Garden Cookout

This is the time of year that really makes me regret living in an apartment complex where barbecue grills are outlawed. I often find myself stumbling into bushes and walking into fences while my nose carries me on a joyride through the neighborhood on a quest for burgers and shish-kabobs only to find that I wasn't invited in the first place. It's a small wonder that nobody has called the cops after looking up from their beer and bratwurst to find me peeking over the fence.

The Healing Process

After almost two weeks without a good look at my garden, it would appear that the rains have been good to the parched soil. My mother Nancy Asbell is recovering as well. After three near death experiences she finally has a proper hospital room with her name on it, and we’re turning our attention to resurrecting her career as an artist and piano teacher. I’ve also been able to relax enough that gardening can once again become a priority. Weeds be warned!

The Garden is Dying and My Mother is Living

Last Sunday I was awoken at five in the morning to hear my mom incoherently ask for the keys to the house in the event that someone would need to take her to the hospital. I've received calls like this from her before, for a variety of other lupus related emergencies. Normally my first stop after the thirty minute drive to her house is my garden, but this time I only gave it a passing glance while I let the dog outside, and the paramedics struggled to save my mother's life in the ambulance, unknown to me.

The Old Man and the Seeds - A Short Story

I had a really interesting dream the other night and had the poor judgement to turn it into a short story and make an illustration for it. I then made an even more questionable decision, deciding to post it here on The Rainforest Garden so that you all might see how weird my dreams are. Wait, don't run away! It's about plant propagation, humility, desperation, the human condition and... oh yeah! Citrus trees. It will be over before you know it, and you don't even have to do a book report afterwards.

Interior Design with Plants

There's no shame in abandoning the garden a little during the sweltering heat of summer, and spending a little time gardening in the comfort of your air conditioned home. At least that's what I'm telling myself. So much attention has been given to the quest for an "outdoor room", blurring the lines of the home and garden, but why not bring a little of the outdoors inside too? Here are some ways that I've incorporated Rainforest Garden style into my own home.

My Mossy Terrarium

Growing a moss garden and making a terrarium are two things that I had hoped to do by now as a gardener. A moss garden has been impossible for my garden since the rampant paws of my sheltie would send those velvet carpets of emerald moss hurtling through the air in a matter of minutes. Moss in a terrarium however, is something that anyone can accomplish.

Skip to my Leu Gardens

In our many trips to Winter Park over the years, we've not once visited Leu Gardens. With all of the free activities in the city, we've always prided ourselves on not paying the steep admission fee so that we'd drive home with an extra twenty dollars in our pockets. This time, things would be different. On the last day of our honeymoon, the missus and I sought to rectify this omission once and for all.

Disney's Animal Kingdom: The Largest Garden in the World?

It wouldn't be a stretch to call this Disney theme park one of the largest botanical gardens in the world. With 500 acres composed of over 3,000 species of plants from around the world, put together with an incomprehensible budget and limitless human resources, its hard to find a more impressive public garden. Did I mention that they have the largest collection of flowering trees in North America? Mrs. Rainforest Gardener and myself don't typically visit theme parks, but for a tropical garden of this magnitude, we made an exception.

Gardening at Sunrise

I spent a restless night at my mom's place while she got over a nasty case of food poisoning, and woke up to the sound of songbirds before dawn. I watched the slash pines through the windows as they slowly shifted from black into gray before taking on a purple glow. My mom is a landscape artist. She will tell you that slash pine trees are in fact purple around sunrise and sunset, and if you paint those trunks brown they would look boring, or worse, unnatural. As my eyes adjusted to the purple trees, I decided to take a walk.

10 Container Gardening Ideas

One of the reasons we went to Disney for the honeymoon was to find great gardening inspiration, and I was especially focused on finding interesting container plantings to share here. While I got photos of tons of container combos, I've narrowed my choices down to ten photos that stood out the most for their usefulness to the home gardener. Looking for more ideas from Orlando? I've also put together an album on the Facebook Page!

