Pelagodoxa at Plant Creations

[Palmarum]

A quick visit to Plant Creations back in September was a great, however short experience. Many people in the S. Florida plant world have heard of this remarkable nursery and this was my first visit. Jeff Searle and I were in the area and had a random encounter with Stan Matthews, the founder and owner of Plant Creations. Stan is a veteran plantsman & grower and master landscape and hardscape designer. The nursery grows an impressive collection of rare and unusual plants from all over the world, with a strong emphasis on plants native to S. Florida and the Caribbean. Their selection of natives has no equal. We were on a schedule so we only had a few minutes to run around the nursery looking at the landscaped areas.

The landscaped sections of the nursery were very elaborate. They incorporated the use of excavated sections of earth and coral rock. These areas were far below ground level and were connected to others via carved staircases and small passageways. As time was short, we focused on the palms, as I could have spent days here going plant to plant.

- We entered a shallow part of one excavated planting area. It was more like a section of carved terraces that were dug right out of the coral rock, with the bottom-most 'level' carved into a pond. I tried to keep up with Jeff and Stan, but I kept stopping to stare at things. One turn to the right, a turn to the left, and then I was face to face with this glorious example of palmdom, a tall and mature, Pelagodoxa henryana. I was already taking photos before Jeff pointed it out to me. It is hard to tell in the photo, but the area where Jeff is standing was 6 ft. (2m) or more below ground level. The small Bromeliads planted in the lower left, were growing on the next tier above, as I was standing on the staircase.

- As I got closer, the size of the leaves and the spread of the crown hit me all at once as a serious thump of 'wow'. Stan didn't specialize in palms, but he had an nice collection of older and established specimens. Jeff was describing the growth of another palm to Stan as I was trying to capture the scene. (B) I moved and shot, moved and shot, as I was looking for the best angles. The silver underside of such a large and undivided leaf is always great eye candy.

- I got under the canopy and as close to the leaf bases as I could get. This palm made me feel short. The leaf bases were host to a number of different inflorescences that seemed to have been timed together as one flush, but only one was holding near-mature corky fruit. The fruit still had some time to go, yet were already the size of baseballs. I was standing on my toes to get this shot, as I was looking almost straight up. This palm was planted sometime in the mid 1990's as it was one of the first seedlings to enter cultivation. It has handled all the cold and weather threats since then. I forgot to ask if the below-ground nature of the location acts as a 'sink' for cold air to flow into.

- Stan and Jeff hadn't see each other in a few years, so they had a good number of stories to tell. They had both entered the horticulture world at around the same time and were both students of legendary professor David McLean. This impromptu tour could have gone on for hours, days even. There was so much to see. We had to go back at some point...

Ryan

[Palmarum]

... and we did, four days later.

Another venture has us in the same area less than a week later, so we did another quick visit. This time, Jeff's friend George joined us for the trip. We moved through in a hurry, and I was limited to what I could capture, so I tried to get wide shots of everything.

- This time, we started in a separate, larger area with an even deeper, multi-terraced section. As I said before, there was a ton of landscaped material. It was several layers deep in all directions. You would notice two groupings, but you could miss the other three. In this shot, I am looking across an expanse as Stan and George enter one of the staircases that heads immediately down and to my left in a broad curve.

- The trio move on as I photograph from above. As I am standing on ground level, George's white shirt can be seen through a huge clump of a Salacca wallichiana. The palm is more than 15 feet (4.5m) in height and I am just even with the leaf tips. The Licuala grandis on the left has a very tall trunk, but I am looking down at it. (B) George and Jeff contemplate the enormous amount of construction that was needed to create this below ground paradise.

- I moved along ground level towards the staircase, trying to spot everything I could find. At the very bottom of this section was a carved pond fed by a series of waterfalls that trickled down into, or flowed over into, the pond. I wanted to showcase the pond, but I had focused on one of the Salacca leaves instead. (B) I climbed over and through a planting area to find a better spot to shoot from. I got this wider shot of the Salacca and part of the staircase, seen through the leaves on the right.

- As time was running out, I ran down the stairs and took these two last shots from the lower terrace. The first is looking towards the spot where I was taking the above photos, as I was walking down the stairs. The second is after reaching the first lower level and looking back at the stairs. It still went further down to another level where the Salacca and L. grandis were planted, then even further to the pond. There was a lot of labor and love put into this project. The nursery would be a great place for a PRA or tour for any society or plant group. I didn't even get to see all the growing areas! A regular schedule of visits would be in order to see it all.

Ryan

--<

[BS Man about Palms]

Looks pretty fantastic! I'm trying to remember if Jeff took me by there on one of my visits waaay back.

[realarch]

What a beautiful place, a gardener's garden. Thanks for the narrative and the photographs. 

Tim

[Really full garden]

Spectacular Garden! would love to see more!

[Eric in Orlando]

I was there a few years ago and saw that palm, its a nice place. There is an awesome clump of Arenga undulatifolia there too.

[Jeff Searle]

On ‎11‎/‎30‎/‎2018‎ ‎9‎:‎50‎:‎01‎, BS Man about Palms said:

Looks pretty fantastic! I'm trying to remember if Jeff took me by there on one of my visits waaay back.

No Bill, we never made it to there.

[BS Man about Palms]

17 minutes ago, Jeff Searle said:

No Bill, we never made it to there.

Oh. I thought I remembered some place with a guy named Stan? Older, big guy? with a really tall old man crinita?