OH! Hi Linda, nice to see you and your GD, how adorable... what fun! (I don't have any GK's :(. But, I AM 'mature" enough to have some. Oh, And Restrooms ARE to my right. (nice setting, huh?) That's Drew, my "baby".
Wonderful NEW EE'S from LARI ANN at AROIDIA RESEARCH
Here's my girls - Barb on left and Melissa on right. (I may have to commission both girls for diversion duty at the BIG Ear Fest! ;)
Great! OK, who's left: Moodene, texasbigleaves, phicks, slcdms? Did I miss anyone?
LariAnn, I look just like Linda, only a little plumper--lol--
Sandra
AuntB a great looking family. Sandra we do have some similarities, so funny. But it is nice to meet you the both of you.
LariAnn I had to go to your profile to see your picture, nice picture. Glad to meet you.
My glasses turn dark outside too, and I love red, so that could have been me in your photo--lol
Sandra
I like my glasses turning dark when I am outside, but don't like it when they take a picture of me outside with dark glasses.
I was too cheap to pay for it the last ones I had so when I got new ones this year, i put out the money for it, it is worth every penny.
Sandra
Sandra, nice to see you, too! That's funny you and Linda resemble one another... long lost sis's perhaps?! Here's one of me with my hair cut short, (only my hairdresser knows for sure) but I could have the same hair color and we could be triplets! But I'd be the shortest. I used to be 5ft 1 1/4. The medical people try to tell me I'm 4'11" now, but they are WRONG! lol
Oh no, not another long lost sister--I have one you know, well you probably don't, but I only met my half sister in 1999.
My nephew found her doing some genealogy work on the internet.
I want to know where that picture was made and who is growing those beautiful flowers.
I had to go for a bone density last week and I measure out at 5'6"
I used to be 5' 8"--no wonder I am so much fatter now--lol
Sandra
Hey, texasbigleaves and Moodene, where are you?
This message was edited Oct 18, 2007 6:16 PM
For those who have not already seen my mug here is a pic of me. This was on a trip to Disney world.
Brian I have seen your picture before, but you really look so young to be into plants like you are. Did you have osmeone who passed the gardening hobby to you?
Sandra
I think I was breed for the purpose of growing and breeding plants LOL. My father collected plants when he was very young getting seeds out of books from far away tropical places. He has always been into palm trees and has a thing for cold hardy tropicals. My mother is into aquatics and is one that always has a beautiful yard with far to many plants and hardly any weeds ever. All my aunts and uncles have ornamental ponds and small tropical displays in their back yards. One uncle is into cannas and another into bamboo. The only other one that is as bad as me is my uncle in Arizona. He runs a nursery and collects cactus. He has one of the largest collections I have ever seen. I am sure he has possibly one of the largest personal collections on the planet.
I don't know about everyone but it seems many plant people have similar traits specially if they are into it bad. When I was very young it started with dinosaurs and looking for fossils then collecting rocks I then moved on to chemistry AKA explosions. After that I had a interest in coins, baseball cards, reptiles when I was into reptiles I found a interest in carnivorous plants and aquatic plants. At that time a pond full of turtles did not look very prehistoric with out some interesting plants. This is about the time I saw a plant that made me crazy. Cytrosperma Johnstonii. By that time I was about 16 years old and I called every place I could about finding this plant. I bugged a few people to death I am sure. After about 3 to 4 years of searching I found the plant. I am still grow it to this day. While looking for that plant I found that aroids were my plant of choice they were exotic and prehistoric looking. A few years back I found myself getting bored with plant much like many of the other things I have collected it seemed I had found the end to all the searching I needed. Their was just no giant pie in the sky to reach for. That was about the time a good friend introduced me to breeding plants. After that its the thrill and challenge is breeding new things and seeing things for the first time. I seem to have a thing for new and exciting that pushes me to keep going.
This photo is my uncles place. The one thing in his yard is dont fall or your dead.
Thanks for that Brian, that was a nice story, WOW I would say your Uncle does have a large catcus collection.
When I was a little girl I used to love to scrape my Gunny's (Grandmother) flower bed. She would let me scrape it, never dig, just scrape, with the hoe. I didn't have much use for plants until my last child was born. I was 33 and when she started wanting to go outside to play I started to realize how barren our yard was.
She turned 20 last week and now I have a huge collection of plants. Daylilies are my first love, I just wanted a yellow one---now I have over 300 different varieties. I love all perennials, have tried several that would not grow well here or whatever, but I am always on the look out for a new perennial I haven't tried yet.
