imafan26
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Imafan26 2019 gardens

Pictures taken on July 21, 2019 from my home garden. It has a mix of whatever is in bloom right now. I always have flowers, and orchids in and out of bloom all year. I have a hard time getting photos focused on the phone and it is hard for me to upload them.
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Jamaican oregano, escaped from pot in my veggies garden.  I will eventually have to take it out.
Jamaican oregano, escaped from pot in my veggies garden. I will eventually have to take it out.
Swan neck agave
Swan neck agave
Agapanthus.  Very old planting, shrinking because is it being starved of water.
Agapanthus. Very old planting, shrinking because is it being starved of water.
Charger in 18 gallon pot
Charger in 18 gallon pot
Charger tomato. I have had some June drop in July. I have saved the fallen fruit for fried green tomatoes
Charger tomato. I have had some June drop in July. I have saved the fallen fruit for fried green tomatoes
Hybrid hibiscus in my front yard.  It looks like it is in a pot, but it has already gone through the bottom and is in the ground now.
Hybrid hibiscus in my front yard. It looks like it is in a pot, but it has already gone through the bottom and is in the ground now.
Tree Gardenia in my front yard. It is in peak bloom now.  I topped it to keep it around 5ft high and 4 ft wide, otherwise it would be over 20 ft tall now.
Tree Gardenia in my front yard. It is in peak bloom now. I topped it to keep it around 5ft high and 4 ft wide, otherwise it would be over 20 ft tall now.
close up of Sure Thing fruit.  I haven't picked any yet.
close up of Sure Thing fruit. I haven't picked any yet.
Sure Thing zucchini in an 18 gallon pot.  I have moved the pot a couple of times since it interferes with the tomato next to it.
Sure Thing zucchini in an 18 gallon pot. I have moved the pot a couple of times since it interferes with the tomato next to it.
Super Chile.  This was repotted a month ago and the stakes cannot hold it upright so it is sagging a bit. It will live for a few years and give fruit most of the year. Eventually, I will need to move it to an 18 gallon pot.
Super Chile. This was repotted a month ago and the stakes cannot hold it upright so it is sagging a bit. It will live for a few years and give fruit most of the year. Eventually, I will need to move it to an 18 gallon pot.
Green hybrid dendrobium. Orchid flowers are technically edible but they are usually sprayed.
Green hybrid dendrobium. Orchid flowers are technically edible but they are usually sprayed.

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TomatoNut95
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It's all beautiful, @Imafan! :D Great work!

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applestar
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HOW did I miss this thread before? Thanks for bumping it @TomatoNut95

@imafan — these glimpses of your garden are as lush as I imagined. And wow the size of those plants!

That tree gardenia must perfume the entire area and I suspect this is not the only fragrant plant. :D

I wanted to reach into the picture and pick some of those Sure Thing zukes Haha. You know you can pick them as baby veg with the blossoms on.

And how would you eat the orchid blossoms if they weren’t sprayed? Do you mean to say I have been letting mine shrivel and drop when I could have been eating them? During the winter, the stinkbugs that stowaway in the house pockmark some of those blossoms. I guess they knew what they were doing — some people say they get worst damage on best tasting tomato fruits from the stinkbugs.

imafan26
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Orchids are used by the hotels as plate decorations. The petals are slightly sweet.
https://orchidrepublic.com/blogs/news/a ... ids-edible

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TomatoNut95
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Ah, Gardedinas! You're place must smell like perfume, @Imafan! (I bought a gardenia bush once. It didn't like me so it died) I wish I had a perfume that smelled like snapdragons! So sweet, those snapdragons; that is why I like to grow them. But I like the tall varieties.

imafan26
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Gardenia, pikake (Jasmine sambac), kwai fah (osmanthus: flowering olive), night blooming jessamine, dragon fruit, and some orchids like Sharry Baby are pollinated by moths. They have the strongest fragrance at night or early in the morning.

