Can we tour your greenhouse?

here is one of my palms inside, some are getting too large-like this one

more work done...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/Bihai/Criswickbefore3.jpg

a little more...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/Bihai/Criswickbefore4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/Bihai/Criswickbefore5.jpg

and the last one...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/Bihai/Criswickbefore6.jpg

This is the striped bromeliad from the last photo, its an unusual variegated Nidularium. I summer it outside now, its gotten very huge, its about 3x bigger than when the last pic was taken and has already had an offset that I have planted out in the yard.

Tigerlily, that's pretty cool. You have a very large business there! I wouldn;t be able to part with some of that stuff though, I can always find places to plant stuff around here! Your Areca palm is really nice. I have one in the greenhouse about 12 ft tall, and one in a container on the deck that's smaller. They are really nice palms

Goth. You are making my tongue not only wag but it's dragging the ground in the process;-) One day I want to stop by your place "if it's OK" with you .....on my route to St. Augustine.

tigerlily, I might be knocking at your door as well being that you are not that far from me.

This is really a lovely thread. Thank's everyone for sharing.

Rachel

thanks Gothqueen-i don't part with my personal stuff-but the commercial stuff is easy to part with-esp considering that I am getting paid for it! that is actually a Dypsis decaryi. When I lived in Hawaii-there were Arecas all over the place, and its one palm that I don't have here. I guess I saw too many of them there.

Here is a Caryota Ochlandra. I got this as a liner about 3 yrs ago-it was maybe 1.5' high. They grow very fast. I don't think that I am going to put it in a bigger pot to try to keep it from growing so fast

Forgot to ask, Rachael, whats in St.Aug? I went to school there ages ago! We used to laugh about how it had the oldest everything...school, fort etc

This message was edited Apr 1, 2009 9:53 PM

Tigerlily, exactly every thing you stated in your small paragraph;-)

St. Augustine Florida "is" the most relaxing place I have ever visited in my life and take it from me.......I have visited many other place's in Florida through out my year's...all the way down to Miami, Key West and way beyond.

What in the world made you leave the Old City?

Rachel

Wow, tigerlily, that is just amazing. It makes me tired just looking at it- boy, you must be a busy gal! How much help do you have?

Rachael-I think thats the first time ever that someone asked me why i moved from St. Aug instead of why I moved from Hawaii! lol The answer is that I moved to Hawaii. I was just in college in St. Aug. They were fun years though. One year a friend and I had a house out on the island, on the beach-huge house (rent was so cheap then) and came in every day to school. It was freezing in that house in the winter. Lots of good memories of the bars (all 3 of them! lol).

lakeside-I am really busy during the crops. I basically work 7 days a week during a crop ( I grow 2 crops a year), but then I get 4 months off . I usually have 2-3 fulltime/parttime people depending on the size of the crop and where we are in the crop. I love it! I love the growing and how it expands, and I also love to see it all go! It also keeps me in shape, without having to workout.

I love Caryotas too! I have several in the GH. they are still pretty small but they grow into monsters really fast, don't they? I bought a couple of Caryota zebrina from an eBay vendor for a very cheap price (like, $7 each...before folks 'noticed' them and they started selling for $30+)...they were about 5-6" when I got them and are now 18" or more and the trunks are showing the striping. Its hard for me to get photos of some of the st'individual palms in the GH, especially the pinnate and fishtails, because they seem to get 'lost' in all the background 'noise'. I do need to photograph a lot of my palms for growth documentation though. Here are a few smaller growers, little rainforest understory palms. I have a small Dypsis decaryi planted in the yard. It went through the 20's this winter without even leafburn! Much better than my Areca would have. They do look very similar though, to me anyway.

Rachel you are welcome to stop in on your way to St Augustine! We go over there occasionally. We like to eat at the A1A Ale House (I think that's what its called...). My husband loves O'Steens too. Being a vegetarian its hard for me to find food at O'Steens though.

Tigerlily, if I ever got to Hawaii, they'd have to take me out in a box. No way I would leave on my own!!!!

lol It took my ex-husband two years of trying to introduce me to the idea and I only did it to "compromise" for the relationship. That went well......
I was there for 10 yrs and that is really where my heart is, in terms of where to live.
I do love the caryotas. I have a zebrina too-it came in very small and sat there for a yr and now it is growing. I have a no, and that needs a bigger pot. I also like/have ptychospermas-the look of the leaf and the new red leaves that come out. There aren't many palms that I don't love. I even moved a palm collection that I had where I lived on Maui (way up a deserted valley) to the Big Island when we moved to there. That was like 30 yrs ago. I helped start the Big Island Palm Society chapter-there was hardly any of us that grew palms back then-can you believe it? The whole time I lived in Hi, I never had electricity, let alone the internet. It kills me, the plants/palms I could have had access to if I had stayed there. All my palms were started from seeds that I had to buy. The possibilities are endless today with all the nurseries out there.

Gothqueen,

Amazing you do so much with your GH and still have a life.

Would you mind telling us how you make your bark poles for mounting Bromeliads?

Thanks,

Larry

Tigerlily, I understand now. I have been to Waikiki but never had a chance to look around much into all the Flora there unfortunately. I enjoyed your writting's down memory lane of St. A. ;-) I guess if I had the "dollar's" to visit Hawaii as much as I do St. A. I would more than likely choose Hawaii over Florida!!!!;-)


Thank you Gothqueen for the welcome. It's much appreciated but I have to agree with your husband......O'steen's has some of the best seafood I have ever ate and the line's are worth the wait to get a seat. Schooner's is my pick though.

