I saw one recently and they used an old pallet for the frame. They stapled weed block cloth over the back and bottom and layed it flat to fill with potting mix. While it was flat they planted it between the slats and as soon as the plants took root they hung it, they water it from the top which was left open. Such a fun project!
Tropical Garden #127
Ho, I wish, Paula. Google "living wall systems" and you will see there is a huge array of different living wall components you can buy. Or, as Alice points out you can make one of your own out of recycled materials. It's become the "nouveau" art form in recent years.
If you ever get down to Orlando, the display at Epcot is the most gorgeous living wall system I've ever seen. This link has the best pictures of it, and others. http://greenecowalls.com/ OF course the Epcot people spend an enormous amount of money on plants there and change their plants out all the time to keep it fresh and looking beautiful.
I have some interesting things I found in the garden this morning, including a bloom on my little "wild" Monk orchid. Spathoglottis orchids still blooming away, and putting up new spikes. Flowering maples, looking like little hibiscus flowers are loving the cooler weather.
After beefing about it's boring color all summer, my Colocasia 'Blue Hawaii' is making smaller leaves now with very vivid colors, and 'Dipt in Wine' coleus that I got as cuttings from Mj are coming on brilliantly.
Awesome plants!
beautiful, love the living wall, and love the blooms and well, I miss you all.
Very nice, Elaine and Deb!
Heliconias are still appearing, although the nights have been pretty cool.
Red-leafed hibiscus is blooming, the flowers are not quite so purple as the picture shows.
Red-stemmed philo I got as a cutting from Cassie back in May is happily climbing this oak stump.
Lady Margaret passion vine blooms non-stop.
Tomatoes on the vine, our reward for suffering through the whole summer without tomatoes.
I brought my red leaf hibiscus in, was afraid to lose it..
A few more interesting things in my garden this morning - the wildflowers are still coming along, Salvia 'Coral Nymph' and blue porterweed. Brug. Charles Grimaldi is putting out a few more blooms.
My new little fig tree 'Celeste' has 3 figs this year - that's triple the crop I got last spring. And one of my little orchids has 3 spikes, here's the first flower opening on B. Little Stars.
Well the sun is actually shining here in Central Florida today.
Brassavola nodosa Jiminy Cricket, Hoya imperalis ,Cape Honeysuckle and Mexican Sunflower Tree
Beautiful MJ!! Is the cape honeysuckle a red or just the photo. Mine is more of a deep orange....just wondering if there is a red one. Very pretty anyway!!
Love that brassavola, Mj. The hoya is really pretty, too, and those are big flowers - the buds are cool looking as well. I miss my Mex. Sunflowers, had to yank out the big clump I had back by the fence corner as it was competing with my dwarf Poinciana. It does seem to seed itself, though so I doubt it will be gone long.
Crinum blooms at Selby last weekend.
Some really neat plant hangers or mounts for orchids, tillandsias or bromeliads, made out of vine wreaths wired into tiers.
Screw pine cone, I think I'll make this my holiday card this year. The cones were huge, must be all the rain we had.
Pretty, large ground orchids - Spathoglottis- with stems at least 3ft long, and have been in bloom since I was there last - in May!
Paula, I think red-orange is as red as Tecoma capensis gets.
Paula, Kay said it right. I wouldn't call this one Orange, but not in the sense of Red like a deep Red...more Orange Red.
Elaine, I think that would make a wonderful holiday card !
I took this picture when we were on Longboat Key last year and I didn't have a clue what it was. Thanks Elaine. :-) My mother grew a huge pandanus in the house when I was a child but we never had any fruit on it.
Martha, how do you keep your Cape Honeysuckle so neat and shrub like. Mine wanders all over the place I am forever cutting it back so I rarely see enough flowers to make it worth my while.
Alice it grows out in the middle of the yard. When we mow we just "edge" it with the mower round and round....it doesn't even have a support.
I don't fertilize it and rarely water it either.
This message was edited Nov 21, 2012 7:33 AM
my cape honeysuckle is blooming still downstairs. I love it.
70's here record high yesterday at 74, here we are with all the plants inside even tho they could have stayed out and braved the cold a few more weeks.
