This little beauty is Alpinia rugosa...only about 2.5' tall, GREAT leaves and very fragrant flowers.
Aprils' surprises....
Impatience is a weed here...and here is a victim of so many cross pollinations!!! Isn't she great? (when we first arrived here, I asked a resident for some cuttings of Impatience that I could plant. When she got over the laughing fit, she ripped off some branches and said...just throw them on the ground. I did. They rooted and were full plants in a matter of days. Would I kid you?)
One of my favorite aroids - anyone know what it is? It grows about 6' tall and sends out tons of runners.
Those Impatiens are pretty--you could probably propagate them and sell them to us over here on the mainland and make a ton of money!
The Alpinia is stunning! And I really like the Impatiens as well. Wow. Thank you for sharing the pictures!
Erick
members in Hawaii probably shouldn't get to belong.....you make the rest of us sooooooooooooooo jealous.....love that first plant!!! When my adult son lived on the big island he had poinsettias taller than his house...could not believe the plants you get to grow!! Really, I am happy for you....
gail
LOL BettyGail. <grrrr> I'm happy for you</grrrr> :)
But I have zone envy myself. I could tell you how poor me in zone 6a envies the stuff you can coax from the ground in 9a. :P I'd just be happy with Confederate jasmine, a few hedychiums, a tea olive, some camellias, a few nice fruiting musas ... :)
The grass is greener. :)
Buy for what it's worth, I agree with you. I have a major case of envy for our Hawaiian friends whose idea of "work" in the garden is throwing a few cuttings on the ground and then complaining about the "weed" problem. :)
SHAME on you AlohaHoya for teasing those of us not living in paradise. :)
And thank you for the photos. :)
-Joe
This message was edited Apr 2, 2007 12:06 AM
OH YEAH????? ;~))
If it weren't for the lovely ladies who longed for their northern gardens bordered with ageratum, impatience and such, we wouldn't have weeds!!!
Ya'know...I do know how very fortunate I am!!! I realize the Eden we live in and that when I die from chemical toxins from using Round-Up and CrossBow keeping the weeds controlled I will remember how lovely everything smelled as I sprayed!!! I kid you not!!!
We do remind ourselves, often, how much easier it is to dig out lava to plant something than it was to shovel snow or scrape ice off the sidewalk...and when we fight off our neighbours to get that last load of municipal mulch trucked up here at horrendous prices we are glad that they didn't see the cindersoil that was just brought in because we have NO soil...none, zip.... So everything sort of grows hydroponically...
....I guess it just MAY seem that the grass it greener over here... The REAL troopers and experts are those of you who push the envelope and grow the most beautiful tropicals where they should never even be contemplated... Whoa...my hats off to you!!! You all are the REAL gardeners and growers... Heck...I am just a Weed Killer!!!
Reminds me of an argument I had with an Extention Service Agent about what IS an invasive plant.... With his criteria you can include Avocados, Coffee, Gardenias, ANYTHING just about...Allspice, all fruit trees practically.... I just had to kill 300 loquats sprouted up under the mother tree...tree too tall to pick (DH won't prune)...fruit drops...instant forest.
Good growing!!!
Carol
Carol,
I just got Alpinia rugosa from a friend last year. It's finally starting to pick up a little speed. I'm curious how much sun you grow yours in.
JG
Welllll......, impatiens and loquats are terrible weeds here too, but somehow it is just not the same........LOL
Where Carol gets orchids dripping from her trees we get chigger ridden spanish moss dripping from ours. Big SIGH here......
LOL AlohaHoya :))) Ya know, um, shoveling lava really DOESN'T sound that appealing. I get a kick out of it, when we think about a place we just think about the specific features we like. We don't consider some of the other things that just might be going on there:
Hawaii: lava, tsunamis, typhoons, avalanches
California: heat/Santa Anas, earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches, floods, fires.
Texas and the gulf coast in general: heat, gators, hurricanes, fire ants, killer bees, chiggers, snakes, drought, floods, fire (in Florida).
Southeast: heat, hurricanes, fire ants, chiggers, snakes, drought, floods.
Ohio valley: tornados, cold, drought, coyotes.
