CHAYAMANSA EXITS....

I usually post about vegetation joining the collection, but some leave the premises for different reasons. Cnidoscolus chayamansa a small tree,  was unable to grow in such a manner that would enhance the collection.  I know the leaves have medicinal uses that you will certainly find out, but it was  not enough.

In this  life departing department, I had to execute tens of caterpillars of the Plumeria and Allamanda  persuassion with my secret hot sauce pest control. Forgive me lord because I have sinned. It is not a nice sensation but this time the victim is looking too good, without any rust. Otherwise, other would have been them caterpillars(Tethrio Sphinx Moth) destiny.  In addition, I got rid of a couple of leaves with around fifty eggs.


In the caterpillar department another adventure developed. For the first time in five years I got the chance to watch some 
munching  Jathropha gossipifolia  leaves, an endemic kind.  I allowed them to live since none seem to move when you stare. On the other hand, this small tree is self seeding. If you pay attention, you could hear the seeds popping like fire crackers, flying away naturally, but more so when irrigated after a hot day. Barleria repens, Dipteracanthus prostratus are other two with similar habits..

 Let the record show this type is not the Jathropha planted in millions of acres of Indonesia, Costa Rica and other places for bio fuel...A certainly foolish and destructive  agro bussiness.

Finally for show, the seed pod of Datura stramoniun. One of those rare medieval weapon looking creatures of nature. As you know this relative of Brugmansias, is not sold. I collected it 36 months ago. Once one survives, you will have it forever, thanks to the amount of seeds and incredible survival rates.

A HISTORICAL URBAN GARDEN INVENTORY IN CAGUAS

 DELIA SOLA APONTE AND CECILIO DIAZ

BOTANICAL INVENTORY

Citrus paradisi

Citrus sinensis

Coccos nucifera

Hyllanthus acidus

Melicoceus bijugatus

Persea americana (3)

Psidium guajaba (2)

Punica granatum

Passiflora edulis

Capsicum annuum/florescens

Coriandrum sativum

Cucurbita

Eryngium foetidum L.

Nasturtium officinale

Origanum marjorana/vulgare

Portulaca olaracea

Asparagus

Allamanda cathartica

Bauhinia

Begonia aconitifolia

Bixa orellana

Catharanthus roseus
Caesalpina pulcherrima

Croton

Cajanus cajan

Daylilly

Euphorbia pulcherrima

Gardenia augusta

Hibiscus

Heliconias

Ixora

Jasminum multiflorum
Jathropha gossipifolia

Malpighia glabra

Murraya paniculata

Nephrolepsis

Orchids

Plumeria

Plumbago

Roses

Scadoxus

Sanseveria

Strelitzia reginae

Zingiber officinalis

Zephirantes

EDITORS NOTE

Environmentalists from the monitor should start doing research and inventories about the vegetation in their residences and communities, that is the only way to preserve the landscape and environment. Taking the intelligent required measures to propagate healthy specimens. Cleaning your butt with recycled paper, turning the light/water faucet off is just a trivial useless gesture.

If you are interested in people and their contribution to our flora and fauna read the information below.

  ONE OF THE RELEVANT 

aspects writting

a blog  about horticulture/gardening with a botanical focus is keeping a  trace in  historical terms regarding what/when people planted during the last hundred years. The residential property in this late urban garden, 1921-2011, next door to Notre Dame Catholic school, is in Manuel Soto Aponte street in Caguas.

Delia Sola Aponte,  whose  family  I met during my high school, sharing fun times of  music and gastronomy was Yldefonso Sola Morales, sister. One of the  founders of the Popular Democratic Party, mayor of Caguas, senator and   public servant during his life. Mr. Morales is one of those figures ignored in the web. Researching his life will be useless....except plenty of information about the baseball stadium  with his name, next door to my childhood residence in Savarona.

Where the hell is Juan David Hernandez, el historiador de Caguas? No relevant information about this public servant is available for researchers.