DIY Hanging Birdcage Planter

Do you have a birdcage lying around and taking up space? Turn it into a hanging garden! We had a birdcage for guests at the wedding to deposit their cards into, but I knew just what to do with it when we came home. Even though our birdcage is a little more ornamental, I'm sure that real birdcages would provide a similarly novel effect. Here's how I did it!

Crazy Topiaries at Epcot

As luck would have it, the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival ended right before we arrived on our honeymoon. Come to think of it, that was rather un-lucky. Fortunately for us, the topiaries were still out to be admired by fashionably late people like ourselves! The character topiaries were constructed with metal frames, sphagnum moss and creeping fig, along with some unconventional materials like painted coir and maybe a tillandsia.

A Critic's Guide to the Mexican Garden at Epcot

Mexico was the first stop on our tour of Epcot's World Showcase. While the attractions lay inside a replica of a Mayan temple, Mr. and Mrs. Rainforest Gardener were more interested in the tropical gardens outdoors. My wife had a nice nap on the Three Caballeros ride and was disappointed to see it end, if only because it meant that she had to wake up. The gardens outdoors were wonderful for their lush display of tropical plants, but the lack of authenticity left me feeling like a nitpicking critic.

The Gardens of Epcot, Future World

This week I'll let you tag along on our honeymoon adventures... in the parks anyways.
Okay, let's face it. Epcot gets a bad rap for being the "boring" Disney theme park. If you're into gardens, however, it's definitely worth a visit! In Future World the landscaping is actually the most modern part, light years ahead of some supposedly futuristic attractions.The massed plantings of bromeliads and other architectural plants were out of this world, and nothing beats the sight of blooming jacarandas against Spaceship Earth.

DIY Tropical Wedding, Part 1

For those of you wondering where I've been over the last few weeks, all I have to say is that wedding planning is a pain in the patootie. If there's one thing we've learned through all of this chaos though, it's that the only way to get some things right is to do it yourself. That's why I've designed invitations, favors, several flower arrangements, and even the menus! While marrying my best friend was obviously the best part of the wedding, I also thoroughly enjoyed planning it with a little Rainforest Garden pizazz!

Getting Ready for My Wedding

You heard right, I'm getting married. On Sunday, actually! While I have been a little busy planning the festivities and honeymoon, rest assured that I'll have a ton of creative ideas to show you when it's over. For example, I'm using tropical plants in every floral element, designing some lush green floral arrangements, making favors out of rhipsalis cuttings, putting together a container planting... the list goes on! We'll even have some inspiring ideas from our honeymoon at Disney.

Alocasia Propagation from Cuttings

I know you're probably tired of hearing about my Alocasia "California", but this time I have more than words of adoration for my favorite specimen in the garden. You see, today I'll actually show you how to grow your own Alocasias from stem cuttings! Maybe "stem cuttings" isn't the right way to describe it though. The "stems" are really more like trunks, and the "cutting" is carried out by simply snapping the trunks off by hand. Pretty easy, huh?

Garden Design Tips: Borrow a View!

I now own an acre of land! Kind of. I spent the other day in a frantic land grab, and have now claimed the woods behind the house as my own. By clearing out the weeds and seedlings in the undergrowth I've now claimed ownership of the woods and can now survey my vast and bountiful dominion, a bountiful landscape that was under my nose all along! It's amazing how a little planning in the garden can make it bigger.

Don't Throw Out That Easter Cactus!

Okay, so Easter is over and that pretty houseplant your co-worker gave you has lost its flowers. Now what? Even though Easter cactus is at its best while blooming, it also makes a great low maintenance houseplant all year long! I'm going to show you what to do with your Easter cactus now that it's done blooming, how to take cuttings, and how to get even more blooms next year!

Tropical Courtyard Garden

As any gardener knows, spending time outside with your favorite plants has a magical, curative effect on the mind and nerves.I paved this little courtyard area last year and have since watched my palms and bromeliads slowly fill in. I originally paved it as a place for my handicapped mom to enjoy the garden, so there are no tables to impede accessibility. Care to join me for a little tour?