Snapdragons and sweet pea are nice annuals I have grown them in the past.

imafan26
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I planted seeds on 9/3 and by 9/6 green onions, Kapoor tulsi, Thai long green eggplant, 1 charger tomato, Detroit dark red beets and a few pepper seedlings were just starting to unfurl.

2 days ago everything looked good. I went out today and found a 4 inch African snail on one of my benches and all of the eggplant, pepper, basil, and half of the beet seedlings had disappeared.

I got more snail bait today. It is still early, but it is frustrating to have such great germination and then see the young seedlings disappear over night.

Bell peppers and tomatoes are ripening faster than I can eat them. I went to Lowe's today and got 3 small tomato cages for the peppers. I got a couple of bags of compost for the main garden and I could not find big bags of MG potting soil, but I did find a good deal on 3 cu ft bag of Canadian peat moss. I have perlite so I am going to mix my soil again. It has been awhile since I have done that. I still have to drag all these bags from the garage to the back yard. It may take me a while to do that.

Someone at work wanted bitter melon leaves so I told her she could have my weeds. I picked a bag of bitter melon vines off my citrus trees and brought it to her. I told her she would have to clean them since I put as much of the vines I could get and did not just take the tips.

I have ventillated a couple of pots with the weed whacker to the point where the soil is running out of the pots, so I will have to up pot the eggplant and a couple of the peppers and mint are outgrowing their pots. I have black cinder and someday, I will have to repot some of the citrus trees. I have to figure out how many citrus tress and what kind I have. Many of them are buried in the weeds.

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applestar
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Ugh! Slugs are the worst! I’m sorry you have such a big one that can decimate so many seedlings at once. :(

imafan26
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I'm a little late.
I just planted garlic, transplanted the superex onion seedlings I planted in September. I only put out two compots. It already took up half my garden space. I transplanted Komatsuna, Pak choi (only one survived the snails), beets and red currant tomato. I planted seeds of Fukuda Japanese Cucumber, Snow Peas, more Detroit dark red beets, and green crop bush beans. I got some bonus seeds from Baker so I planted the atomic purple carrots. I have almost half a garden to plant. I have started more seeds of rainbow chard, Trochunda Cabbage (couvre), kale, buttercrunch lettuce. I transplanted Thai sweet basil, some of the pepper seedlings, and the Italian parsley from compots to individual pots. I still have to up pot some peppers and green onions and move them off the bench. Then I will hopefully have more room for more compots. I still have cuttings from the citrossa, rose, Jamaican oregano, bougainvillea, and calamondin to check on and see if they are ready to plant out. I potted up the Bunny Ear (opuntia) divisions that I made a few weeks ago. My Bunny Ear collection is growing. I may have to do something to thin them out before I run out of space.

I have a lot of plants to up pot as well. I need to harvest the ginger and araimo. I need to repot some of the citrus trees. Some of them have hardly any media left in their pots. I need to move out some of the orchids now that the weather is milder to the other benches. Right now I have 2 vanda and one dendrobium still in bloom. The Blue Ice Calathea, Gardenia, rose pikake, pink ginger, Parrot beak ginger, and roses (they bloom in cycles) are all blooming now. Some of the peppers are putting out new flowers. I had to pull out Charger. It was still trying to make tomatoes, but it was being attacked by peach scale and white flies so I think it is just too old to overcome it. It lasted quite a while. I was surprised. I did not expect that from a determinate tomato. I just finished up the last two bell peppers, but I still have eggplant, and a lot of hot peppers.

Now that the rainy season has started it rains almost every night so, the grass and weeds are growing as well.

This Saturday is Arbor Day. Hawaii has arbor day in the fall instead of the Spring. I will bring out the herbs and vegetables I have for the sale and some will go in the herb garden eventually. I still have more garlic to plant somewhere.

My bow rake broke when I was working the garden, so I will need to find a replacement. The handle is fiberglass so I can use it as a stake.

