Friday, October 24, 2008

Climb every mountain…


The highlight of the week — hands down — was a swamp buggy tour of the construction site. We donned those fashionable hard hats and climbed aboard. Within seconds Hort manager Brian Galligan had steered us up a slight grade onto the future parking lot and Garden entrance. This plateau is just adjacent to the existing employee lot. Future rows of parking spaces are divided by swales between sections for drainage.

Then he swung the buggy around in the direction of the highest point on the site --- Melaleuca Mulch Mountain. The buggy climbed to the top. What a vista! Unlike my first trip a few months ago, things didn’t look so raw. In fact, when Brian pointed out where the first gardens are to materialize — Children’s, Brazilian, and Caribbean — we could actually see their approximate locations. The lakes are taking on more natural shapes. At a distance, you could see the boardwalk leading up to the James & Linda White Birding Tower, which was perched over a vast area of wetlands.

We left the buggy on the mountain and hoofed it, clamoring down, inspecting the islands in the Preserve that Chad Washburn, the Natural Areas Manager, has been working on. We wandered over to a second boardwalk, which awkwardly stands where the future lakes will meet. We dubbed it “the boardwalk to nowhere” for the moment. The best viewpoint was standing in the birding tower. Off to one side you could see ghostly stumps punctuating the south wetlands where the melaleuca (Melaleuca quinquenervia) used to be and the cattails have taken over.

Back in the buggy, our course hugged the construction perimeter coming around to the “old” boardwalk to the preserve and then to the new nursery location where Gumby, our sea-faring gumbo limbo (Bursera simaruba) and all the other donated trees and plants await their call to duty, which will be very soon.

Returning volunteers are asking if there is anything left to do? The answer is, you betcha! So, after consulting with the rest of the folks in the horticulture group, we’ve come up with a list of tasks you could help us with. If you’re interested, give Sally Richardson a call (239-643-7275) or email (srichardson@naplesgarden.org).

Weeding pots in the nursery; beds in Tropical Mosaic Garden; pots in shadehouse; the ground around pots in the old nursery; the cracks between bricks and pavers in Pink Courtyard and Allee
Watering pots in nursery or newly installed plants; Windstar Garden Room (plant knowledge needed to know how much)
Planting seedlings into larger containers; cuttings (dipping in rooting powder) in pots; existing plants into larger containers; seeds in small pots and flats
Mulch pots in nursery with palm fiber (see below)
Scouting for blooms so plants can be ID’d for bloom color; for insect and disease problems
Cleanup of leaf material around pots in nursery; trash around the perimeter (outside the wall) and inside
Training vines in pots in nursery or on trellis off the loggia
Staking existing plants; newly planted specimens
Securing label tags to pots; making plant labels
Raking oval lawn (dethatch)
Straighten and clean plant labels
Spread snail bait (non-toxic, earth friendly formula) and fire ant bait
Gathering palm seed
Removing fallen palm fronds

Remember the experiment we tried with shredding newspaper for mulch in the nursery pots? Turned out it wasn’t practical for the amount we needed. Now we’re onto palm fiber. It’s that stringy stuff that chokes even the biggest wood chippers and never seems to break down. We’ve had several loads of it dropped next to the new nursery. It is definitely smothering tiny weeds already in the pots. The real test will be in the spring when the weeds grow faster than they can be plucked.

This past week the Garden was open twice for Tropical Mosaic visits. These intimate peeks at the existing Garden remind me of White Flower Farm, Litchfield, CT, which used to have an annual open house. They’d have lawn chairs under big shady trees and serve cucumber sandwiches and iced tea. For our open house, Sally Richardson and several volunteers serve iced tea and cookies and talk about the flowers in the Garden. The next visiting days are just after Thanksgiving — can you believe it? — November 28th and 29th. We still get, on a regular basis, mind you; the curious visitors who “innocently” wander in passed the “Closed for Expansion” sign.

