Visiting Gene ("gbarce") in Manila

[Gbarce]

Variegated Sabal

[Gbarce]

more epiphytes

[doranakandawatta]

I am so happy I can discover all these pictures of your wonderful garden this Saturday morning, while having breakfast.
Bo-Göran must have had a good time visiting you, many thanks to Bo and you for posting.

Gene, you're welcome in  Sri Lanka but we don't have such wonderful gardens. Maybe some habitat can interest you, like Loxococcus's habitat. 

BTW ; do you grow Loxococcus rupicola?

[Kim]

As Dave says, SWOON!  This is quite the collector's garden, and the photos are just mesmerizing!  Your Coccothrinax are wonderful, almost as wonderful as the Copernicia. All the elements -- the palms, the bromeliads, epiphytes, cycads, and other accent plants -- it all adds up to splendor. Well done! Thanks for taking the time to add the full complement of photos -- it was a pleasure wandering through your garden. 

[BS Man about Palms]

WOW Gene! (And Thanks Bo for starting this thread!) Gene, you've been missing a while and it's so great to see how STUNNING your place has become!! Looks like its time for a biennial to the Philippines!! 

[LJG]

Wow, great growth on your garden Gene. Amazing. Great photos too. You captured it well. 

[bgl]

Gene, thanks a lot for adding all the photos of the palms that I missed!  Let's just say I was overwhelmed - in a very good way!  And thanks everybody for the additional comments.

[Mike Evans]

Wow, what a fantastic garden Gene has.  Thanks for starting this thread Bo, you must of had a great trip and tour of the garden and city.   That Licuala peltata sumawongii looks great.  Gene, has this been growing in full Sun?  Can you post a close up of it?

Thanks for your photos!

[Gbarce]

Nope - no Loxoccocus ropicula.  I tried it once but the seedling didn't survive.  Such a shame because the colors out of the new leaves are pretty amazing.  Maybe i'll be able to try those again in the future.

 

Here are a few more photos:

 

Variegated Phoenix sylvestris

[Gbarce]

I failed to show these two guys to Bo.  These were in a secluded garden in the back

Calyprocalyx micholitzii and my biggest Hydrastelle affinis

[Gbarce]

Here are a few more epiphytes on palms 

Tillandsias - these guys are well established now and have gone through a few generations resulting in good size clusters.

 

The Platyceriums are relatively newly attached and still need to be supported by wires

 

Edited March 6, 2017 by Gbarce
redundant photo

[Gbarce]

Some non-palms in the container ranch.  This is a variegated banana that we dug up because it was too big where it was growing.  New shoots are coming out with different degrees of variegation

[Gbarce]

Non- Palm container ranch specimen again-- a really cool Ginger.  Love the weird crinkled leaves

[Gbarce]

New leaf of Browneopsis Ucayalina

[Gbarce]

My last Mapu in a pot -- notice anything????

[Gbarce]

Chambeyronia macrocarpa seedlings -- different degrees of redness.  Based on my experience the ones with the best color are the slowest growers.

[Gbarce]

"True Dwarf" Areca catechu and Pinanga Tomentella

Edited March 6, 2017 by Gbarce

[Gbarce]

Some of the things that Bo was most amused by were our backyard birds

Peacocks and Malaysian Seramas ( a type of bantam chicken) 

[Gbarce]

Black barred pekins and Runner Ducks

[Gbarce]

A couple of kinda rare Licualas: Pre-ati and Khoonmengii

[Gbarce]

Dypsis decaryii

[doranakandawatta]

I failed to show these two guys to Bo. I am sure Bo will come back 

... notice anything???? Nice flower, soon will you get fruits ? How old is that plant ? 

pekins and Runner Ducks .... do you have nice recipes ?

More serioulsy, many thanks for showing such a beautiful garden.
 

[jardinierpalmiertrat]

Thanks a lot for this wonderful travel!!!! Amazing garden!!!!

[humangenomaproject]

What a weird looking ginger! Do you have a name on that?

