FNATS 2011.....

Mosaic Mom and I atended the Florida Nursery trade show in Orlando yesterday.
We got to see lots of big trees and palms....

Lots of flowers....

Lots of assorted plants....

and even the famous Mahindra tractor.......we really liked this one below.

All and all it was a great trip..........

Closer and Closer............

to the first fall surf fishing trip.........
Look at that beautiful water.......I would love to relive that day again.......
Soon.........Soon........

Ahh the memories............

The First Zuchinni is Toast - 34 days......

Seed planted 8-18-2011.
Fruit harvested 9-21-2011.
YUM.

Adenium Experiments in Progress.......

Here are a few photos (taken yesterday) of some adenium experiments .....some in progress and some almost ready to go.....
Below are some "Ice Pink' plants ready for the treatment....not sure which treatments yet......
Here (below) are some of the cultivar Red that are not quite ready for abuse yet....

Here (below again) are some larger Reds in 8-inch pots and some in 6-inch pots on drip irrigation and 4 different slow release fertilizer rates. This experiment is 8 week old. Open flowers are counted weekly plus a bunch of other data is taken every 4 weeks. This test should run another 4-8 weeks.

Back to Zucchini............

Here is the up to date data..........

Zucchini 'Elite' (seed packs say 48-55 days to flower)......

Seed Planted 8-18-2011
First Male flower 9-15-2011
First Female flower 9-17-2011
First Pollination 9-17-2011 ............that is "30 days" from seed planting to pollination......
Second pollination 9-18 and third pollination 9-19-2011.....
First Harvest (SOON)...........probably in 5-7 days.......

I think we are doing pretty well so far...........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September Seeds............What a Deal......

We have some really fine Magnolia cultivars at work these days (upper photo)..........
These really are nice trees with a lot of bronze coloring on the undersides of the leaves.....
They are setting seed now and of course, since I cannot help myself, that leads to the photos below.....
Here are the seed that were harvested today...

Next step is to put the seed in a plastic bag filled with moistened peat and place in the refrigerator for about 10 weeks or more...

Then plant and wait for the magic to happen....

Several babies from the above seed head may be growing around my home in the years to come.....

Seed are still one of life's best bargains........

In "My World" it is Boys Before Girls.......

I should say "in my Zucchini world" that is........
In our garden Zucchini always start off with male flowers.....several days before the females come along....
So to outsmart them tricky girls we harvest the male flowers (below) and put them in the refrigerator to store the pollen until the females decide to wake up and get with it.....
So below you can see the first male of the 2011 fall gardening season has been harvested, placed on a section moistened paper towel in a plastic container.......the cover will be added and placed in the refrigerator.....
The male flowers and their pollen will keep for up to a week....
Here is a close up to the male flower and its pollen........btw...the petals have been cut back for easier storage.
Now we just wait for the first female flower to show her pretty stigma....
Of course if we get both male and female flowers the same day we use the fresh pollen....
The excess males are again stored waiting for a solitary females.....
We discard the older males when we have an excess of fresh ones.....

Soon I get to eat delicious zucchini fries..........I hope......

The September Scene..........

Come September everyone down here seems to be hot and tired......

Hot is self explanatory.........there is faint hope for cool but it never quite makes it.....a couple of mornings in the 60's but they disappear as fast as they came....... then the heat sets in once more.......seemingly forever.........OMG maybe in October.......this time for sure......forget it..............

Tired comes from the hot.........months of hot.........too hot to work or play........maybe I can surf fish............Oh hell the water temp is 84.......want to eat something out of that bathtub.............

Of course in the pool 84 is far too cold.........so we put on pool cover so it reaches 92.......that is nice.........it even matches the outside air temp.........

Now I am confused........not sure where this is going but I am going to put my feet up and think about November........

My Pet Cameleon ........ at Last....

I bought one at the Oregon State Fair when I was a kid......
It did not fare well......
Now I have them in my greenhouse at home.....usually in some shade of green....
They are fun to have and remind me of 25 cents lost in an earlier time......
I do not purchase anything living a fairs anywhere.....

The cameleons tend to escape the wrath of Bones.......unlike the other lizards.....and that is cool....

Like cameleons...."Stay beneath the radar" .......that is my motto..........

Friday Fittonia............

We keep a small collecton of Fittonia in the research greenhouse...........a nice spot of color...........

New Building at the Research Center......

This is a full replica of a home to be used to instruct pest control people how and where to treat for various bugs.....
They could have used our house if need be.........we have it all......

Maybe I can live there once I retire........I can be pesty...........

A Dry Summer ...........

It has been a long hot and dry summer so far..........the photo below shows a rain storm from last May.............
There has not been anything like it since........wish there was......
The pumps are getting tired....