The husband Cecilio Diaz, whose job as a line warden allowed  him to travel  around the Caguas Contry region, is an important part of this unique garden and collection, since he brought home plants noticed during his trips. I must add that Mary Ann Jackowski one of 6 children at home, is the most important living landscape painter in Puerto Rico, according to your humble servant.

Finally, I declare that I have never had the chance to meet a warmer warm, witty, friendly, musical family. They all sang in tune, some played strings and light percussion instruments with a serious, yet fun music wise attitude and lots of humor. The way it should be. 

This family still  owns the property after ninety years. The space facing west, is probably between 3 and 4 hundred square feet, with little or no concrete around it. While researching information for this post to find  botanical names, I am still surprised at this unusual and wide collection in the urban context. The possibilities of good soil with no irrigation system, a variety of edibles, herbs, fragrance, fruits and ornamentals. Me garden  gets a little short in the edible/fruit/herbs department when compared to that masterpiece, gone for the last 15 years.

Delia Sola Aponte and Cecilio Diaz family respect and interest in our flora/fauna shows that concerned, educated people with a sense of aesthetics and pragmatics could/can save money  cultivating food crops to expand and improve their diet and gastronomical interests, enhancing their environment for themselves and other living creatures.In addition to the joy and pleasure of the gardening activities as a family.


I reiterate that horticultural/garden installations in Puerto Rico, nowadays stink in general. People have lost interest in cultivating with the aggravating situation of silly cookie mold plant varieties species sold in useless nurseries in most of the isle with the murdering of aesthetics, death of creativity.

In the past, people had to use their imagination, requiring more propagating skills. Now, they drop by Home Depot and that is that. All the above is true in the asphalt/concrete urban context and beyond, in many instances.

Thanks to Maria Luisa Diaz, daughter. Without her assistance, this post would not be around. Thanks to her family for the times shared and surviving memories.

INVENTORY

DELIA SOLA APONTE
MANUEL SOTO APONTE  STREET

RESIDENTIAL URBAN GARDEN IN CAGUAS

ENTERS...CAJANUS CAJAN + ONE

YOU ARE RIGHT.  The similarity between last names is  not accidental. It is fifty percent me nome de plume. My first name derivates from one of the most interesting vines in the wild in Puerto Rico, originally from Mexico. Curious? Write me first name and you will find out.

Getting back to our new inductee, let the record show that it is part of our gastronomy. It is also a favorite in other places in the Caribbean.  In Puerto Rico, is an iconic dish with rice, even though one can create many concoctions with these beans of intense and peculiar color and fragrance.

I got the seeds from the abandoned next door house.. Only one was planted to avoid rumors  about the theoretical allelopathy from this small bush.

The plus one in the tittle is the Spathiphyllum, a present, an totally inadequate plant for Santurce or any hot, dry and flat topography, not far from the Atlantic.  This silly looking plant requires cool and humid environments.  By the guai, the two behind it, are Pseuderantemun carruthersii, interesting and not abused bushes.


Spathifhyllum are abused in too many instances. Not long ago, in one of my other blogs, I used the expression common place plants, since they are in every other backyard in Puerto Rico, and a couple of lame bloggers from Florida felt insulted. This plant, like others in template countries may be a big deal for some one track mind gardeners, but who cares. A garden is a whole, not divided parts.


Thanks to Amanda Abella...... for her kind review. A compliment to yours truly for  this blog:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7741396/5_gardening_blogs_should_read.html?cat+32 and check the  other recommended blogs...if you may...

that is that.

apagad e iros.

TWO MORE MEMBERS ARE IN

FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS, I searched without much purpose the botanical name for the over used, abused, Rain Joe.  Duranta repens,  thank God, is the name.  Every imaginable fool, plants this wonderful bush, tolerant to heat/sun/drought and mutilates it for hedges.

For some reason, the unusual chartreuse green leaves in the tropics,  caught my attention. On the other hand, it is planted so often in stupid looking hedges, that I felt some repulsion at the same time.  I bought two. anyhow in some nursery when they were sixteen inches tall two years ago. One is shown at right, the other is in the west garden, to be featured later,  between the Guaicum officinale and Calliandra haemathocephala.

