A DIABOLICAL HALLOWEEN PLAN

I'm spending this Halloween in my lab, genetically morphing haunted tiki idols and tropical plant cells to create a race of lounge music loving, fire-breathing monster plants that feed on human flesh and mai tais.

 

Happy Halloween from Dr. Ron and Backyard Exotica!

A TIKI SOIREE

I've been busy at work making the garden an ideal setting for end-of-summer evening tiki cocktail parties. Never mind that the evenings are getting cooler. The setting is warm and inviting. Check out some photos of the end result.

MANTIS INVASION: PART 2

I am constantly on the look out for mantises, both in my apartment garden and also while strolling the landscaped grounds at my work. During this past spring and summer I had endless mantis sightings (see my August 27th "Mantis Invasion" entry for some nice photos). But for the last month, they seemed to have vanished. Then, out of the blue, in a two day period, I saw two of the largest and most impressive mantises. Definitely a good omen. Check out the gorgeous beasts.

HALLOWEEN AT ROGER'S GARDENS - BLACKSTONE THEATER

Deep in "The OC" there lies a garden nursery that takes its holiday seasons very seriously and creates stunning festive displays. But unlike most retail businesses, who merely gleam over the Halloween season, Roger's Gardens in Corona del Mar takes it to near impossible extremes, creating yearly themed displays of untold horror and ghoulish delight. This year's theme is Blackstone Theater, a haunted back-alley theater house. I went to Roger's Garden recently to check it out and was, as with previous years, very impressed. Blackstone Theater is a real scream. A big thanks goes out to my significant other, Francoise at Curiosites Esthetiques who provided several of these photos.

ROGER'S GARDENS

2301 San Joaquin Hills Rd.

Corona Del Mar, CA 92625 

949-640-5800 

Open Daily 9am to 6pm

  

MIDNIGHT GARDENING: BAMBOO

Once again, I find myself hanging out in the garden late at night, this time to plant some new Phyllostachys aureus, better known as Golden Bamboo. About a year ago, I attempted to grow some black bamboo but no luck. It quickly died. I later learned that black bamboo prefers a cooler climate so maybe it's just as well. But since a huge tree growing next door has just been cut down, (see previous entry for the gory details) we've now got a plain view of some not-so-visually-pleasing playground equipment in the pre-school next door.  So I thought I'd give it another try. I ordered Golden Bamboo rhizomes (underground stem) from a great plant seller on eBay. Here goes Bamboo Scene, Take Two!

 Always excited to see a package in the mail. Trust me, I didn't fake my look of giddy delight. 

I couldn't wait to open my package of 10 bamboo rhizomes and get them in the ground.

Inside the package was a bagged tangle mess of bamboo goodness. Since I don't have 

any experience with bamboo I was a bit clueless as to where to begin.

I read somewhere that rhizomes should be soaked in water before planting and on top 

of that, these smelled like death, being in a sealed, moist package for several days 

so I figured a good soak could only help.

Here's an up-close and personal view of one of the root-riddled rhizomes. It looks healthy 

enough, I guess. Again, I really don't know anything about bamboo so I'm winging it.

I don't have much unpaved garden space left so I planted the bamboo in pots. These ones
are probably way too small for bamboo so I'll pot them up once they start growing a bit.
For now, I trimmed the excessive roots off to make them fit in the pots.

Bamboo loves lots of water so I gave these a good soaking.

Some of the rhizomes already have shoots so I got a preview of future attractions. 

Golden bamboo grows up to around 30 feet and is supposed to be one of the best 

bamboos for creating a beautiful, lush barrier wall. I can't wait!

MY GARDEN NEMESIS IS GOOD AND DEAD

Since we moved in two years ago, I've been at constant battle with a tall, cantankerous old tree on the other side of the fence that overshadowed half of my garden with its huge, dense branches. It especially enjoyed dumping leaves, fluffy spores, berries and twigs into my garden. As a result, I've had to constantly sweep up the mess and pull baby tree seedlings out of the soil. And on one occasion a large branch crashed into the yard, destroying several of my potted plants. Luckily my little guy Vincent wasn't playing in the garden at the time. On top of all of this, the heavy tree branches were resting on power lines directly over our yard. I finally had had enough and after about a month and a half of pestering, persuaded the pre-school behind us (the tree's on their side) to trim the branches back to the edge of their yard. I don't know if the fact that Vincent goes to school there influenced their decision to agree to this but I'm sure it didn't hurt. Well, I got more than I bargained for - they cut down the entire tree. On a foggy morning last week, a guy with a chainsaw cut the tree down one huge branch at a time. I ran out in the garden last Sunday at 8am just in time to pull the potted plants out of the way as the branches came crashing into the yard and I had a few close calls with a few of the branches  landing just a few inches away from me and the plants. Anyway, it was a huge mess and I ended up spending a good part of the day cleaning up, but I couldn't be happier now that it's gone.

