The Variegated Thumb

Strangler fig covering a section of wall at the Martello Tower

On the island of Key West, not far from the marker for the “southern most point in the continental US” is the West Martello Tower and gardens, which is maintained by the Key West Garden Club.  This beautiful garden is the site of a never-completed fort, which is really just a great setting, with brick walls of various heights and wandering paths through what is not a lush tropical garden.

Christie enjoying the beautiful Martello Tower gardens

I have to admit, I enjoyed visiting here much more as it is today than I would have if it had been completed and now stood as a military historical site.

Bromeliads planted around a collapsed portion of wall

The grounds are filled with nice compositions, including the nice spot above where some chunk of brick wall has collapsed and lays half buried, book-ended with a spreading bromeliad.

Gorgeous Plumeria rubra blooms

Interesting Plumeria seed pods

Many people are familiar with the Plumeria pictured above. This is sometimes called Frangipani. It has a beautiful flower, which has been bred for different colors. But the tree is more or less the same for each of these different bloom colors. The Martello Tower Gardens had another species of Plumeria (below), which I hadn’t seen before this Florida trip. Plumeria pudica has a different shaped leaf and the flowers are pure white, with the slightest bit of yellow in the center. (It’s hard to see the yellow in my image due to the bright sun.)

Plumeria pudica

Lots and lots of Ruellias!

I have seen Screwpine trees (Pandanus) in just a couple of places.  They are known for their network of stilt roots, which are usually spiny.  The first time was in the tropical dome at the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis.  The second time would be in conservatory at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, where there is a large Pandanus whose huge stilt roots reach into the water of the adjacent pond and fragment into a million tiny roots.  That was a site to see.  There are also quite a few Pandanus growing at the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Miami.

Pandanus sanderi tree with amazing prop roots

Dark pink canna

Traveller's palm (Ravenala madagascariensis) in bloom

The tree pictured above is called the Traveller’s Palm, although it is not really a palm.  I have seen these trees in just about every tropical, beach front area I have visited and always just assumed they were in the palm family (Arecaceae) or possibly the banana family (Musaceae).  But when I saw this tree at the Martello garden I realized it had to be in the same family as the Bird of Paradise (Strelitziaceae).  The bloom bracts are unmistakeably similar.  Reading the wikipedia page confirmed my conviction and also mentioned that this tree was once upon a time placed in the banana family – just as I would have put it, without seeing a bloom.  It belongs to the monotypic genus, Ravenala, and is native to Madagascar.

Rose cactus - Pereskia grandifolia

The plant pictured above is called “rose cactus” because it has nice blooms and some killer thorns.  It is actually a cactus, which kind of surprised me, since it does not have the normal succulent look to it.  We saw Ixora all over southern Florida and I really liked their profusion of blooms – usually coral in color, like the plant pictured below.

Coral colored Ixora

I think the Jatropha (below) was probably my favorite blooming plant at the Martello Tower, with dark leaves of interesting shapes and vibrant and contrasting blooms.

Jatropha integerrima

Well, the first half of this post was the colorful half.  The rest is shades of green only.  These happen to be some of my favorite plants.  I was really excited to see that the Key West Garden Club has a nice collection of Dieffenbachias and Aglaonemas inside their tower walls.  The plants are exposed to the elements and natural sunlight, but are inside a bricked area, so they are probably a little more sheltered.  Also, these plants were all growing in pots, whereas most of the rest of the plants in the gardens are growing in the ground.

Pellionia repens

But before we get to all of the Dieffenbachias, check out this large Pellionia repens.  I thought it was interesting to see how the leaf colors vary on this plant.  I have this species myself, growing in a tall glass terrarium.  It is sometimes referred to as “Trailing Watermelon Begonia,” but it is not actually from the Begonia genus.  Good thing, because I have more luck with this plant, than I do with Begonias, generally speaking.  This species is probably the second most common Pellionia, after Pellionia pulchra.