[Peter Pacific]

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[Peter Pacific]

Bo Goran, thank you so much for posting those gorgeous pictures of Gene´s garden, one we have all seen and admired over the years here on Palmtalk. 

Gene, your garden is nothing less than spectacular and I am sure that all the seasoned collectors are aware of the years of dedication that is required to have a garden so lovely as yours.  One question: Are your birds, chickens and peacocks caged or restricted to one area of the garden?  We have had chickens but were quickly removed when we saw how bare they left the garden!

[Gbarce]

On ‎3‎/‎8‎/‎2017‎ ‎12‎:‎58‎:‎53‎, humangenomaproject said:

What a weird looking ginger! Do you have a name on that?

Unfortunately the vendor doesn't have a name for it --which is often the case over here.

[Gbarce]

6 hours ago, Peter Pacific said:

Bo Goran, thank you so much for posting those gorgeous pictures of Gene´s garden, one we have all seen and admired over the years here on Palmtalk. 

Gene, your garden is nothing less than spectacular and I am sure that all the seasoned collectors are aware of the years of dedication that is required to have a garden so lovely as yours.  One question: Are your birds, chickens and peacocks caged or restricted to one area of the garden?  We have had chickens but were quickly removed when we saw how bare they left the garden!

THanks Peter.  But believe it or not I only started working on it for about 12 years now, but then again it was a pre-existing garden that was started back in  the 1930's.  I have the benefit of decades old trees ( but just one or 2 palms) already in place.

All the birds just run around free, except for the peacocks which we keep in a really big cage.  We let the peacocks out in the mornings when the weather is good and chase them back in the cage before it gets dark or else they might roost up in a tree.  There have been a couple of time when one of them roamed out of our property -- and we are in the middle of the city so we had to chase them off other people's roofs.

yeah the birds sometimes eat garden plants -- specially the geese.  And I have to "cage" my seedling because the birds just dig them up or try eating the new sprouts.

[Really full garden]

42 minutes ago, Gbarce said:

Unfortunately the vendor doesn't have a name for it --which is often the case over here.

Gene, the ginger is Alpinia rugosa.

[Palm Tree Jim]

Wow.....thanks for sharing this magnificent garden!

[Peter Pacific]

Thank you Gene for answering the question concerning your birds.  They add such color to a garden.  I have two large dogs that run around the property I don´t think the birds would live very long!

I always look for gardens in the Philippines for inspiration (and Philippe´s garden in Sri Lanka) because if something grows in your garden surely it will grow in mine, sometimes I am wrong.  If you go directly west from my garden, across the Pacific you will hit Manila.  Kudos to you for your hard work and diligence.

 

Peter

[TikiRick]

Gene,

You rock! 

Hello from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, zone 10a-b.

Tell us more about where you acquire such rarer palms, your climate, and typhoon risk....

Your garden is simply amazing - and in the heart of the city!!

[Gbarce]

Am pretty lucky with the house which my family has had since the 1930's.  It use to be in the middle of nowhere but the city expanded and eventually grew all around the house.  It's a grand old house so I wanted the gardens to be just as grand -- which is how I got engrossed with collecting palms and rare plants.

I usually get my plants and palms in the annual garden shows over here.  I basically save up for these events and am very decisive when I see a palm that is rare and unusual.  Most of the vendors here get their stuff from Thailand though.  I've bought seeds and try to germinate them and I've also stuffed my suitcase with seedlings when I travel

My location is purely tropical.  We have a wet/monsoon season, a dry season where the temperature  gets up to 39 degrees Celsius.  And of course the humidity is typically high.

The Philippines gets about 20 typhoons a year but not all of them will pass through my area, which is in the northern end of the country. We probably get hit by 6 typhoons a year. My location though is on the side of a hill so we are a bit protected from strong winds -- so my palm aren't totally decimated every year..  Lately though the typhoons/storms we are getting are just super heavy rains which results in really extreme floods -- it's a very big contrast to the type of typhoons/storms we had about ten years ago which had very very strong winds and not so much rain.   These "rain heavy" storms that we get now I think are loved by my palms.