On Saturday afternoon I had to make deliveries for work in Boutte, LA. Afterward, I stopped at this great shop on Highway 90 called Maison Decor. They sell a lot of gifts, home decor items, garden art and MEXICAN POTTERY (oodles of it, which is what made me stop in the first place).

Ok, I guess I have a “thing” for mexican pottery, I like the rustic nature of it and it only gets better with age.  Except for the pots that had the metal legs that rust, well I still like them but my back patio… not so much. Over time, I have slowly repotted all the container plants on my back patio into these but I just don’t have room for any more.

I did come across this unusual strawberry pot, which is a shape I don’t have/haven’t seen and the “not having room” problem hasn’t stopped me before, so I bought it. I am going to put it in the garden off the dining room and use it for succulents or herbs, I think. By the way, this pot weighs a ton. I’m liking it.

I have never owned Vanda orchids before, but I do know that they can get pretty large and are usually displayed in wooden vanda baskets or bare root, they like their roots exposed and lots of water. The problem is that I am horizontally challenged for space and wanted to mount these to the cedar wall. I also had this great piece of driftwood that I purchased this summer at the annual Bromeliad Show that I kinda wanted to use. So here it goes… not a traditional way to plant Vandas but they seem to be thriving so far (approximately 2 months). When I was watering today, I sprayed the Vandas a few times until their roots were dark green. Looking good!

materials used:

long fibered sphagnum moss
drill with wood bit
wire cutters
multi-purpose wire
scissors
fishing twine
orchids and driftwood

The vanda orchids were in these ugly black plastic hanging baskets and the roots were very white and fragile. I soaked them in room temperature water for a few minutes and then cut the basket and gently unwound the roots and trimmed any dead ones (it is best to use sterilized utensils for each plant).

While I was doing this, Sammy used the drill with the wood bit to drill a hole in the driftwood, using a drill bit slightly larger than the multi-purpose wire. He then ran a piece of cut wire through the hole and bent it into a U shape through the front of the driftwood. This wire will be hidden after the orchid is mounted.

Then I placed the orchid in the natural hole on the driftwood and soaked a small amount of sphagnum moss in water and squeezed the water out so it was just slightly damp, placed it in front of the orchid… but only enough to stabilize it and left the roots loose to do their thing.  I figured that since Vandas like to be mounted without medium of any kind, the less moss I used, the better. Using clear fishing twine, I tied a knot around the moss and wound the twine around the driftwood a few times, being careful not to cut any of the roots or the plant itself… there ya go! I then repeated the process on the other orchid, watered well and bent the wire on the back of the driftwood to hand on the cedar slat wall. I hung these where it will recieve bright light but not be burned by the afternoon sun.

vandas used:

Neither of these orchids were in bloom when I got them so I wasn’t really sure what the flower ever looked like on these. Going from the plant markers and my googling on the web, I mounted the following:

ASCDA Meda Arnold
This is a hybrid between a Vanda and a Ascocenda and should resemble a minature Vanda (doesn’t look too mini to me). This variety should have red flowers.

V. Rasri Gold x A. Kultana Spots
Not too much information about this one. I found a picture on an orchid grower’s web album and the flower is kinda an yellow gradient to an orange-coral color with spots of a red with a yellow lip.

Starbucks

Ok, I have professed my love for Starbucks before. I go there too much a lot and the lattes are still awesome but the oleander in the drive-thru, not so much. I guess the landscaper designer didn’t know how big oleander would actually get or that it is poisionous. They planted it next to the pickup window in approximately a 3 foot deep strip… I hope when this plant matures I will still be able to get my coffee lol.

Oleander can quickly reach up to 20 feet tall and approximately 10 feet wide. It is suited for USDA Zones 8-10 and is best used as screens, hedges or natural fencing. You should not plant in playgrounds or areas frequented with pets. I wouldn’t use this plant in landscaping near a food establishment either.

Parrot Pete’s/Alligator Pear

There are two restaurants that recently opened in a brand spanking new office park in Harvey, LA that sport awesome food and outdoor dining spaces… the landscaping there is mostly tropical. The problem here is that they used St. Augustine grass inside the cement border on all the garden beds on the property. What the hell? We use St. Augustine grass in our yards because it grows well and fairly quickly in our climate. It is not the most attractive grass and has a tendency to run… I spend a lot of time keeping this grass OUT of my garden beds.

Besides the St. Aug grass that drives me nuts, I have to say that Parrot Pete’s has AWESOME coffee and sinful pastries and Alligator Pear has this great chicken salad with a house citrus vinaigrette (among other things) that I must have a couple times a week.

Factoid: What is an alligator pear? That is what us Nawlins locals call an avocado.

