The World is Your Garden

A garden follows you wherever you go. It branches out to the soil of friends and neighbors in the form of cuttings and divisions, and when you leave your own patch of soil it also follows, uprooted and shaken up, but ready to start life anew under any circumstances. In 2008 I planted 'the rainforest garden' for my mother, who had lost her ability to walk after complications of a brain stem stroke, a broken back and other ailments. The garden started as a humble patch of soggy dirt against the fence, but quickly grew into something wonderful.

How to Grow Turmeric

I'm not sure why turmeric isn't more popular, considering that growing your own, Thai food and DIY projects are all the rage. Curcuma longa is a tropical rhizome with an intriguing past that looks just as great in the garden as it tastes on the table. The whole plant is edible; the roots are boiled, dried and ground up to produce turmeric powder, the leaves make a wrap for steamed fish, and even the flowers can be eaten as an exotically beautiful vegetable, like lettuce with a kick. Oh, and did I mention that impersonating turmeric is a crime in India?

The Five Dollar Butter Dish Terrarium

The butter dish was five dollars, and the moss was collected for free from an abandoned parking lot. The Hatiora cuttings were taken from my balcony, and the white piece of coral was just found on the beach, also a freebie. The whole project cost me five dollars and only took about a minute to make, but the end result is in my opinion, a miniature work of art. Here's how I did it.

Better Garden Photography with Cell Phones

Okay, so I lied. I’m adding another part to this photography series, specifically for those shooting with a ‘point and shoot’ camera or a cell phone. Great photography is not about having the latest and greatest high resolution digital SLR camera out there; it’s about being creative and involved in your world, using the camera as your voice. Besides, the technology has improved dramatically in a very short period of time, making it hard for most people to distinguish between photos taken with a $100 camera vs. a $1000 dollar one.

Teabag Seed Packets and a Teapot Terrarium

I say it's high time that we gardeners had a tea party, Rainforest Garden style. Serving your friends some tea and cookies is always great, but why not let them gaze at a teapot terrarium as a centerpiece, or send them home with DIY seed packets disguised as tea bags? If entertaining friends isn't your thing, skip shopping this year and give your friends and family homemade seedbags for the holidays! They're cheap, easy and very, very fun. Here's how to make your own:

Learning to Take Better Garden Photos, Part 1

You'll notice that the title isn't 'How to Take Better Garden Photos.' It's about 'Learning to Take Better Garden Photos' because like most of you, I'm still learning! My recent trip to the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens was not all about the animals, or even the plants: I spent my time learning ways to take better photos with crisper details, better exposure and more creative composition. In part one of three, I focus on how to make the most of your equipment for great garden shots. Next I'll cover techniques before moving on to composition.

Tropicanna Black

I like to think of the Tropicannas as a trilogy of summer smash hit movies filled with action, drama and catchy titles. Tesselaar is the Australian based production studio where stars are born before being marketed to the masses with catchy names and full color plant tags. The most recent installment to this trilogy of blockbusters is deliciously dark, edgy and even has a surprise twist ending! The purple flower spikes erupt in a fiery explosion so intense that… oh, did I spoil the ending for you?

Fall is Full of Flowers

While much of the country is closely checking their forecasts for the next helpings of snow and frost, fall in Florida is a gardener's dream. We don't get to enjoy the blazing colors of fall leaves, but we Florida gardeners are also too entranced by the still burgeoning blooms to really complain. It's bittersweet knowing that a frost will blot out the color within months, but now is the time to be thankful; to celebrate a second spring of garden color.

A Tour of the Balcony

I'm exhausted! Today I finally got around to doing everything on the balcony that I've been putting off for the last several months. I deep cleaned every nook and cranny, mounted plants on cork slabs, re-potted seedlings, re-arranged plants, and threw away plants that weren't pulling their weight. That's right, I was so hellbent on attaining balcony perfection that I was willing to ditch any plants that weren't worth keeping. What have I become?

A Very Botanical Halloween

This year we kicked the jack o' lanterns to the curb, sent the mums to the compost heap and took a slightly different approach to fall decor. The wonderful thing about plants is that they're always ready and willing to sacrifice a limb in the name of good, clean halloween fun. Seeds, cuttings, leaves and flowers are all fair game, whether you're going for spooky or subtle. I know it's a little late to post Halloween ideas, but better late than never!