 

 Here's the tree massacre post-apocalypse view. The downed branches were 

stacked nearly to the top of the fence. A huge mess.

Although I was able to save most of my plants since they were in pots, my treasured 

fern tree was in the ground and I didn't have time to even tie it's fronds back so it 

took a real beating. Note the ironic "welcome" sign.

 

Almost back to normal. Here's the view after I completed most of the cleanup 

and returned the plants back to their original locations.

 

As you can see here, at least part of the fern tree survived the carnage. A few new 

fronds are already coming up so it should be right as rain within a few months.

I'm also planning on growing bamboo against this wall to block the view of 

the preschool playground equipment.

 

A STEAMY JUNGLE AT THE LOS ANGELES FAIR

I haven't been to the LA Fair in probably 20-odd years and my only real recollection of it was lots of food vendors, crazy rides and a Village People concert. But this year, on a whim, I decided to go there with my wife and kid, prompted by a Groupon deal too good to pass up. And I am so glad I did. There are some fantastic exhibits, including the life-sized animatronic dinosaur-filled Jurassic Planet Bio-Research Facility, the Wilderness Ridge outdoor mountain wilderness area and  a neon light exhibit inside the Millard Sheets Center For The Arts and several other interesting sights. But what really grabbed me was the abundance of tropical bliss. There is the Flower & Garden Pavilion complete with a plant-filled rainforest and next to that is Mojo's Jungle, a large outdoor tropical paradise, complete with some very nice tiki landscaping. You can see from the photos I took that this ain't just your typical fair. The LA Fair runs until October 2nd so check it out if you have a chance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TIGRINA RETURNS FROM THE DEAD

For my very first blog entry in March 2010, I wrote about a treasured Alocasia Tigrina plant that I had just purchased online. This gorgeous tropical plant is prehistoric in nature, with giant, reptilian-like leaves and tiger stripped stalks (petioles). I ordered a juvenile plant, around two feet tall but they are rumored to grow over six feet tall with leaves over two feet long. When I first learned about this plant I was immediately in love and when it arrived I was ecstatic. Within a matter of months it had nearly doubled in size but then, unexpectedly, it died back to a tiny stump. I, apparently, had broken two Alocasia Tigrina cardinal rules: 1) give minimal water, and 2) keep it potbound (prefers undersized pot). I was devastated, and since this plant is difficult to find, I wondered if I'd ever have the opportunity to grow another one. But just in case it hadn't died completely, I dug up the tuber, transplanted it into a smaller pot, and waited patiently, hoping for a second act. Sadly, nearly a year went by and still no growth. So this past spring, I once again dug up the tuber and discovered that it had pretty much completely rotted away. But just as I was about to throw it out, I noticed a very small potato ear-like appendage on the side of the rotten tuber. On a whim, I carefully cut the 'ear' thingy off and transplanted it back into a pot of fresh porous soil and waited... and waited. And finally, around mid-summer 2011, a new small plant poked through the earth and now, a few months later, it is around six inches tall and has its first leaf. Check out the photos of it's early stages of growth, the last photo being from just yesterday.

Here's a photo of my original plant soon after I received it
in March 2010. I was giddy as a schoolgirl.

I found this photo on the Internet showing the stunning
appearance of a mature Alocasia Tigrina.

Here are three photos of my newly reborn Alocasia Tigrina,

over the past few month period.

My Alocasia Tigrina story has a curiously odd twist. A few months ago, I noticed what appeared to be a small tropical plant growing in an isolated area of my garden where I only grow berries. I wasn't sure what it was but was curious enough to transplant it into a pot and place it on my kitchen windowsill, which has become an impromptu nursery. Very recently, as the plant grew a bit bigger and a few leaves appeared, I realized that it is actually another Alocasia Tigrina plant! My only possible theory is that when I transplanted the seemingly-dead tuber of the original plant, I must have re-used the dirt from the pot and there was a mini-me version of the tuber in the soil that got distributed to the isolated section of my garden. So I went from no Alocasia Tigrinas to two - I couldn't be happier!