Can't Catch a Break or a Fish......

Last week when we went to TPIE the weather was perfect for surf fishing....the water was clear.....just the right amount of waves.....but there were a lot of things to finish before the trip so no fish....

Now that there is some potential beach time...the winds are roaring and the surf is all stirred up so forget it....
It was that way most of the fall also....no fish....

Maybe fishing is just not meant to be.....

Oh well, I can work on my annual report....what a nice treat....no fish....

Anthurium Red Hot....

Went to a local nursery today to check on a few things.....
They were growng Red Hot anthurium.....and quite a bit of pothos......

It was nice to see on of my kids in the field.......

More of TPIE 2012.......

Not plants in this photo....but cute anyway...
There are always lots of blooming orchids and bromeliads at TPIE.....this year was no exception.....

Ahhhh.....here is someone with a nice adenium.......always my favorite....

Great show...expecially during the winter.....

TPIE 2012...........

Mosaic Mom and I toodled down to Ft. Lauderdale this week for the Tropical Plant Industry Exposition (T.P.I.E.)...
There were lots of great plant to look at....
We enjoyed the visit and I got some inspiration and new ideas.....
Below are some amaryllis to enjoy.....I was more interested in the containers than the flowers....
It is fun to see how the containers affect a plant's overall appearance....lots of new things in that arena....
Marketing is more important than ever now....
More photos later....

I like the one on the left..........

Below are 2 adenium interspecific hybrids from the same cross.....the one on the right has a more typical branching pattern whereas on the left the plant has many lateral shoots.....neither has been pruned....each plant has been dried down for 3 months and now repotted and starting a new growth flush....it will be interesting to see how they look when in bloom about 8 -10 weeks.from now....they will not be pruned before then...

Only two seedlings out 20 branched like the one on the left.....if each of the lateral shoots flower this should really be an amazing show...you can see it first here....

Student is Earning Her Stripes....

My grad student has been busy the last 2 days measuring and weighing Adenium stems, leaves and flowers....
Today she was washing roots from 150 pots..........she got it done.......now they are being weighed....
This has been tedious work but the data will be great.....No one else has done this that we know of....
All the tops and roots will now be dried in separate bags and weighed again in a week or two...
Then the fun begins as she can look at all the numbers and see what story is there....
Then what....?????
She gets to do it again......repeat and verify.........repeat and verity...........repeat....

I haven't told her this part of the story yet......

One Adenium with caudex....one without......

Here are 2 plants.......one lifted and the other not......I like the lifted ones.......Too tired today to add anymore comments.....

My New Photo Backdrop.......Finally......

The new photo background is up and working so my graduate student can present good pictures to go a long with the numerical data........after 30 years plus we finally have an adequate background....in my opinion of course...
It is 12 feet long and 6 feet high......and can be moved.....it is boat deck carpet so it can be washed.....it even has grommets that we installed so we can stretch out the wrinkles....
So now we can line up all the treated plants and see the differences in photos....below is the installationwith some adenium...we often have no way to show treatment differences in a clear way (other than data of course)...but a photo is worth many words so we hope to make a lot of them....
Below is how the photos will look (we will remove the plants in front of course and only show those on the shelf).........then we can crop them and have some good stuff for publication....The background can hang there even if we overhead water.....no problem as that helps clean and removes wrinkles.....it is quite nice actually......total cost was $34.00 and sore knees that I got putting the grommets in on the floor.....

Close but It didn't Freeze....maybe frost tonight.....

We got by without any ice...about 33-34 degrees...just enought breeze to hold up temps....
Other people near by had a pretty good freeze.....
It is all about location......and those microclimates.......
gee maybe we are in a warm spot after all these years....

The cauliflower should be really good now.....I'll take it.......

There were several large adenium left in the field........we will check them tonight......

Cauliflower Time......and more.........

We have eaten 4 heads of cauliflower in the last 4 days.....
Temps may be frost/freezing for the next 2 mornings so these babies should get even better....
We just planted out another crop of cauliflower starts...
Might start another batch of seeds also....
Also there are strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, carrots and 10 different fresh herbs that we can harvest at will for the next several months....
Once the bellies are full we can go into the greenhouse and look at Adeniums in flower...
Plus the days are getting longer....
Our favorite time of the new year....
Above is the cauliflower variety 'Amazing'....it is quite vigorous and has produced well for us this year....