A FEW GREEN VIEWS OF CROATIA

 My first few days in Croatia were in the capital city of Zagreb, after a scenic train ride from Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Zagreb city center area is mainly made up of Vienna style buildings built over 200 years ago and is showing its age.  Still, it is obvious that money from the growing tourist trade is being used to upgrade the city which is still recovering from an earthquake in 2020 as well.  A big plus in the city are its many parks in which the locals were enjoying the last warm days of a long summer.  I just loved the Zagreb Botanical Park which is over 100 years old and very much the early style of botanical parks where there is a huge collection of different labeled plants as a resource to university students.  From Zagreb I took a day tour to Plitvice Lakes National Park.  I had never heard of this park before going to Croatia, but the beauty of the place is just mind blowing.  Plus, it was Autumn, so all the fall colors of the trees made it even better.  Word must be getting out about the beauty of the place as the park is resorting to online reservations now to limit the numbers of people hiking each day in the park. 

From Zagreb it was a 5-hour bus ride down to the coast.  In the last hour of the trip, we changed from green farmlands to a very Mediterranean coastal landscape below rocky mountains.  It seemed every garden there had olive and mandarin trees in them.  The mandarin trees were loaded with gold fruit, and it was harvest time for the olives so you could see a few people concentrating on harvesting from one tree at a time with a net spread out on the ground under the tree.  Cabbages and Swiss chard seemed popular in vegetable gardens. I wish I had photos of these gardens, but I was viewing them from a moving bus. Newly picked Mandarins were cheap in the markets. Shelled walnuts and dried small figs were also cheap and seasonal, so I bought an ongoing supply of them for my snacks while on the move. Something to balance all the goodies I was buying at their wonderful bakeries.

Zagreb Botanical Park

Zagreb Flower Market

Zagreb Produce Market
The red umbrellas are traditional and symbolic of the city.

One tiny corner of the Plitvice Lakes National Park

House and outbuildings at Rastoke village

House entrance in the alleyways of Split

A roof garden in the old city of Dubrovnik as seen
 from the top of the city walls.

Harvest time at a Mandarin orchard.

Aloha

A FEW GREEN VIEWS OF ITALY

 I recently had five weeks in Europe and the first and last week of my trip was in Italy.  I have been to Italy before, so this was a chance to go visit areas there that I had missed out on before. Places like Ravenna with its early Christian mosaics and the ancient port of Rome, Ostia Antica.   In Rome, I wanted to visit Borghese Park, a big green space on the map of Rome that I had not seen on the last trip.  I must say I was a bit disappointed with the place.  Wonderful big old trees and it may have been very grand once, but now it looked worn and dusty with lots of litter not picked up.  Visiting the street markets is a pleasure in any Italian town and I am always happy to just explore down lanes and alleys without knowing where I am going and wonder what it would be like to live there.  I was impressed by the farmland around Ravenna.  Miles and miles of flat fields in concentrated use.  Lots of apple orchards and packing sheds for preparing the apples for market.  Here a few, sort of garden related, photos.

Entrance avenue at Borghese Park, Rome

The Hippodrome in Rome where they used to hold chariot races.
These days it is a popular space for large crowds of Roman citizens
to gather on important occasions. 

My favorite tree in Italy....the flat-topped Italian pines.
They are shown here in front of the Vittoriano monument in Rome.

A plant filled balcony in Rome.

The ruins of Ostia Antica are in a lovely park like setting 
out on the coast from Rome.

Hot peppers for sale in the Venice market.

Endives waiting to be sold at the Venice market.

