If there was ever a time to love mangoes, this weekend would’ve been it. A number of mango trees were for sale, as well as an entire range of mango jellies, jams, ketchup, sauces (even BBQ sauce), pies, smoothies, ice cream, beer, taste sampling, and of course regular mangoes should you want to have one of those. There were a ton of them from all over the world varying from all shapes, sizes, and tastes.
This year I had gone both days (yesterday and today). I must say, if you are thinking of attending the event next year the most important thing is as follows: Be there early. On Saturday, it was extremely crowded. The few types of trees that were for sale were going by the minute; the most I saw someone walk out with was three, and there were quite a number of people walking out with them. And being there early doesn’t go just for people who wish to get trees! The lines become huge for the taste tests, as well as getting around to see all the types that are available become difficult. I’m not saying that’s it’s extremely hard to get around, but at least once or three times you’ll find yourself bumping into someone, or getting bumped into.
All in all, it was a good year. I didn’t get any trees this year as they didn’t have ones I wanted, but I do have some mangoes I plan to try and grow. They set fairly easily, so we’ll see what happens. I did take some pictures of the event; they are from today, so the crowd is much less than what it was yesterday, but it gives you a sense of how much goes on with the festival. I don’t have pictures of the mango viewing and auction room, as that was closed off for the mango brunch today, or pictures of the tree sale area (just imagine a stand with mango trees in pots behind it). On Saturday, it’s open for the public to view all the mangoes that will be used for the brunch and the private auction on Sunday.
Posted in Fairchild, Mango Festival |
A strange, yet familiar, smell managed to wind its way around the house once more. Of course, I knew what it was. My little flower had tripled in size and though it is still quite small, it wasn’t as small as I thought it would’ve been.
I don’t know what this is (I’ve sent in an email that will hopefully get a response in a day or two), so I can’t really say much more about it. As usual, here’s some pretty pictures to go with this entry.
Later this week I’ll be heading down to Fairchild once again for this year’s Mango Fest. There will be pictures galore from that, so check back again Saturday/Sunday.
Tags: amorphophallus, unknown species
Posted in General |
I had suspected there was a new flower growing over the last few days as I kept an eye on a small specimen. Today it finally grew to where I can definitely confirm it is a flower. I don’t know what this particular plant is; it may be one of a few unidentified/unknown species that I have. Thankfully because it is a flower, I can take a picture and ask some experts to see if they can identify it, and finally add a label to this plant if I can.
I’ll be keeping tabs on this as I think it’ll bloom within the next week or so. This is the smallest flower I’ve had so far, so it’ll be interesting to see what it looks like!
Tags: amorphophallus, unidentified species
Posted in General |
A lot of the plants I have that go dormant are usually put into my storage box unless they’re too large. It’s nothing fancy as it’s just a drawer I took from one of my closet shelves. I mix a soil-less with extra perlite, add some water so it’s just a tad moist and cool to the touch, and then bury the dormant tubers in it until they wake up. I often go and check them out (probably four time a week or so) to check that there’s no rot, see if any growth has started, aerate the mix, and add some more water if needed. One particular week I had been busy so I had not been able to check out the dormant plants as often as I’d have liked, and to my surprise there were several saying hello.
Some that were shipped in from other parts of the world as well as the ones I had acquired here were beginning to wake up and stretch out their roots for the season. Before I busied myself for the afternoon potting everyone, I made sure to snag some photos so I could compare in the fall how their growth was (I should’ve weighed them too!). Hopefully they get just as big or bigger by the time they go back to sleep.
Tags: amorphophallus, decus-silvae, eichleri, koratensis, maxwellii, muelleri, taurostigma, titanum, unidentified species
Posted in General |
So if there was every any doubt about my A.konjac blooming, today was the day that you couldn’t hide it. I thought yesterday was bad, and I was proven very wrong unfortunately.
This morning I was awoken by my mother. What did she have to tell me that was so important at around eight in the morning? She had just come home and was hit by a wall of smell; a fact I confirmed when I walked to the front of the house. There was a barrier of smell like a wall that once you hit engulfed you.
You see the Plant Room (aptly named after one of the spare bedrooms was convirted to a semi-greenhouse) is right next to the front door. The flower had secreted its smell all night long, and with the air off in the morning, it settled around the foyer with no place to go. My unfortunately mother happened to walk in and face the full monty of stale, stench-filled air. Of course, this was much to my amusement as she told me to do something about it. Fact of the matter is, I couldn’t do anything and jus had to let the smell wear off whenever it could be.
Problem was that yesterday, it didn’t smell that bad. It was manageable. For some reason it really wanted to drop a bombshell of a smell. It was easily ten times worse than yesterday, and in fact my eyes actually watered from the stench. I don’t think I’ve eaten anything today.