Dieffenbachia oerstedii

Dieffenbachia maculata

I didn’t know the ID of any of these Dieffenbachias for sure, but I had a pretty good idea about the one that turned  out to be Dieffenbachia amoena ‘Tropic Snow’  because my mom has that one.  I consulted with my Dieffenbachia enthusiast friends and got help on the other names.  It turns out that the speckled plant pictured above is the species Dieffenbachia maculata and the plant below is a cultivar, Dieffenbachia maculata ‘Rudolph Roehrs’.  In some cases, the cultivar reverts to the original species, as shown in this picture by my friend, Russ Hammer.

Dieffenbachia maculata'Rudolph Roehrs'

Dieffenbachia amoena 'Tropic Snow'

The Martello Gardens also had a small, but happy collection of orchids and a small collection of bonsai trees.  The bonsai trees were all mislabeled, which I found to be interesting, but not surprising.  I bet they were all repotted at some point and then the labels got put back in the wrong pots.  I did notice that one label was in the wrong pot, but some of the labels didn’t match any of the plants I saw.  Regardless, I could appreciate their appearance and really enjoyed my time at this garden!

While in Key West last month, we visited “The Audubon House.”  You would think with a name like this that the house would have once been under the ownership of someone with the name of Audubon.  It turns out the connection is a little less direct.  John James Audubon, the well known historical figure for his art depicting American birds, traveled to the Florida Keys in 1831 in order to paint the native birds of Florida.  While he was in the Keys, he stayed at the house next door to this house.

The Audubon House

John James Audubon's trip to the Florida Keys

The house has been preserved and connected with Audubon because he admired the gardens while he was in the area and supposedly painted some of the trees and plants into his portraits of various Florida birds.  The gardens have been kept in great condition as a tribute.

Roseate Spoonbill portrait by John James Audubon - my favorite from the Florida collection.

Tree loaded with blooming orchids in front of Audubon House

The house is now a shrine to his work and has a very nice garden outside.  We toured the house and gardens outside, enjoying the beautiful setting.  I think Christie and I could settle into this house just fine.  The trees outside are covered in orchids, and many of them were in bloom for our visit.

Brassavola orchid

Crinum lily bloom

Other interesting plants filled the flowerbeds, including a couple of large Crinum lilies, some yellow Walking Iris (Neomarica longifolia), and a nice Chenille plant (Acalypha hispida).

The yellow walking iris - Neomarica longifolia

Chenille plant - Acalypha hispida

There were lots of Calatheas scattered throughout the gardens, and concentrated here and there.  I have seen these growing in many botanic gardens, but not very often in an outdoor setting.

Calathea Peacock (so the sign reads)

The gardens also contain some Florida native plants, which would have been important to Audubon, as he preferred to paint his birds sitting on authentic trees and plants to the area where he would find them in nature.  One of the natives I really liked was this cycad, Zamia floridana.

Florida native cycad "Coontie" - Zamia floridana

Christie under a nice Staghorn fern

Philodendron stenolobum

There were also some nice aroids, including this large Philodendron stenolobum (above) and Alocasia portei (below). I loved the pendant Anthurium vittariifolium, with its pink berries showing (two below) and now have a small seedling plant from a recent plant trade. I hope my plant is this attractive some day.

A large Alocasia portei (in the center of the image)

Anthurium vittariifolium with berries on spadix

Chamaedorea metallica

My second favorite palm in the entire family is Chamaedorea metallica, which is called the Miniature Fishtail Palm, or Metallic Palm.  It has silver-blue leaves and striking orange flowers and berries.  It is small for a palm, with a maximum size of only 5 or 6 feet tall, and it is therefore usually growing as an understory tree.

Bed of Sansevierias - probably Sansevieria metallica.

You probably already know that I like Stapelias. Am I crazy or do the buds of the Stapelia below look just as cool as the open bloom? Yes, I did bend down and stick my nose into the flower to smell the pungency. And yes, I did request Christie do the same. She grudgingly did so – after a third or fourth request.