A garden in Ravenna

Aloha

FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS FOR ALL SAINTS DAY IN SLOVENIA AND CROATIA

 

Last month I spent three weeks in Slovenia and Croatia and was there to see the run up to All Saints Day.   All Saints Day is on the first day of November and a national holiday in these two Roman Catholic countries.  It is of course the day after Halloween, but I saw no evidence of Halloween away from tourist hangouts. All Saints Day was definitely observed by all even if you were not religious.  It originally was a day of recognizing early Christian saints and martyrs, known and unknown, but now has become a day to remember all those who have passed away, especially in your family.  You may go to church for a special service but the main thing everybody does is make a visit to the graves of their family.  I visited the large historic Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb, Croatia and many people were there cleaning graves and setting out new memorial candles and flower arrangements in preparation for the holiday.  The street markets in the towns and cities all over had vendors selling flower arrangements for the graves.  It was all very interesting to check out and I am putting a few of my photos here.  There were some very creative and beautiful arrangements.

As an extras sideline to this story, I asked one of the vendors where all the flowers came from.  Were they grown locally or imported?  She thumped her chest to tell me she had grown them herself on her farm and then showed me her blackened and cracked thumb from all her work tending and cutting the flowers.  The term "green thumb" really has meaning to me now!

Remember you can click on the photos to make them bigger.

10 years ago, I was in Tahiti for All Saints Day.  You might find it interesting to compare the flower arrangements of the two parts of the world.  See my blog post for April 2012.

Flower arrangements for sale in Split, Croatia

Dried flower arrangements in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Moss covered wreaths in Zagreb flower market.  Croatia

Wreaths, the red fruit on them is rose hips.  Zagreb, Croatia

Autumn harvest arrangements, Zagreb, Croatia

A very tropical flower arrangement on one of the graves
at Mirogoj Cemetery, Zagreb, Croatia

Aloha

GOOD GARDEN READS 6

 A newspaper article about a small home garden in Taranaki, New Zealand and its owner.

An eco gran, her garden and the River running through it | Stuff.co.nz

TURTLE BAY HOTEL, OAHU

 

Yesterday I was needing new scenery on my walk so I took the local bus to Turtle Bay Hotel on the North Shore of Oahu to have an outing.  Helpfully for tourists and locals alike, the bus detours up the hotel's long driveway to turn around in the parking lot there and then goes back to Kamehameha Hwy again. I got my exercise walking along the coastal track and returning along the golf course cart pathway. (In Hawaii, there always has to be public access to the shoreline which is owned by us all.)  With camera in hand, I then circled the hotel to check out the new gardens that were installed as part of the renovations during the Covid shutdown. Two years later the gardens are looking fabulous.  They seem stuffed with healthy and bright plants.  Pretty amazing as this is a hotel that juts out into the sea on a rocky point that gets inundated with salt laden winds.  I expect there is a clever horticulturist supervising irrigation and feeding to keep the grounds looking so good.   The several hundreds of dollars per night for a hotel room there helps pay for all that garden care.  I contributed by treating myself to a cappuccino and almond croissant in the lobby cafe with the scenic view of the beach below.

A view of the hotel from along the coastal track.

New native plants going in along the coast.

Going back by the golf course.

The new drive through entrance.  Vinca and Kupukupu ferns in front.

Approaching the drive through from the right side. 
That wood artwork/wall helps protect the area from the wind.

The windy ocean side walkway still looks lush although
mostly planted with tough beach plants like Naupaka.

The pool area on the other side of the hotel.

Lush gardens amongst the walkways out front.  Bright
orange Crotons in beds of Laua'e fern.

Native white Hibiscus looking at its best.

Aloha

GOLDEN DURANTA (Duranta erecta)

 

Golden Duranta seemed to suddenly become popular in the gardens of Hawaii a few decades ago.  I also saw it suddenly spread around the islands of Samoa within just a few years.  Its bright yellow foliage and ease of propagation made it quickly popular amongst gardeners.  This shrub/small tree is native to tropical Central and South America and grows there in hot, sunny, sandy areas so we can be sure it is another tough plant.

Golden Duranta grown as a trimmed hedge/groundcover 
along with Spider Lilies.

