Friday, August 29, 2008

Tropical Storm Fay’s Visit










Fay will not go away. Sure, we needed rain but enough already. Tropical Storm Fay had our full attention this week. Monday was devoted to hurricane preparation—nursery plants were laid on their side, anything loose was tied down or brought inside, hanging pots were put on the ground.

Fay left trees leaning or toppled, black bamboo whipped to the point the canes broke and, of course, lakes where none had been. The aftermath was caught in photos taken by Kurt Van de Wouw, nursery foreman, and Rich Lewis, operations manager. We had fish swimming among the floating anthurium collection in the butterfly house. That's volunteer Win Turner standing in the butterfly house at the edge of the water; Rich Lewis, operations manager, is knee-high in water in the gecko section. The lake on the way to the Preserve climbed its banks to meet the path. The nursery site just abandoned by Palmetto Road became a lake --- got out just in time! The water at its high point in the Tropical Mosaic Garden reached about 12 inches as the water line on the concrete bench in the photo shows.

The Garden had some work to do to prepare for Wednesday, August 27th's Tropical Mosaic Garden visiting day. Besides the righting of trees and huge cleanup, the Windstar Garden Room is being "refreshed." If you haven't visited for a while check out the next dates for these pre-registered visits on our About Us page of the website. When you come, from the visitor parking lot, you can get a peek preview of some of the construction. Bayshore Drive offers another vantage point.

Volunteer Ann Raker surprised us with a tetrio sphinx moth (Pseudosphinx tetrio). She lives in old Naples and found tetrio caterpillars defoliating her frangipani tree (Plumeria spp.). This caterpillar has to be on steroids as it’s the size of a small snake.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Garden Goes Virtual

The rumble of thunder and flashes of lightning late yesterday weren't just another storm rolling into Naples--it was fanfare for the opening of the Garden's virtual garden on the web. The new website debuted with lots of photos of the construction, background on each of the future Gardens, an area where you can post your own photos (Sally Richardson has posted pictures of her mangos), a detailed look at green building practices being used in the expansion, as well as staff blogs.
 
Blogs, short for web blogs, are commentary, descriptions of events, etc., in this case about the Garden. Blogs by Brian Holley (listed as director's) and Chad Washburn's (listed as preserve) will appear every other week or so; mine (listed as gardens), every week. In fact, the weekly Insider Update email provides the content for the gardens blog and eventually will disappear as an email. In a few weeks, the only way you will be able to read this is to go to the gardens blog at naplesgarden.org.
 
In the director's blog, Brian Holley talks about the competition to name the swamp buggy, the camouflage-covered buggy with four wheel drive, a dump bed and winch to use for maintaining the preserve areas. Send in your suggestions for naming the buggy by September 15 by clicking on the "contact us" at the bottom of the page. The prize is a personal tour of the natural areas and construction site for three people with Chad Washburn.




I've attached one of the latest aerial pictures of the expansion. The Garden's existing building is in the upper right hand corner. According to Chad Washburn, the gray swaths are dead melaleuca (Melaleuca quinquenervia); the green areas are scrub habitats.
 
After last week's rave about new Thai caladiums, I had to share a photo of one. It's Siam Moon. The leaves are white with a pink blush and green veins. We have it planted in part shade in the Pink Courtyard. Carolyn Miller has promised to take more photos I can share next week.
 
How many times can a person misspell a word and get away with it? It seems indefinitely. It came to my attention that baobab (Adansonia sp.) ends in -bab, not -bob. I blame middle-age eyesight for part of the problem.
 
In the non-virtual Garden, the sweat and toil continues. The shifting of the nursery to a nearby new site was completed successfully, allowing the perimeter berm to wrap around the odd-shaped corner by Palmetto Drive and Thomasson Drive. That task involved replanting our row of bananas, putting down new ground cloth, installing irrigation and, of course, moving hundreds of plants. Nursery foreman Kurt Van de Wouw worked tirelessly to get that done before he left on vacation. Volunteer Dave Catron assisted Kurt.
 
Dave Catron and his wife Sandy continue to volunteer at the Garden at least one day a week. Dave spends whole days weeding, potting, building a potting bench, whatever is needed, hence his nick name "super Dave." Meanwhile, Sandi is working miracles on the orchid collection, organizing, repotting, and nurturing.
 
The other big effort around the Garden continues to be renewal pruning. This time of year is perfect for cutting back over-lush foliage and branches. (Although in the case of fruit trees, pruning needs to be done after the harvest.) Gardener Carlos Lopez attacked the plants outside the wall along Thomasson Drive. The shrubs, especially the firebush (Hamelia patens) had become so large that the sidewalk was crowded and impeded motorists' view when leaving.
 



