Fabulous Florida Palms

Living in the subtropics affords us the luxury of growing hundreds of different palm trees.  There are about a dozen native palms, and then the rest are exotics brought here over the years by plant explorers such as David Fairchild.  David worked for the United States Department of Agriculture and his body of work was so impressive a friend of his, Robert Montgomery had a botanical garden named after him.  That is how Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden got its name.

Over the years I have written some articles about the garden for Examiner.com such as these:

Fairchild Tropical Garden Chocolate Festival 
Fairchild Tropical Garden Mango Festival
Fairchild Tropical Garden special offers

At Fairchild Garden, there are over 700 different kinds of palms!   Most big box nurseries only sell the most common palms, therefor, if you want special ones you must hunt specialty nurseries or buy them at Fairchild when they have their palm sales.

Here is an article and slide show of gorgeous palms planted in landscapes in South Florida.

Fabulous Florida Palms 

I have many different palms in my garden, both native and exotic.  I like the shade they provide for my understory tropicals.  I like that they do not have harmful root systems so can be planted closer to the house than a large tree.  It is nice planting ones that prune themselves, meaning their fronds come down by themselves when dead.  Other palm fronds hang from the tree and you need a pole saw to remove them.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I enjoy reading yours as well.  It is fun following each other on the social networks, looking forward to seeing you there as well.   

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Dragon Fruit

I love my newest addition to my edible landscape.  The first time I ate one was a few years ago purchased at a local supermarket.  The sign for Dragon Fruit intrigued me.  It looked like a red hand grenade.  It was $4.99 and was in the specialty fruit section located on a shelf within a wicker basket.

I took it home and researched it a bit on the internet to learn how to eat it.  It was pretty good and reminded me of a cross between a kiwi and other cactus fruits I had previously tried.  I discovered the fruit is native to Mexico, Central America and South America.  It is a tropical fruit that grows on a rambling cactus.  The scientific name is Hylocereus.

Later on a friend and rare fruit hobbyist gave me a few cuttings of his Dragon Fruit plant.  I planted them amongst the roses in a sunny part of the garden near my driveway.  It took awhile for them to mature and start producing flowers and fruit. The first year it produced only one flower and the fruit rotted on the vine before I was able to harvest it.  This was my first dragon fruit video.

This year the plant is much larger and the first fruit was eagerly watched over and I harvested it successfully. I decided to shoot a video to mark this wonderful accomplishment.  It was so delicious I could not stop eating it throught the video! It was much sweeter and juicier than the store bought fruit I had purchased.

After I shot the video, the plant started flowering profusely.  Here are some photos of the beautiful flowers.  The flowers are short lived, bloom at night and are pollinated by insects or bats.  The next morning they wither away and the fruit starts forming.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I enjoy reading yours as well.  It is fun following each other on the social networks, looking forward to seeing you there as well.   

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A new vision of the garden

Well I finally decided to go under the laser and improve my vision with Lasik surgery.  This Friday I had the surgery and now have perfect distance vision and my close reading is improving  rapidly.  I am composing this with no glasses.  It is so exciting, I have worn glasses since I was in the third grade.

I think it is a miracle.  Colors are more vivid.  Depth perception is increased.  I am so happy and this is only the second day.  Every day I will heal more and get back into the swing of normal activities.  The first week I am not allowed to garden!  While the eyes are healing, no dirt can come in contact with the eyes.  No sweat can enter the eyes.  I have to sleep with goggles so I will not rub my eyes by mistake.  No water can touch the eyes for the first week as well.

My doctor mentioned to me that quite of few of his patients remark they see leaves on trees for the first time.  He was intrigued by my horticultural therapy profession.  It turns out his wife is an accomplished nature photographer and is interested in placing her magnificent photographs in senior residences.  He gave me her card and I will contact her soon.

Here are some wonderful blooms from the garden this week.

Thank you for visiting my private backyard garden.  I got an anonymous call this week asking if they could come down to pick fruit in my garden.  I returned the call and got an answering machine.  I explained I do not have a farm, it is just a small urban yard and there is not enough fruit to to have people come and pick.

Thank you for visiting my blog and I enjoy reading yours as well.  It is fun following each other on the social networks, looking forward to seeing you there as well.   

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel for free!
Like my Robert's Tropical Paradise Garden
Subscribe to Miami Garden Reporter articles
Follow me on Pinterest, Google+ and Twitter.