Guests to the forums

[Walter John]

Bump!

See, you'll be able to do things like this, the odd "Bump"  

[Kris]

hello iam kris (KrisAchar) from India.And am a new member

to this forum.you guys are terrific and very knowledgable on

Exocitic Plants in perticular Palms & cycas.

yes i have been a silent guest because i and even other guest

do feel_ Let the pro's handle the topic.

i for one know very little on plants but my facination for

flora and fona dates back to my schooling days.

and iam a die-hard buyer of exocitic plant seeds ( palms & cycas) in perticular world wide.

My seedlings are small and i do not have any pro digital camera to post whats happening on my side of the world.

Dear friends give me and other silent guest some time we assure you all, that you will never fell left alone for long...

Bye For Now !

Love,

Kris _ to all my friends.

[DoomsDave]

Hi Kris!

Nice to meet you!

Don't be afraid to participate.

Where in India are you from?  I work for a law office that does a lot of work there, especially in the southern part, but also in the Punjab (though I've never been there myself).

India is a fascinating place, and I'll bet you can grow plants we can only dream of here in California.

dave

[paulgila]

if any of you other members are like me you will just

browse as a guest until you see something you feel compelled to comment on(like this) and THEN log in...

"am i wrong?" :cool:

[NBTX11]

That is exactly what I did last year before I joined.  I had been browsing this site for months before I joined until I saw a topic I had to comment on, so I joined.

[Palmy]

Same. I was browsing for a few months before I joined. Someday the observers/guests are going to need to post, just like I did.

[Guest]

Hi Kris, a big Welcome...

It took me just a few days (nights) of browsing and reading here in the board, before I first decided to post something, when I found this forum a couple of years ago...I found it really suited both the desire to improve and practise my (still poor) written english and also to enjoy the company of a great bunch of knowledgeable people who share, around the planet, our admiration and love for plants and palms.

India is a country that always interests everyone of us for the beautiful and diverse aspects of the flora and for being the homeland of so many palm and non-palm species, from Caryotas to mangoes, not to mention the occurance of amazing tall coconuts coastal forests, in a similar climatic environment of mine...

Please feel confident to post and contribute here too, even with your doubts...the camera may come with time. I bet you are as proud with your plants as most of us here, and we all benefit with you and other newbies participating around...

Btw, I've posted in a Brazilian yahoo group called "Admiradores de Palmeiras" inviting everyone of the 20+ regular members to join Palmtalk (Alberto and Acácio included), and some of them have registered and maybe sometimes read here.... It would be great to have members from Rio de Janeiro, MG, RS and São Paulo too. The language bareer is maybe still the main problem which inhibits more participation, but nobody here really cares much for language mistakes and understand anyway...Hopefully some more South Americans and Asians soon break the ice and start to post here too.

Cheers

[DoomsDave]

I just jump in, and I'm so glad.

I've made more like-minded friends here than anywhere.

All I need is to take some time to travel . . .

To Hawaii, Florida, Texas, New Zealand, Oz-tralia, the UK and maybe even Central Europe to look at everyone's palms in the flesh!

dave

[Guest]

Kris, welcome, and other guests, be brave and speak up, because you have so much to contribute.  We learn from each other, and everyone knows a bit more about some subject matter that will help!  Even simply photos of your part of the world is a contribution...

This world is made so much more accessible through this forum;  we see palmy landscapes the world over and learn how more alike than different we are.  It is a blessing.

[Dypsisdean]

I was a lurker for quite a while until someone posted a pic from the Biennial in Hawaii of me standing next to a nice Kerriodoxa with a caption asking if anybody knew who that was.

Well, I was confident I could finally contribute some accurate information, and joined.

I know for a fact there are a lot of lurkers who could contribute useful and fun info. So I would encourge  them to join and contribute occasionally.

I wonder if there is some kind of fun incentive we could think up to get people to register.