Everyone, have a tremendous day.

Rachel

Wow...just w.o.w. I am thoroughly enjoying this thread! ;-)

That orchid/bromelaid tower is gorgeous GQ! I'm intrigued to hear about how you made that too...

I make them a few different ways depending on the location. That one was the easiest. I had some big cork bark plaques, and I just drilled holes in them and wrapped them to the 4x4 corner support of the GH. They stay up very well.
I also wrap PVC pipes and old drip irrigation hoses with cocofiber sheets and use those as totems.

Tigerlily,
here is one of my caryotas...this is a sp. 'Himilaya' sitting between a torch ginger

You are right, it is hard to separate out the plants in pictures. Thats what I meant about my grhouses...(not to mention that all my tropicals, that are in there, are under the shelves-like forgotten children-I feel like I have grounded them or something :) ) It would be more fun to be there in person and see each plant. Whats that tree/hardwood plant to the far right? It looks familiar. Have you had the torch ginger bloom yet? They are so awesome the way that they rise out of the ground. They have some really cool ones now-whitish/pk etc that weren't around when I lived in Hi.

The tree is a Bauhinia. I have some different ones. Oh yeah, the torch blooms all the time. That one is E. fulgens. Its a tulip torch. I have also grown and bloomed E. elatior red and pink, but I ended up removing them from the greenhouse after 3-4 years, the stalks were over 20 feet long and the rhizome mass just kept spreading and spreading...the E. fulgens is a lot more manageable

This is the tulip torch fully open
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/Bihai/DSCN5129.jpg

What a wonderful thread.

GQ, what in heaven's name do you do in the summer? When did you start this GH?

After Hurricane Wilma, there is no screening around my pool either. Boy, what a change in our lives. My DH and I almost never sat outside, for it felt like a cage. Now with wide open spaces, it seems like a country club in the islands. It has even boosted my interest in the gardens for they can be really seen now.

Tiger, what a job you have. In some ways you are envied, and others.....just too old! Certainly a labor of love.

Thanks so much for sharing such wonderful spaces.

Hap

Great thread, I wish I had a greenhouse. I'll have to live through you folks for now....

I'm enjoying this thread a lot, too. I took some photos but will have to download them to my computer, etc. My GH is not as exciting, but I'll show it anyhow.

Sorry, posted on wrong thread.

This message was edited Apr 8, 2009 11:25 AM

Gothqueen,
the orchid in Post #6337650

is probably a Dendrobium Golden Aya. I have one just like it.
fred

lakesidecallas, looking forward to your new pic's.

Rachel

This has been one of the best threads I have read in a while...Just love everybodys pictures...Beautiful !

I have been so busy I haven;t been able to take any new photos! We got back from the Boston Marathon late Tuesday and I have been playing catch up ever since. I have been able to get 1/2 the greenhouse paths weeded and re-mulched. Many many of my hoyas are in bloom at the moment...obovata, publicalyx, carnosa, pachyclada, camphoripholia (sp), lacunosa, kerrii, etc and others...

gothqueen I have enjoyed your pictures and I bet with all those hoyas blooming it must smell wonderful!!!! I've been considering leaving my hoyas in my GH. They are loving it right now. My GH was a HF one that my DH had them use wood instead of the metal frame and just used the polycarbon panels. It's 10X12. I have enjoyed it for 2 winters now and just put a space heater in it with a thermostat. Glad you enjoyed your trip. I bet that was fun!!!!

Nothing fancy growing in my GH. I don't use it in the winter. It's full of daylies right now waiting for warmer weather before they go outside. I wish I could keep a bunch of tropicals in there, but too expensive to heat it in zone 5. I've enjoyed looking at everyone's pictures.

Yikes,

Yours is so neat, pastime. Mine was always a disaster area.

Hap

Hap, mine is like yours, I was really amazed by pastime's.

I just found this awesome thread. I've envisioned a greenhouse once we move to FL permanently. I have a 2 story "studio" out back and have thought of building a green house off one side. Would never be anything as large as these but I do love tropicals.

I lived in HI for 7 years and had orchids everywhere. Brought a few back with me (15 years ago) but they never did rebloom. I now have a collection of @10 and know they will be much happier in FL than they are in MD - especially in the winter.

I'm not far from Gainsville and would love to come and visit.

Here is my greenhouse that I just finished in Feb. Inside I have germinated mesquite trees, Sago Palms and a variety of cacti.

I really like your pachypodiums! I had some but they stayed too wet here and rotted :-(

jm,

That looks great. Will you use it all year?

Hap

I'm not sure if I'll use it all year or not. The inside temp now reaches 110F when its 85 outside. later in the summer when the temp reaches 100F outside i'm looking at 125 on the inside. Very hot for young plants. So instead of moving my plants outside and then moving them back in when the seasons change, i'm toying with the idea of installing an automotive fan, powered by a 12v battery which is kept charged with a small solar panel.. I believe this will help protect my plants during the hot months. I'll let you know how it works out.

jmzako, please let me know what you purchase, I've been looking for a similar set-up.

I'm not sure that a vehicle's 12V radiator fan will move enough air to make any noticeable difference in the temperature of a greenhouse that size, especially in zone 9b.