I used to have a friend in Sydney, AU. I thought: "boy, she lives in paradise." Then she told me about the dinner-plate sized Huntsman spider she let live in her living room, because it eats the undersirable red-back spiders (AU's equivalent of black widows, and they're all OVER.) Then I learned that the nine deadliest snakes in the world live in the Sydney area, along with funnel web spiders (NASTY, deadly), salties (enormous salt-water crocodiles), blue-ringed octopus, man-o-war, great white sharks, and sea snakes ... I asked Rhoda how she could leave the house, then once she left it, how she could possibly nerve herself up to go back in.
You know, even with coyotes and the occasional tornado Ohio doesn't seem so bad after all. :)
-Joe
OH...Joe...Australia is full of critters out to kill you!!! But beautiful at the same time!
OH, you forgot the Volcanos errupting and earthquakes in Hawaii!!! OH, and 4 different kinds of mosquitos (thank you, Capt. Cook et.al.) and Roaches!!! And...I couldn't live anywhere else! We are extremely rural over here...no Waikiki and tourist mecca...
But NO SNAKES!!!!
JG...the Alpinia is probably growing in too much sun...and when the sun gets overhead in a few months I may have to shade it, if the neighboring heliconia haven't grown tall enough to shade it. I know it likes shade, but, to date, mine is growing in filtered bright sun. We are talking about digging out a hunk and planting it in more shade...and see if there is much difference.
After gardening in Seattle for 25 years, we sailed in the South Pacific for 6 and talked about what our 'next' life was going to be like. My only criteria was that I wanted to live where I could put a broom handle in the ground and it would grow!!! I got it! Especially nice as I get older.....
I love it!!!
Well I guess I will be adding it to my never ending wishlist.
Nice plants!
AlohaHoya,
How neat you've found a place like that. :) When I bought my home the soil it was sitting on was as important as the structure. I have good, rich silty soil. As long as I pay attention to sunlight and microclimate I can coax quite a bit out of it.
For us gardeners good are as important as anything else.
What's the cost of living like out on the islands?
-Joe
HIGH!
But alot depends on where you live. Oahu (Honolulu), Maui (tourists), Kauai are all a lot more expensive than the Big Island of Hawaii (where we live). The West Side of the island (Kona) is hot and dry and full of big hotels and expensive...the East side with the rain and the agriculture and the 'local' life is more reasonable. This area earns its' money (most of it) from agriculture (orchids, papaya etc.) . If you want to eat like you live on the mainland (steaks etc.) it is expensive... If you are OK with hamburger and pork chops...or local food and lots of vegetables, it isn't bad at all. You learn to shop the 'sales' of the week, buy at local grocery chains instead of Safeway, shop at Walmart and if we had a Costco here it would be perfect!!! Our cost of living is higher...but we need very little. I have 2 pairs of shoes (sandals)!!! Don't need any more!! Electricity is about .30cents a kilowatt hour - we run nearly everything on Propane. You want a freezer...you pay more elec!!! There are always choices!!! I would lie if I said you can life cheaply...but you can live more cheaply here than in Honolulu... That place is scary!!!
Carol
Beautiful plants as usual Carol!
Your EE could be Colocasia fontanesii.
k, I am thinking. I need an acre of land on the east side of the big island, preferably with some established trees so I can build my shelter. Then some propane service, and a well. I can compost my own sewage. :)
I can ride over to the islands in a shipping container.
Yah, this is do-able. :)
-Joe
LOL. Joe...wells are all fairly polluted... Most 'country folk' like us are on water catchement. With about 150" of rain a year...not a problem!!! Better hurry...prices are going UP UP UP.
:>)
AlohaHoya,
What are the wells polluted with there--pumice and fertilizer ? Good irrigation material.
Sugarcane52
Fertilizer/herbicide residue from the, now defunct, Sugarcane fields and sewage. Many rural areas are not on sewer systems and have Cess Pools or Ceptic Tanks. The math is easy!!!
......and no soil to filter pollutants, just very porous lava, wow, that is a problem most of us on the mainland never think about.
Thanks for sharing that tidbit Carol; I will have to remember it when I get so verrrrry envious of you being able to grow such magnificent plants. :-)))))))