Stapelia leendertziae in bloom.

The Audubon House sits on a lot large enough to have several wandering paths through the gardens and 2 separate set-aside gardens: a water garden and an herb garden. The water garden was very tastefully designed, with some heron statues in the pond. I’m sure JJ Audubon would have liked to sit and stare at these nice statues.  The setting of this garden is similar to what I have talked about doing with a portion of our backyard, with the ground paved in either bricks or rock and a shallow pond or other small water feature.  Just a relaxing place to sit and enjoy the outdoors.

The appropriately decorated Audubon water garden.

R.F. Orchids is one of those places of plant legend.  If you’re much of an orchid enthusiast, you have probably read “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orleans.  In it, she mentions a well known orchid heist, in which a prize-winning orchid breeder, Robert Fuchs, had hundreds of thousands of dollars of prime orchids stolen from his property.  That crime was committed at R.F. Orchids, where Robert “Bob” Fuchs houses his breeding material, as well as his vast stock of orchids for sale to the public.

Sign at entrance to R.F. Orchids. It reads "Where Quality is as Traditional as the Orchid Itself" and "Purveyors of Fine Orchids Since 1970"

I read “The Orchid Thief” a couple of years ago and had kind of forgotten about this part of the book and the name of this particular orchid grower, even though I have heard R.F. Orchids mentioned from time to time since then.  However, I talked Christie into reading the book just before our trip so she could better appreciate the area we were visiting, as well as the obsession of these orchid-crazed (and more generally, plant-crazed) people.  When we visited Ruben in Orchids, Claudia mentioned that we should visit R.F. Orchids while we were in the area.  I had no idea this place was close by and Christie quickly recognized the name from the book that she was in the process of reading.  So we took the short drive and I’m glad we did.

Entering the gates into a beautifully shaded garden. That little red car is our rental car, which we named Fakahatchee Buttonwood. Yes, our rental cars always have names. This particular rental car name reminds me of a specific Saturday Night Live skit.

You can’t imagine the exquisite entrance to this place.  You can look at my pictures and I’m sure it looks pretty, but being there in person is incredible.  I didn’t get the rockstar treatment that Derek did, but we were given a friendly greeting by an employee when we arrived.  A couple of minutes later he came by with a tray of cups filled with passionfruit juice as a refreshment while we were browsing.  The juice was excellent, and much appreciated in the hot and humid greenhouses.

Vanda house at R.F. Orchids

A particularly pretty Vanda - Vanda Kultana Fragrance

I think I was as much taken with the entire atmosphere as I was with any one plant or group of plants.  They greenhouses had lots of breathing room and were dedicated to groups of plants.  There was an entire house for Vandas and other houses for different alliances of orchids.  There were quite a few plants I saw that I would love to have taken home, and all of the plants were really healthy.  However, my wallet had already taken a licking at Ruben in Orchids, and I hadn’t even gotten to the IAS show yet! So I settled for lots of pictures, and looking at the bargain orchid tables.

I'm not sure whether this cat disapproved of the low prices of these budget orchids, or whether he just thought it looked like a comfortable place to lay.

This is the sign picturing the parents of the Vanda hybrid I purchased.

The bargain orchid tables included young plants and keikis of larger orchids that had been sliced off and marked with incredibly low prices. I picked up a couple of Dendrobium nobile keikis for very little. I also dug around in the baskets guarded by the greenhouse cat and Christie and I picked out a little hybrid Vanda, my first Vanda ever. We took a picture of the sign which shows the parent flowers. Can you guess what mine might look like whenever it blooms?

Dendrobium C.K. Ai

Okr. Scarlet Queen 'Chile Pepper'

Before embarking on our trip to southern Florida, I scoured the web, looking for planty places to visit. I knew I would be visiting the wonderful Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens, for the IAS show and sale, but I also wanted to visit some nurseries while we were in the area. I am always coming across plants that are sold on eBay or other sites from nurseries in the Miami area. Also, I was particularly interested in finding some places that sold certain genera of orchids and other places that sold Aglaonemas.

