bromeliads

fall garden show goodies

I really restrained myself from going buck wild at the Fall Garden Show at the Botanical Garden in New Orleans last weekend and only bought the things I couldn’t live without… here are the goodies:

Tillandsia tectorum

I saw this mounted bromeliad at the Funny Farm Bromeliads booth right when we got to the plant sales area and ended up going back for it. I normally like to purchase bromeliads and mount them myself, but in this case I knew exactly where I would put this and loved the way it was mounted already. The Funny Farm owner was very helpful and informative and even gave me some bromeliad tips and a care sheet.

Tillandsia tectorum is a lithophyte (rock grower) native to Peru and Ecuador that has adapted to high altitudes and sun with little water… in nature it relies on fog and mist for moisture. It is grayish-white in color but almost appears silvery because it is covered with small white “hairs”, called trichomes that shield it from UV damage. Interesting! It is very unusual and I hung it from a ceiling hook on the back patio in front of the cedar wall, which is covered. I need to be careful not to water it because everything I’ve read on this plant says it can go weeks, even months without watering. Due to our high humidity, I think if I keep it out of the rain and water sparingly it will do great.
 

Trio of Mini Orchids

I stopped by the Orchids Plus booth and drooled for awhile, but ended up purchasing three miniature orchids that were in bud. I have never purchased minis before and the price was right… plus there was the whole “instant gratification” thing, ya know? My plan is to find a fantastic piece of driftwood or cork to mount these to collectively when they are finished blooming. I will post more pictures when they actually flower, they aren’t too pretty right now.

Odcdm. Tiger Crow ‘Golden Girl’
(Odcdm. Tiger Hambuhren x Odcdm. Crowborough)
The lip of the flower is yellow with burgundy markings and the petals are yellow with chocolate spotting. For more info, click here.

Onc. Moon Shadow ‘Tiger Tail’
The lip is yellow with yellow petals with burgundy markings.

Hwra. Lava Burst ‘Puanani’
(Hwra. Mini-Primi x Rdza. secunda)
The flower is coral red in color and the lip is dusted with a brillant orange-yellow. This orchid is classified a mini but everything I read said that it is prolific. For more info, click here.

New Orleans Water Meter Coasters

There was a local artist at the Fall Garden show, which I am embarassed to say I didn’t get his name… that had a lot of concrete castings of garden art. One thing that struck my fancy was these rustic drink coasters that is a actually a scaled down imprint of the classic New Orleans water meter covers in the French Quarter.

This is an iconic symbol in New Orleans, much like the fleur de lis, which is fashioned into almost everything…. jewelry, hats, clothing and so on. The crazy thing about this is that people actually STEAL the original water meter covers, which are cast iron and weigh over nine pounds! This was a big problem after Hurricane Katrina, along with theft of other historical architectural salvage pieces. For a little history on why these are so coveted, click here.

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