Mom’s Canna from Hell

My mom migrated to the Westbank of New Orleans after her house flooded during Hurricane Katrina. She bought a really great house but the previous owner thought it would be a good idea to flank a path on the side of the house with canna. Last year my sister got on her hands and knees and dug all the canna out of the ground… she must have missed a few lol. It is so thick that you can’t even see the path anymore. We are going to try and dig them up again this fall… In the meantime, mom has been trying to spray them with weed killer but that isn’t working too well lol.

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.

The indoor pavillion featured Rainforest and Prehistoric exhibits (see pictures)… very well done. Another notable was the Japanese Garden and the “living wall” built out of materials you could purchase at a big box store. Ahhh the butterfly garden, I really have never seen so many butterflies in one place in my life! I was teasing my mom and telling her they let them out of boxes before the show lol. I fell in love with the staghorn ferns too.

I spoke with the gentleman from the Palm Society about my “palm possibility” to replace the crepe myrtle and he advised against it as well. He said that the Adonida Palm (Veitchia Merrillii) is too tropical and that it would do well in our climate if in a planter but will die at first frost. Bummer. He recommended a Foxtail Palm instead soooo back to the drawing board.

I will post more later today. Oh by the way, can anyone identify this plant?

YaYa is the most loving, attentive dog that I have ever had. It is hard to believe that he was the runt… he is the alpha dog at my house now. In fact, his nickname is “Bruiser”. He is smart as a whip, awesome with children and I swear he understands everything I say. Everyone that has come in contact with YaYa falls in love with him immediately, he is a big ham. In fact, my friends and family collectively have gotten about eight pomeranians from the same breeder trying to get a dog that has his personality. His grandfather was a grand champion and he looks a lot like him. Whenever I bring him for grooming at the breeder she makes comments about how surprised she is with his health condition. I love my little YaYa.

There aren’t many nurseries in the Greater New Orleans area that give me that “warm and fuzzy” feeling anymore. Most of the smaller family owned nurseries just can’t compete with the pricing at big box warehouse stores like Home Depot and Lowes and have since closed. The only one that really gets my heart racing is Banting’s Nursery… but that is a different story.

My point? Well, we went on the search for something to replace the crepe myrtle that used to be at the end of my driveway that was knocked down during Hurricane Gustav. I was looking for something different than the same ole same ole… and we came across this nursery in Harvey, LA called Creative Gardens & Landscaping. I had been there about four years ago and it was small and not worth mentioning. Since then, they purchased the surrounding land and just exploded, it is a little “warm and fuzzy” there now. I took some pictures (see below) and I think I may have found a possibility for the crepe myrtle, a palm!

I haven’t seen this particular palm before, it is called an Adonida Palm (Veitchia Merrillii). It is currently on my list of possibilities but I needed to research it a bit before committing to it, they are priced at $150. After googling it, I found that it is not recommended to plant in the ground due to lethal yellowing disease and its hardiness zone is 10B to 11. If anyone has had success with this palm, please let me know.

At Home Depot we came across these orchids in plastic “coffin” bags packaged by Better-Gro. I can’t imagine why a company would package any plant like this for any length of time. I guess I felt sorry for these plants, the plant markers were dated over a year ago. I don’t know if the dates were when they were put in the bags to die or what, but I can pretty much guarantee that they haven’t been watered or have seen the sunlight in a loooong time.  So I rescued four of them that were not entirely dead, cleaned them up and repotted them in pretty little ceramic orchid pots that I bought at Lowes (see below). I’m not sure if they will make it, but I am going to at least try and save them.

Rescued Orchids

Zygopetalum Rhein Blue x (Zygopetalum Arthur Elle x Skippy Ku)
The petals/sepals are maroon in color and mottled around the edges in chartreuse. The labellum should be purple and fade to white toward the bottom of the lip. Fragrant flowers with soft leaves. It prefers bright light, avoid direct sunlight. Water deep, allow to dry out a bit… fertilize every other watering. I have my fingers crossed with this one because it is a new one for me, I will keep an eye on it.

Epidendrum Mabel Kanda ‘Miyao’ x Epidendrum Cordigerum ‘Paradise’
Arching sprays of long lasting olive green petals/sepals, white anther cap and a light pink labellum produced from spindle shaped pseudobulbs. Fragrant flowers. It prefers bright light, avoid direct sunlight. Water deep, allow to dry out a bit… fertilize every other watering. After Epidendrum orchids flower, you should leave the spike on the plant because it can flower again within a few months if it is a happy plant. This one is in the worst condition out of the bunch, I loved the coloration though… I hope it makes it.  <<UPDATE 10/27/2008 - Almost dead, I am going to watch it and see, it is dropping it’s leaves>>

Cattleya BLC. (Love Knot x Digbyana) ‘Carmela’
The petals/sepals are a pinkish lavender and the labellum’s throat is yellow with a purple splotch near the lip. The plant care tag boasts that this large lavender Cattleya is the King of the Orchids. It prefers bright light, but protect from direct sunlight. Water when dry.

