Rain lilies finally in full flower..........

The rain lilies were late this year.......maybe due to very hot and dryish summer.......
They finally splurged last Friday..........it was worth the wait........

How to Catch Pothos Seed ..........

How do you collect the wild pothos seed?......Well the flowers shed their outer shell and the seeds drop off to the ground..........this happens over a day of two time period........

The photo below shows the only pothos seed in the world ever collected in a can attached to the vine........Yes, you can defeat mother nature............another first for PD......Do not forget that you saw it here first.....

I cannot keep this up.......see previous update.......

No more from me this week...........
I gave you current breakthrough research results........
That is a good week's work.......
Besides I have other ground breaking research stuff to work on today.....

Seen only here........ are.........fresh Pothos seed.......Top secret .....

Below is the most recent harvest of some pothos (Epipremnum sp.) seed.
This is extremely rare.........difficult to pull off unless you know the secrets.........
We cannot tell yet.........

Anyway, below is the seed take from one flower......300-400 count......sure beats the 3-4 seed from one Aglaonema flower.........the pothos seed are now carefully planted.......also in a top secret manner............(actually common horticultural sence should make it clear to anyone).....

Below is the original flower before the seeds were removed. Of course it is a secret as to where the seeds reside.

Pretty cool and pretty exciting...........

seen only here.........

Not available anywhere else....

Stay tuned........This might get interesting............

Ok.....so the roof needs A LITTLE work.............

Everyone is a critic.........
You need a before.......before there can be an after............I think........
Just wait......
However, according to my mom, I am about to discover my woodworking heritage.....lots of awesome carpenters on both sides of my family........
Now it is my turn.....
Stay tuned........of course this could take a while........
The photo below is the easy fix.........4 hurricanes can take their toll.......plus there was a pool screen that prevented repairs..
But I am into it............but must purchase more tools first...........

My Friday..............

Had a visitor from the Polasek Museum and Sculpture Garden from 9:00 tp 10:30....Randy K. is a well known horticulturist in this area and is doing an incredible job with the gardens that surround the museum and sculpture garden.....We discussed the gardens, pothos, agalonema, philodendron and ZZ plants. The general plan is to use tropical foliage plants that can do well in the landscape....we want them to grown outside and let people see that they have multiple uses.

I donated several nice speicimens of our aglaonema hybrids for use inside the art gallery building...that is really exciting for me...few plants are have less pest problems or perform better indoors than aglaonema. Randy took seven different varieties (Stripes, Silver Bay, Golden Bay, Emerald Bay, Moonlight Bay, Mondo Bay and Key Lime)..It will be great to visit the museum later on and see how all of my babies are doing...It is nice to know that they are in excellent horticultural hands.

He also took a couple of pothos and a velvet leaf Philodendron...
The we loaded up half a dozen of nice 8-inch pots of the ZZ plant.......We both think ZZ will make a fine landscape plant in the gardens.

Randy left very happy and I turned to my former intern (now graduate student) to do a visual quality rating of 270 Adenium (desert rose) plants that she was preparing while Randy and I did our thing. That took until noon......I was rather beyond hot and sweaty by then.......

So I went to Publix and got some fruit for lunch and some to take to Mosaic Mom....Speaking of hot and sweaty I bought some Jalapena/smoke flavored almonds..........NICE........Now I am in my office writing of my exploits....I have had enough for this week. However, there is manuscript that needs reviewing so it is off to that. Any indoor projects are good.........

Plants are Good.............People not so much...........

I do not understand all the wonderfully crazy things about plants..........but that is ok.........gives me more to do yet.

I do not understand anything about people..........except that they are crazy also (me too.....)
There is happy crazy, sad crazy and mean crazy..........
.......everything comes in thirds (see previous blog).....

The first two crazyies are normal and ok in their own way......

There is no excuse for the third crazy...........but there seems to be no avoiding it sometimes.......
...........damn it anyway..........

OMG.....I have been out a week ....YEAH ORNAMENTALS......

YEAH ORNAMENTALS..........Just had to start off with a photo of a nice grafted adenium......one of my first attempts......

How could you stand it..............

I went to our annual plant breeders meeting last Wednesday and Thursday..........it is always interesting.........the Dean of Reserch comes and speaks etc......politics is always a heated topic...

Anyway, approximately third of the 20+ breeders are alpha, a third are moderates and a third are like me (quiet....i.e. omegas). Only 2 of the people there work with ornamentals; the rest work on various fruits, peanuts, forage, turf, citrus or some other type of plant. The people at the meeting have really accomplished some amazing things. Fascinating discussions are to be digested,usually between the 6-7 alphas.....4 of the members (3 alphas) are retired......guess they just cannot quit though.......but breeding dreams never end so I understand and respect them for staying involved.....plant breeding is a life focus....not just a job.....

One interesting thing is that the first thing any of the non-ornamental peopel say if you start a conversation is "I don't anything about ornamentals". That is strange to me since I know a lot about the stuff they are working with.....maybe if you "can't eat it they won't come" or something is in effect.

For me, ornamentals rule since they are so different and variable.....God I could not stand to stare peanut plants or alfafa all day every day. The one feeling I come away with after these meetings is is that "plant variety is the spice of life". Ornamental variety that is.......

So I am very happy to be back at work this work and have been cleaning the research greenhouse.....I need to take care of my ornamental babies.....

My Office Window Today........More Clouds......

Here is the view out my office today............
Picture could have been better but I did not want to get out of chair.....
More clouds and spotty rain............Nice change.........at least things look green.........

Please note the 'Frilly Philly' on window sill............
Roundish looking plant on lower right side of photo is Jatropha curcas (biofuel plant)......

We have cloulds and rain...........for 3 days now........

It has been cloudy and rainy (off and on) on Sat, Sun and Monday (today)......we are getting a lot of rain today at work........not sure about home but the radar looks like it is pouring there too.....we shall see later........this affects my plans at home roof repair..........

We only had 1/2 inch over the weekend but it was in many short showers bursts.......or course this left the humidity at 100%........with no breeze........

Anyway it is nice for my plants..........the high light and heat were causing lots of plant stress that was showing in leaf damage...

Hooray for rain..........leaks or not...........

Drip, Drip, Drip,...........yada, yada, yada....

Decided to install a drip irrigation in our small high light greenhouse today at work........

Of course this simple "10 minute job" ended up with me going to town to by a cheap drill and some bits so we could make the moveable benches unmoveable......I had gotten tired of waiting until tomorrow to bring my drills in from home.........hey this is typical research thinking.......scary I know.........actually if I remove 6 self tapping screws the benches will move again.....now that is pretty cool I think.........

Well by the time we were done I was done...........not sure if the system will work but at least I was dripping............sweat that is............actually the system works fine and we are set for the next round of experiments..........

So this should prevent any foliar disease problems but it will encourage mites.......and we will have to check each pot to be sure the the drippers are working.......yada, yada, yada.........

Puffy White Florida Clouds Today.................

Went outside at work this morning and saw them...........there them were...........
them being the beautiful white puffy Florida morning clouds......

Them have not been here in weeks........them have replaced the glaring clear burning sky.....
It was like seeing an old friend.........

Man was it nice to have them back...........(and I repeat) them being the puffy clouds........

It would be nice if them turn into dark rainy clouds later this afternoon..........that is with no lightning though.........

Helen..........See Below............YEAH............