So who likes plants?

Off-topic
1

I know I do.

My parents have always had green thumbs, so we have a lot of interesting species growing in our yard.

Though we live in what is referred to as a ‘scrub environment’, or scrubland, (pine trees, live oak, palmetto, low shrubs, grasses) which is very sandy, and lacking in nutrients for the most part, you might be surprised to hear what we have growing here.

Besides the native pines (slash, loblolly, and sand) and live oaks that were on the property before we cleared it to build the house 14 years ago, we also have

3 myrtle oak trees which were planted when they were about 2 feet tall - they’re now well over 15 feet

many frangipanis - mainly yellow, but some yellow and white - they’re so easy to grow, we just break off branches and re-plant them

some gardenias

rosebushes

staghorn ferns - looks big, but only weighs about 20lbs (fell down in last hurricane, but we put it back up again)

rubber tree

pineapples
strawberries
kiwi vine
chives, basil, tomatoes, some other herbs

hawaiian schefflera - they’re huge now - good for privacy

my mom also has an orchid that is about 30 years old, it blooms regularly and is beautiful
we have about 8 or 9 orchid species in total - we have the breeders id# for a couple, but some of them are very old, and all of them are very pretty (I’m going to get my mom another for her b-day which is coming up soon)

we had a large bougainvillea which we just recently trimmed back. the thorns in some parts are well over 1.5 inches long, and very, very sharp. I was the lucky one that got to drag the branches to the road. the pink flowers add a lot of color to the otherwise dull backdrop (where they were positioned it was right in front of the neighbor’s bamboo, so it looked really nice)

we also have some birds of paradise in the same region of the yard
which are close to where my mother planted 2 or 3 bromeliads when we moved in. the few bromeliads have birthed dozens of others since then, and the frogs love the safety in them. the pink and purple flowers are also very neat, albeit sharp.

An uncle, not really an uncle, but more of a friend of my fathers’ whom we call uncle Ian, came by on his way to Costa Rica and dropped off two ficus benjamina that my dad had braided in 1981 and had given to him in 1982. I remember having ficus benjamina in the Florida Room a long time ago, but only vaguely - it wasn’t these same trees, but it’s always nice to see people who knew my dad really well, since I never really got the chance to.

There are many other plants in our yard, but these are what come to mind right now.

So I suppose you ought to tell us (at least some of) the plants native to your area, and what you have in your yard.

We have 1/2 acre and it’s all atop sugar sand.

2

I was expecting a thread about marijuana…

3

thanks for the presumption

would you have preferred that? because it can easily change into one…

but i’d rather it go the way I planned it to

4

Nah, I’m good.

Plants are cool.

5

Blake (podzol) started a thread about this awhile ago (this isn’t me ragging on you for “reposting” something…just pointing it out).

At my dad’s house we have some lettuce, tomatoes, and little things like that in a garden…then we have a peach, and an apple tree, and then some grapes…'tis nice.

6

ah yes,
we have an orange tree in the backyard that my dad grafted himself
and a papaya tree

while thinking about backyard plants I just rememberd an unusual poisonous plant we have called a pencil cactus.

7

in my yard we have several blue spruce planted on a hillside near our waterfall/pond, in bewtween the trees we planted some wildflower seeds that we got from the fields by my house (mostly indian paintbrush). then across the pathway in my backyard we have chives, strawberrys, rhubarb, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, and corn, further down we have a cherry tree(amazing blossoms) around the cherry tree there is mostly lavender, there used to be lambs ear but it started taking everything over so we had to pull it all out. at the bottom of the pathway is our flagstone porch, it sits in front of the pond next to the cherry tree. around the back of the porch are wild roses beyond that in the corner of the yard we have several large lilac bushes. diagnol from the porch is our lawn, along the back fence we have wild roses that trail along the whole fence, in front we have giant orange poppies, in the other back corner and along the other side fence we have more lilac bushes and some sort of tree i dont know, and then you go up along the side of the house and we have mostly rock with a few blue spruce, in the front yard we have a few small trees(i think 2 are ohio buckeyes), there are a bunch of rose bushes directly in front of our front porch, in front of those are lots of different kinds of daisy type flowers, there is an “island” between our driveway and the path to our front door where we have some Iris planted(we also have water iris in our pond) around and in back of my mailbox on the side of the driveway we have aspens and columbines and some more iris…
im sure i have forgotten alot but thats what i can think of.

8

also, I do not have any cannabis plants.

and, despite my avatar, I do not smoke it - I would just like to see it decriminalized.

9

that area sounds very nice unisteez, but it was a bit too much to read all in one breath.

reminds me of michigan, with the blue spruce and rhubarb. my grandparents have both, plus apple trees. they send us bags of apples every year, and they are the best.

10

yea i tend to get excited about something and then end up letting all my thoughts out too fast and in a completely unorganized manner. haha…

11

haha, that’s cool, as long as you don’t do it in school.

I do it sometimes when I’m talking - mind much faster than mouth, skipping from idea to idea, sometimes without telling people how/why…gets confusing for them…

plants are just cool
…the way they tend to follow the fibonacci sequence
…the way they H2O+CO2+photons=>O2+ATP
…the flowers
…can help mankind in many medicinal ways

12

I don’t like plants, they taste bad.

Except for Spuds, of course.

13

Plants don’t dislike you because you taste bad

14

plants are pretty slick. they remind me of the number phi and the beauty of nature and all that.

15

My dad had a ton of plants, like a ton.
Now he doesn’t have as much. But he still has quite a few.
He also used to have a worm farm. He would put his bannana peels and such in there and they would eat it and poop it out and stuff and so he got composting stuff that way.
He even has one of those big tall trees in california, like the giant redwood or something. It isn’t very big yet though.

16

i think i have a thing for plants, it’s really cool to watch them grow. the last couple of years i grew big pumpkins in my yard, the biggest one i got was last year, it was maybe 100-110 lbs. not much for competition or anything, but it was cool that i could barely pick it up. it made one hell of a jack-o-lantern also. mostly, i love trees, i’m really thinking about pursuing a career in a field involving the environmental sciences, even though it might seem a little early to do so. pretty much, pumpkins rock

17

I might as well bite.

My dad has/had quite the impressive garden going…watermelons, dill, corn, cucumber, tomatoes, giant sunflowers, leaf lettuce…I love eating that kinda home-grown stuff, especially the lettuce and tomatoes…so fresh and tasty. Oh and carrots too - those were goooood.

18

On the topic of composting

My mom, as a member of the Audubon Society, is a strong advocate of composting and recycling. she used to come to my elementary school and tell everyone to put their banana peels, apple cores, other compostables in the separate bins to be brought to the compost pile.

we have two compost bins on the side of the house
we always recycle
we throw out less trash than the neighbors

19

we have lots of ivy…lots…and some herbs in the garden like oregano, mint, chives, and rosemary, because we cook a lot.

by the way, never plant mint in your garden…it TAKES OVER!!! plant it in its own pot.

but by far my favorite type of plant is the sunflower. I’m gonna go to the local (plant) nursery and get me some seeds for the really tall (11 ft / 3.5 m) kinds.

20

i like rock music more
fact rock music kills plants