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-Robert Lee Riffle - His Gardens


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I've been looking at these beautiful photos of Bob's gardens every day, just imagining him planting everything and visualizing the effect in years to come.  Urging the baby palms to hurry up and grow, don't you know I'm aiming for The Tropical Look?

Three Septembers ago, Bob raved about a rare climbing fern, Stenochlaena palustris, that his friend Stephen Marchese, of Skychild Tropicals, was growing and would soon have available to the public.  I only ordered one but Bob ordered a dozen, with the idea of replacing his lawn with them.  While looking for them in the photos, I finally spotted some in Diane's picture #12, underneath the windows.  Since my one pot has spread all throughout the back yard, I always teased him about tripping happily through the ferns.

Thanks to everybody who posted these pictures of Bob's paradise.

Cassandra

  • Upvote 1

Cassandra

Sultry, Semi~Tropical South Florida

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Cassandra, the photos from me were taken by RLR right before Katrina.  When he returned home from the evacuation, a lot of tree limbs had been dumped on top of the ferns and he lost them.  

While that sounds sad, the fact that that house made it through 165 mph winds with under $2,000 worth of repairs (the windows weren't even boarded up) offset the disappointment.  

You can see in subsequent pictures that some of the palms were a little raggedy but so many of the ones important to him survived and he was delighted with that.

Good to see you here!

D.

Diane

East of Seattle & Lake Washington

in Kirkland

Zone 8

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have just seen these magnificent and inspirational pictures of Bob's palms a while ago. Thanks a lot each of you for posting them. I haven't been to this area of the Forums lately but is still in my thoughts the recent loss of our palm guru and fellow leader in this board.

His own palms in his place have always been a mystery for most of us here, including myself. He was economic with posting images and never gave many long clues of his personal life and gardening. He sure mentioned many of these palms in his frequent posts and may have photographed them sometime in film and prints, as he described his nice old SLR camera...Btw, I wonder if some of his other old palm pictures, in both prints and slides can ever be published or shown here...It would be great to observe his personal image archive someday...

I'm glad to think that Riffle's last personal palm garden shall be forever kept in a nice shape, as a testimony of his love for these plants and in the memory of his great contribution to the palm cultivation world. I also thank Diane for sharing her nice and touching memories and poetry in the other thread.

Sirinhaém beach, 80 Km south of Recife - Brazil

Tropical oceanic climate, latitude 8° S

Temperature extremes: 25 to 31°C

2000 mm average rainfall, dry summers

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Gileno,

Thank you for your thoughts.  Bob had about 10-15,000 slides.  I'm not sure yet how they were indexed; I know most of them were.   I'm not sure what the plans are for those slides; hopefully they will be kept together in a library to be used or viewed by others.  

D.

Diane

East of Seattle & Lake Washington

in Kirkland

Zone 8

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Thanks Diane. It will be important to let his family understand how much we all admired his palms and the legacy of his botanic research work. I wish his library and photos may be available to a next generation of palm lovers who could benefit from his knowledge and continue with his passionate job.

Sirinhaém beach, 80 Km south of Recife - Brazil

Tropical oceanic climate, latitude 8° S

Temperature extremes: 25 to 31°C

2000 mm average rainfall, dry summers

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