Sea of orchids at Ruben in Orchids

One of the places I found that sold Encyclia orchids is Ruben in Orchids, which is located in the Redlandsssh , Florida – south of Miami. The owner is Dr. Ruben P. Salueda, who has a long history hybridizing Encyclias and Cattleyas. I sent an email and found that they would be open while we were there. I was excited!

Brassavola

We had a little trouble finding the place, thanks to Miami’s genius idea of naming all of their streets with numbers – in both directions. What I mean is that this place was near the intersection of SW 184th and SW 224th. Do you see why this is confusing? In addition to using numbers for all the street names, they use both cardinal directions.  It should be S 184th and W 224th.  That would make sense.  Anyway, finally we discovered that east-west roads are called “streets” and the north-south roads are “avenues.”  That’s helpful to know, but there are also exceptions to that rule.  Every once in a while one of them is a “court” or “drive.”  Anyway, we did make it there, as referenced by the pictures.

Epidendrum of some sort - possibly E. pseudepidendrum.

Ruben’s wife, Claudia, showed us around the place.  She told us they have only been in this location for about 4 years, which is astounding, considering how settled they look and how much maturity there is in the place and the landscapes.  You would have guessed they had been there 20 years or more.  Their love of orchids and other plants is evidenced all over their property.  The backyard has orchids hanging in the trees, some attached to the trunks, others hanging in baskets.  There are vanilla orchids and dragon fruit cacti climbing up the trunks of all of their palms.  Beautiful plants everywhere.

A beautiful peach-colored hybrid orchid growing on the back porch. Sadly, not for sale. Christie and I both loved the colors on this one.

They even have African reef lake cichlids in their pond up by the house. Amazing!

African cichlids happily living in an outdoor pond

Needless to say, I was in heaven. I was surrounded by orchids – and many of them were Encyclias.  This place wasn’t set up for shoppers really.  It was a grower’s greenhouse.  So prices weren’t clear – or even a tag to know if the plant was for sale or not.  But I had a wonderful time perusing the rows of orchids and seeing all sorts of things I hadn’t seen before.

One happy guy!

Beautiful pendant blooms of Cycnoches chlorochilon - at least that is what it was labeled. It doesn't match the photos here, though. I think it could be Cycnoches dianae.

At the last Oklahoma Orchid Society meeting I attended, the talk was given on the genus Cycnoches, which is unique among orchids. Most orchids have both male and female parts on every flower, while Cycnoches have separate male and female flowers, though they can be on the same plant and even on the same raceme. It’s fascinating. And we got to see one of these in person at Ruben’s. It was a really nice specimen in the prime of it’s bloom.

Somehow I didn't catch the name on this one and I really wish I had. It is awesome!

Epidendrum Mabel Kanda x Encyclia cordigera - I think.

I ended up purchasing two really nice Encyclias from Ruben in Orchids – Encyclia tampensis and Encyclia plicata.  The E. plicata was in bloom with really tall bloom stalks.  We enjoyed them for the remainder of our vacation and then had to clip them off before getting on our plane to fly home.  Maybe next time we’ll be able to fly.  Of course, I can only imagine how much money I would spend if we drove and had lots of room in the car for plants…

Hybrid orchid - probably a mix of Encyclia and Cattleya.

Before we left, Claudia told us we should visit R.F. Orchids, which was “just down the road.”  I was shocked, because I had heard of R.F. Orchids and had no idea they were in the area.  It’s a good thing I didn’t know, because I might have gone there, rather than Ruben’s place.  And I’m really glad I visited Ruben’s.

Blooms from the Encyclia plicata plant I bought.