I put out more snail bait when I transplanted out the beets and cabbages.

I am trying to learn from past mistakes that it is better for me to plant the garden slowly and space the plantings so everything does not come due all at the same time. I also get really tired after a couple of hours in the garden anyway, so I can't dig up the whole garden or plant it in a day anymore like I used to.

I am having trouble getting photos out of my phone. I used to be able to email them, but now they are stuck in the outbox. I got a message that the samsung galaxy5 is not supported and my new windows 10 computer, won't talk to it. The same thing happened with my cool pix camera. The newer computer does not support the older programs.

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TomatoNut95
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Which is why I will NEVER own a Windows 10. Even my cousin doesn't like it. My work desktop is Windows 10 but at home my ancient laptop that was never attached to the internet is Windows 7. I use my phone for web browsing.

imafan26
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I held out as long as possible, but the computer was killed by 2 power outages in 3 days. I lost answering phones this way too. I now have 2 clock radios that are probably fried by the power surges as well. One of them does not always alarm and I cannot get the other to do anything except tell time. I have to find the manual and figure out how to re program it. I went looking for a new clock radio to find that it is something of an antique. I was told they are not popular anymore since most people use their smart phones as alarms.

I don't think we have to worry about Colossus taking over the world and controlling our lives. Instead we have to worry about becoming too dependent on our phones.

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TomatoNut95
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Power outages? I hear ya! We've had so many power outages in our area this year it was sickening. If an appliance breaks down, our power company will get a bill from ME for a change.

I don't depend on my phone for everything, at least not as an alarm because I turn it off at night. I use it for getting on the forum, looking up info every great now and then and texting. And one game. Also, because of my phone, my digital camera got replaced. My phone takes better close-ups than my camera ever did, but as for distant shots the camera is better.

Ebay might be the best place to shop for a clock radio. Would you believe I still have my old wind-up alarm clock somewhere? Lol, not one bit of technology on it!(unless you count glow-in-the-dark numbers) Sadly, it doesn't work, but I didn't have the heart to toss it.

imafan26
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The daikon finally sprouted in the pots. Now the bush beans, snow peas, carrots, cucumber, beets, and garlic have sprouted. I did not lose any of the transplants, but I do have a few extra onions I don't know where to park.

Things are definitely growing slower with the shorter and overcast days. It is sunny in the mornings but gets overcast and rains in the late afternoons and over night. Most of the new plants in the garden are growing slowly. Only the weeds are growing....like weeds.

It is a pleasant day. At 10 a.m. it is 79 degrees. I have already gone shopping at Walmart an had breakfast ( at 6:30 a.m.) I fertilized the yard with miracle grow since everything needs it. I cooked rice and lup cheong for later. I just came in for a break after weeding the bed along one side of the driveway which took me almost an hour. I still have to spread some compost and fertilizer, prune the roses, kokotan, Caribbean Copper plant, and gardenia and reseed where I pulled the weeds with alyssum.
I may end up rounding up the weeds on the other side of the driveway since it is all weeds.

I have to figure out what to plant there. It cannot be red since people think my garage door is the entrance. It is a Feng Shui thing. I have to plant red on the other side of the driveway with my less inviting thorny roses. I have the Caribbean Copper plant there so it is one big red bush. It makes color matching a problem. I need plants that are drought tolerant, will block the weeds. I have had blue daze there, but the color does bleach next to the Caribbean Copper plant. Four o'clocks do well except that the flowers don't open up under the street light. I had red acalypha, but it kept moving under the tree rather than stay in the sun and I ended up with more people leaving me stuff by my garage door, like mail and flyers because of the red flowers. Colors can be white, yellow, or pink. The strip is less than 2 feet wide. I prefer something 12-18 inches tall since it will help to block out the weeds, but I also have the mailbox there so it needs to be accessible. Have you any suggestions? They have to be zone 9-11 plants and preferably bullet proof.