An Interview with the Surviving Orchids of the Great Winter

My wife doubts the legitimacy of my 'business trips' to botanical gardens, so I just tell her that I'm conversing with the plants themselves, interviewing them about their noble lineage (the hybridized plants anyways) and their favorite meals (Bone meal washed down with compost tea). I'm just going straight to the source for all the dirt I need.
Last weekend I visited Mckee Botanical Gardens to interview the orchids about the frost killings of 2010, gaining valuable insights into their lives. What I found was shocking.

A Gathering of Beachcombers

This weekend my wife and I attended the Sea Bean Symposium, an annual gathering of beachcombers that call themselves 'The Drifters' and search the world's beaches for beautiful sea beans and drift seeds. For those of you who don't know or remember what sea beans are, check out this post from last month and prepare to be amazed. If the cheerful crowd at the symposium was any indication, sea beans have the magical power to make anyone happy and carefree. Just a hunch.

Princess Epiphyllum

I'm sure you've all heard of 'queen of the night,' the epiphyllum cactus with spineless flattened stems and huge white flowers that bloom at night, right? Well, let me introduce you to another epiphyllum with subtler charms. Her name is Epiphyllum pumilum, but I think that she deserves her own common name, a name befitting of her graceful nature and dainty form. How about 'princess epiphyllum?' Her flowers are nowhere near as large as the queens, but she more than makes up for it. You'll see.

The Absolutely True Tale of the Evil Carrion Flower

When people learn that I'm a garden writer, they tend to do a double take.
"Really?" they say, before feigning interest and pressing for details. "So what do you write about? Tomatoes? Roses? Petunias?"
Watching my cool factor take a nosedive before my very eyes, I tell them about the coolest, most badass and masculine plant I can think of before they pass judgement on my girly hobby. Carrion flower is the kind of plant I would fall back on, since there's nothing more unexpected than a flower that mimics rotting meat to attract swarms of flies.

Off the Wall Ideas for Orchids on the Walls

Hanging orchids on walls is nothing new, but with the popularity of gardening it just might become the next big thing! While I've been growing orchids on my wall for a while now, this wall at Polasek Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park takes it to another level. I don't know about you guys, but I can't think of a better way to decorate a wall in the outdoor room than by decking it out with orchids, bromeliads and other epiphytes.

Acres of Bromeliads at the Tropiflora Fall Festival

The one dollar bromeliads, artisans, barbecue and plant vendors made for an amazing day, but acres of bromeliad filled shadehouses to peruse made it a perfect day. I've always wanted to attend one of Tropiflora's plant sales, but was never able to make the trip. I was already attending the FNGLA Landscape Show on Saturday, (more on that later) so Mrs. Rainforest Gardener and I made a vacation out of it and drove down to Sarasota the next day.

My Moss island Project

I've always been concocting crazy ideas to create the look and feel of a rainforest on my balcony by covering branches with epiphytic plants. This is one idea that I've been tinkering around with for some time, but have just now gotten around to completing. Think of it as a 'Rainforest Drop' of a different sort. I simply wrapped the rootball of an ardisia plant with moss and twine, and then added the same rhipsalis that I use on the drops. Pretty cool, huh?

The Big List of Freeze Tolerant Bromeliads

As many of you know, I'm big on finding cold hardy bromeliads. People just assume that because I live in Florida, coconut palms and tropical plantings are the norm for me, but here in Northeast Florida, we get temperatures way down to 20F in winter. Luckily there are tons of freeze tolerant bromeliads out there, with some hardy well into the teens! I've compiled a really big list of cold hardy bromeliads from existing resources online and in print, as well as some personal and anecdotal experience. Take this list to the nursery with you!

Modern Hydrangea Arrangement

I hate hydrangeas. Okay, maybe hate is a strong word for my uneasy relationship with this traditional looking flower. They're useful enough, but they're just not my style. Hydrangeas also have this tendency to change colors based on the soil's acidity and can take on an unwanted muddy hue. My wife wanted green hydrangeas for the wedding, but we ended up with these insipid looking greenish white fluffballs instead. While I might not like hydrangeas, yesterday was my mother in law's birthday and she happens to like them. Here's how I gave a traditional flower a much needed update.

Germinating Easter Cactus Seeds

Have you ever seen fruits on your Easter cactus and wondered what that's all about? These are actually fruits chock full of seeds waiting to be eaten by a bird and spread to some distant tree They can also be spread by plant geeks with too much time on their hands. Yes, I know that it's much faster to take cuttings of Easter and holiday cacti, but what if you want to make some crosses? What if you're just obsessed with epiphytic cacti and want to start them from seed just because you can? Here's how!