Have no clue why I am up, but My sister DROVE herself with her lil dog sadie, in the 96 buick park avenue I gave her two years ago. She brought sadie for us to get Used to her, since we will be inheriting her when sister is gone. SHe has lost 20 pounds, the chemo was making her sooo sick, the decided to give her a ten day break from it. She is now drinking the essiac tea and also taking soursop fruit caplets. She has eaten more here in one day ( last night( than she has all week. I had made a big ole pot of chicken and noodles, and some tuna cassrole and some linquini, and she ate a bowl of each. She also ate 5 of the two kinds of cookies joanna and joe made. I am so glad she made it here. I had to work yesterday and willl work tommorrow and saturday while she is here, but kids and hubby are doting over her well enough. Joanna made white bread and pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies with chic chips, Joe made some kind of stuffing with cornbread and apples, sister and i made pecan pies and dressed a bone in ham with brown sugar, pineapple and cherries. We are going over to Joes lil brothers house this year. Kids are meeting us over there.
Sister told me last night she expects this to be her last thanksgiving and i started crying. then we were both crying. Today we will all be thankful for all of us standing.
I love you, my net friends. Happy Thanksgiving and take care.
PS: Joe and Sadie are getting along.. he knows we will be inheriting her some day and he is actually good with that. She is a cute lil boxer/beagle mix. 5 years old. Joanna took to her right away. Sadie gaurds Sherry like a fierce mama Bear. LOL
Debra, I love you and Sherry - tons of hugs for both of you. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your lovely family!!!
Thank You, Lord, for all our bountiful blessings. So many of you children are in agony of one kind or another, make this a day of love and joy.
By far Elaine, Mallory Jane is the most incredible bloom in your garden.....
Such incredible plants everyone has. I so enjoy seeing what is in everyones garden.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Jan
Hey guys! Sorry I've been rather scarce around here, but as you know I've been having problems with buying my house and such... Well yesterday, my wife and I finally got the house (still need to see what's up with the heating system, but still we got it!), so we definitely have something to be thankful for!
Hopefully it's not too late to plant some of the plants I've had waiting to be moved... I'll probably keep the more borderline stuff in the garage until spring, but the Tamarisks (hardy to zone 4) and the lavender (hardy to zone 5) will be planted once we get everything else moved into the house.
congrats on the house.
Thanks! BTW, the previous owners seemed to have been fans of Spiderwort: They had the purple flowering variety planted all over the place... There is also some weird kind of plant along the back of the house that looks kind of like a calla lily, but it had to have been in the ground since LAST winter, so I'm sure that can't be it, and there is also a HUGE trumpet vine trellis in the back yard. There also is an abandoned and overgrown water garden that I'm thinking about converting into a Koi pond sometime next year as well.
Look up 'Aspidistra' aka cast iron plant, and see if that's what your Calla lily look-alike might be.
I actually have aspidistra, and it doesn't look like that... For one thing, its leaves are a bit too thick and for another, all the leaves come out of a central stem rather than popping up at different spots individually. One thing I've seen on Dave's Garden that it MIGHT be is an "Italian Arum", but it came up at the wrong time of year.
If it comes back next spring, I'll post pictures, but it was rather puzzling, to say the least.
Ben, congrats on the new house. Those Arum leaves do look a lot like Calla, and I must admit mine do pop up at odd times of year.
It got pretty chilly here last night - had to cover u p some of my orchids. But weather's bouncing back tonight to normals.
First - a little Spathoglottis I nicknamed 'opal' because it has at least 4 colors white, pink, purple and yellow as the flowers mature.
Second, a Phal I rescued from Lowe's death rack.
Third, Brassavola 'Little Stars' with two little flowers it perfumes the whole pool cage at night.
congrats on the house and I hope you do have an arum.. i want one so bad LOL
lovely lil orchids, Elaine.
Sister made it home in one piece, can't wait for the tests and results. I think she gained the 20 plus pounds she had lost, while she was here..
I made all of her favorites.
here are some blooms in the basement gardens..