My friends Bonnie and Kenny (n2birds & obbirds) gave me some EE's this year and got me to researching into them. I just never realized there were so many different varieties of EE's. It is strange because that was the one plant that seemed to intrigue my baby girl. Everytime we would visit one of my gardening friends or be at a nursery, she would always go toward the EE's. She loved to "pet" them--lol. She would stroke the leaves like they were a puppy or a kitten and just giggle. In fact she still does.She has left home now, but everytime I get a new Ear, I have to show it to her.
I have enjoyed Dave's so much, meeting new folks all the time and learning about so many different plants.
It is truly nice to meet a younger person who enjoys plants too.
Sandra
Sign Me up LariAnn, I'm coming to Big Ear Fest and bringing plenty of room for ears of all sizes!
here is a pic of me(Matt on the Right) and my brother ( Kameron on the left). If i post in the aroid forum/ tropical it is matt, and if there is a post in the ginger/ rose forum it is Kameron.
I IS very refreshing to see you youngins' SO passionately interested... Matt, what is that plant? It's almost blue! (my fav color) I like it! Brian, really enjoyed your "bio" it was fun reading how you kind of... "evolved". If anyone gets even close to Louisville, you HAVE to visit Brian's Botanicals, it really is a Kentucky Jungle and he is as nice and accomodating, as he is handsome! ;) Sandra, those are hydrangea, I was at Joy Creek Nursery, in Scappoose, OR - Drew & I visited Mt. St.Helens and traveled half the OR coast on that Spring break...my vaca's are usually centered or at least planned partly to include my horticultural interests, especially since the kids have grown. All 3 kids are amused by my addiction, Barb has the usual apartment balcony pot of flowers...Mel enjoys the photo op I provide and does help with watering in the summer, but she doesn't like to get dirt under her fingernails :(
I did recoginize the hydrangeas. but they are so huge, or either you are very short--lol
Beautiful picture, none of my kids have the gardening bug yet either. They think their Mamma has just about lost all sense when she starts on some of her projects---they think it is so funny that I make my own dirt ! When they get the bug, I am not giving them one little plant for laughing at me all those years--lol
Sandra
Oh, now Sandra, not one little pup or cutting? I am very short, but the hydrangeas love that PNW weather, they were HUGE! Here's a blue one, (sorry to get off topic, but the blue ones were SO blue) So who are we waiting on for a personal pic?? Texasbigleaves??? We need the mug shot, buddy!
We're waiting on texasbigleaves, Moodene, and Placenciarita. Come on, guys! The gang's a-waitin'!
Meanwhile, let me tell a little short version of my story.
I think it was my Gram (Grandmother) who got me started as she was the only gardener in the family. She had african violets on the windowsill, little vining philos and syngonium, and other plants, as well as her outdoor plants like irises and others. I loved being at her place and enjoying the plants, but I only got to stay with her a week or two per year, as she lived in Virginia and I was in Maryland.
One night my mom woke us up (I was about 10 then, I'm a "couple years" older now LOL) and told us that we were going to Puerto Rico. We were living in Silver Spring, MD at the time. I didn't know what "Puerto Rico" was but we walked to the church and a cab was waiting to take us to the airport. Turns out my mom was leaving my dad! We lived in PR for a year and I thought I was on another planet. All the tropical plants seemed so alien and wonderful, not to mention the giant bugs! I started growing little plants, including an EE or two, back then.
After that year, my dad had remarried and my mom packed us up and sent us back to him. Apparently she decided that if he was married again, he could take care of us too. Dad's new wife had her own children, and the house was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, so there were 7 of us kids total in one room. Not much room for plants until, gradually, one by one they graduated or left home.
I started out interested in insects, but when the chance to grow a few plants came, after some of the south hedge was removed, I jumped in. I "appropriated" that little patch of real estate and eventually had castor beans, bananas, an EE or two, and anything else that looked exotic to me and that I could squeeze in there. Unlike Brian, I had (have) no rich or well to do relatives with land holdings, expensive homes and expansive, well-kept gardens; so I had to go to college on my own and do anything I wanted to do on my own, with only the resources I could earn for myself. That made things pretty limited for quite a few years.
While at college, I had a few plants on the windowsill; they went everywhere I went, when I left for the summer, they went with me, when I left for Christmas break, they went with me.
After I met my partner in 1978, I started growing my own plants again and never looked back. We have all been together ever since. You know (some of) the rest of the story.
