Progress in Planting

With 3 more trucks of plant material on their way to Pittsburgh it was time to make our presence known with the construction crews. Beds had to be cleared and soil brought in...and plants unloaded into the space. The truck with the 10 palm trees for Palm Circle took an entire day to unload. Since they are cold sensitive palms, the truck had to back up to the new conservatory and the palms brought immediately inside. Here are some planting progress photos from the past week.

Ben plants the pockets in Cascade Falls

The Bougainvilla from 'Tropical Landscapers'

A view from the Cascade Falls to the Special Events Pavilion

The large palms from Botanics Wholesale installed in the Palm Circle

The canopy walk area is filling in, the facade to cover it will soon be installed and a mangrove has been added to the fish pool.

3 giant fishtail palms near the entrance pavilion

Racing toward the Airport

Wednesday morning was spent traveling North to the Apopka area (near Orlando) and shopping at two great fern / foliage producers. First stop was Central Florida Fern - gorgeous ferns including my favorite - Heart Fern. Many other ferns were secured including Antenna Fern, ET Fern, Upsidedown Fern, Crested Polly Fern and Possum Footed Fern.

The next stop - Milestone Foliage had these amazing Cordyline 'Chocolate Queen' ...hmmm...not for the tropical forest but maybe for an upcoming Fall Show?




















As I was leaving Apopka, racing to return the rental car and make the flight at the Orlando Airport, I saw a mirage in the middle of an industrial park. A field of Asian pottery! Could it be true? I circled a few times and yes, it was truly a parking lot full of pottery. I stopped and was able to make the contact to purchase beautiful pots and water jars for our exhibit.

Definitely a successful mission with over 1,200 miles put on the rental car!

Moving North on the East Coast of Florida

The next stops were north of Miami / Homestead in the Boynton Beach / Wellington / Loxahatchee areas of Florida. The first destination on Tuesday morning was Southeast Growers in Wellington. I had called ahead and asked to see some specific material including Polyalthia longifolia, Mangrove, Mahogany, Bauhinia, and Cassia. Those items were tagged but I (of course) found some other treasures that would work well in our space.



The photo to the left is the Polyalthia longifolia. It is a very cool tree - straight and narrow with weeping leaves. I saw it throughout Thailand. It will be used near our special events pavilion in the more formal section of the plantings.




Also, here is a photo of a very cool Pandanus tree that I found at Southeast Growers - check out the roots! It will be placed near the stream but not too close to the path because of the razor sharp leaves.









Next stop - a place I'd never been too... Tropical Landscapers. I saw an ad in the "Plant Finder" magazine which had a photo of some crazy clipped bougainvilla. It was on my route north so I decided to stop by. I went wild over these plants! I had a tough time deciding which I should take but finally selected 3 pots of multi pom pom purple.




After Tropical Landscapers, I stopped at Excelsa Gardens for my usual assortment of plants including Tiger Grass, Ferns, Spathoglottis orchids, Rangoon Creeper, Red Sealing Wax palms, Sting Ray Alocasia, etc. or as they say in Thailand...++.

Back to Florida

Since the largest of the trees have been placed in the conservatory and the fall show officially opened on the 14th, I was able to sneak back down to Florida for a few days. On the agenda for this tagging trip was to locate Cassia fistula which is the King's Tree, also Mangrove, Coconuts, and smaller understory ferns and aroids.

After flying into Tampa on October 14th, I was able to spend some time at the Exotic Plumeria Tropical Garden just outside of Tampa in Seffner, FL. (http://www.exoticplumeria.com/cplumeria.com/) After visiting Thailand this past winter I knew that a visit to this nursery would be very important. Plumeria trees ranging in size from 10" to upwards of 25" pots were available. I selected several of the larger Singapore Dwarf cultivars with fragrant white flowers, also some of the smaller pink and yellow flowered cultivars.

