Return to Rock Garden

Looking lush

welcome down the rock garden path

which looked like this 8 months ago:

today, with sculptural kalanchoe luciae or thyrsiflora  ( I am not sure which), aloe vera and veld grape

You can also call this rock garden the home of many unloved plants, as it contains many plants most people in the Caribbean don't appreciate. Which are among some of the best adapted plants for the climate and soil on a dry coral island. Mind you, people will carry on about how the rock garden is so lovely, not realising it has many of the same plants they throw away!

 Beach Morning glory (volunteer plant)

Donkey Ear Kalanchoe

Backlit spines of aloe maculata

Yucca Aloifolia. Most people consider these pests here, or at best, security hedges. It was amusing to see large yuccas selling in California for $200-the very same plant most people in the Caribbean would pay to have chopped down. That's because they don't trim or shape their yuccas.  All you have to do is spend a few minutes a year trimming your yuccas to get these lovely no care, drought tolerant, architectural plants-for free. I had the pots turned on their sides in order to get the stems to grow undulating ( they turn to the light)

Detail of desert rose sculptural stems

The most pedestrian of plants-aloe vera, porterweed, sensevieria and-all obtained without cost, and all  usually cleared out of gardens here, make up this vignette.

Pakse Waterfall Trip

Above: our first sighting of the waterfall. Pakse means "Mouth of the river Se") and is a city of 70,000 in southern Laos, situated at the confluence of the Xedone and Mekong Rivers.

Below: scenes from rural Pakse on our way to the waterfall

This is the most undeveloped inhabited place I have ever been to. It was only on the boat I understood the meaning of the term "backwater"

It was a long way ( 2 hours drive from our hotel, plus 30 minutes by boat, plus 20 minutes walk through bamboos, but worth it. 

Just so scenic

A long shot-still could not get the entire falls in

Happy June Blooms Day!

Just a few highlights, as I am rushed with work but thanks to Carol for hosting another Bloom's Day. We had some rain in recent weeks and everything seems to have made a big foliar push, so the masses of blooms should hopefully follow. Its gratifying to see the plants growing and establishing themselves.

Above: Purple bush bougainvillea in lime green Vietnamese glazed pot

 Desert rose in rock garden

Fragrant white frangipani

Plumeria alba: native to Central America and the Caribbean and naturally growing on the land

Garden gate

Agave update

Here are my big agaves in the ground, having taken off after 6 months out of the pot.

Above, Agave Beauleriana with opuntia. While this agave is still seen in islands such as Barbados and Antigua, its hardly seen in most other Caribbean islands. It has always been a favorite of mine as I like the powder blue color.

My octopus! ( Vilmoriana)

Karatto ( I think, as I got it in the bushes)

Sisalina, another agave that grows in the wild, most people here would'nt dream of having this in their garden

Lophanta-like a perfect artichoke

One of my many desmetianas. I built a rock garden to showcase some of the larger agaves

Another self sown freebie I plucked from a friend's yard. I think angustifolia

Two agaves in the rock garden