KayJones.. you should see the ZZ plant...it is going to bust out of it's pot.
Debra, I'm glad you had a great visit with Sherry! The blooms are beautiful, as always!!!
Hope to hear great things about your sister Deb!
The heck with the tests, just the fact she was eating well is a very good sign. Way to go, Deb.
I love those fluffy hibs - this one is at Selby, but I am determined to get one, just as soon as I figure out where to plant it!
Pretty tall Spathoglottis, same color as mine, but huge! Hope mine grow up to be these.
Some sort of pink brom I think.
Pirate face on an orchid! It's Captain Hook, right?
Beautiful big staghorn, mine is nearly this big, but it's hard to get a picture of it 'way up there in the oak tree.
LOL yes captain hook! I gave my shizo hibiscus away... I gotta get me another one LOL
oh, Ho! Rachel, welcome to the club of orchid addicts! Once you get one, you can't stop collecting the darn things. I'm certainly no expert, but I'm having fun experimenting to find the ones that will grow outside in my yard here. If you take the plunge, get on the Orchids forum and you'll find lots of people more knowledgeable than me.
I don't have any Draculas myself, but my favorite orchid book has a page on Dracula and the (too cool!) picture they show has a flower with a face that looks exactly like a monkey = Dracula marsupialis or Dracula simia. Looks like you've pretty well got to hang them up to show them properly because the flowers hang down from the base of the leaves. They can grow in a pot, or on a mount, but might be somewhat high maintenance because it says "keep the medium moist at all times". Other than that, cool to medium temperatures, humidity and shade.
C'mon, I can't be the only one here who still has something blooming? Where's everybody gone?
Three colors of Abutilons loving the cooler weather, it seems.
Funny little NoID brassavola orchid I got at a Master Gardener plant sale a year ago. This is the third time it's bloomed so I'm not complaining, but this time it has spots on its lip which it's never had before! The red petals fade to orange, and the lip turns yellow so it's a fun one to watch.
ps. for Rachel, don't pay a lot for your first orchid - I went looking at Draculas and the one site I found with lots of them has very high prices! It's best to learn your orchid culture on a couple of inexpensive plants, so if you mess up you won't feel so bad. It's a whole different ball game from growing 'regular' plants.
If someone would send me a white and a black bat plant, I'd be glad to share pictures as it grows! LOL
Your flowers are beautiful, Elaine - keep them coming.
I have shown pictures of all the plants I had in bloom. Some are still blooming:
Passiflora 'Lady Margaret'
Passiflora Vitafolia
Confederate Rose
All the Clerodendrums - blue, red, shrubs and vines
The Daffodils are coming up
The Saffron Crocus have been up for a while, but no blooms
Thunbergias are all still blooming
Klanchoes are budding
Pink trumpet vine is blooming
A couple of the Brugmansias are blooming
Nothing in the greenhouse is blooming
Stictocardia is LOADED with buds - none open yet
Cassia - pop corn variety - is in full bloom
My new Grandaughter is in bud and will bloom on Dec. 4, via C-section!!!!!
Aww Kay, that's wonderful! That's my mom's birthday... so a good day. Keep us informed!
I have several things blooming, I will try to take pictures tomorrow. I have a beautiful amaryllis "Luna" blooming and honestly it has a green look to it. Very pretty!
Good morning to all my dear friends! None of my Amaryllis have headed up - don't know if I'll get any blooms this year. I will go to see my new Grandaughter from Dec. 13-18th = Can't WAIT!
I have one plant that is about to bloom and will show it soon...Probably first of the week.
OO, KayJones. Can't wait to see pictures of your Strictocardia when it opens, and of course your new baby girl!
I can't remember seeing a picture of your pink trumpet vine, would love to see that. We need to keep the spirits up for those unfortunate folks where it is cold now.
Here are my weedy orchids still blooming, and my Colo. Blue Hawaii still making really vivid purple stems, veins and edges. Finally!!
Congrats on the newest about tooo bloom, KayJones.
I love the eye candy here, please keep it going..
my sticto is in bud as well.. It usually blooms in december.
Awwwww....a Christmas baby. Happy for you, Kay.