of water and then word got out that it was going to rain the following week. As it happens when I went down to the local gas station to put my order in for water we had a shower of rain. So a few days after ordering the water we cancelled on the promise of rain. Of course that did not happen so we sweated it out, kept dipsticking the water tank (down to a 1/3) and practiced old time water saving practices around the house (Use your imagination).
Finally it rained, a little at first. The water tank held its own and then went up to half full. We were happy that the panic was over. Until last week Thursday. We have had over 15 inches of rain since then with local flooding and the water tank overflow pipe could not handle the volume, water was running over the top and starting to wash out the gravel base. So for today things have improved. Its has still not stopped raining, we were flooded in by our road turning into a raging river for a few hours. Should continue raining off and on for the next week.
So garden work has come to a stand still. The colder weather stops the grass from growing but everything else puts on new growth. The heavy rain has knocked down small trees and bent over bamboo canes so when the rain stops there is lots to do. Water lilies are still blooming, its Azalea and Camelia blooming time and the occasional orchid is blooming around the forest.
2023 is house maintenance and painting time. I'm painting everything I can reach and a contractor will come in and do the high spots and eaves. Then the same guy will powerwash, treat the rust and paint the metal roof.
When the warmer, drier spring and summer returns I will catch up on the yard work..
Tally Ho!!
Still alive and well, just not blogging. Four months since my last blog but not much happened (I lie). No longer working at the zoo due to personality head butts and I'm retired and too old for that. Plus zoo is under new management by a young lady from Disneyland Florida and she wants to turn it into a theme park in my view. BUT I did retain leadership of the bi-annual plant sale. The sale we had in October had 20 vendors but made a little less money due to the rainy weather. Now, arguably the largest plant sale on the island. My angle is to keep contact with 20 vendor nurseries for good deals and there is already a waiting list of 3 new ones wanting to get in.
Plant obsession continues. I shook of the bad habit of ordering plants from Etsy after purchasing a grand array of about 50 plants which have gone from 2 inch pots when they arrive to some that are now in 2 gallon pots. Went on a plant buying binge with a friend last weekend. Unfortunately she only has a king cab pickup which we packed with plants. Only enough room to just get my foot in the passenger door when we left the last nursery with a box on my lap. Next time we take my E150 cargo van.
Gardening at home is pretty much unchanged. Created two new garden rooms in the woodpile garden - the hidden garden and the roundabout garden (traffic circle did not have a ring to it). Lots more space to plant more purchases.
Still pushing gravel out to forest pathways to fight the mud.
Not too much chainsawing now as most of the tree clearing has been completed within the current fence line. So just maintenance trimming.
Shook out 96 Amaryllis bulbs from their grass encased pots last week and repotted them. Plenty of bench space for them in a recently renovated shade cloth house.
Now have a collection of about 40 different philodendrons and really getting hooked on Alocacias and Colocasias, whatever their different is.
And thats about it. Will try and find interesting photos to post.
Took a walk around the garden and forest trails and here is some of what I found. In the Wood Pile Garden I have been working on a new pathway. Gravel paths are a must to overcome mud. Here is the first section which is already looking mature with plantings
As we move along the path makers are in place and waiting for gravel. Cannot move gravel for now due to continuous light rain. The wheelbarrow digs in and creates mud on already finished paths
So thats all the hardscape happening.
There is a new garden room being created in the Woodpile garden just off to the left of the pathway. Looks a bit rough right now but most small trees have been removed and some final raking to be completed. Main thing is can already start planting
Quite a few Heliconia blooming at the moment. July is probably the best month for flowering tropicals
Lots of bromeliads looking their best
About a year ago I was creating the orchid garden. Its now complete with many orchids on trees. They are all new additions so will take 12 months to get established by one or two are blooming
Problem with the orchid garden is that all the plants that were added a year or more ago are now getting so big the narrow paths are getting difficult to negotiate, but lots of interesting plants to enjoy. Here are some Beehive gingers.
the next is a varigated monstera. You should see the price of these on Etsy
This next one is Shogun Heliconia. Years ago florists were paying $35 for the bloom. I can sell pieces of the plant for $60 to finance my plant obsession
Nearly forgot the local Kahili Ginger
So for the next few days I will be picking up trimmings from around the garden, skimming the ponds and kicking down running bamboo. The rain is the main obstacle at the moment. No really dry sunny spells forecast for the next week
Finished potting up 54 ginger seedlings today from seed tray to 2 inch pots. Made room in the seed tray for a different variety of ginger seeds that are just now germinating and should be ready to "prick out" in a week or so. The the cycle starts again.
Still have 5 plants parcels somewhere between here and Florida with starter plants of philodendron and peperomia I think. About 14 new plants in total. To make room I'm taking the Tradescancias that arrived a couple of weeks ago and moving them up to "two to the 6 inch pot". The starts are doing well and making a lot of new growth. Never thought I would collect 10 different types of 'wandering jew' as we called it in England.
Enough for now.