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TomatoNut95
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Cactuses?

imafan26
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Mililani rains every day during this time of the year, mostly in the afternoons and overnight. We get summer rains in El Nino years.
True cacti don't do that well in the yard. I keep the opuntia (bunny ears) in my entry and at this time of the year they are not getting enough light so the offsets are elongated. In the yard, I have some succulents that have adapted over the years. Dragon fruit grows wild. I have crown of thorns, a few adeniums (desert rose), rat tail cactus, agave, aloe, haworthia, some crassula and echeveria, tillandsia, sanseveria, and some other air plants that I don't know the species or the names of. These are planted in terra cotta and rocks or plastic pots with a lot of ventillation and rocks, or they are hanging on the fence as air plants. My collection is out of sprinkler range and is only about 2.5 feet wide and maybe 4 feet long.

I even keep most of the lavender in the pots because I will have to move them under the eaves in January or they will turn black if we get any prolonged rain. Pelargoniums fare a little better but they will get edema and rot if we get flooding rains that last a week. The area I am planting is in my front yard and it slopes toward the road.

During rains the water channels from surface drains on the right side of the house to the drive way. I only have a sloping sidewalk and drain channel on the north side of the house since there is not enough light to grow anything but mud there. It solved the mud issue, but with essentially concreted pavers, nothing holds back the water and it cannot be absorbed by the soil so it channels right out to the driveway. It causes some of the soil to erode but water does not sit there. Water also comes off the roof and lands in that same spot and over the other border area on the other side of the driveway. Only Abraham Lincoln and Chrysler Imperial roses were able to tolerate that much water and survive. I cannot put such tall roses there because there isn't enough space for them and it would be a little prickly getting access to the mail box built into the wall.

Cacti would not need a lot of water, but could not handle the seasonal storms thath can go on for 7-10 days, 24 hours a day.

I need something that is more like rain garden plants that can hold the soil well and can live on rain, but will also tolerate periods of deluges and drought.

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applestar
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How about this one? One concern is it’s only perennial to zone 9. Not sure what that means from your perspective. It sounds like it will tolerate the rain as long as drainage is good?

What seems attractive is that it is easy to grow from seeds — so sourcing shouldn’t be too difficult, and it blooms for a long time.
So you could possibly treat as annual and keep starting new from seeds.

...I picked this site for reference since it seems to have all the details you might need...

Armeria pseudarmeria ‘Ballerina Red’ - Greenhouse Product News
https://gpnmag.com/article/armeria-pseu ... ina-red-0/


...another one I was wondering about is dwarf red canna’s — but I’m not sure if there is a variety short enough for your purposes, and it might be difficult to obtain? Also canna’s tend to flower in the orange shade so might not match what you are looking for. But the foliage might look good opposite the Caribbean Copper....?


...of course I tend to think "edible landscape", so I was wondering about roselles — var rubra ... red leafed cultivar — but of course you will need to keep them trimmed/pruned — they probably grow huge in your garden, even though in my garden they barely managed 4 feet before frost arrived.