If you're interested in who's who in the horticulture department, take a look at the attached photo. In the back row from right to left is Brian Galligan, Horticulture Manager; Kurt Van de Wouw, nursery foreman; Chad Washburn, Natural Areas Manager. In the front row (r to l), Carolyn Miller, curator of collections; myself and Carlos Lopez, Horticulture Staff.

Monday, August 18, 2008

The Land Clearing

The land clearing is proceeding quickly and is plainly visible from the Garden’s backdoor. You can see the progress that’s been made from the attached aerial photo. Staff have captured wonderful photos and video of specimen trees coming out. One is a beautiful laurel fig (Ficus nitida), which is headed for a temporary home near Gumby (the gumbo-limbo from Marco) but ultimately it will preside over the future children’s garden. A giant black mangrove (Avcennia germinans) is being rescued and later will be positioned near the birding tower at end of the river of grass.

The butterfly house is quickly being transformed into a temporary shade and orchid house. Work started on the far end, potting up bromeliads from the conure area. Now it’s home to valuable Brazilian palms from the Windstar Garden Room. The rainforest plants in the honeycreeper section are next to come out.

Most of the remaining birds from the Butterfly House are on their way to Miami. Our finches, honeycreepers, and cardinals are actually returning home--that’s where they came from in the first place. We have two saffron finches and one red-capped cardinal who are playing hard to get. We’ll try again to outwit them next week.

Two interns have joined the horticulture staff for the summer. Eric Van Arsdale, a sophomore at Brown University studying environmental science, is working with Chad Washburn. Kelly Cadenas has a PhD in neurobiology and is working with Carolyn Miller.

George Wilder updated staff recently on his work. He has been exploring the Panhandle, documenting vegetation for the herbarium. Another ongoing project is studying plants on Marco Island. He’s fascinated by this coastal community and is working with Mike Owens to identify and document their finds.

Windstar Garden Room has a new look--blank. The Brazilian rainforest is gone and on the sidelines are some fresh plants that will soon be installed. For this go-round, we chose durable plants that will be at home in low light conditions.

You should have your NBG newsletter this week in the mail. It has more details on Garden activities and the schedule of events. Don’t forget Sue Gallagher’s plant sale June 28. She always has an amazing selection of plants at reasonable prices.

I’ll be vacation next week so I’ll miss sending this email on June 20th. I promise to catch you up with the news in the following week’s email!

Regards,

Linda Coyner

Horticulturist

Naples Botanical Garden

4820 Bayshore Drive

Naples Florida 34112-7336

239-643-7275





The Most Asked About Plant of This Week



Naples Botanical Garden

Dear Volunteer Angels,

Hands down the most asked about plant this week is bridal’s veil or nodding clerodendron (C. wallichii). It’s right outside the Naples Garden Club door. Masses of large white lacey blooms cascade from arching branches like a living veil. This has been its best year yet. The other question has been about the golf-ball size fruit on the palm outside the Windstar Garden Room. The fruit of the fox-tail palm (Wodyetia bifurcate) is very showy. It is edible although not very palatable and, with enough sugar, can be used to make jams and jellies. The seed is poisonous.

There’s something about free admission that gets people moving. The Garden has had a record number of visitors during this last two-week free period. We’re definitely going out with a bang at close tomorrow. Friday’s Showcase of the Naples Daily News featured the Garden in its “pick” for the weekend.

The Horticulture staff has been kept on alert trying to keep ahead of the site work as bulldozers uncover large specimen trees. Among the prized trees are water oaks (Quercus nigra), royal palms (Roystonea regia), black mangroves (Avicennia germinans), pond apples (Annona glabra), and paurotis palms (Acoelorrhaphe wrightii). A large slash pine (Pinus elliottii) hammock was discovered and preserved.

Other work in progress is the emptying out of the Horticulture garage, no small feat for those of you have seen it in recent months. A storage trailer was purchased to catch the overflow, namely tractor, off-road vehicle, golf cart, etc, and positioned out in the field near Gumby. Once empty, the hort garage will be converted into offices and communication center for the construction team.

Sunday—our first closed day—the first of the birds head out for new homes. We finally found a home for the little birds—red-capped cardinals, honeycreepers, saffron finches, and bananaquits—with the breeder who originally supplied them. They along with 5 sun conures and 2 rainbow lorikeets start their journey to new homes Sunday. The rest of the feathered gang is here till Monday. Can you picture them netting those little birds; much less the ducks, shooting like Luke Skywalker through the butterfly canyon? We’ve got to get some pictures.

The toughest part of this week has been seeing butterfly house volunteers go. Some of you have been with the Butterfly House since the very beginning, October 2005. Sally Richardson says we’ll dream up some fun things to do to together this summer just to keep in touch. She welcomes suggestion for a field trip.

I can no longer say “see you around the garden,” can I? But I will keep these emails coming. Stay in touch!


Linda Coyner

Horticulturist

Naples Botanical Garden

4820 Bayshore Drive

Naples Florida 34112-7336

239-643-7275