By
PalmatierMeg
I confess I haven't been tending to my garden duties as diligently as I should but that's for a good cause. Two weeks ago my son and daughter-in-law, who work in the local health system, asked if I would be willing to sew them masks and hats to wear at work. Homemade PPEs aren't certified against coronavirus but hospitals and medical staff around here are desperate for any protection. How could I refuse? So, I dusted off my mother's 70-year-old plus Singer Featherweight sewing machine and my 30-year-old serger, obtained patterns and fabric and went to work. Visual impairment doesn't make sewing easy but I've managed to churn out enough masks and hats to make my children ecstatic. But all that stitching meant I haven't been able to weed, repot or take new photos.
But being quarantined in the house means I have time to dig through all the photos I've taken in the 12+ years I've been with IPS and PalmTalk. That blast from the past goes all the way back to April 2008 after I joined PalmTalk (in Jan.) then attended my first Extravaganza at Jeff Searle's palm garden of Eden circa April. I had forgotten how bare my yard was back then. And that the palms I eagerly bought were destined to be wiped out in the winter(s) of 2010. Still, they live on in photos.
My Caribbean Garden in front of the house was most developed at that time. We received sewer service in 2006 but before that the holding tank prevented a lot of digging and planting.
View of Caribbean Garden looking west.
I had planted several Coccothrinax spissa and sp seedlings away from the holding tank around 2006.
My first success at seed germination: Sabal palmetto I found down the street.
I decided to turn my south-facing, waterfront back yard into a jungle (which would be mostly destroyed in the winters of 2010). I already had a ready-made canopy for tropical palm seedlings in the form of 7 large queen palms planted overlooking the Isabelle Canal by a local nursery in 1993 - queens were the landscape-palms-de-rigueur during the 90s). But they served their purpose until fusarium wilt wiped them out in 2014/2015.
Bench planter with Chamaedorea cataractarum
Dypsis crinita
Areca concinna - one of my all time favorite palms since I bought this one from Jeff Searle in 2008. I babied it for nearly two years until it met its Waterloo in the record freeze of Jan. 2010 even though we tried all means of protection to save it.
Areca concinna and queens
Areca concinna and me
Finally, a photo of the newbie me peppering Jeff Searle with palm questions in 2008. He will likely never forgive me.
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