Read the latest from the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden blog.
We’ve been hearing a lot about honeybees dying en masse, about Colony Collapse Disorder, even predictions that the honeybee is headed for extinction. There is no doubt that beekeepers as well as farmers who require bees to pollinate their crops are losing lots of bees — entire hives in fact. Some beekeepers have reported that 30 to 90 percent of their bees have died.
It has been more than 200 years since mangos arrived in South Florida. Before 1900, only seedling mangos of turpentine were grown. Mangos arrived to South Florida when the pirates were surrounding Florida's coasts, navigating tempestuous waters from Fort Myers down to Sanibel and Captiva Islands, south to Naples and east to the coveted Keys. The pirates carryed mango seeds, that for generations had made this peninsula their home…..
It had been raining intensely for a couple days straight as of Friday, July 19, which it often does in South Florida during the summer, our wet season. Time to mushroom hunt! I don’t hunt them to eat, but rather to photograph and hopefully identify and research. I first ran across a nice mushroom under the sapodilla tree outside the Glasshouse Cafe. Then I walked a circuit along the path west past the Whitman Tropical Fruit Pavilion, past the Edible Garden, until soon the path turns…
Most everyone is familiar with the cashew; among the most delicious and expensive of the nuts available in our supermarkets. However, most are unaware of the other parts of the cashew plant that we can grow and enjoy. Further, the world of the cashew has changed in the last decades and it is now feasible to grow, fruit and enjoy the cashew in South Florida….
Take a step outside your front door on most any day in South Florida and the climate will take you away. Welcome to the Caribbean! Indeed, sometimes with our hectic pace of life here on the mainland we forget the simple fact that for most of the year we are climatically-speaking the greater Caribbean. We share much of our natural world, the plants and the animals, with our island neighbors, and ignoring this fact invites many challenges in your home garden….
By Noris Ledesma
When I travel, I use my expeditions to learn what is happening with tropical fruits all over the word. Cacao has long been an interest to me. Fairchild's International Chocolate Festival is gaining more popularity each year, and the Fruit Program is becoming more involved in this event. We visited The Hawaiian Chocolate Company in Kalilua Kona to learn more about cacao. They offer tours every day and they are part of the program for cruise ships when they make port in the island. Cacao,…
Each year South Florida braces for the “big one”. Churning its way across the Tropical Atlantic, a major hurricane exacts a toll on life and property like few other natural disasters can do. Damage to the home landscape can be considerable and long lasting, even with a smaller category 1 or 2 storm. And, for many of us, the dread associated with an approaching storm revolves around fears over the loss of our landscape and not the loss of life…
Florida is far from exhausting its list of possible fruit for testing and the antidesma now takes center stage. Dr. David Fairchild, namesake of Tropical Botanic Garden, first brought the antidesma to Florida in 1900s from one of his expeditions to the Philippines. He intended to bring back a berry than can grow in South Florida to please the new residents coming from north of the United States. It has been over a century and the antidesma still grows in relative obscurity, being kept mainly as an ornamental….
As published in the Miami Herald The American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana, is native from South Florida to New York and the central parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. In Florida, they grow wild in the fields, pinelands and moist woods across our state. South of Lake Okeechobee, it was the indigenous people who had the most success making use of the American persimmon for food throughout the swampy lowlands. Today, one can find remnant stands of American persimmon that …
Oh terrarium, how I love thee! Why? Because terrariums might be the perfect way to garden — you can make them indoors sans mosquitoes and heat, maintain the entire area in just minutes and create your own perfect little garden utopia in a jar.
Each person born on tropics has a story to tell about the tamarind. As tamarind season approaches on the Eastern plains of Colombia, women start the harvest to make “tamarindada” to offer the thirsty farmers following an intense day of work. In Trinidad and Jamaica, tamarind is a popular refreshing snack. Asians, particularly in Thailand and India, have a long tradition of eating and cooking with tamarind. So many people it seems use this fruit to create delicious salsas, chutneys and sauces….
Take a step outside your front door on most any day in South Florida and the climate will take you away. Welcome to the
As published in the Miami Herald The windows are all shut now; the air-conditioner doing its job again. The Spring time has arrived in South Florida. So, what is on tap for the home vegetable garden? One can go inside and vegetate for the entire summer season, or one can evolve and thrive. It is time to break out those unique South Florida vegetables and sit back and watch them flourish among the heat and humidity of the South Florida monsoon. There is still time to plant larger herb plants …
There are good reasons for repotting your plants about now, and only one of them is to give your fast growers a larger home. Take the time now, as plants are gearing up for a summer growth spurt.
As Published in the Miami Herald There is a black plague spreading across South Florida. Plant leaves, automobiles, pool decks, sidewalks and anything else that has the unfortunate lot to be under infected trees are all turning sticky and black. The cause of this black mess is a fungus called sooty mold. Sooty mold can't be controlled through simple fungicide spraying, because its real cause is insects. When insects such as aphids, scale or whitefly feed on plants, they drip a sweet…
Perhaps no other plant provokes such strong emotions as the orchid. People go to great lengths — some legal, some not — to possess them, with often disastrous results for wild populations.
As published in the Miami Herald Do you notice a disconnect between the natural world and our daily life? Do you wonder why obesity is quickly becoming our country's biggest health issue? Questions like these prompted author Richard Louv to coin the term “nature-deficit disorder” in response to the growing problems that stem from society's dependence on the indoors. The concept that we need to unplug and spend more time outdoors is not a recent development; botanical…
As published in the Miami Herald What wild things dwell in that uncultivated, unkempt portion of your yard? You know the area I’m talking about — the one where you occasionally dump leaves or hastily pulled weeds, rather than walk around to the compost bin.
The place is more interesting these days. As the summer residents dwindle – goodbye to a badly battered Red A juvenile red-masked parakeet. Admiral butterfly and a dragonfly in woeful shape – new ones are appearing. The juvenile Red-Masked Parakeets are getting their red markings and the Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers are making zpee sounds all around the garden. A Black and White Warbler was in an oak tree in the butterfly garden last week, as was a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird. The Zebra…
One of the few plants of its type that can endure the heat, humidity and inundation of a South Florida summer, the Seminole pumpkin offers another benefit: You can eat it.
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