The Land Clearing

The land clearing is proceeding quickly and is plainly visible from the Garden’s backdoor. You can see the progress that’s been made from the attached aerial photo. Staff have captured wonderful photos and video of specimen trees coming out. One is a beautiful laurel fig (Ficus nitida), which is headed for a temporary home near Gumby (the gumbo-limbo from Marco) but ultimately it will preside over the future children’s garden. A giant black mangrove (Avcennia germinans) is being rescued and later will be positioned near the birding tower at end of the river of grass.

The butterfly house is quickly being transformed into a temporary shade and orchid house. Work started on the far end, potting up bromeliads from the conure area. Now it’s home to valuable Brazilian palms from the Windstar Garden Room. The rainforest plants in the honeycreeper section are next to come out.

Most of the remaining birds from the Butterfly House are on their way to Miami. Our finches, honeycreepers, and cardinals are actually returning home–that’s where they came from in the first place. We have two saffron finches and one red-capped cardinal who are playing hard to get. We’ll try again to outwit them next week.

Two interns have joined the horticulture staff for the summer. Eric Van Arsdale, a sophomore at Brown University studying environmental science, is working with Chad Washburn. Kelly Cadenas has a PhD in neurobiology and is working with Carolyn Miller.

George Wilder updated staff recently on his work. He has been exploring the Panhandle, documenting vegetation for the herbarium. Another ongoing project is studying plants on Marco Island. He’s fascinated by this coastal community and is working with Mike Owens to identify and document their finds.

Windstar Garden Room has a new look–blank. The Brazilian rainforest is gone and on the sidelines are some fresh plants that will soon be installed. For this go-round, we chose durable plants that will be at home in low light conditions.

You should have your NBG newsletter this week in the mail. It has more details on Garden activities and the schedule of events. Don’t forget Sue Gallagher’s plant sale June 28. She always has an amazing selection of plants at reasonable prices.

I’ll be vacation next week so I’ll miss sending this email on June 20^th. I promise to catch you up with the news in the following week’s email!

Regards,

Linda Coyner

Horticulturist

Naples Botanical Garden

4820 Bayshore Drive

Naples Florida 34112-7336

239-643-7275

The Most Asked About Plant of This Week

Naples Botanical Garden

Dear Volunteer Angels,

Hands down the most asked about plant this week is bridal’s veil or nodding clerodendron (C. wallichii). It’s right outside the Naples Garden Club door. Masses of large white lacey blooms cascade from arching branches like a living veil. This has been its best year yet. The other question has been about the golf-ball size fruit on the palm outside the Windstar Garden Room. The fruit of the fox-tail palm (Wodyetia bifurcate) is very showy. It is edible although not very palatable and, with enough sugar, can be used to make jams and jellies. The seed is poisonous.

There’s something about free admission that gets people moving. The Garden has had a record number of visitors during this last two-week free period. We’re definitely going out with a bang at close tomorrow. Friday’s Showcase of the Naples Daily News featured the Garden in its “pick” for the weekend.

The Horticulture staff has been kept on alert trying to keep ahead of the site work as bulldozers uncover large specimen trees. Among the prized trees are water oaks (Quercus nigra), royal palms (Roystonea regia), black mangroves (Avicennia germinans), pond apples (Annona glabra), and paurotis palms (Acoelorrhaphe wrightii). A large slash pine (Pinus elliottii) hammock was discovered and preserved.

Other work in progress is the emptying out of the Horticulture garage, no small feat for those of you have seen it in recent months. A storage trailer was purchased to catch the overflow, namely tractor, off-road vehicle, golf cart, etc, and positioned out in the field near Gumby. Once empty, the hort garage will be converted into offices and communication center for the construction team.

Sunday—our first closed day—the first of the birds head out for new homes. We finally found a home for the little birds—red-capped cardinals, honeycreepers, saffron finches, and bananaquits—with the breeder who originally supplied them. They along with 5 sun conures and 2 rainbow lorikeets start their journey to new homes Sunday. The rest of the feathered gang is here till Monday. Can you picture them netting those little birds; much less the ducks, shooting like Luke Skywalker through the butterfly canyon? We’ve got to get some pictures.

The toughest part of this week has been seeing butterfly house volunteers go. Some of you have been with the Butterfly House since the very beginning, October 2005. Sally Richardson says we’ll dream up some fun things to do to together this summer just to keep in touch. She welcomes suggestion for a field trip.

I can no longer say “see you around the garden,” can I? But I will keep these emails coming. Stay in touch!

Linda Coyner

Horticulturist

Naples Botanical Garden

4820 Bayshore Drive

Naples Florida 34112-7336

239-643-7275