I came across this while looking around as well —

False Roselle, or Hibiscus acetosella
https://www.eattheweeds.com/false-roselle/

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Gary350
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imafan26 wrote:Mililani rains every day during this time of the year, mostly in the afternoons and overnight. We get summer rains in El Nino years.
True cacti don't do that well in the yard. I keep the opuntia (bunny ears) in my entry and at this time of the year they are not getting enough light so the offsets are elongated.
.
There are 2 types of cactus, low elevation hot dry desert cactus that only gets a small amount of rain in summer & winter. High elevation cactus that gets lots of rain, snow, ice, blizzards, monsoons, etc. Cactus is an amazing plant it can tolerate the worse weather, worse soil an still survive. Cactus can send roots out 12 ft in all directions no bigger than spider webs. But if you give cactus, 75 degree weather, 3 hours of full sun per day, good soil, good fertilizer, correct water it grows fast as weeds. You should be able to grow high elevation cactus easy in your yard it will probably do best planted on the north side of a shade tree or east side of your house, so it gets cool morning sun then shade the rest of the day. Mix soil with about 60% child play said water needs to run right on through the soil and out the bottom. Low elevation hot dry weather cactus will only tolerate about 2 weeks of too much water then it rots. High elevation wet weather cactus does not do well in pots it likes moist soil that never drys out but not soaking wet soil. Push up your soil into hills about 4" to 6" high plant wet weather cactus in the mounds it should do good in your wet weather, I grow cactus in TN we get lots of rain about 250 day per year. Cactus does best with only 3 hours of full sun in 75 degree weather. I had about 40 different cactus planted on the east side of my AZ house there was a 6 ft tall fence that blocked morning sun until about 8:30 am. My cactus got full sun until 11:30 am every day. Cactus all had babies soon there were 1000s plants. I put an AD on Craigslist gave cactus away lots of people came got them.

1. This first cactus is a type of prickly pear. I had 1 pad that I planted. I covered it over with soil a month later it was growing 2 new pads. Each pad grows 2 more pads and so on, 2 become, 4 then 8 then 16, 32, 64, etc. I planted all 64 pads then I had 64 cactus that soon had 8 pads each.

2. I don't remember where I got this orange flower cactus it started out as 1 cutting and tuned into about 100 plants. When cactus gets larger plant the arms laying on their side after the whole side grows roots cut it into small pieces each piece will grow a new plant.

3. This tall cactus with white flowers started out as 2 cutting about 30" long. I laid them on their side an covered it with soil about a year later it was 6 ft tall making flowers.

4. These little barrel cactus grew fast and made lots of babies around the sides of the mother plant. I don't know what a lot of these cactus are called I had fun doing (Road Mart) drive up & down every street to pick up what people threw away on the street. I found a flower pot with 6 of these cactus soon I had 500 of them. They make large white trumpet flowers.

5. Pine cone cactus also called penis cactus grows very fast. It will grow a new 6" long segment every month. Plant all the segments your crop gets larger and larger. It makes lots of white flowers.

6. Next is a prickly pear called bevertail. There are so many different prickly pear that look identical but have different color flowers, orange, red, yellow, purple, and color shades, red, purple, orange, etc. There is also different color plants green and purple pads. Also different shape pads. Pencil cactus is a type of prickly pear.

Don't get in a hurry to cut off cactus segments or pads they need to be adult size pads & segments or they will swivel up and die before growing roots.
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imafan26
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I have had the red flame, barrel ,and pencil cacti before and they do well. I only kept them in pots. The prickly pear does not grow well in Mililani but does grow wild on the Leeward side of the island where it is in the rain shadow of the mountain. It actually is a wild plant we call panini. I have seen one up in Pacific Palisades in Pearl City, but both places are much drier and hotter than where I am. Agave will grow well but the space is too narrow for the plants.
I looked up the armeria. I have not seen anyone grow that plant here. It says it does not like wet or heavy clay soils. It has a common name of sea thrift, so it probably likes sandy soil. It is a member of the plumbago family. Plumbago actually does grow well here but is too tall and again it will clash with the red of the Caribbean copper plant. I had a standard plumbago in my front yard years ago, but I took it out because it has too many pest issues. I have not seen red canna, but I have seen tropicana canna which would actually complement the Caribbean copper plant, but is too tall at 5-6 ft. I had canna before and it is like growing ginger or heliconia. It can be hard to keep in check. It is also a plant, much like cilantro, you love it or you hate it.