Driving around the Redlands we discovered that this is orchid territory.  There were literally stands on the side of the road all over the place with signs advertising “$6 orchids,” “$7 orchids” and even “$1 orchids.”  We checked out several of these places on our way to R.F. Orchids, some of which had some really good deals.  More on that soon.

Our Florida vacation started with a bang, when we spent two nights camped in a chickee hut in the northern part of the Florida Everglades.  Our little hut was on stilts in a swampy area on Seminole reservation land.  Directly next to our hut was the entrance to a boardwalk running about a half mile (by my estimation) through a cypress stand.  We went out on this boardwalk twice and really enjoyed it.  It easily landed in the top 3 activities on our trip.

Christie at the entrance to the boardwalk, sporting her very appropriate alligator shirt

Along the walk we encountered several alligators, some large and some mid-sized.  The largest one was camped just outside the back pier of our chickee hut.  Yes, our chickee hut had it’s own boardwalk leading back to a picnic table. That’s how cool this place was.

Our chickee hut from the front

Our chickee hut along the back walkway

Anyway, the alligator behind our chickee hut was probably easily an 8-footer.  We were just about sure that he was fake since he wasn’t moving, but the next day we noticed he was in a slightly different position.  Christie has a theory that he had just eaten a large meal (the people who stayed in our chickee hut before us) and so he was just resting (and waiting for the next careless chickee renters to fall in).  We saw several alligators along the boardwalk, including the one pictured below.

One of the larger alligators watching us just a couple feet away.

Wandering the boardwalk

From the boardwalk you could see trees covered in Tillandsias.  It was almost comical at some points to see how many Tillandsias were coating the trunks or hanging twigs of the trees around us.

Tillandsias

Tillandsia madness

Large Tillandsias

More Tillandsias

From what we learned, the area we were in would be on the northern part of what is considered the Everglades.  The Everglades is a large region of subtropical wetlands that gently slopes downwards as you go south.  So the entire area is slowly draining towards the sea.  It is not really a swamp, since the water is moving and not stagnant.  However, by observation, there are small pockets where water is motionless and I think the boardwalk here was built over one of those stagnant and swampy areas.  This may or may not have an impact on what plants grow in this area.  I imagine there were no fewer than 5 different species of Tillandsia.  I’m sure a Tillandsia nut would have been able to pick them out, but that is not me.  Also, we probably saw 4 or 5 different species of fern.

Really nice fern

An interesting lanceolate fern near the water line

We did see some other animal life, besides gators.

Nice butterfly. Just when you think it's going to sit still, it starts to move again...

White ibis (Eudocimus albus)

When we had just about reached the end of our trek the first time, I noticed the first orchid perched on the side of a tree – an Encyclia.  As we retraced our steps on the boardwalk back to our chickee hut, I began to see them all over the place.  My eyes just had to become attuned to look for them.  Without seeing any of these plants in bloom I can’t definitively identify the species, but as far as I understand, only Encyclia tampensis grows in this area, so it should be that species.   Encyclia tampensis is common enough in Florida to be known as the “Florida Butterfly” orchid.

The first Encyclia sighting!

Encyclia (upper) and Tillandsia (lower)

Encyclia!

Baby Encyclias spotted along with resurrection fern

Encyclia size comparison

The next morning when we went on the same boardwalk through this stand, I started seeing even more.  I quickly noticed that one of the larger Encyclias had a seed pod perched on a thin bloom stalk above the plant.  Then I began to notice other Encyclias with this same seed pod.

Boardwalk in morning light

Encyclia with seedpod. Look closely in the upper left. It is green and shaped like a little football.

Encyclia with more visible seedpod

It was great to see these plants growing in their natural habitat and in such prolific numbers.  I was actually able to cross an item off my bucket list by seeing these little orchids growing in nature.  Collecting these plants is illegal and I was happy to uphold the law, only photographing the plants and taking pleasure in the fact that they are doing so well in their natural habitat.

Photographing the Encyclias

This is one happy guy!