[Walter John]

(Dypsisdean @ Jul. 08 2006,15:52)

QUOTE

I was a lurker for quite a while until someone posted a pic from the Biennial in Hawaii of me standing next to a nice Kerriodoxa with a caption asking if anybody knew who that was.

Well, I was confident I could finally contribute some accurate information, and joined.

I know for a fact there are a lot of lurkers who could contribute useful and fun info. So I would encourge  them to join and contribute occasionally.

I wonder if there is some kind of fun incentive we could think up to get people to register.

Great idea. How about a photo of a palm of their choice for use as their pc wallpaper. We'd send them a large version etc. Which reminds me, don't you think we should have a designated photo gallery area ?

[bgl]

Dean,

We have two different groups of lurkers: the ones who have not registered, and the ones who HAVE registered. Check the member list and you see quite a few with zero posts. It'd be real nice to get a LOT more participation, both from all those who HAVE registered, and for those who have not yet done so (but will hopefully do so very soon....).  

I was a lurker for about two weeks back in early March before I registered. I wanted to see what the forum was all about before I made a commitment! But I knew right away that I was going to register, it was just a question of time. And the reason I didn't do so sooner was that we were on dial-up until earlier this year. Once we got cable hook-up I knew I wanted to check out the IPS Forum!!

Bo

[bgl]

Dean (and Wal),

and what I meant to say is that just because people register doesn't necessarily mean they're going to participate. Hopefully, the incentive to participate will be for the simple reason that over time, and with more people participating, the various threads will be even more interesting, and thus encourage more participation.

Bo

[Walter John]

(bgl @ Jul. 08 2006,21:39)

QUOTE

Dean (and Wal),

and what I meant to say is that just because people register doesn't necessarily mean they're going to participate. Hopefully, the incentive to participate will be for the simple reason that over time, and with more people participating, the various threads will be even more interesting, and thus encourage more participation.

Bo

Couldn't agree more.

[Dypsisdean]

Has there ever been a little "blurb" in any of the journals highlighting the forum? Maybe when the "admins" are confident everything is running smoothly, there could be a little article published.

[Walter John]

More guests again, come on people,  be brave and join.

[Kris]

Thanks for the greetings and warm welcoming of new members by Wal,Dave,Gileno,Kathy & bgl...

I have started feeling at home with my buddies(You !)

You guys are great and encourageable.

I should thank you guys if this thread has not been started

probably i would have been just a passive member.just

reading your notes and not interacting or even reacting to

your queries and suggestion.

the forum has made people around the globe very easily

acceisable.Meaning the world is round & is getting smaller

every day_Thanks to techonology and all the brains behind it.

this forum is bringing fond memories of my schooling & collage

Days of my Life and memories of best friends...whom i miss a lot.

One Man One Tree ...

Love,

Kris (to my friends).

[bgl]

Hi Kris,

Yes, excellent points! I've always felt that one fascinating aspect with this forum is that we have participants all over the globe; India, USA, South America, Europe, Madagascar, and with this technology we're able to communicate instantly. Not just with words, but with pictures as well. Pretty amazing!

Aloha from an early Thursday morning in Hawaii!

Bo

[Cristóbal]

For new people and members put where you live in signature please !

Some times i read comment by some body - they say they cant grow this palm - but who know where they live !

[alex_7b]

I usually view as a guest, but only log on in order to post .

[Dave-Vero]

Here's a bit of intro. info. moved from the recent Roystonea discussion.  I'm not so much a palm enthusiast as someone interested, first, in the native Florida flora and, second, in plants generally.  I did attend the unveiling of Genera Palmarum at Cornell in 1987, and have kept the book at hand since then.  

