I think that is what you brought here last spring. It is right outside my window. A beautiful plant and not a bloom one, nor on either daranta (?) blue or white. Bright light/partial sun. Maybe needed full sun? Another prospect to be moved.
You know you always have lodging should you come this far.
PK
Tropical Garden # 24
The Tamarind tree is looking so nice! I really like that tree.
See Brians new sparkly address sign on the porch...he made it.
Yes, Duranta.. sometimes the Durantas will bloom better if rootbound in a pot.
Of Course, thanks..~!
Rita i am drooling over the amaryllis. RJ lovely jungle there, does the tamarind tree ever give you fruit???
not yet, it's only 3 years old
So how until you do, have you ever tried the fruit??? In my country we make juice out of it and candy. In Mexico, they make candy too and with hot sauce and salt, DELICIOUS!
Yeah, it has a weird flavor doesn't it? In Brazil they make candy with it too! I don't think I ever ate the raw fruit though!
Roberta it is weird and you need to get used to it. The candy I have tried from Mexico is salty and sweet and who knows what, oh spicy. I like it. The candy from my country is full full of sugar, I am not too fond of it. The raw fruit is STRONG!
I actually collected the seeds off the beach in Monrovia, Liberia W. Africa. in the 70's when I was a kid. It definately was a freak surprise to actually have something grow. I had no idea what it was and searched for a couple of years attempting to ID it. I got a lucky break when I discovered a web site focusing on drift seeds around the world. I was able to id the plant from the seed picture. I'm about as surprised it's doing as well as it is.
This is what it looked like December 2005
Wow! Pretty cool you were able to id it from the seed!
RJ is an absolute genius.
I might still be looking otherwise. We use to collect hundereds off the beach. We used them in a Liberian Game.
That's why I wish more folks would include leaves, leaf habit, seeds, seed pods when posting to PF.
Your too kind Princess. More the appearance of, rather than. A series of fortuneate or unfortuneate events can shed the light in different ways!
Wow, RJ, cool story about that tamarind! Did you ever germinate the Guanabana seeds I sent??? Mine did not, but i still have a few more that would like to try out!
In Vietnam, we have tamarind candies, both sour kind and sweet kind. I like the sweet kind better. It's coated with sugar. I haven't had one since I was a kid. They sell them at the asian store here but they don't taste the same. But I do buy my mangoes at the asian store instead of the regular supermarket. The mangoes at the regular supermarket is green and not ripe. Even when you take them home and allow them to ripe, they are not sweet.
Here is a photo of a fruit stand in Vietnam. Fresh fruits everywhere. You can buy a whole bagful for about 10 cents!
llilimerci, what a gorgeous fruit stand and pix, I was trying to identify what was presented there, but the one that call my attention was the dragon one, mmnnnmmnnnn delicious!!!!! Hopefully it is the type that it is red inside, my favorite! Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
Clemen. I think it is white with black seeds on them. I have never tried them but it is my understanding that Vietnam one of the largest exporter of this fruit. There is one thing I wanted to have but for some reason I completely forgot about it while I was there. I wanted some fresh squeezed sugarcane juice.
edited - I had an aunt that was here visiting from Vietnam not too long ago and she had never seen a lemon before. Then I remembered, in Vietnam, we never had lemonade, only limenade. Strange, huh?
This message was edited Nov 25, 2008 1:13 AM
Rita, the Amaryllis Night Star is gorgeous! Do you have others that are similar....spidery like? Have you ever tried pollinating them?
I just have the old fashion red ones. I crossed it with a pink and white one. We'll see what happens. They say it takes 3-4 yrs to bloom. It'll be another couple of years.
Where did you ever find the Night Star?
Jeanne
Good morning! nice photos everyone.
Rita, you certainly have some happy plants.
Lilli, no lemons in Vietnan??? very strange, would have never imagined that. I used to love sugarcane too. I can find it in some specialty grocery stores around here!
haha, in Brazil there are no lemons either! Just limes, and I still find lemons strange! Everytime I go back I am again amazed at the diversity of fruit available. There is a fresh juice stand on every single corner....I'm looking for a picture to post for you guys on google, because of course I don't have one myself (funny how when you see something everyday you never think of taking pictures huh?)