This weekend is the annual SW Florida Yard and Garden Show out at the Extension Service (14700 Immokolee Rd. by the Fairgrounds). Plant nerds come from near and far to peruse a wide variety of plants and wares. They’ll have talks, demonstrations (non-political), and more than 35 vendors, including Top Tropicals and the Croton Society. Yours truly will be there on Saturday demonstrating our “virtual” garden; Kurt Van de Wouw takes over on Sunday. For more information, call 239-353-4244. See you there!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

I only went out for a walk...

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in. -- John Muir, 1913.

That sentiment is one all of us feel strongly about, otherwise why would we be supporting a botanical garden? My husband’s only complaint is that I forget to come back in. My favorite time in the garden is at dusk when the light is changing and wildlife starts murmuring. I wipe the sweat off my brow for the umpteenth time and know that whatever task I was working on is done for the day, finished or not.

Some of the tasks around the Garden this week were driven by the preparation for the Marco Island Men’s Club Thursday, October 9th, and the bridal show put on by the Wedding & Party Professionals of Naples (WPPN) Sunday, October 12th. The visit by the Marco club brought out nearly 50 Marco Islanders. After the group had lunch in the Windstar Garden Room, Brian Galligan and Chad Washburn pointed out the highlights of the Tropical Mosaic Garden.

WPPN’s event on Sunday afternoon was for anyone planning a wedding. There were 40 or so vendors around the grounds and in the Windstar Garden Room selling everything from wedding gowns, cakes, honeymoon travel, planning and catering services. A giant tent over the runway on the oval lawn made a perfect setting for the fashion show.

For these visits, the grounds were spruced up (that sounds like a northern term, doesn’t it?), including the Windstar Garden Room. New plants were deftly tucked into the coral planters and fresh palms dropped in behind them. The Pink Courtyard pots were refreshed by yours truly. Some pots needed more color or reining in of chocolate sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas ‘Blackie’). Plants that had run their course were replaced by whatever I could find in the nursery. One such find was young silver agaves (Agave americana ‘Blue Huntington), which I placed in the middle of two pots overflowing with sedum rosettes, possibly Sedum cauticola 'Lidakense'.

The bed under the caesalpinias (Caesalpinia granadillo ‘Bridalveil’) and white begonias (Begonia alba) enjoyed color from yellow gaillardias (Gaillardia pulchella) most of the summer. Those fading blooms were replaced with cockscomb (Celosia argentea) in every shade of the rainbow. It’s a hot, dry spot that’ll test its stamina.

In our continuing search for special plants, Carolyn Miller and Brian Galligan took to the road again to visit a nursery in Sarasota owned by Faith Bishock called Rare Palms & Tropicals. This was a lead we gleaned from the Croton Society meeting I attended in September. Besides obtaining a highly desirable assortment of young palms, the owner donated an African Palmyra palm (Borassus aethiopum) in her husband John’s name.

Speaking of the Croton Society, I took a ride up to Tampa on Saturday to assist that group in their fall plant sale at the University of South Florida’s Botanical Garden. While lending them a hand I learned more about crotons. I brought back two cultivars for the Garden collection: ‘Congo’ and ‘Queen Victoria’. While at the sale, I interviewed one of their charter members, Phillip Stager, for a future article in the Croton Society newsletter. After the sale, Phillip gave me a tour of his croton collection in St. Petersburg. The Garden joined the Croton Society this year and will be depending on its experts to help us identify the cultivars we have and still need.

The Garden announced this week that Kraft Construction is the sponsor of the Garden’s 2008-09 season of events. “Kraft is known as the builder of our community, so it is natural that they have joined with us to lay a strong foundation of the Garden’s events,” said Brian Holley, Executive Director. “Kraft has been such a great supporter in many ways – last year they were presenting sponsor for our golf tournament. And, of course, we are partners on our expansion.”

This season’s events include the Fifth Annual Hats in the Garden on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008. This event, the largest fundraiser of the Garden’s social season, is nearly sold out. That’s our high-society lunch under the tent in the parking lot. It’s quite the fashion show for hats and other elegant apparel, as you can imagine, and we always hope it won’t be windy.