In our area of Oahu, Golden Duranta is usually seen in the form of low, long, formal hedging to contain a garden of shrubbery.  Occasionally you see low shrubs that have been shaped into a large ball.  It looks great but you have got to know that it takes a ground crew to regularly trim them with a powered hedge trimmer to keep them looking so nice.  Many viewers do not realize that that low, under 2 ft, hedge plant is actually a huge bush if you let it grow naturally.

If you buy a plant and put it out in your garden you will realize how quickly Golden Duranta grows.  If you are wanting a shaped plant, you need to start pinching tips and keep those clippers on hand.  You could let it grow out naturally but be prepared for a fast-growing bush that is as wide as it is high and may need some hard pruning every few years.  What is beautiful is to shape it into a small tree.  (Fifteen feet or so high.)  Select one or three of the main stems to become the trunk and prune away anything extra under the crown.  As the tree grows higher you will have a beautiful weeping form tree that really shows of the flower and berry spays at their best.  You can also make a mini version of this by shaping a plant in a pot into a standard.....one tall stem with a big bushy head on top.  In Samoa I have also seen tall plants being shaped into topiary animals that make fun entrances to the house.

The Golden Duranta has beautiful sprays of small flowers that show up all year round.  They are usually blue in color but you do see white and purple varieties as well.  The flower spray then turns into a spray of small golden berries that are also very pretty.  Both could be included in a small flower arrangement, but I think the berries last longer.  The flowers only form on new growth so if you are frequently trimming the shrub, you are not going to see them.

You do need to know that the fruit and the leaves of Golden Duranta is poisonous so you may not want to grow this plant in your garden if you have small children or pets.  For some reason it does not seem to affect birds.

A shrub that has been allowed to just grow naturally 
with occasional trim.

Golden Duranta likes full sun and moist but well drained soil.  It grows very fast and naturally sprawls out so keep that in mind as you choose where to plant it.  You would not want it right next to a walkway.  The mature plant does have tiny thorns (or bigger ones on a tree) so that could be a problem.  On the other hand, this makes it a good shrub to keep people out of certain areas. 

White fly can sometimes be a problem and spraying with soapy water can help this.  If you are growing Golden Duranta into a hedge it is always important to shape the hedge so that it is narrower on top so that all the leaves get access to the sun for good foliage growth.

It is fairly easy to propagate Golden Duranta from cuttings.  Start off 6" lengths of woody stem tips in potting media.  Using rooting hormone will give some extra help.  It can also be propagated from seed.

Aloha

HEARTS AND FLOWERS (Aptenia cordifolia)

 Hearts and Flowers is a smaller species of the ice plant family.  It has small heart shaped leaves and small, bright red flowers which gives it the common name it goes by in Hawaii.  It has been around, and in the local nurseries, for decades which must mean it does well here.  You occasionally see a variegated leaf variety and also a yellow flower form.

The Heart and Flowers plant is native to South Africa so it can take some sun and dryness, but really, it does better in partial shade as it is not as tough as it looks.  It stays at about 6 inches in height so often gets used as ground cover but does better in small patches. I would not try to use it over large sunny areas because you are sure to get dead areas.  It works really well in pots or hanging baskets which allow the stems to hang several inches over the side and is fast growing.  They do like to be well watered but need good drainage so that the plant does not rot.  Occasionally the ones in containers may need a bit of a trim back.  You do need to keep an eye out for slugs and snails.  Sometimes I have some yellowing of leaves.  A few doses of multi nutrient fertilizer seems to solve the problem.

This is a plant that is easily propagated.  Take a few tip cuttings about 6 inches long.  Remove the lower leaves and flowers and plant them up in some potting media to get them going.  I usually dip the cuttings in rooting hormone powder to help things along.  I put 4-5 cuttings together in a 6-inch pot and it will be a strong looking plant within a month.

Aloha

PS  July, 2024

It  was interesting to see Hearts and Flowers on my recent trip to Morocco.  Of course it is a good plant for their hot and dry conditions.