Repotting Plants on my Balcony

Am I the only one who waits way too long to re-pot plants? My excuse for the moment is that they've just been growing too quickly to keep up with lately, and potting soil is getting right up there with gasoline on my list of expensive natural resources. A recent trip to Lowes yielded some very cheap (and chic!) containers, so I had the perfect motivation to go out there and clumsily spread dirt all over the balcony in an attempt to re-pot some pants. Now I just have some sweeping to do...

Retro Houseplant Illustrations

I've always been inspired by 'mid-century modern' architecture, fashion and design, but after watching the show Mad Men I've become especially enamored with the simple and playful illustrations of the age. I remember looking at old books on houseplants and gushing over the sleek illustrations of Monstera deliciosa and Ficus decora amid the clean lines and deep wood grain backdrops of modern homes. I used to love looking at the work of architects like Luis Barragan and Paul Rudolph, or the illustrations of Charley Harper.

Sea Beans and Drift Seeds

Besides using houseplants, decorating with drift seeds is my favorite way to bring nature into our home. If you're scratching your head at my crazy talk of sea beans and drift seeds, here's an explanation. Sea beans are large legume seeds from the tropics that wash up on beaches far from home, but the name could be applied to any durable floating seed found on the beach. That definition is fine and dandy, but where did they come from, and how did they get from a rainforest in Brazil to a beach in North Carolina or Florida?

A Snake, Some Flowers and a Long Overdue Tour of the Garden

You know your garden is a haven for wildlife when you can spot at least 20 species of animals in a five minute walk. I counted five speies of butterflies, one baby garter snake, about five bees and wasps, a couple dragonflies, three species of lizards, countless birds flitting about, and an uncertain number of mosquitoes. I was too busy swatting them or trying to ignore them to even attempt a decent ID. The garden may be suffering through a drought, but the animals and blooms don't seem to notice.

How to Fix An Orchid

This is a post about keeping orchids alive. I was going to draw a cartoon of the grim reaper in bright green gardening gloves walking away in sadness after inadvertently killing his new orchid, but figured the dying orchid and his last words of "Et tu Brutus?" would be confusing to some. I would say "Get it? The orchid is using botanical latin! The grim reaper said "I'm sick of taking work home with me!" But the joke would fall flat after hours spent over a silly cartoon. Besides, isn't this picture of my blooming Epicyclia prettier?

Orchid Daze: Liquid Landscapes

I can't believe that I neglected to share this with you! You might remember my trip to Atlanta for the Proven Winners Outdoor Living Extravaganza (long name) this March, and my posts about the Fuqua conservatory. Maybe I just forgot to post about the exhibit because I was too distracted by the montane greenhouse and the Proven Winners event. There was a lot going on in such a short period of time! Anyways, here is the Orchid Daze: Liquid Landscapes exhibit in all its glory.

A Warm Summer Afternoon Palette

I've been planning on sharing this arrangement of bromeliads with you, but decided that it would be even more fun to take a cue from the warm and spicy color scheme and create a mood board of sorts to inspire myself for the coming of fall. Sun baked hues of ochre and orange, deep greens and occasional explosions of magenta and purple seem like they would clash, but somehow seem right at home together in this imaginary subtropical garden of mine.

Tropical Looking Palms for Marginal Zones

It's hard to imagine the tropics without palm trees. Sure, you can achieve the tropical look with a well placed hibiscus or bromeliad, but would any other plant have the same impact as a statuesque palm taking center stage in the garden? I mean, come on. Try to picture the beaches of Hawaii without coconut palms swaying in the breeze, lending their fronds to tiki huts and their coconuts to pina coladas. In this post is a list of ways to take advantage of even the most common palms, and then a list of uncommon palms to look for.

My Wife's Caladium Drawing

Since I was hard at work on an editing project, my wife took the initiative and saved Sketch A Plant Sunday all on her own! The caladium arrangement I made earlier had been calling her name all week, and she just had to take a crack at those intricate networks of lines and veins before they started to fade. I for one think she did an amazing job. What do you think?

