Tropical Garden #87

Metrosideros, those blossoms are spectacular!! I have one red Camillia covered in buds, they usually bloom in the late spring here.

plantladylin, thanks, the tomatoes are volunteers, I gave them a little fertilizer today.
I love your bird pictures!! I always keep an eye out for new birds in my yard. A Owl scared me the other night when checking my GH around 3am. It flew right over my head, as quietly as can be with a huge shadow.
The finches and jays love my hoop houses, it is always a problem to get them out at night. If not, all my pictures would have poop on them.

Mjsponies,the Ambution is about 6 ft tall, the name on it was Bella, but it did not match those in the plantfiles.
I do not want you to go MIA, like Kay said, we will have to do something to keep you.
I hope that you get a little time soon to upload those pictures. Stay warm!!


ardesia, I hope that you have that beautiful Orange Ruttya covered. I would hate for you to lose it.

pensacolagarden, those are some nice looking plants! I hope that I will be able to get your Brug. to bloom. There is a 8 ft, 5 year old double pink planted in my Hoop house that refuses to bloom even after threats with a machete.

RachelLF, It will take them a little while to get established. I find that they will do better in hanging baskets.

This message was edited Dec 30, 2010 6:25 AM

Dave: Lovely Camellia's, really pretty Azalea too!

Pensacola: I love Bay Laurel, can it be pruned to keep it small? They grow into really large trees: http://www.floridata.com/ref/l/laur_nob.cfm but would make a nice container plant if it's possible to keep it pruned to size.

prita: What's that foliage plant in your last picture? Love the variegation in those leaves!

Rachel: That Cordyline looks like one I have. The picture below was taken on Dec. 20th ... it's under cover right now and I wonder if it's still alive after the freezing cold nights we've had lately. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid to upper 70's here so I'm going to uncover everything and water, water, water!

Dave: I forgot, you asked what other birds we have here. LOL .. well our year round residents that visit the feeders daily are the Blue Jay, Brown Thrasher, Carolina Wren, Downy Woodpecker, Mourning Dove, Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, Red-bellied Woodpecker and Tufted Titmouse.

We have a couple of different types of Hawks that are always around too. I have so many feeders out that I guess my backyard birds are easy prey. It's sad to see a hawk take a small bird, but it's all part of nature and the raptors have to eat too.

We also see Osprey and Seagulls on a daily basis, and quite often lately I've viewed a Bald Eagle flying in the neighborhood ... which is very exciting! I've seen flocks of White Ibis feeding along the roadsides lately. We are about 2 miles inland from the Atlantic and when we happen to be over that part of town we see Brown Pelicans, a few different types of Herons and Egrets and numerous shore birds.

I've been told that the Painted Bunting is a year round resident bird here but I only see it in the winter time ... there was a little female at a feeder early this morning. In winter we also get American Robins, American Redstarts, Brown-headed Cowbird, Cedar Waxwing, Chipping Sparrow, Common Grackle, Gray Catbird, Myrtle Warbler, Palm Warbler, Red-winged Blackbird ... the list is long and I'm sure I've forgotten a few, LOL. I love watching the birds and of course hearing them sing.

Not a Tropical LOL, but this is a picture I took on October 19th. This is a juvenile Cooper's Hawk that was hanging out in the backyard. He didn't seem concerned with me being there and just hung out in the tree for over an hour until another hawk started calling from the woods. He called back a couple of times and then flew off towards the direction of the other one .. I figured it was mama calling him home!

This has been a year of hawks around here, I've seen more this year than ever before. I took this picture on August 4th, a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk who came a visiting:

Sabal palmetto "Cabbage Palm", the cold weather doesn't seem to phase them at all.

Our friends and neighbors have citrus trees and they give us bags full of fruit every year ... so much that we end up having to share with other friends because we could never eat them all! One friend gave me a bag full of oranges last week and my backyard neighbor's trees are full, so it won't be long before she will be calling me to the fence for ...

Tangerines!

Our weather has finally warmed up a bit. It's supposed to be in the mid to upper 70's during the day and low 50's at night for the next few days so I uncovered the plants on the deck and watered them thoroughly. It's been extremely dry and cold here so the plants are appreciating fresh air and water for a change. For the most part everything looks okay ... some yellowing foliage from lack of water, and some taller plants bent over from the weight of the blankets ... but all in all things seem okay. Tomorrow I will take all of the plants out of the porch and give them some water.

When I began removing the blankets and covers, I found a Rhipsalis blooming:

Close up of the buds & emerging flowers:

Very pretty!

Good Evening All!

plantladylin, very interesting post!! It seems as if you are living in the perfect location for great birding.
I wish that I could have some of your citrus, they look delicious.
Maybe that is how to get your Rhipsails to bloom for you in the future, kept chilled and a little dry.
The variegated plant in my last picture is a noid Abutilon.

This is a Christmas present from my neighbor, the other gave us a big platter of homemade candy.

I spent a little of my Christmas present on this Amazon Lily, it is very pretty and I should keep it in the house, but I spend most of my time in the HH's

This is a new noid Bromeliad.

Beautiful photos everyone!

I've had Amazon Lilies for several years and have never had them flower.
They're quite nice, Prita!

