Tropical Zone Gardening: The coconut wireless - chat thread, 0 by lourspolaire

lourspolaire wrote:
Hi, everyone.

Being a snake owner, I know that my snake is a gentle, very tame, sweet and well brought-up baby. That is how she was brought up. Wild snakes,although they are not necessarily out to get you, have to be given a wide berth and a fair bit of respect. But if a snake came near me outside, my long-handled shovel will be used in unconventional ways, I tell you what.

I saw a TV documentary on python hunters in the Everglades a few months ago. For the record, pythons are not venomous. They are constrictors. I had to laugh at how inept those guys were. What a bunch of certified wusses posing as big-time wilderness adventurers!

They walk the fields in a narrow formation, in groups of 6 or more. They wear no protective gear, carry no weapons and they're as skittish as squirrels. So, they walk the fields and one spots a python. It's an 8-foot specimen sunning itself. He yells "python" and everyone converges on him. I still can't figure out why they need to all be together like that. I guess there is security in numbers.

The guy bends down and picks it off the ground as if he had dropped a salami at the grocery store. That is all the action there is to it: bend down, pick it up, show it to the camera. The snake does what comes naturally and coils around the guy's arm for support. It also wrapped its neck around the guy's neck. It wasn't an attempt at strangling or biting. He was just looking for support. You could tell this was a good baby. I would have adopted it on the spot.

They then carry the allegedly evil snake to a holding cage on the back on their truck. No chase, no attack, no wrestling with an enraged reptile, nothing. It was as boring as watching paint drying. They don't tell you what fate awaits the snake, but no good can come of all this. I know they are an introduced species that does untold and virtually unchecked damage to the Everglades echosystem. I just have a propension to take the snake's side because nobody else seems to root for it.

In other news,,, I have 2 adenium obesum (desert rose) that I started from seeds. In February, my cruising buddy said: Let's repor those. I agreed, seeing no arm in it. We only had one terracota pot, so we repotted one, leaving the other alone. We then forgot to buy terracota pots and left the other one undisturbed. The repotted one lost all its leaves. I now have a caudex at ground level with an 18-inch bald main stem sticking straight up and 2 quasi-microscopic newly-formed leaves at the top. Those things are so temperamental. The other one will stay in its pot until it manages to grow enough roots to crack it. Adeniums are known to do that. Ah,the heartbreaks of gardening. But the plant is not dead; it just looks mighty poorly. I'll give it a good shot of orchid bloom booster today. It will perk right up. I include a picture of adenium blooms.

Take care, all.
Pu'ole, a.k.a. Sylvain.