A royal affair

One February morning our three dependable farmhands' daily routine has been altered for a couple of days. Although it seldom happens they are now used to this kind of unscheduled disruption. Almost always, this break in their daily routine is caused by someone who lives thousands of miles away.

Latest batch of Royal palms delivered to the farm one morning last February.

Unloaded and resting under the tall Royal palms. The palm on the left is a Golden Veitchia.

This time they have to plant ten (10) newly bought Royal palms. Some of the palms arrived bare root. They have been dug up a day before from a nursery in a neighboring province just south of where the farm is. Because of the state they're in, these Royal palms needed to be transplanted immediately.

One by one the palms are transported to the upper garden using an ever reliable water buffalo.

On their way to the upper garden. This method of transport using water buffalo is a typical rural (provincial) scene.

A few days after the transplant. These Royal palms are not out of the woods yet, only time will tell if they will survive.

Almost every plant suffers a transplant shock especially if the roots have been drastically disturbed. These palms are no different. In fact even the Royal palms that were transplanted last November have not yet completely recovered despite an almost daily dose of rainwater.

Summer has finally arrived and the forecast is a wet summer this year. If this is true then this is good for the sake of these plants which are now acclimatizing to a new life in the farm.

Garden update #10 - vertically challenged

It's been a long time since I've made an update on new plants for the garden. The last such update was "Garden update #9 - this time no new plants," which was posted in May, 2010. And even that post mentioned no new plant purchases.

For various reasons, all connected to the farm, I had to slow down with plant acquisitions. But from time to time (as dictated by necessity) I still manage to buy a few. So, as far as I can remember, below is the list of plant purchases since my last garden update.

February 2012:

• Roystonea regia - "Royal Palm"
• Cordyline spp. - "Ti Plant"
• Veitchia merrilli - "Golden Veitchia"
• Tabernaemontana pandacaqui - "Pandakaki-puti"

November 2011:

• Bambusa blumeana - "'Tinik' Bamboo"
• Bambusa oldhamii - "Oldham Bamboo"
• Dendrocalamus asper - "Giant Bamboo"
• Dendrocalamus latiflorus - "Machiku Bamboo"
• Guadua angustifolia - "Colombian Thorny (or Iron) Bamboo"
• Roystonea regia - "Royal Palm"

February 2011:

• Wodyetia bifurcata - "Foxtail Palm"
• Dypsis decaryi - "Triangle Palm"

January 2011:

• Passiflora caerulea - "Blue Passion Flower Vine"
• Passiflora spp. - "Lavender Passion Flower Vine"
• Passiflora manicata - "Red Passion Flower Vine"

Last year's batch of Triangle and Foxtail palms.

Since February, 2011 I have been concentrating on purchasing palm trees and bamboos. Two days ago, 10 Royal Palms were delivered to the farm. Today and the coming days they will be planted in the upper garden, along a portion of the left side of the dirt path. These are in addition to the first 7 that were planted there in random locations last January. More ornamental palm trees are needed to populate the sparsely vegetated upper garden.

Another part of the upper garden has been planted mostly with coconut tree seedlings. The seedlings came from the farm's few coconut trees.

Three of the Oldham bamboos, pictures taken last month.

As for the bamboos, I still need 100+ of Oldham bamboo seedlings to complete my privacy screen project. There are exciting developments with our first 19 Oldhams (with 1 casualty). But that will be for a future post since I don't have supporting pictures yet.

Notice that most of the new purchases are plants with the ability to grow tall. With blessings from above, many more of these will be planted in the future.

A royal treatment

The seven new Royal palms.

Whenever I go to the farm, two things never escape my notice: that I always sleep in my brother's bedroom and those four imposing palm trees across our house.

On my every visit I temporarily use my brother's vacant room. That's because I have no room of my own; it has long been converted into a storage room...sigh! Somehow I understand how the "Holy Family" felt when they were told "there's no room in the inn." Maybe next time I'll bunk with the goats, or better yet, with the sheep. Talk about royal treatment!

Now when it comes to royal, those four imposing palm trees across the house aptly fit the title. I was told they are called Cuban Royal palms, Florida Royal palms or simply Royal palms (Roystonea regia). Although it's now a very common landscaping plant, I never really cared until I saw them in our own place. They are impressive in size, height and stature, fitting to be called 'royals.'

The trunks of the original four Royal palms. Picture taken on my visit last February, 2011

Since we only have four Cuban Royals in the farm, I thought of getting some more and randomly plant them in the 'upper' garden. In the future as they grow tall, these should help this struggling garden look more like a true garden and not just an open field with scattered plants here and there.

With the money left from the botched purchase of bamboo seedlings and the purchase of two Labrador puppies they were able to buy seven Royal palms. The palms they bought aren't very tall yet. That's fine since the really tall ones with visible trunks I'm pretty sure would cost thousands and thousands of pesos, if not more.

Except for the second picture, the rest were taken on a very dreary day. It has been raining almost daily for the past three months. Taking advantage of those hours without rain they immediately planted the Royal palms in random locations.

Seven is still not enough. There should be more of them in the farm. But with no budget yet, the rest would have to wait... until I win big in the lotto.