Other dates include the

· Seventh Annual Trunk Show in the Garden Thursday, February 19th through Saturday, February 21st, 2009

· Naples Flower Show, Saturday and Sunday, March 28th and 29th, 2009

· Ninth Annual Swing into Spring Golf Tournament on Monday, April 6th, 2009

For those of you in town, there are more opportunities to visit us. There are two dates for Tropical Mosaic visits this week Wednesday and Saturday, October 15th and 18th. Please call 643-7275 to make a reservation.

Another way to visit is volunteering. There’s plenty to do, in the dirt or otherwise. We’d love to see you, either way.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Busy, busy, busy…

A gardener’s work is never done, and that goes double for an expanding botanical garden like ours. The hum of heavy machinery has become a constant. That humming will stop soon, however, and the focus will change to getting plants in the ground. The goal for having the future Gardens planted is June 2009. Can you believe it?
Kurt Van de Wow, nursery foreman, keeps chipping away at all that has to be done with the help of Carlos Lopez – of course, while maintaining what we already have:
Potting up Brazilian seedlings
Digging up plants in honeycreeper section of butterfly house in preparation for moving them out – at that point the orchid collection will be moved in when the orchid shade house makes way for the Education and Research Center

  • Starting cuttings in the mist room from rare plants in honeycreeper section of butterfly house


  • Organizing and redesigning irrigation in the orchid shade house


  • Germinating seeds in the mist room for plants for future Garden


  • Using new tank sprayer to foliar feed nursery stock


  • Fertilizing large potted plants


  • Fall fertilizing of Tropical Mosaic Garden


  • Renewal pruning and thinning out existing plantings


  • Organizing and repotting anthurium collection


  • Starting cuttings of rare cordyline hybrids donated by Searle Brothers

    Ongoing is a project to renovate the plant beds along Thomasson Drive. For sometime now they’ve been embarrassingly overrun with torpedo grass (Panicum repens) and nutsedge (Cyperus). The thatch palms (Thrinax radiata) and dwarf variegated bougainvillea (Bougainvillea sp.) planted earlier this year have established themselves and will be the backbone of the planting. Once the weeds are under control, we can dress the beds up with some colorful, low maintenance plants.

    Dr. George Wilder, our herbarium curator, recently was asked by Collier County to give a class on invasive plants, specifically Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council’s (FLEPPC) Category 1 plants. George always does things thoroughly—he gave a 3-day intensive class for 19 or so Conservation Collier and Park Rangers, among others. His classes included lectures, a lab exercise on leaf morphology, field trips and quizzes to cover the 67 plants on the list.

    The class textbook was the 2nd edition of University of Florida's Identification and Biology of Nonnative Plants in Florida’s Natural Areas. It’s a beautiful book. The 2nd edition is just out (see the attached cover).

    This was an amazing presentation and took him a lot of time to prepare for. He donated the $800 he received for the class to the herbarium. If the class would be useful to others in the area—other county employees, landscapers, certified horticulturists, master gardeners, etc.—he’s indicated that he’d be interested in earning more money for the herbarium.

    In the Garden, we continue to delight in the fragrance of the fiddlewood (Citharexylum spinosum). It’s positioned by the gate so that we brush the cascading branches on our way into work. Tassels of white flowers adorn the ends of pendant branches and contrast nicely with the shiny, dark green foliage. Its flowering season is waning – soon the black berries will begin to form. This is my favorite native shrub.

    Around the base of the fiddlewood, bright pink petals signal pedestrians to look up. Hovering high above is the floss silk tree (Chorisia speciosa). This tree is our grafting experiment in progress. Volunteer Crafton Clift, a horticulturist, world traveler, and grafter extraordinaire, has been grafting on branches of other later-blooming chlorisias such as ‘Double Tem’, ‘Sunset,’ ‘Santi,’ ‘Elsie Page,’ and ‘Willis Red’.Signs indicating the names of the grafts dangle from the branches. The goal is to find a cultivar that blooms later in the season so that more guests can enjoy the tree’s annual display.

