The plants are coming!
Last week Stefan and I went to Montoso Gardens in Maricao, Puerto Rico, where the have all sorts of interesting exotic plants. Like lemons as big as your head! Well, as big as my head at least…
David Brunner was nice enough to show us around and educate us on various exotic plants that they have on their farm. We placed a fairly large order and the plants should be arriving shortly. Here is what we will soon have planted on our property:
2 Areca Catechu palms 6′-7′
2 Macarther palms 7gal., 5′-6′
1 Triangle palm 3gal.
1 Red Sealing Wax palm 4′-5′
2 Grafted Rambutan trees
1 Grafted Abiu
2 Purple Grumichama 1gal
1 French Peanut 1gal
1 Cinnamon tree 1gal
1 Cannonball tree
1 Grafted Maprang
1 Noni
1 Mangosteen
1 Yellow Jaboticaba
1 Spanish Tamarind
1 Aemygdiana rhizome
1 Tahitian Ginger 3gal
2 White Torch Ginger 1gal
4 Red Torch rhizomes
4 Pink Torch rhizomes
2 Cacao Trees 1 gal
1 Ae Ae Banana 3′-4′ division
1 Peanut Butter Fruit 2gal
3 Pink Ginger 3 gal
3 Red Ginger 3 gal
3 Polynesian Princess Ginger 3gal
6 White Bird of Paradise
4 Orange Bird of Paradise
3 Mexican Gold Heliconia 1gal
3 Oriole Orange Heliconia 1gal
3 Iris (red) heliconia 1gal
Most of the plants above you may have never hear of, but that is because Montoso farms specializes in exotic fruit trees from around the world. If you’re looking for the standard fruit trees (mango, orange, grapefruit, etc), you won’t find those at Montoso farms. They are far more interested in rarer varieties of fruit, which is fine my me…I can’t wait to have our property overgrown with interesting plants and fruits!
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Wow, the list is impressive, now I know where to go when I need “exotic” fruits, your house!
How far is Montoso farm from Rincon?
Thats a very nice selection of plants. There is so much to see at Montoso. Have fun planting them. It funny you mention some of the more common plants. We havent found any Pinapple or Papaya plants to purchase yet. We were at Crashboat today, conditions were good for diving.
Happy New Year!
That’s gonna be a fun time diggin all those holes in that beautiful soil you guys have!
Happy New Year.
Jamie
Yeah…the soil is only soil in certain areas…everywhere else it is rock. The only real way to dig in our front yard is with a pick ax. I am going to be doing mucho diggin in over the next couple of weeks.
Happy New Year you guys!
Your list of plants sound great, but anything’s got to be better than Pica Pica.
=D
Talking of Lemonheads, here’s to you.
way cool project. I just felt the need to turn you guys on to bamboo- as an integral part of your landscaping scenario. Fast growing, locally available, builds soil, prevents erosion, you can build with it, provides tons of shade, and it sequesters loads of carbon. You should take some time and visit my place in barrio pueblo- in the hills above Cofresi- bamboo is what it is all about.
Bamboojo:
We talked about bamboo and would definitely like to plant it but don’t know where to get it. We also want to make sure we buy the right bamboo because we know the wrong variety can be very invasive and potentially damaging.
How do we find your place?
Can we dig up some bamboo?
Where can we buy bamboo?
lol…see, you opened a can of worms.
We were told by a local that Bamboo is protected and you just cant go cutting it down even if its on your land. I would like some bamboo to make a small bridge and there is A LOT of it on the sides of the roads around here.
Hi again, I guess I did open a can of worms here. There is a lot of misinformation out there- so let me try to speak some truth.
Temperate bamboo, that is bamboo adapted to growing in the temperate climates (able to withstand freezing), is invasive. It sends out rhizomes far from the original stand. However, these are easily controlled- with barriers, and periodic severing of errant rhizome.
Hmm, didn’t mean to split this up. But, as I was saying, tropical bamboo sends out short rhizomes, resulting in tight, compact groves. This strategy conserves moisture, provides a dense canopy, and builds soil ( bamboo puts out its weight in leaf mater every year (hence, good mulch). I’ve harvested bamboo from the local stands to build the furniture at our home, but only the dead (stand cured bamboo). The bamboo that dies in the grove has much reduced starch content, and is thus much lees susceptible to the bamboo mite (which reduces the bamboo to dust) In short, do not harvest green bamboo. As for being protected, the common bamboo in Puerto Rico, Bambusa vulgaris (common bamboo), is not native. It was imported early on by spanish immigrants. It is common because the Puerto Rico highway department found it to be the best plant for stabilizing steep embankments on mountain roads. There are well over 1500 species of bamboo, 750 of which are tropical. The Tropical Agriculture Research Station in Mayaguez (TARS) has been a major repository for tropical bamboo from all over the world since the 30’s (It is one of the reasons we moved to Rincon- from the Virgin Islands) So, you can get bamboo from the station for free, yes, FREE. You may have to dig it yourself, which is an all day project, and labor intensive, and not 100% successful (you need to know how to dig it, where to dig it, which one to dig, etc, etc. The bamboo garden to the left of the main building is a collection of available species planted elsewhere on the property, and is a good place to see the variety. On my Rincon venture last year, we transplanted a bunch of species from my land for Rhea Maxwell, Leon Richter, and Annette Blasini. You should contact my property manager, Jon Irrizary, bamboo.treehouse@gmail.com, to arrange a tour of the treehouse bamboo. We try to keep the location somewhat quiet as we would like to keep the privacy of our tenants (vacationers). Thanks, whew, that was a lot. But, believe me, there is a lot more. Hasta, …….Jo
Thats great information! Thanks bamboojo!
Bamboojo - Wow! You really know your bamboo ;)! All the info you have given us is SO helpful. Muchas gracias!
Hey Ya’ll,
Just checking in on you guys. Looks like things are coming along nicely.
I was wondering when my guest rooms were gonna be ready so I could drag the family to P.R. to see you fuckers (and maybe surf some fun reefs).
My Rubes is way cuter than your kitty. Come visit her this spring.
All you gotta do is get here…..
Keep up the good work!!!!
J