The next stop was in Punta Gorda, FL at Top Tropical's new nursery location (http://www.toptropicals.com/). Tatiana and Mike are frequent travelers to exotic locations. Each of their expeditions has yeilded many incredible fragrant, flowering and fruiting plants. It was wonderful to spend the day talking plants with these two knowledgable plantspeople. I was able to select many plants from their Thailand expedition including Thai Magnolia, Vietnamese Gardenia, Wrightia and lemon grass.



After finishing on the West Coast of Florida, I worked my way down to Homestead to spend the entire day (Monday) looking for some of the wish list items. The first stop was Botanics Wholesale where I was able to select the palms for the Palm Circle area (criteria is 10 palms, solitary, graceful pinnate foliage, even heights, and maximum height not to exceed 60') of my short list of possible palms Botanics Wholesale was able to locate Carpenteria acuminata. Look at these beautiful palms!









Other stops in Miami / Homestead included Action Theory (for Mangrove, giant Fishtail Palms, and Bauhinia), Silver Krome (for Tacca and Anthirium) and Pine Island Nursery for rare fruit including trellised dragon fruit. Each of these trellises have 4 different cultivars of fruit - options include skin that is yellow, pink or red combined with an inside of black with white or pink.

End of the Week

After one full week with a crane we were able to place all of our largest trees which created the structure for the overall canopy layer of the space. These trees include Spindle Palms, several types of Ficus, Tamarind, Date Palms, Black Olive, Star Fruit and others. In total, we've placed over 35 trees.


Here are some photos from this evening.

The Crane Has Arrived

It is Monday morning and our crane has arrived! Our tree placement work has to be coordinated with several other crews - Cost of Wisconsin is still working on the falls and other rock outcrops, masons are working on stone facing along the steps and walls, the plumbers are installing root zone heating, and the electricians have roughed in condoit for pathway lighting.

Our crane is very special - it has to fit through a 9' x 9' opening, reach up to 50' and lift over 2,000 lbs. Since many of the trees were outside until today, the first order of business was to move trees inside and place them near their desired destination on the pathways. Here is a photo of the first tree that was set into place - an 'Allii' Ficus tree at the foot of the canopy walk.

Waiting Plants

I'm anxious to plant the conservatory. Cold weather is approaching and so is the opening weekend! Plants that were ordered and shipped have been scattered throughout the facility. Many of the smaller plants were placed into our greenhouses while larger plants have been tied to the railings surrounding the exterior of our production greenhouse facility. Some of the plants for the new conservatory have also served many functions; some are currently on view in the Mythical Beasts summer flower show, others will be on view for the fall flower show. Our new Indoor Display Specialist for the Tropical Forest has been familiarizing himself with the plants and our Greenhouse Production Staff is anxious to get all of these plants moved out of the greenhouse so that they can begin to grow plants for the spring flower show and our next exhibits: Dale Chihuly Art Glass and Tropical Forest: Amazon.

Construction Progress

Work on the Tropical Forest Conservatory has been progressing. The majority of the concrete sidewalks are completed and a crew from Cost of Wisconsin is creating the dramatic stonework (including 2 waterfalls, a stream, and a fish pool). Since the weather is getting cold, several of the largest trees were moved inside. We anticipate the arrival of a crane (to assist with planting) on Monday. The crane and operator will stay all week and help us to move the trees to their destinations throughout the space. Many of the trees are 30' tall, in 200-300 gallon pots and weigh over 2,500 pounds.

Plywood covers the walkways so that they aren't damaged while we are planting. Some rebar cages remain in the foreground - these are the first stage of the rockwork.




The crew from Cost of Wisconsin, Inc. installs rebar cages below the canopy walk. In the background you can see one of the waterfalls that the've completed. Once the cage is placed it is sprayed with Shot-crete, a few days later another layer of concrete is added as the rocks are sculpted and details like crevices are added. A painting crew follows and adds layers of green, brown, and black paint.













In this photo, the stream is in the foreground. Many planting pockets with drains and plugs have been added - they will be filled with Thalia, Cyperus, Pandanus, and Alocasia. The stream rockwork has been completed but the large waterfall wall [in the background] that hides behind scaffold and plastic has just been hit with its first layer of concrete.