The Variegated Thumb

I got to spend a week in New Delhi, India in April.  I didn’t have a lot of free time outside of my work obligations, but I spotted some interesting plants here and there.  The part of town I was in was very green, with trees everywhere.  Even still, with India being highly vegetarian, I probably ate more plants than I saw.

My hotel had some nice palm trees on the grounds.  When I think of India palm trees aren’t the first plants that come to mind – especially far from the coast.  However, I know very little about Indian flora.

Caryota urens, Fishtail Palm

Phoenix roebellini growing in a container.  Notice the white flowers.

Close-up of Phoenix roebellini flowers.

There was a beautiful lotus pond at the hotel.  In the morning and early afternoon the flowers were open.  By the heat of the afternoon they would close.

Lotus pond at the hotel

My hotel also had  a collection of bonsai trees.

Ficus bonsai at my hotel

I walked about a mile from the hotel to the Lodhi Gardens.  Along the way I passed the India Islamic Cultural Centre, where there was a nice aroid (maybe Epipremnum) growing on the trunk of a deceased tree.

Probably an Epipremnum

The Lodhi Gardens is a public park where a lot of families and friends congregate to just enjoy the outdoors.  Inside the gardens are several tombs and a mosque, beautiful old buildings dating back to the 1400s.

Tombs in the Lodhi Gardens

A tenacious Ficus religiosa taking root in the cracks of an old tomb. Hopefully someone will yank it out before it turns this tomb into a pile of rocks.

Sunset at the Lodhi Gardens

I wandered around the gardens until sunset, taking photos and enjoying the hot weather.

Beautiful Cannas in front of a beautiful tomb

Stands of bamboo

Agave plants forming on the bloom stalk of a parent plant

Many of the trees in the park were tagged with their species names, including this Cinnamomum camphora.

Cinnamomum camphora at Lodhi Gardens

There were many interesting birds in the park and a large placard that identified some of them.  I identified Parakeets, Common Mynah, and House Crow.

Placard of birds that can be found in the gardens

House crow (Corvus splendens)

Within the grounds of Lodhi Gardens is the “National Bonsai Park.” Apparently it closes earlier in the day, so I wasn’t able to go inside.

Closed.

Down the street from Lodhi Gardens is the Safdarjung Tomb, which is a beautiful example of Mughal architecture.  It looks a bit like the Taj Mahal.  On the grounds was a beautiful fl0wering tree native to Madagascar.

Safdarjung Tomb in Delhi

Beautiful flowers of Delonix regia, a Madagascan native.

On the walk back to the hotel I passed a tree with interesting flowers hanging from inflorescences under the canopy at eye level.  It was dusk and my camera battery was dead, so I had to use my phone camera with flash, which resulted in a less than stellar picture.

Flowers of Kigelia africana

Some friends helped me identify this tree as Kigelia africana, the Sausage Tree.  I have seen these trees at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, with their large seed pods that look like sausages, but I had not seen them in bloom before.

I really enjoyed my limited leisure time in Delhi and I hope to get to visit India again some day.

The Oklahoma Orchid Society show and sale takes place at the Will Rogers Park in Oklahoma City.  While we were there for the orchid show, we decided to wander around the park a little.  The Oklahoma Iris Society maintains a nice Iris Gardens that was in full bloom for our visit.  All of the plants were neatly labeled so we knew what we were viewing.

Greatest Show On Earth

Act Surprised

Sorbonne

Rayos Adentro

There were probably about 35 varieties in bloom.  This last one was Christie’s favorite.

Splurge

This has been a good year for our own little Iris garden at home.  We might have to add a variety or two for new colors next year.  This variety, Splurge, would be a good candidate.

My local orchid club, Oklahoma Orchid Society, held our annual show and sale on Mother’s Day weekend.  I took off work on Friday to help set up and then ventured back on Saturday with Christie and Myla to enjoy the show.  It was a small show, as usual, but nice.

Enjoying her first orchid show, laughing with mommy.

I carried Myla around while Christie took photos for me.  First, I’ll show off the Dendrobium.

Dendrobium lawesii being sold at one of the vendor tables.

Dendrobium lawesii – different color variant – also being sold.

Dendrobium Aridang x Burana Sundae

Miniature, deciduous, upright Dendrobium

Nice purple Dendrobium

Nice pendant, deciduous Dendrobium, profusely blooming.

A couple of nice Cymbidium.

An unregistered cascading hybrid Cymbidium

Cymbidium Little Black Sambo, upright and very dark

Miscellaneous other plants.

Laelia hybrid. I love this color and the faint pattern on the lip.

Very happy Cattleya

Anguloa hohenlohii x Ida locusta. Very interesting primary intergeneric hybrid.

Pleurothallis penelops. Awesome species that looks very similar to Pleurothallis dilemma.

Large, mounted specimen of Dendrochilum aurantiacum.

There were a total of eleven plants pulled out for AOS judging (including the one pictured above).  One of those eleven plants (a Paphiopedium) was awarded an HCC.

You may have noticed my blog has not been updated in several months.  Life has been busy with a number of changes.  I still have plenty to write, but haven’t had much time to do so lately.  The biggest change in my life is that in February I finally became a father, after more than 3 years in the process.  Now I have a little plant-enthusiast-in-training.

Me and my little girl

I hope to resume posting somewhat regularly soon.  Stay tuned!

For the first time in my life, I got to plan and plant a garden in a “sub-tropical” zone.  Christie’s parents have built a house in Galveston, Texas and we got to install the garden out front.  We live in zone 7a and Galveston is zone 9b!  What does that mean exactly?  That I get to grow plants that thrive in an environment where the temperature never dips below 25 Fahrenheit.  My zone dips down to zero Fahrenheit. In October, Christie and I headed down to Galveston to help her parents finish the house and have a little leisure time.

Laying the retaining wall blocks

It was fun visiting the garden centers in this part of the country and seeing all of the plants that can be grown there that can’t be grown here.  I didn’t really have any rules about the landscaping, but I wanted to get items that can’t be grown here.  Here’s the full listing of what we planted: black Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia), Canna ‘Pink Sunburst’, pink Bougainvillea, Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia), Zamia vazquezii, Dietes iridioides, Alocasia ‘Frydek’, Indian Hawthorne, Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa), Gardenia,  Banana Tree, Duranta, Bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus ‘Little John’), spicy Jatropha (Jatropha integerrima), Plumbago auriculata, Blue Ginger (Dichorisandra thyrsifolia), Red Shrimp Plant (Justicia brandegeana), pink Oleanders (Nerium oleander), dwarf coral Ixora, Yucca, yellow Allamanda bush, Brugmansia.

Plants eagerly awaiting their new homes

We did more soil preparation for this garden than I have ever done before.  We purchased more than 30 bags of soil, manure and other amendments to mix with the sandy soil that is filled with shells.  We wanted to build the flowerbeds up about 8 inches in some areas and about 16 inches in other areas.  There was a lot of shovel work, but once the ingredients were mixed and spread, and the retaining wall was in place, the planting was very easy.

Bird's eye view of left side garden finished

I look forward to seeing how the garden matures over the next several years.  Hopefully the plants will be happy enough without someone there full-time to tend to them.

Finished garden on the right side