Tour Photos And Society Ideas

[epiphyte]

My latest blog entry is a big bundle of tour photos and society ideas.  The gardens that I visited are all in the LA/OC area.  

One idea that I forgot to include is to compile a list of all the Anthuriums and Hoyas/Dischidias that people are growing outside year around here in Southern California.  Almost a decade ago I did something similar for monopodial orchids.  Creating and maintaining such lists would be a perfect job for the Epiphyte Society of Southern California (ESSC).  Then again, the ESSC doesn't have nearly as many resources as the Huntington.  

It's all about the priorities.  For example, I've been meaning to reply to Tracy's thread about orchids for pseudobulb beauty.  I've also been meaning to invite him over to get some plants, since there's a chance that I might be moving.  If anybody is interested in driving to Glendale for free plants send me a PM.  I have Ficus thonningii in a 30" (?) box that would be free to a good home.  Plus, I have a Ficus lutea... big cuttings of it are perfect for creating a phorobana.  I love the idea of epiphytically enriching potted plants.  

Another idea that I really love is an online plant show.  An online plant show!?  Yes, you could "attend" the show in your underwear.  

Here's an online cat show.  The cats are ranked by donations (1 vote = $1 donation).  All the money goes to a cat welfare non-profit.  

For the online plant show, all the money could go towards plant conservation.  Or it could go to the Palm Society.  Or it could go to the ESSC.  Or perhaps donors could specify which organization they want their donation to go to.  

There are other advantages of an online plant show besides raising money for worthy causes and being able to attend in your underwear.  For example, we could see who has the biggest/best Aloe Hercules.  Because it's not like I can enter my Hercules into a traditional plant show.  We could also decide, as a group, whether Santa Barbara's Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla) is better than San Diego's.  Plus, anybody in the world could enter plants into the show, so we could see the best Moreton Bay Fig in the world.  

Since the show wouldn't be limited by geography or plant size, it could potentially be the biggest/best plant show in the world.  This means that we'd all be introduced to many awesome plants.  

[Tracy]

14 hours ago, epiphyte said:

I love the idea of epiphytically enriching potted plants.

Great concept Carlos!

14 hours ago, epiphyte said:

One idea that I forgot to include is to compile a list of all the Anthuriums and Hoyas/Dischidias that people are growing outside year around here in Southern California.

Relative to the list concept, one could start a post here with photos and names and ask others to add to it, whatever the "Tropical Looking Plants - Other Than Palms" one wanted to focus on.  While not providing lists for specific regions, Palmtalk does offer personal experiences with plants in diverse locations (this is after all for the International Palm Society).  If one were to use a post on Anthuriums for So. Cal, others could duplicate posts for other unique regions with common climate constraints (Gold Coast region of Austalia or ???).  However, part of the sharing experience is what is growing outside one's small corner of the world too.  I think its useful to see how the same palm (orchid, aloe, cycad) will perform in a particular part of Australia, Greece, Spain, Florida, NZ, or ???  Clearly we learn tremendous amounts about adaptability by learning how a species performs in other parts of the world with slight to significant variations in climate.  If one believes that our climates are changing over time (at a minimum in our short little window of experience where humans have been collecting data points), there is a lot to be learned in short order.  What we know today about what survives in our microclimates may not be pertinent in another decade without adaptations. 

The concept you have for the list of Anthuriums and Hoyas/Dischidias could be modeled on the one that Dean & Geoff Stein compiled for Palms for California on the Palmpedia website http://www.palmpedia.net/palmsforcal/Main_Page  You could always reach out to them on suggestions for creating such a resource.  I'll pm you as well on the move.  Thanks for sharing the ideas too many to respond to in one post!

[Silas_Sancona]

Great link Carlos.. Thanks for sharing. 

So you're moving?? where to?.

[epiphyte]

Tracy, a forum post might be a bit unwieldy for a list of outdoor Anthuriums.  Plus there's the issue that most Anthurium growers in California aren't members of this forum... or any others.  Only one other grower included in the list of monopodial orchids is a member of an orchid forum, and she joined some time after the list was compiled.  

I imagine being at the Huntington sale and wanting to know which of the 10 or so different Anthurium species have been grown outside year around in California, or similar climates.  Our mutual friend Gene used to carry around a booklet in his pocket of the palms that can grow in California, it was a pretty handy reference.  It would be nice to have something similar for Anthuriums but in digital form.  

I like that Palmpedia website, a while back I tried to create something similar for outdoor orchids.  But it was a bit of work and time to maintain and update.  The cost was greater than the benefit so I gave up on it.  Right now when I tried to visit the Palmpedia website again I encountered an error... "504 Gateway Timeout".  

One possibility is to create a website like Hotipedia that people can edit themselves.  

Dave's Garden shows all the locations where a plant is grown, for example... Hoya kerrii.  But it doesn't specify whether somebody is growing it outside year around.  Plus, I don't think there's a page that displays all the Hoyas being grown outdoors in a specific type of climate.  

From my perspective creating outdoor lists is the perfect job for plant societies and/or botanical gardens.  

Silas, not sure if I'll move or where I'd move to.  I like the idea of moving to Southern Texas and trying to increase the northern limit of coconuts and orchids.  I'd love to have a farm with orchids growing on coconut palms!  It would be the best inter-cropping ever!  On Flickr I created a gallery of orchids growing on palm trees.  But I also like the idea of moving somewhere like Jamaica.   

 

[epiphyte]

Turns out that my Ficus thonningii used to be in a box, but a while back I had moved it into my largest pot, which I needed for another tree.  So now my Ficus is potless.  Tracy told Gene about the Ficus and he's planning to pick it up pretty soon.  I'm guessing that the other tree is Enterolobium cyclocarpum.  I picked up some seeds a long time ago in Mexico (Nayarit?).  According to my orchid phorophyte list, in nature this tree is a host for Guarianthe aurantiaca and Brassavola cucullata.  A while back Gene said that he saw the best Platycerium superbum growing on E. cyclocarpum, and he guesses that it had something to do with the tree providing the perfect amount of light.  I'm constantly battling some of my trees because they always want to provide too much shade.  

[Tracy]

3 hours ago, epiphyte said:

A while back Gene said that he saw the best Platycerium superbum growing on E. cyclocarpum,

I'm guessing it is this one.  It is a spectacular P superbum!

[epiphyte]

Tracy, wow!  Thanks for sharing the pic!!!  It's a super Staghorn.  Plus, there's Fernando looking cool.

See, this is a perfect example of why we need an online plant show!  

[epiphyte]

Here's another perfect example of why we need to have an online plant show... 

It's Schomburgkia superbiens and Phil at the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate.  He shared the pic with me last week when he came over for a tour.  I shared this pic and the Staghorn pic in my most recent blog entry (with permission of course)... Let's Have An Online Plant Show!

 

 

Edited September 3, 2018 by epiphyte