I have been researching more plants and think that the native akulikuli may work. It is like portulaca with succulent leaves and is a spreading ground cover so it will be under a foot tall. It is drought tolerant and can also grow around estruaries and marshes. It may grow too well for me since it says more water will cause it to have more rank growth. It has pink flowers so it should complement the Caribbean copper plant. The kokotan has white flowers so it goes with everything. My only real concern with it is the same one that I have with any ground cover which is that I would rather it be mounding like alyssum rather than spreading. The HOA has cited me when the alyssum spills onto the driveway like it is supposed to do.

imafan26
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I finally transplanted the chard, lettuce, beet, trochunda kale, choi sum and whatever odds and ends I had out into the garden. After spacing them, I had a hard time fitting them in. I still have some kale and thai basil to up pot. The agave is now putting up a flower spike it is about 2 feet now. It is a swan neck agave so after it blooms, it will put out seedlings and die.

I still have peppers and the eggplant is hanging on. I need to put it in a larger pot. I have started to harvest the ginger and already preserved about a quart in sherry. That will last me a couple of years.

It has been raining almost every day so as usual I am behind on weed control. I finally did manage to get the grass in front of my house dry enough to weed whack. The grass in the inner court yard is over a foot tall. I have not got to that yet.

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TomatoNut95
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Help! I just rescued an orchid and posted it while standing in line at the check-out! I need your help in the flower section! :shock:

imafan26
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I just went to my Mililani Orchid Club Christmas party. I bought $40 of raffle tickets. Every member got one blooming phal from the club retail value would have been about $18 (the club pays less since we get it from member growers and they give us wholesale prices). I got two dendrobiums (about $8), and 6 bloom size standard catleyas. A couple of the catleyas do have sheaths so they may bloom within a couple of months. Each catleya probably cost $10 each (club price) So, I got a good return on my investment. I put everything on my lanai table for now. I did move a couple of orchids that I had replanted in baskets out to the orchid bench. I will get around to repotting the orchids in baskets. They are in orchiata so, the media is still good. The dendrobiums will be taken out of the media and potted up in clay pots with styrofoam. The phalaenopsis will eventually also go into a basket. I also won a gift box and a grab bag. I haven't opened them yet.

Standard catleyas take up a lot of space. I will have to figure out where I am going to put them afterwards. I usually get mini cats since they have more blooms (smaller but in clusters) and they are more compact.

I have honohono keiki I have still to pot up and I don't know where to put them either. The trees are pretty full now.

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applestar
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What lovely early Christmas/holiday presents for yourself :D Your orchid bench and trees (you hang them there, right?) must be lovely with them blooming one after the other. Didn’t you say you have 300+? My (*extremely* modest in comparison)THREE give me a lot of pleasure when they bloom.

Your orchid-related posts make me want to try getting/growing more again. Maybe I will be more successful this time, though I know MAJOR issue is the dry indoor environment during the winter. Maybe I will try going to the flower show this winter.

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TomatoNut95
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Wow! That orchid Christmas party sounded like fun! Congrats on your gifts!

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Orchids do like humidity. Humidity trays are used in drier climates to help create humidity. They also do well clustered together as long as they have good air circulation and are not touching each other. Some orchids do better hung, like honohono and vanda which do grow as epiphytes hanging or twining through trees. Phalaenopsis like to be mounted sideways or upside down on branches. It keeps the water out of the crown. Cymbidiums, spathoglottis, and Phaius are terrestrial orchids that do live on the floor of the forest but in humus not really dirt. Catleyas are epiphytes that live attached to tree branches. Not every tree is a good host. Some like mango are not good for orchids. Plumeria and tree fern are orchid friendly.

