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Wilson Botanical Garden


Jeff in St Pete

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The Costa Rica Palm Society held a meeting at Wilson Botanical Garden this past weekend. The garden is located near the town of San Vito up in the mountains near the border with Panama at about 1,100 meters (3,609 ft). The OTS (Organization for Tropical Studies) aquired Wilson Botanical Garden in 1973 as part of Las Cruces Biological Station.

The Wilson's began planting the garden in 1962 and remained on the property until they passed away in the mid and late 1980's. This is an amazing place with a vast collection of mature palms and other tropical plants from around the world. I immediately fell in love with this garden and can't wait to go back again.

Some photos of the gardens around the old Wilson home which is now a dormitory for students.

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Bromeliad Garden

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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More photos from the gardens around the house

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Jeff,

That is indeed an incredible garden. Too bad we weren't able to include it in the Biennial in 2008. I certainly wouldn't mind visiting Costa Rica again, so I could see this beautiful garden. Thanks for posting! :) And I believe there's more on the way so I look forward to seeing the rest! :)

Bo-Göran

Leilani Estates, 25 mls/40 km south of Hilo, Big Island of Hawai'i. Elevation 880 ft/270 m. Average rainfall 140 inches/3550 mm

 

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Jeff,

That is indeed an incredible garden. Too bad we weren't able to include it in the Biennial in 2008. I certainly wouldn't mind visiting Costa Rica again, so I could see this beautiful garden. Thanks for posting! :) And I believe there's more on the way so I look forward to seeing the rest! :)

Bo-Göran

Bo, now that I've been there I understand why it wasn't included in the Biennial - there are just not enough hotels in the area to accommodate a group of that size.

This garden is definitely worth a return visit to Costa Rica. The cabinas are clean and very comfortable, the food is delicious, and it's wonderful to stay in the middle of such a beautiful garden. The rates include three meals a day plus all taxes and it's very reasonable.

I have a LOT more photos to post....

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Archontophoenix purpurea

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Various Areca vestiara

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Arenga pinnata

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Asterogyne martiana

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Astrocaryum alatum

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A. alatum seeds

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Attalea butyracea or perhaps A. rostrata

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This next palm was labeled Attalea iguadummat

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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The largest stand of bamboo that I have ever seen

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Some birds near the dining hall one morning

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Mot-Mot

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Early in the morning a member checks to see if I am awake yet. I was already up and photographing the garden!

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A few of the cabinas

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Cordylines

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Cochliostemma odoratissimum

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Chamaedorea seeds

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Calamus caryotoides

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Calathea lutea

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Calyptrocalyx spicatus

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Jeff , imn post 13 , the first 2 broms looks like Guzmania zahnii ,next is a form of Vr fosteriana the lovely 4th is Vriesea platynema var. variegata .

Michael in palm paradise,

Tully, wet tropics in Australia, over 4 meters of rain every year.

Home of the Golden Gumboot, its over 8m high , our record annual rainfall.

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Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana

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Calyptronoma plumeriana

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These large Caryota sp were planted all over the garden - see person next to it for scale.

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Jose Maria and Martin under Cyphophoenix nucele

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Dictyosperma album

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Dypis crinita from top of hill

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Dypis crinita from below

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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It's getting late here so I'm heading off to bed. I will post more tomorrow.

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Jeff, you are killing me with these perfect looking Vriesea. I bet they are all in full sun!! I just wish they would grow in full sun here, it would make planting them a lot simpler. More photos please... and more Vriesea, if there is any....

Regards, Ari :)

Ari & Scott

Darwin, NT, Australia

-12°32'53" 131°10'20"

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Jeff,

What a place! :) Thanks for all the photos! And you are of course correct - we did know that we would not be able to accomodate a group of 180 people there during the Biennial, not even if we had split it up in two groups. I hope you have a few more photos! :)

Bo-Göran

Leilani Estates, 25 mls/40 km south of Hilo, Big Island of Hawai'i. Elevation 880 ft/270 m. Average rainfall 140 inches/3550 mm

 

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These next tall palms were labeled as Dypsis sp. There was a grouping of them planted in the same area. Anyone have any idea what they could be?

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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One of my favorite palms on the property - Wettinia hirsuta

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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A couple of large Licuala's

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and a few Livistona's

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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The Costa Rica Palm Society touring the garden

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Of course it rained a little...

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More photos coming...

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Fantastic group of D. decipiens, wow! :o I agree with you on the Wettinias too, just gorgeous!

For the Costa Rica Biennial, I had originally signed up to go to this garden as a post-trip, but there weren't enough participants, so it was cancelled and I went to Corcovado instead. Corcovado was charming, but this garden has such a wonderful collection, how I wish I might have seen it. Good excuse to return, right? :)

Kim Cyr

Between the beach and the bays, Point Loma, San Diego, California USA
and on a 300 year-old lava flow, Pahoa, Hawaii, 1/4 mile from the 2018 flow
All characters  in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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Jeff , imn post 13 , the first 2 broms looks like Guzmania zahnii ,next is a form of Vr fosteriana the lovely 4th is Vriesea platynema var. variegata .

Thanks Michael! The Brom collection was overwhelming.

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Jeff, you are killing me with these perfect looking Vriesea. I bet they are all in full sun!! I just wish they would grow in full sun here, it would make planting them a lot simpler. More photos please... and more Vriesea, if there is any....

Regards, Ari :)

Ari, I still have a lot more photos...

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Fantastic group of D. decipiens, wow! :o I agree with you on the Wettinias too, just gorgeous!

For the Costa Rica Biennial, I had originally signed up to go to this garden as a post-trip, but there weren't enough participants, so it was cancelled and I went to Corcovado instead. Corcovado was charming, but this garden has such a wonderful collection, how I wish I might have seen it. Good excuse to return, right? :)

Kim, That's unbelievable that there was not enough interest for a post-trip. This is the best garden I have ever seen. Although I haven't been to Hawaii yet...

I would love to organize a small group of people to go to Wilson and help identify many of the palms that are missing id tags or labeled incorrectly. This could be folks from the International Palm Society and/or the Costa Rica Palm Society. I plan on getting in touch with the Director of the garden to find out if they would be interested in our help. If anyone is interested in visiting the garden and participating in this, please contact me via a PM.

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Wow, thanks Jeff!! :wub:

My pleasure Patricia!

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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I couldn't stop staring at this palm. It didn't have an id tag and no one knew what it was. Can anyone id it?

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I found this old photo that Mike Evans took three years ago when he visited Wilson. You can see how much the palm has grown since then.

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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Some Euterpe around the garden

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This E. oleracea was a monster!

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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A giant Fern. I managed to find a small one of these at a local nursery near the garden.

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Some shots from the forest trails

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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A beautiful ginger

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And lots of heliconias

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These had a metallic sheen on the top of the leaves and were purple underneath

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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These palms were labeled as Phytelephas aequatorialis

The lighting was not the best for photos...

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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There were many tall Pigafetta's and many more replacements for the ones that have died of old age.

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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I guessed these were Pinanga casesia?

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This one had fallen across the path and then starting growing upright again.

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Formerly Jeff in Costa Rica
 

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