Brassavola Hybrid -  BC. Little Mermaid ‘Janet’
The plant care card says this is a Brassavola hybrid, fragrant variety. The petals/sepals are a blush pink with a white column and the labellum is the same blush pink mottled with a magenta color. Prefers bright light, avoid direct sunlight.

I am going to keep these in indirect light and slowly acclimate them, I don’t want to rescue them and then love them to death.

In New Orleans’ Vietnamese community of Village de l’Est, gardening is a way of life
My childhood home was in eastern New Orleans about five miles away from Village de l’Est, but I haven’t been that way in a long time. I am so glad to see that this community is rebuilding and continuing to plant their vegetable gardens after Katrina. Good read.

With bromeliads, it’s divide and conquer
I love bromeliads… this is a great article by Dan Gill explaining how to divide them.

Ahhh… what a beautiful day. I love this time of year when it starts to cool off a bit. The last couple of days it has been in the low 80s and breezy, not as humid. I have been working a lot lately and haven’t had time to get in the garden, but I hope to over the weekend.

I was leaving my mom’s house yesterday and saw this big moth in the driveway. The picture just doesn’t do it justice… I didn’t have my camera handy so I took the picture with my cell phone. I have never seen a moth this big and had no idea what it was. After a little googling, I found that this is called a Polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus) a giant silk moth. They lay eggs on a host plant’s leaves, which I am sure in this case is the oak tree in the front yard. This one is a male which is noted by the bushy antenna and is probably between six and seven inches long… he is a big boy! Adult moths of the species actually have vestigial mouths and do not eat so they live less than a week. Interesting, I think…

Off topic, sort of… lately I have been tweaking out the new theme for my gardening blog, I was hoping for more of a “magazine feel” and I have been learning a lot about php and CSS. I used to work as a web/graphic designer a few years ago and I am looking to update my skill set in that area with this personal gardening blog as well as a couple of other personal and freelance projects that I am working on. When I first started in web design, CSS wasn’t an option. Web designers used to hard code html and use tables to organize a layout. I am finding that it is amazing what you can do with CSS. I hope to have the blog tweaked out in the next couple days.

This is why it is awesome….

They sell produce delivered daily by local farmers. All of their dry goods and spices are geared toward New Orleans cooking.

They have the best food. They sell delicious hot lunches during the week and they also cook daily and freeze dishes that you can take home and reheat. I have to recommend the chicken parmesan, eggplant parmesan, crawfish bread, artichoke spinach bread, stuffed bell peppers, stuffed artichokes and meatballs and gravy. Pretty much everything… it is all good.

Berry Town sells homemade jelly and jams and they are known for their locally made stawberry wine… yummy.

They also have a huge selection of mexican pottery that they buy from a local distributor. They have the BEST prices on mexican pottery… really.

I wasn’t sure if they had a website, but I googled it before posting this so I could add a link.

http://www.berrytownproduce.com

A Guide to Louisiana Friendly Landscaping (Louisiana Yards & Neighborhoods)

Enjoying Ornamental Ponds in Louisiana

Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide

You will need a copy of Acrobat Reader to view these pdf files, but it is free too!

New Orleans Botanical Garden’s Plant Sale

Location: New Orleans Botanical Garden in City Park, New Orleans, LA
Dates: October 11, 2008 (Saturday)
Time: 9AM - 12PM

Admission to the sales area in the New Orleans Botanical Garden is free. Bring a wagon, arrive early for best selection. Check or cash only. Sorry, no credit cards.

More Information: garden@nocp.org

New Orleans Botanical Garden’s Fall Garden Show

Location: New Orleans Botanical Garden in City Park, New Orleans, LA
Dates: October 18 - 19, 2008 (Saturday & Sunday)

The annual show features plant sales and exhibits, educational programs, a plant health clinic, the kids discovery area, and the Garden’s Scarecrow Trail. Sponsored by the LSUAgCenter in cooperation with the Metro Area Horticulture Foundation and the New Orleans Botanical Garden.

$6 adults
$3 children 5-12 years
Free for children under 5 and Friends of City Park

More Information: kblackburn@agcenter.lsu.edu

Attention bromeliad lovers! 

The Bromeliad Society International’s World Conference will be held at the Astor Crowne Plaza in New Orleans, LA in 2010. I know this a looong time from now, but I just realized it and I guess I am a “bromeliad nerdo” because I am way excited that they chose my city to host the shindig.

The dates posted on the Bromeliad Society’s website are July 26 - August 1, 2010. I will be there!

We have seen strong gusty wind all day here, but no rain yet. This afternoon I took some pictures of mom’s next door neighbor’s tree damage from Gustav, it is hanging over mom’s driveway now (see below). The pine trees are parallel to the street and used to stand upright…. crazy.

Also, they sent out a notice stating that hurricane debris pickup curbside is September 8 - September 15th. Needless to say, I will be spending the whole weekend cutting down trees for trash pickup on Monday. I will take some pictures…