There are over 20000 species of orchids and only Antarctica has no native orchids. I can only grow the warm house orchids but in northern locations the cool house orchids I cannot grow would be more suitable. Cool house orchids like higher elevations and cooler temperatures. Cymbidiums are patio plants in San Diego where they like the morning fog. I can only grow the warmest ones where I live but on the Big Island at 3000 ft, the cymbidiums are much larger and the colors are brighter. Warm tolerant cymbidiums are brown, almost black, and green except for Golden Elf which is yellow. Calanthe, nobile dendrobiums,masdevalia, and odontoglossums might be better choices since they like cooler temperatures. The American Orchid Society website has a lot of good information on caring for different kinds of orchids. (Culture sheets). They also have a video library that I have linked to with some helpful videos.

https://www.aos.org/orchids/aos-video-library.aspx
https://www.proflowers.com/blog/orchid-care

There are some wild orchids native to N. America. You might have an easier time with one of these.
https://www.orchidsmadeeasy.com/wild-orchid/

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TomatoNut95
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I did print out some info on Cattleyas from the AOS. But I was wondering, since 'Cats' like to live on tree branches, would my Lady Rose (I named my orchid) be happier out of the pot, and placed in a tree branch-like substitute such as cholla wood made for Tillisandias?

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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I don't know what Cholla wood is. Orchids can be mounted on anything that is friendly. Usually rafts are made of cork or planks of cedar or red wood. Small orchids can be mounted on cedar shingles. Cedar and red wood resist rot longer since they will be almost constantly wet. I can mount orchids in my plumeria tree, but not on Mango. While I could mount orchids on hibiscus, the hibiscus will suffer for it since it does not like to be constantly wet and will eventually rot.

If the wood you are using can tolerate being wet or is able to grow lichen easily, then it is worth a try.

On another subject. I harvested my first Soarer cucumbers ( 3) yesterday.

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TomatoNut95
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Location: Texas Zone 8

Cholla wood is dry Cholla cactus wood. Tillisandia collectors like it to place their plants on. It can be used in aquariums, but it will eventually break down after 7-14 months.

Soarer cucumbers? Never heard of that variety. What's it like?

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I have harvested 6 Soarer cucumbers so far. Two others were eaten by snails. One was stung, but was salvageable. The Suyo cucumber has a lot of flowers now, but the one cucumber was stung too badly so it was not a keeper. In all, I have four plants of each variety of cucumber. Soarer has a smoother skin than Suyo, but both plants are very resistant to mildew and are looking good even after all the rain.

I also harvested my first Greencrop bush beans and had them for dinner yesterday. I don't usually like beans but they were sweet, crunchy and not too beany.

The weeds are growing so fast and I have to weed whack between the storms. I weeded the garden, but there were a few casualties that I thinned out by mistake.

The beets are starting to form bulbs, cutting celery that I planted yea way long ago and forgot about had come up. I will have to take some of them out and pot them up. Komatsuna is ready to harvest. The swiss chard is still looking sad and small. The bok choy is being chewed up by snails as well. I do have a few heads of lettuce I can harvest individual leaves from for sandwiches. The garlic and onions are growing well, but they are hard to weed. I just fed them again yesterday.

I still have some Meyer lemons on the trees, calamondin are ready to pick and the tree needs to be pruned. Bitter melon is growing wild everywhere as usual. The ginger is down and I need to re do one pot that has been harvested and harvest the other two smaller pots.

The rain took out all of the carrot seedlings so I will have to reseed them again.

The mints are growing wild. I have divided them twice already and they need dividing again.

The cuttings of roses, bay leaves and some of the bougainvillea look like they are ready. Some of them are over ready. I will have to do something with that as well. The bench is being overrun by the escaped parrot beak heliconia and dragon fruit.