In a medina alley, Marrakesh 

Hearts and Flowers in the grave on the right.  Fes cemetery. 

AUCKLAND BOTANIC GARDENS, New Zealand

 I finally made it back to New Zealand after two years of all the travel restrictions Covid 19 brought.  It was still not easy travel but at least I got to see family again.  In the last few days of the trip I visited the Auckland Botanical Gardens.   (The name is plural but all the gardens are together in one place.)  You pass by them on the motorway just south of Manukau City.  The garden was only established in 1982 so I have been waiting for the trees and gardens to mature a bit before finally visiting.  It does not have the Wow factor of Hamilton Garden but I spent a very pleasant few hours looking around with a relative.  My favorite areas were the Edibles garden and the African Plants garden.  It was also fun to watch all the eels in the pond below the bridge at the rose gardens.  Entrance is free.  If you want more information you can go to https://www.aucklandbotanicgardens.co.nz for more info.  Below are a few photos from the day.  As usual, you can click on them to enlarge the photo to see better.

The entrance building and cafe with shaped, native
Mingimingi bushes in front.

Lake with native trees on the bank.

A mini forest of Camellia trees with lifted canopy and fallen
petals on the ground.

The Children's garden filled with a wide variety of plants
for botanical discovery.

The New Zealand native plant area.

The Worm Farm shed in the vegetable garden area.
Comfrey and Rosemary in front.

The huge lawn area at the back where dogs were allowed
to run off leash.

The African garden

I loved this rustic garden shelter.

The hard working gardeners.

Aloha

YELLOW WALKING IRIS (Trimezia martinicensis)

 

The flowers with a few baby plantlets forming on the stalks.

Here is a flowering plant that can add some sparkle to a tropical garden that is heavy in leafy vegetation.  I usually refer to it as the Yellow Central American Iris but the consensus on the internet seems to go with Yellow Walking Iris, so I have used it in the title.  When I think of walking Irises, I think of the Blue Flowered Walking Iris (Neomarica gracillis), which is a thicker leafed, Central American cousin also seen in Hawaii gardens, that has more of the "walking" attribute. 

Whole plant showing plantlets growing on flower stems

Walking, in the case of these Irises, is to bend their spent flowering stems down to the ground which allows the little baby plants, that sprout from the joints on the flower stems, to grow in the ground a few feet away from Mama plant.  It is these baby plants that form on the flower spikes that make this plant so easy to propagate and share with your friends.  It is a trick I learnt from the gardener of our local library.  At the time, there were about a dozen Yellow Walking Irises growing at the front of the library.  One day I noticed that the gardener had gathered a few handfuls of the baby plantlets from the Irises and stood them in a beautiful deep Chinese design bowl in the library.   These made an attractive green arrangement at the library checkout desk, while at the same time, all those little plantlets were rooting in the water.  After a few weeks they disappeared to be grown in other gardens.  Of course, you could just let the plant do that naturally in its own way, but the environment has to be right for the plants to grow.  Being able to get the babies rooted and then planted in a good loose media insures that.  This Iris can also be propagated by seed and also by dividing the rhizome and root clump.  I think growing the babies is by far the easiest method, plus you a tidying up the plant at the same time.

Plantlets that are starting to grow roots after sitting in water a few days

Yellow Walking Iris is a perennial plant that blooms all year round although it does seem to be more bountiful in Spring.  It likes lots of water but also needs good drainage.  Although it can survive full sun, it will look happier in partial shade.  It does like a rich soil so that it needs fertilizing in my sandy soil to stop the leaves bleaching out.  I have had no problems with pests on it except for the occasional bag worm hanging under the long leaves.  It does need its dead leaves and flower spikes cut off once in a while to keep the plant looking attractive.  The flowers only last one day and fold up by late afternoon but there will be other flowers on the spike to replace them next day.  The flower stalk holds up in a vase of water but remember the individual flowers will not be on show in the evening.

Several plantlets potted up together to form new planting.

Aloha