Ok, in Nicaragua we have both, BUT, we call the "limes" lemons and "lemons" limes, lol!
You people are just weird, hahahahaha!
Spidery amaryllis?
Clereodendron vine
Roberta, Brazilian Iris>
The colorful jungle look>
You can buy sugarcane in the asian grocery stores here in Atlanta, but in Vietnam, they have these juice stands all over the place. They cut off the hard outside part of the sugar cane, then they put the sugarcane through this metal squeezer thing and it presses the sugar cane flat and get all the juice out of it - served them over ice. Mmm! You can also get fresh coconut juice. They just whack the top off a coconut and stick a straw in it. And you still see people riding around with whole humongous hunk of ice cube. Most home do not have large refrigeration. Food are bought fresh everyday because it's right outside your door, very convenient.
Clemen, I did try to germinate a couple, and will try again probably in spring. I have noticed however that I should be germinating tropical vine seeds right now. I try doing morning glories etc in spring here and that's way too late for this area.
LOL, there IS a little story about keeping those Tamarind seeds so long. We created a bug collection exhibit from that period in our life. Some very weird and BIG bugs. My mother had them mounted in a plexi glass case in a faux nautural enviornment after they moved back from the states and won 1st place in a contest at one the WA state fairs. One of the decorations was alot of the seeds we had collected. Years of wear finally persuaded me to disemble the collection. I was actually doing it in the green house because it was cold that day, and decided to put a bunch of the seeds in pots. Voila!
I still have a bunch of different seeds my mother had collected, some of which sprouted, but later died, I've learned a bunch more about seed sprouting from those regions, and am going to try again on some of them. It's funny, because she knew no names of the plants, so there are descriptions of the plants like fuzzy red bloomed shrub. LOL.
I have no idea what this grows..but I did sprout one..this is the one I'm going to try again.
RJ. I love your story about the tamarind seeds. I remembered reading it a while back. But that would be so cool, to be able to germinate the other seeds too.
I'm glad my Mom was a seed snatcher! I think part of the next round I try will be over at Waynes green house, he has an auto mister system.
It was interesting ..because right after that seed had sprouted, I read that some botanists were able to sprout a 3000 year old palm tree seed found in a tomb from Egypt.
I saw that article too. Actually, I think one of the DG member mentioned it on a forum.
Rj, that seed story was way cool! I wanted to bring so much stuff from Brazil, but was affraid to get caught. Argh!!! I should have. Dale, how pretty, the Brazilian Iris. I saw some in the wild but I didn't believe they were actual iris...
I finally found on google a picture of a typical juice stand from Rio. There is literally one on every corner, and i feel stupid for not having myself a single picture, lol!
You can't see the immense fruit variety from this pic, but on the menu up in the left wall, you can see how many "sucos" (fruit juice) choices you have!
Ah! This is a CLASSIC image, lol! Unlike over here, drinking on the street is allowed. So at night on busy streets, you can find stands like these, where they mix any fruit you like into a "caipirinha", the national drink made out of sugar cane.
On this pic you can see Guava, limes, passion fruit (the huge yellows), and Caju (I don't know the fruit's name in English, but the nuts attached to the fruit are sold here as cashew nuts).
aah..the life of the tropics!
I wanted to bring a bunch of seeds back from Costa Rica too. In fact I did, but I believe they were packaged for strict agricultural guidlines.
roberta, oooh caipirinha i am thirsty.
my neighbor has a few caju trees. not sure of the english name other than cashew. the fruit is ok but the wine he made from them is better. i planted the seeds a awhile ago and they are now about 2ft. tall.
How exciting that it germinated for you! I love the juice...humm I'm thirsty too!
OMG so much tonight and my family is hungry, need to get back and answer much, BUT, yes the caju is cashew, the little thing sticking up from the actual fruit, delicious, ok ok ok, everyone wants dinner. I need to get to all, I am so excited, TROPICALS, yeah, make me so happy!