Tank Sprayers: Not Just for Chemicals Anymore

You know those big sprayers used to apply pesticides and fertilizer? It turns out they're perfect for watering and misting the plants on my balcony. In the past I've used spray bottles that were unable to withstand the daily rigors of misting my plants every day. They each broke after about a month of sore hands and puny spritzes, and each ended up with a pile of other spray bottles in the trash. My new tank sprayer on the other hand sends out a steady stream of water in a mist or jet, and is as easy to use as a garden nozzle.

How I Became a Gardener (Just Five Years Ago)

This is how I went from being a graphic design student to a gardening nut, only five years ago. I recently stumbled across an old sketchbook filled with ideas for turning my balcony into a chic and modern garden. My wife and I (we were living in sin back then) had just moved into our apartment together and I was going to school to be a designer. It was around that time that our hikes in South Florida and a book on houseplants coalesced into a gardening obsession.

Sketching Plants With My Soulmate!

What's better than enjoying time with the one you love? Spending time drawing plants with the one you love, of course! This evening my wife and I sat down together after a hearty homemade stew, set up our models (a chartreuse pothos and a Siam tulip) and put our pencils to paper for my very first collaborative Sketch a Plant Sunday! Feel free to share your own drawings too...

Hybridizing Makes Me Happy!

I thought I'd just write a blog post full of plant stuff that's making me smile at the moment. My hybrid 'Blue Bouquet' passionflower has formed a fruit even though hybrid passionflowers supposedly don't do that sort of thing. Come to think of it, all of those little nuggets of happiness have to do with hybridization, from the passionflowers to my own first hybridization attempt with rhipsalis!

Agapanthus, the Lily of the Nile

Here in North Central Florida they're ubiquitous in hell strips, parking lot medians and drive throughs, but the strappy leaves are yellowed and stressed in those inhospitable urban deserts, and the blue flowerheads are stunted remnants of how they would look with some TLC. Don't let these neglected plantings fool you!  With the right care, you'll be treated to hundreds of flowers atop tall and leaning stalks as well as strappy and arching leaves that look as if they were polished to perfection.

Sketch A Plant Sunday: Brazilian Red Hots

Happy SAP Sunday, everyone! Today I'm proud to present a sketch of a Brazilian Red Hot plant drawn by my lovely wife, Mrs. Rainforest Gardener! I really like how she captured the character and form of the Alternanthera dentata by giving it a lacy and filigreed look, making it look airy and carefree. She insisted that she only shared her sketch so that drawing wouldn't look too intimidating, but I absolutely love it. I'm a very lucky husband, aren't I?

The Joy of Gardening for Others

Those of you just tuning in might be surprised to learn that "my" garden is actually thirty minutes away at my mother's house, and that I'm only able to tend to it once every one to three weeks. I can't pull weeds as soon as they appear, I always visit just after the rosebush has finished blooming, and I quickly learn which plants are truly maintenance free because everything else dies by the time I return a week later. My mother is the only one who gets to enjoy it, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Billbergia Pyramidalis, AKA 'Bubble Gum Cotton Candy Plant'

Some call them 'hurricane bromeliad', and others 'foolproof plant'. If I could come up with a common name myself it would be 'bubble-gum-cotton-candy-plant' for the velvety delicious looking inflorescences that froth up from a swirl of glossy green leaves late every summer. Maybe it's a good thing that I don't make the decisions when it comes to naming plants. Oh to hell with it. I'd do a great job naming plants!

Tropical Color in the Summer Garden

I might be biased, but what better plants for a summer garden than tropicals? Tropical plants happen to thrive on the very same heat and humidity that makes even the most red blooded southerner miserable, so I never have to worry about my garden flopping during a heat wave. Here are some ideas from my trip to Winter Park for incorporating some temporary tropical displays in your own garden, be it in soggy Seattle or sultry Savannah.

Mega Macro Monday, Leu Gardens Edition

After a trip to Winter Park and its fabulous gardens, I've decided to make up for lost time and share a really big Macro Monday post using some shots from my little excursion. I spent all day around Leu Gardens, Polasek Sculpture Gardens, downtown and at a couple of nurseries drinking lots of water and continuously losing it as I became drenched in sweat. I know that visiting gardens during a heat advisory sounds pretty dreadful, but look at what I found!

Sketch A Plant Sunday - Magnolia Seedling

This is the first real sketch of my Sketch A Plant Sunday project; a quick pencil sketch completed while half-awake and yearning for caffeine. I've just returned from a day trip to Winter Park last night (Don't worry, I have over 200 photos) and somehow the full nine hours of sleep weren't enough for me this time around. It's always rewarding to force yourself to draw something, even when you don't feel like it.