    New grow lights installed in the Windstar Garden Room already add much needed light and will aid plant growth. Horticulture will soon begin to update the display for the bridal show on October 18th. The coral troughs stand empty, ready for new plants. The show will feature 35 to 40 vendors displaying all manner of wedding items. Public hours are 2 to 5pm.

    There are more opportunities coming up to visit the Tropical Mosaic Garden. Wednesday, October 15th and Saturday the 18th from 9am to 12pm. Please call ahead at 239-643-7275.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Garden Writers Symposium – Portland, OR

Portland, OR sends its regards. I am just back from the Garden Writers Symposium; I think my tailwind brought back some of their cool air. Thank goodness, we’re all ready for a break from the heat.

There’s nothing like a conference for networking and stimulation, and this one was no disappointment. It drew some 600 plant nerds from all over the country. Besides every type of journalist, there were photographers, growers, garden designers, public and private garden employees.

Portland, OR is the perfect setting for a symposium on gardens. For rose lovers like me, it’s heaven. Roses were everywhere, from front yards to strips along sidewalks to harsh highway dividers. The international testing site for roses — trials of several new unnamed varieties take place every year there. It currently boasts some 500 roses. The city’s weather is ideal for plants (less so for people)—a mild short summer and a very long but mild wet winter. One show vendor has already sent me its rose, Oso Easy Roses, as a trial in my home garden along with the cracker roses, heirloom own-roots, and others I already have. If I have anything to do with it, we will have easy to grow roses in the future Garden.

The schedule kept us hopping. We had classes in the morning and tours in the afternoon. Topics ranged from photography and self editing to ornamental grasses and garden blogs. Tours took us to urban private gardens as well as nurseries.


On my free day I drove down to Oregon Garden in Silverton and discovered a very innovative garden. This 80-acre garden is only 9 years old and is on the forefront of public garden design. Some of the things they’re doing:
In partnership with the town, it developed a wetland system to recycle the city's treated wastewater and irrigate ornamental plantings; water features throughout the Garden demonstrate that purpose.

Being pet friendly — allowing dogs on short leashes.

Work with the local soup kitchen, donating some 3,000 pounds of vegetables grown on site this year.

Offering on-site lodging at the newly opened Oregon Garden Resort.

In my absence, somehow life at the Garden went on without me. The Garden was open for a Tropical Mosaic visit on September 17th and again September 27th. Brian Holley joined up with Brian Galligan and Carolyn Miller to collect plants from Montgomery Botanical Center and Bloomin’ Good Gardens in the Miami area. Hort staff attended classes on palm identification and irrigation.

The annual FNATS (Florida Nursery & Allied Trades Show) September 25th and 26th in Orlando beckoned. Brian Galligan and Carolyn Miller came back with valuable new and renewed contacts and product information. They also toured Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando and Bok Tower Sanctuary in Lake Wales.

Upon my return I found that autumn was indeed afoot. The cooler night temperatures had triggered some plants like the Brunfelsias into bloom. The Garden has several hugging the loggia that beckon with their scent (hence their common name Ladies of the Night). The flowers usually are trumpet shaped but vary from yellow (B. lactea) to cream (B. ‘Isola’) or cream with shades of blue (B. Americana). The most eye-catching and well known is Morning, Noon and Night (B. pauciflora), whose flowers change from purple, to pale lavender to white.

The burgundy border has a new look. After its severe pruning, it was a sorry sight. Hort staff filled in gaps with maroon and ruby plants: purple fountain grass (Pennisetum rubrum), red hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella), Sedum ‘Purple Emperor’, purple threads Joseph’s coat (Alternanthera ‘Red Thread’), and purple-leaved canna (Canna indica ‘Purpurea’).

Tropical Mosaic Garden visits continue. Future dates include Friday and Saturday, Nov. 28th and 29th, and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Dec. 26th, 27th, and 28th. Visit the Garden on those dates anytime between 9am and noon, except for Dec. 28th, when the hours are 1 pm to 4pm.