This message was edited Oct 19, 2007 4:59 PM
Wow, it's really incredible how a family member gets our attention with plants at such young ages. I was never allowed in my Grandma's garden, but she had plenty of containers of plants setting around and the hen & chick bed, geraniums by the foundation, clematis by the front porch swing and I could get up close to explore and admire them... I could pick all the volunteer petunias growing by the sidewalk that I wanted, I'd pull them apart and explore each piece... once in a while she would take my hand a go up and down all the garden rows, zinnas, cockscomb, coleus, dahlias, sweet william, cosmos - too many to mention.. we'd end up on the south end where the veggies were, and one day, we found a worm on a nice size cabbage head, she picked it off, and smashed it, BETWEEN her fingers! THAT truely amazed me! I dug worms for fishing, caught lightening bugs, played farm with sow bellies, went locust shell hunting, but squeezing to death in my fingers?! NO WAY! I couldn't be that cruel and I sure didn't want any bug juice on my fingers......I would never hold her hand in the garden after that. I would just ask to go and ran a couple steps ahead, coaxing her and promising not to step on anything. I remember asking my mom what elephant ear bulbs were, and she said "oh, those are just ol' elephant ears, they don't bloom pretty, all you get is a bunch of big ol' leaves... lol AND Mom? You have something against big ol leaves? So Moodene, Placenciarita?? And what about aroidgardner and MichaelSC? Come on people, post yer purty little faces.
Aunt B,
The Plant is an Alocasia reginae 'Miri', I got it from LariAnn earlier this spring.
Thanks LariAnn!
Your Miri is looking fine, Matt! Soon I'll be able to post pics of my hybrid between the Miri and the A. sarawakensis; they are quite something so far. Maroon veins on the underside, dark green leaves, spots on the petioles, and look like they will get much larger than the Miri.
oh I can't wait to see a Pic!!! I cant wait to see all the new hybrid Pics!!
Lari Ann, Hope this picture does not scare every body away! But if it does it means more big EE's for me!!!!!!!! Jerry
here is a pic of me
What is the big purplish plant to your right in the picture placenciarita
It is to the left as we look at the screen?
I want one, whatever it is--lol
Sandra
I have to chime in! The plant to Rita's right is a Jacob's coat Acalypha, easily grown from cuttings (hint, hint). We have those down here too!
BTW, Jerry and Rita, nice Ears in those pics! Seems like we could have a trademark here, each of us in a pic with BIG Ears! Wouldn't that be nice on name tags at the BIG Ear Fest?
Here's the link:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2589/
This message was edited Oct 22, 2007 8:51 AM
In my dreams I guess I could raise one here, maybe for the season, next year. That is one pretty plant.
Sandra
I filled my GH up yesterday, and still have 2 huge bananas, 2 large Brugs, a begonia, BOP, and about six or seven large EE's that need to be dug up. For the life of me I have no idea where these are going.
If I do make it to the Big Ear Fest next spring, I am going to have to be careful as to not buy more then I have room for.
I need a larger GH but I am sure that is out of the question. My hubby says he needs a new Bass boat and I keep telling him that is out of the question. Here is a picture of the GH this morning.
Linda, what a negotiating position you are in! A Bass boat for a bigger Greenhouse! Looks like a done deal to me. If you need a diplomatic liaison, let me know . . .
Hey thanks for the pics, Rita and Jerry! I'm having big ear envy up here in KS... Linda and I are bringing in our plants. Look at you down there in TX, both very nice pics! Jerry, is that a support for a hoop house in case of bad weather or to shade them in that hot Texas sun? Okay. Linda. All my stuff is unorganized but in the basement. I will need to have a yard sale or something if I buy very much... it's a jungle down there. I had to admit, I'm a plantaholic. Hopeless plantaholic.... The 12 step program only helps those who want help.
That 12 step program isn't working for me either.
LariAnn at our age a new bass boat would be out of the question. They cost entirely to much and don't want to do the payment bit. So guess I will have to limit myself on plants. I had all these plants in there last year and all the ones that are still left out, it's just they all have grown sooooooo much.
Right, Linda. A big expensive bass boat wouldn't be practical, an extension to your greenhouse, however, seems very practical, to me ;) It's kind of scary when you've got your wintering area about 3/4 full and you think about what you have left to come in.
Of course I agree; I would prefer a new greenhouse wing, but if you're in a position where you have to negotiate (assuming you can afford it), trading the bass boat for the new greenhouse wing would be an option. I, myself, wouldn't have any use for the bass boat, but Linda's DH wants one so there's the leverage.
AuntB it's not 3/4 full it is 125% FULL.
At least you all have a place to put them, what I have is going into my spare room in my house. I hope I don't get too carried away with tropical plants next year. I am sure bringing my Mickey Mouse inside.
I have had it all summer and it has not given me one little pup. I smile every time I look at it, it is so fun to watch.
Do any of you have any experience with a banana named Little Prince? I got it in June and it is not to get any taller than 2.5 feet.
It had a pup and I dug the pup out to bring inside and mulched the Mom plant really good with pine needles. I hope the Mom will survive.
Sandra
Sandra, I don't do bananas very well, what is your zone?... you will get carried away next year. It's okay. We're here to enable, I mean support you.