I've been in Vero Beach, east coast of Florida south of Cape Canaveral, since 2000.  My subdivision house is about 2 miles inland  from the Indian River and near a neighbor's mature (pre 1989 freeze) royal palm.  The older neighborhood nearby has huge old ficus trees, big mangos, and some pre-1980s royal poincianas.  There's no big coconut palms, just youngsters.  The big freezes of the 1980s froze hibiscuses and many other tender plants to the ground, but damage was nowhere near as bad as it was 50 miles north in Melbourne and Cocoa.  Excellent information on palm survival in those freezes is available from a palm enthusiast's yard nearby, and I'm near the airport, so its records are very useful.

I began refurbishing my neglected yard only three years ago.  Since then, the old Valencia orange trees, left from the grove that once occupied the site, have succumbed to root-girdling beetle larvae.  Hurricane Frances in 2004 landed a neighbor's sugarberry tree atop several young Sabal minor and Chamaedorea metallica that were battered and unhappy, but survived.  A roughly 18-inch (supposedly) Archontophoenix cunninghamiana  sheltered under a Callicarpa bush looked miserable after the storms, but has grown fast since then, and it's rising out of the 5-foot bush.  After the storms, I removed masses of giant philodendron (harbors carpenter ants) and installed four A. tuckeri, a couple of Carpentaria and a Serenoa repens, which is recovering from a bad start.  Everything is from local growers.  I like the self-pruning habit of Archontophoenix and Carpentaria, and they seem more tractable in a modest yard than a Roystonea would be.  And I think it's reasonably safe to plant avocados and mangos fairly near these new palms and my old cabbage palm.  

Acoelorraphe wrightii, a gift, has grown from seedling size to about 2', and I've left almost enough room for it to eventually get big.  

My big structural investment in the yard is a live oak, which should come into its prime about when three laurel oaks will be ready for removal.  Several native Simpson stoppers (Myrcianthes fragrans) used for hedging never seem to be growing, but have gone from about 1 foot to 4 feet in just two years.  I couldn't ask for better-behaved hedging.  

On the fruit side, I just finished putting in a couple of Brazilian jaboticaba trees with an understory of coonties (Zamia pumila, at least in the online atlas of Florida plants).   A couple of  heliconias are finally spreading and will need management this fall--maybe a digging party for anyone who wants pups.

I've had good results with:

-beach sunflowers (their own raised bed, west side),

-mass plantings of caladiums (they like the east side of the house best, and do NOT thrive under laurel oaks),

-bromeliads, which are happy under the oaks and easily obtained from Valkaria Tropical Gardens and other vendors,

-Salvia greggii clambering up into the Callicarpa bush (who woulda thunk it?)

-Glandularia (Verbena) tampensis, except that I haven't gotten this blue native herb to spread by seed.  Too much mulch.

-the obvious herbs--Cuban oregano, lemongrass, rosemary, and parsley (which mostly feeds swallowtail butterfly larvae).

-young rouge plants (Rivina humilis) are thriving.

-a scorpionstail (Heliotropium angiospermum) is looks promising.  It's a handsome beach plant.  

-a camellia is a mixed result--flowers tend not to mature properly.  "Indica" azaleas can be grown successfully here.

I've got a few more exotic young palms and cycads in pots.  My favorite baby at the moment is a seedling coontie, set out in a bed.  It's already growing leaves in the temporary shade of some caladiums.  A beautiful young Zanthoxylum clava-herculis (Hercules club) is waiting for some new bed space to be cleared at the back of the yard.  

In terms of yard design, I don't like having plants or mulch next to the house, at least not in Florida.  So far, I've surrounded 3 sides of the house with walkways and gravel.  I like to use short-lived plants to fill in areas that will eventually be occupied by longer-lived material--thus the Callicarpa, caladiums, and heliconias.

In terms of plant material selection, I prefer native species, but I'm happy to use exotics that pose little if any threat of escape, that have proven to be appropriate for the climate, and that are different from the natives (that's a big loophole for heliconias, for example).  Palm advice has come mainly from Central Florida Palm and Cycad Society members.  Older affiliations are with the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council and the Florida Native Plant Society.