At any rate. the beauty of this small tree/bush is in the rare orange berries racemes and violet fragrant little flowers.  These three aspects color, berries and flowers is what makes this species so attractive. People constantly pruning it, miss the most significant feature of  Duranta repens.

The populace uses it as hedges, yours truly as focal point, or conversation piece. Imagination  works as a spark. Letting  it grow as nature demands transforms this impressive member of the collection.  

Let the record show that I am not prone to buy plants in nurseries, that is for wimps, or people in the Green Industry without any option. In my collection, one pink Plumeria, a couple of Asparagus, the columnar type, one Phalaenopsis, and seasonal Poinsettias are/were bought in nurseries.  Everything else has been  product of stroll collection, swap, exchange or presents.

Another rare, not too common, inductee, with beautiful white flowers and green leaves on top with dark purple in the underside is Clerodendrum quadriloculare.  The 3,  traveled from San German, from cut stems, were a present from Tito Collazo, a neighbor, collaborator, graphic artist and gardening fan.


The problem, with Josefinas, if not careful when planting, is their propensity to be invasive. Believe or not they tend to propagate as grass does, by stolons/rhizomes  through their root system. 


Moral of the story...In a country such as the one I have to live, refusing peer pressure, not going with the flow, present great opportunities to do things differently with nice visual impact in the garden. To set trends if I may, often.

time to depart...

apaga i vete.

THE COLLECTION KEEPS GROWING TWO INDUCTEES

WHAT CAN  I SAY?

Epiphylum oxypetalum has joined the 100 Collection Club.  A favorite of mothers and grandmothers in my childhood. It has lost some relevance, except among those like yours truly, not relying in useless nurseries.  It is not pretty, it looks like a flat fish, but the flower compares in fragrance and beauty to any Nenufar.

Pepperomia pellucida is another inductee.  This plant grows wild and self seeds.  In that way it came to me, to be part of this unique collection, a work in progress in the Caribbean.  It has medicinal virtues, but I will not get into it..It is a subject by itself.  The tittle may be: Antigonum  Cajan, the medicinal side of his collection.

There is not much to add but to invite you to antigonumcajaneveningpost.. 

apaga i vamonoh.

THREE NEW INDUCTEES

I know.  I have been away for too long. But who cares, there are over one hundred and fifty million blogs.

I have reached new Olympic Heights...my first tomato, buahaja bilingual laugh. Solanum lycopersicum. It is the cherry kind. The ironic part of it is that I just dispersed the seeds in different contexts, you know south/north and so forth. This one will go blue in the inventory since I doubt very much it will become a permanent star in the collection.

Chorophytum comosum, very popular among mothers and grandmothers in the  past, before nurseries screw it. Imagination, propagation skills, good taste,  were murdered when they became a part of urban life. Not particularly amazing except their children/offspring hang out as if abandoned to their luck, in baskets. Therefore their name: Malamadre or Malpadre, down here.

The one I have is planted in a folkloric chickpeas hanging tin can from Goya, si es Goya tiene que ser bueno.  A present from Rengui, one of my closest collaborators in planting, propagating issues.

Tito Collazo the graphic artist legend across the street, and  owner of Dalila the pony like dog, gave me a Clerondendron quadriculate. A really pretty, not abused small tree around this neck of the asphalt/concrete.

And that is that. If you are serious about gardening in tropical latitudes I suggest:
 

TROPICAL ORNAMENTALS

W. Arthur Whistler

Timber Press 

2000

This book is

one of my official

reference books.

That way I do not

have to ask. I research.

that is that.

 

Dipteracanthus prostratus Eureka!

DURING March 2010, I thought I had found the botanical name, of this known plant in India, in a  now dead blog, from a national from that country.

I had to wait until now to find the correct name: Dipteracanthus prostratus or Ruellia prostrata, instead of Dipterantus prostratus as I thought it was from the mentioned blog.


At any rate these varieties grow wild, considered a weed in every context.  I have domesticated them and are among the most important in my collection.


Not only because they self seed, but no one that I know, plants them, and you can not get them from nurseries.

So there. The name will be added to the collection inventory previously provided. 

That is that.