I have the vanda, ascocenda Princess Michiko, that fell off the tree from the wind in bloom. There are 3 dendrobiums, one green and two lavenders in bloom, which is amazing considering the short life dendrobiums usually have in my yard. There are a couple of brassovola orchids blooming as well. The phalaenopsis I got for Christmas is still in full bloom and one of the
bargain phals I got from Walmart is putting out a secondary bloom spike. I have repotted that phal in a plastic basket to protect the roots from over watering. The sheath from the catleya is still alive but isn't doing much. It usually works better when I don't keep watching it, then it is just a surprise when it opens up. At this point the sheath can still abort. The gardenias are blooming again. The bougainvillea are in bloom again as well. The pre bonsai is finishing up its bloom cycle and the new cutting is in full bloom. The roses did get some black spot and there are signs of thrips on a lot of the plants, but they are still hanging in there and still blooming. I need to dead head and cut back the roses for rebloom. Thrips are unsightly and they are a constant problem since I have plumeria, gardenia, orchids, and roses which attract them. However, treating the thrips will also kill predators so I usually give it a pass except for when the orchids are in bloom. I will selectively treat them since some of the orchids only bloom once a year. Papaya scale is a bigger problem, since no pesticide seems to work on it so I only cut out the most infested branches and use a brush with soapy water to keep it at bay.

The alyssum is in bloom so it does attract beneficial insects and the monarchs seem to be coming around quite a lot. As long as the monarchs only come for nectar it is fine. Thankfully, they don't like cabbage and the cabbage moths are staying away.

I managed to kill off the weeds before the last couple of storms and now I am getting the strays with a hoe.

I still have to pull out the big weeds in the back bed. I can't see a lot of the orchids, pineapple, roses, or lemon trees that are covered in honeysuckle, bindweed, and bitter melon. I will also have to kill off the parrot beak heliconia as the patch is expanding and it is not easy to kill the rhizomes.

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TomatoNut95
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Joined: Sun May 26, 2019 11:11 am
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Sounds like you've got your work cut out for you.

Ah, you grow Bok Choy!! Perfect, I need some tips 'cause I bought some seeds for it in Lowes and I'm new to it. (I think this was called Toy Choy) Bok Choy is a Chinese green correct?

And you mentioned celery.... what kind do you grow, I wonder if it's heat resistant enough I could grow it in Texas. I've never tried celery 'cause I've heard it's too difficult to do, especially here since it's a cool crop.

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

toy choy is a form of baby bok. I grow pe tsai or Pak choy (white stem) , Won bok (napa cabbage), komatsuna (mustard), Kai choy (mustard) and both baby bok and standard bok choy (green stem varieties), and tatsoi

Asian greens are usually grown in cooler weather conditions, however, they can be grown from September-May here. Nothing does well when the temperatures are 88-92 degrees in summer. I use it as a scavenger crop after the corn. It will scavenge left over nutrients from the corn. Heading varieties like won bok, I can only grow when the weather is milder less than 80 degrees.
I usually add 2-3 inches of compost every time I replant the garden. I do use a starter fertilizer, but after corn, I don't have to. The bok choy will scavenge any left over nitrogen. I will not supplement fertilizer until after the seeds have germinated and the plants have true leaves or about 2 weeks after transplanting. My soil test indicates I only need to add nitrogen, so the Asian greens usually only get one nitrogen application. Longer lived plants will be supplemented monthly if they are grown for greens. Bulbing plants are a challenge. I have an over abundance of phosphorus in the soil, so I need to add potassium and limit nitrogen during the bulbing stage. I water every 1-2 days. My soil is deep and well drained so it needs to be watered or rained on frequently.
Most of the bok choys will take about 10-14 days to germinate and about 45 days to harvest. Small seeds like these, I usually start in community pots and transplant out into the garden. Community pots also limits the number of seeds so I don't end up with too many plants. Toy choy and other baby bok can be planted when they are 2 inches tall about 4-6 inches apart. You can harvest outer leaves as you need them and that will keep them more compact. Snails love them, so for me, baiting and snail hunts are a necessity. If you have cabbage butterflies, then grow them under row covers. I don't plant in rows and I inter plant these small short crops under longer crops like cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, green onions. Cabbages and strawberries do not get along, I learned the hard way, so make sure what you plant them with are compatible. If I do plant a block of them, I usually harvest most of them all at once. It takes a lot of bok choy to make a meal. It shrinks a lot after cooking.



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