How does one teach a hawk to eat rats and leave the song birds alone?

Here's Carludovica palmata, Panama Hat Plant in peak inflorescence.

Hawaiian Hawks eat song birds too. All the while, there are 10 rats for every person in Hawai'i.

I think it's a bad case of misdirection!

This is Vangueria madagascariensis, Spanish Tamarind.

It's fruit have a sweet chocolaty flavor.

It's another tropical plant that I've yet to see flower. It might need to be in Zone 11 to produce. I'm in 10b.

Ti!

I have a few Rhipsalis and they sometimes bloom a couple of times each year. I was so surprised to see the one above in bloom ... I thought it might be dead since it got so cold!

prita: Nice planter from your neighbor! Wow, look at all the gorgeous plants you have! My Eucharis grandiflora/Amazon Lily hasn't bloomed in a long time but it would probably do better if I took better care of it. Gosh, that Brom is absolutely gorgeous, who needs blooms with color like that!

Dave: I guess the Hawks have taste preferences too, they prefer birds over rats ... can't blame them, LOL. Rats ... eww! I remember a guy I worked with years ago bought a house and had every palm tree near the house cut down because he said rats will nest down in palms, and if the tree is near the house they will get into the attic and into the house, Yikes! Back in 2004 we had 3 hurricanes come through here in a six week period and take out a lot of large trees. When we were shopping for replacements my husband decided he wanted Palms so we bought 5 small Queen Palms and I told him we were NOT planting them anywhere near the house, LOL. Squirrels will do a lot of damage if they get into an attic too ... I read one time that someone had to have a major rewiring done, costing big bucks because squirrels got in the attic and chewed through a lot of wiring ... you'd think they'd have fried squirrels if they were chewing through electrical wiring?
I have ten or twelve bird feeders in the yard and sometimes in the summer I have to stop feeding the birds because mice and or rats are attracted to the seed.

I Love the inflorescence on that Carludovica ... really cool! Oooh, a fruit with sweet chocolate flavor, now that sounds like my kind of fruit! Oh my ... you are killing me with that beautiful huge Ti plant!

Hoya australis subsp. tenuipes is blooming. I knew it had buds a few weeks ago when I covered all the plants on the deck but I figured it would blast the buds with the extreme cold we were having and no light for a few weeks. Plants sure do surprise me sometimes!

edited to correct typos.

This message was edited Dec 30, 2010 9:10 PM

I guess this is about the best solution for rats!

Folks here put metal flashing around rat infested palm trees. They can go down the tree, but they can't go back up.

It seems that rats don't hang out in palms that are high in oxylate, such as Macarthur Palms, Ptychosperma macarthurii, and Fishtail Palms, Caryota mitis.

Coconut Palms seem to get infested the most.

Of course having a good pup in the garden helps control vermin too.

Kea will chase lizards just for fun, and chase chickens back to their pen without hurting them. She also snaps a rat's neck with just a little bite.

If you haven't chased a lizard, you won't know how much fun it could be.

Not all are so enthused.

Here's Ku on patrol duty, showing that there are other things to do besides chasing critters.

Dave: There's long distances between where we live but we have some of the same critters!

This is our only house critter at the moment, Miss Princess ... who really thinks she's the Queen!

She loves to chase these little critters and I'm always rescuing them from her.

She'd love to get out into the yard to chase a few other critters who stop by on occasion ... like this Armadillo who was rooting around in the backyard last month:

or this Gopher Tortoise who also visited the backyard last month

And, we don't live on the water but if we did the cat would love to check out the Manatees. This is a mama and baby we spotted a few weeks ago.

The cat really drives the squirrels crazy ... they hang out in the trees and on the power lines and chatter away when they see a cat. This guy was doing a balancing act:

Happy New Year everyone!

May your celebration be musical!

My nephew and "Zach" with his edible Christmas card I gave him. At first he thought he'd get in trouble for eating it but when my nephew gave him permission, it was gone in about 60 seconds!


Ok, I've gotten sidetracked on the Tropical thread again .. sorry!

I'll say g'nite for now, I'm back and forth from here to Facebook chatting with another nephew whose coming down from upstate N.Y. with his fiance' next month. I'm tired and I have so many windows open on my laptop I can't remember where I am.

Zach looks like a great tropical dog!

Hauoli Makahiki Hou!

Great pictures everyone. I enjoyed them all.

Dave your pictures are great! We have chased lizards before......can't say that I myself get overly excited about it.....They sure can run alot faster than I can! haha!

Plantladylin, I have a gray male we call Dusty. He thinks he is King around here. He is one of my babies, and can say, "Ma-ah" when I am in my room and he is stuck out in the hall way. We also have his brother Rusty. He's the quiet one. He very sheepishly says "Mear" when he wants his Momma. They are both spoiled!
Can you tell?

Dusty says, "ello" to Miss Princess!

Jeanne

Dave, my grandson is learning to play the guitar also. He plays the tuba in his school band. He is second chair this year and is only a freshman. He took the keyboard for awhile and drums. He loves music!

Wish I could hear you play!

Jeanne

Here the lizards chase the cats and dogs, they think they're good eating. Personally, I'd prefer to go vegetarian.