Just a little while ago I gathered the strength to take some pictures of the monster. You can take a glance at them below. To be completely honest, I really hope we can get the real greenhouse set up. The last thing I need is any of my larger species to bloom while in the house. Lesson learned.
Tags: amorphophallus, konjac
Posted in Miscellaneous |
Ah, I’m starting to get used to the aromas that permeate throughout house every couple of weeks. It never seems to get boring with each little waft that comes from under and above the door. This week, of course, was no exception.
My A.koratensis bloomed today. It wasn’t as potent as my bulbifer, but it made its presence known. Not really much to say about this one, but there are pics attached of course. One thing to note here is that the bulbifer really opened up; I’m guessing it’s to better allow insects to come and go and to ensure pollen is released as best as possible? The konjac is also trudging along. Nothing to report on it yet other than: It’s still growing.
Tags: amorphophallus, bulbifer, koratensis
Posted in Miscellaneous |
So this morning I awoke to a funny smell in the house. It was familiar, but for a moment I wasn’t quite sure what it was. That was until it dawned on me that it had to be something in the plant room. A moment later, I had my answer.
My Amorphophallus bulbifer had bloomed. Outside of the plant room, there was a scent of rotten eggs, but once in the room, the smell hit you like a wall. I can only really describe it (at the time of writing) as what happens when you find really old uncooked eggs next to a glass of rotten milk, and it’s slowly getting worse. I don’t expect it to get too bad though, at least I hope not. I just checked and my eyes felt a little burning. Potent little bugger!
Also getting ready for a debut, at least if things go well, are my A.konjac and A.koratensis. Pics of all three are below.
Tags: amorphophallus, bulbifer, konjac, koratensis
Posted in General |
A couple of months ago I mentioned the growth of my newly-acquired Amorphophallus dactylifer. The great news was that it was a flower as I had suspected, but the bad news was that it never bloomed for a reason I don’t know. The only theory I have is perhaps it just didn’t have enough resources to finish the “project.”
Below is the progress over the course of December through the first week of February. I documented the growth and death of the flower, including some pictures from when I cut the spathe open to see how far it had gotten. The tuber is fine, so hopefully in a few weeks I’ll see the leaf, and try again next year or whenever it feels like trying to bloom again. At least right now I am looking forward to the blooms A.bulbifer, A.konjac, and one of my A.koratensis, the first of which (A.bulbifer) should bloom next week (I should seriously consider practicing my bloom predictions better).
The pictures are below, chronologically ordered:
Tags: amorphophallus, dactylifer
Posted in Miscellaneous |
It’s been over a month already since the last entry! Where has time gone? Thanksgiving is tomorrow (well, today considering it’s currently 3:35AM as I write this sentence). Nonetheless, it doesn’t mean that nothing has happened.
Over the last month, we were hit with a pretty sudden cold front. Having not been properly prepared for the event, the plants got to experience their first cold breeze for this year. Some of them were triggered into going into early dormancy. The ones that have gone to sleep for now are sitting in a box with other species that I had delievered over the time between the last entry and now (more on them some other time, perhaps spring when they’re waking up). The rest, after quickly placing an order for a small room heater, are now happily sitting in the guest bedroom to spend their winter vacation. Although the cool breeze did shake some up a bit, they seem back to normal.
On a positive note, and although I will get to the rest some other entry soon, I did get my hands on an Amorphophallus dactylifer. I mention this particular one because shortly after receving it, it has begun to come out of dormancy. However, so far it’s been growing quite fast but has no roots; my assumption here is that I might actually get a flower for winter! I’m not completely sure about that yet, but I will know in about a week for sure exactly what it’s doing.
There’s also a bulbifer (also one of the recent readditions to the family) that is also doing similar to the A.dactylifer. So in the end, I may not get one but TWO flowers next month. If this is what is happening, December should be a pretty exciting year for me as it’ll be the first (and maybe second) time that I get a flower since I moved.
That’s it for this update; just a quick note of how things are going and that I haven’t forgotten about this blog. Look out for an entry sometime next month for details about my recent set of aquisitions. Other than that, have a nice Thanksgiving!
Tags: amorphophallus, bulbifer, dactylifer
Posted in General |
So the last two days I got some plant orders (and an auction item) I got a few days ago. One kind that I got was one I’ve wanted for a while: a rainbow eucalyptus tree (I took a picture of a full grown one here). They’re very small trees, so there is plenty of time before they grow to their full height; somewhere around 200 feet high.
The other plants shown are ones I wanted (new species in my collection), and one that I already have several of, just much bigger.
Tags: amorphophallus, eucalyptus, prainii, titanum
Posted in General |