Wordless Wednesday

Why haven't I been doing any Wordless Wednesday posts lately? Beats me. In any case, here are some shots of neglect tolerant plants from my most recent trip to the garden. The Neoregelia bromeliad gets rainfall, but the echeveria and geranium survive in containers on nothing but dew and a watering once every two to three weeks. Who knew that Pelagorniums could be so downright durable?

The Life Cycle of the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly

We have all learned where butterflies come from. It was in elementary school when the science teacher ordered a kit that promised flocks of magical butterflies fluttering about the classroom but in reality, the tent became littered with stinky dead pupae and misshapen creatures that never quite came out right. Did anyone else have this experience? Well, today while gardening I witnessed both a caterpillar forming its cocoon and a butterfly emerging from one! It sure beats poking at stinky dead mutant bugs in the classroom.

Sketch A Plant Sunday - Dracaena Part 2

I've finally made some headway with my Dracaena "Limelight" drawing! Recently Kat White has been sharing her own digital art, and I was inspired to play around with digital painting myself. First I worked out the lines with Prismacolor markers and filled in the leaves with a solid apple green. Then I downloaded an app called Sketchbook Pro to my new iPad and started drawing the plant in my living room from life.

All About Lemongrass

It's been a long time since I've posted a decent plant profile, and I could think of no plant more interesting to feature than lemongrass. It has a fragrant citrus aroma, has been used in the kitchen for centuries, and it also happens to be a superb addition to the garden! It's so incredibly rewarding to harvest my own lemongrass for tea and pad Thai, and the harvest is all the more exciting because my lemongrass plant thrived under virtually no care at all.

A Buggy Field Trip to the Gardens and Beach

When we entered Washington Oaks Gardens state park, a sign warned us that "Mosquitoes are plentiful in the park today." Sea glass jeweler Shannon Maureen Russell, my wife and I were planning on having a picnic in the park and even taking a garden stroll, but the sign merely made us giggle. "Plentiful" sounds like the way you'd describe flowers or frolicking butterflies, not the way you would explain what turned out to be swarms. If only we heeded that inadequate warning...

Sketch a Plant Sunday: Art of Nancy Asbell

Is it Sunday already? I still have some work to do before posting my dracaena drawing, but in the meantime I'll share some of the wonderful landscape paintings by my mother, Nancy Asbell. In case you were wondering, she's recovering nicely thanks to your prayers and kind thoughts. Oh, and there's a McLinky tool at the bottom of the post so you can share your own garden sketches, doodles and art! For the love of God, please don't be shy this time.

Our Lavender and Chartreuse Anniversary Arrangement

I came home the other night to find a romantic anniversary dinner complete with a bouquet of chartreuse Fuji mums! If you couldn't already tell by looking at our wedding arrangements, my wife and I are big fans of the color chartreuse. As it turned out, I brought some flowers of my own for our dinner, three cut flowers from a siam tulip (Curcuma) that I bought from the nursery with the express intent of using for an arrangement. I'd like to think that her flowers and my flowers worked quite well together.

A Three Hour Tour... of the Garden!

I know it's been a while since I've shared the garden at my mom's but then again, I haven't been there much lately! I'm making up for lost time with a megapost filled with pictures of the flowers, foliage and fruit from the garden in July, but I haven't found the courage to sing a ditty like last time. Maybe after I sample some of the ripe figs that I've just harvested and wash it down with a passionfruit cocktail.

Sketch A Plant Sunday - Dracaena

Part blog carnival and part attempt to get back into the habit of drawing more often, Sketch A Plant Sunday is when I draw a plant, post it, and hopefully see some of your drawings in return! Show me yours and I'll show you mine... or something like that. I've commenced by exploring the outlines of a Dracaena "Limelight" in my living room, and next week I'll continue by going over the lines with ink.

Plant Chandelier and Other Ideas

My friend Cora always has the best ideas. This gorgeous many-armed plant stand was once just a cruddy looking chandelier on the side of the road, but Cora knew better. She sandblasted it with the help of her son and daughter and law, painted it white, and filled the chandelier's arms with an assortment of potted plants that she found at a yard sale. You think this is cool? Wait til you have a look at her wind harp crafted from a GOURD!