Posted by talford on 8/7/2007, 12:33 pm, in reply to "Re: Just saw this post" I'm a might short on experience to be addressing that post. I printed it out and put it in the 'banking envelop' for safe keeping since I'm not technical enough to save it to disc. Doesn't really matter , If and when this board dissapears ( a lot of great old palm,bamboo, etc boards had their heyday and then faded away)Someone will be saving it's contents on disk, and I will remember where to find it again. My future is probably going to involve acerage to do plants and form wildlife habitat - most likely with emphasis on hummingbirds,because thats what I have been involved with for 6 years now.Yes, plants from Australia,South Africa,Mexico, hadn't really become advanced enough to start thinking about Argentina. Cal. and Ariz. may be becoming too expensive to put it together there, So it's looking like South Texas (although all windows are fast closing) ,somewhere that property taxes don't act like a huge 'carrying cost'.The first BIG problem I'm solving is water aquisition. I've been through that , hauling in 400 gallons , 10 times a day in my one ton diesel and blowing it out of 2" fire hoses - that is over. So is doing hand/spade work, from now on it will be a used Case/Ford with implements and tiller,and front end loader/backhoe, at 57 years old , I can't hand-labor the more than 1/2 acre of solid planted humgarden that I did , I'm ready to move to another level with more sustainability. Still, you ain't really ready till you try the shoes on, so all I really know about South Texas is dreams.Thank You for some of the benifit of perspective implicit in your post.Lot to be said for having 2 bases of operation set in two widely seperated climate zones. Dividing eucs into large,shade/timber types and smaller,ornamental value types, my first impulse is to focus on the ornamentals because of my interest in Hummers/orioles , but many types of birds are attracted to nectar bearing trees because they are insect magnets,and camaldulensis,robusta,etc., (honey bee production)certainly fill the bill. As to these big flowering West Australia types, anything that feeds a 40 ounce sugar glider, is going to satisfy nectar feeding birds whether they are hummingbirds or parrots. Very delighted to hear about E. erythrocorys(5-7 cm. flowers) and sideroxylon Rosea growing down there. Yes, erythrocorys strictly Western Aus., and I was told never,never, but I need to keep an open mind. I've never really had the room to grow large trees, Hinz's 60 foot camaldulensis is spectacular and the larges euc I know of in Houston.I didn't know of camaldulensis obtusa. Your descriptions of these big trees reminds me of the towering eucs I'd see in Cal. as wind breaks around the citrus fields out in Orange Co., and Riverside, also around Fresno (San Joaquin Valley). As for trying C. ptychocarpa down there ,I would load up on these seeds from these trees (after I got the OK from the owner) and bring or mail them to you, but I need to get on the road looking for work out west - I'm a carpenter and that's where I worked for years , after the kind of carpentry I do dried up here in Houston in the 80's. Your the kind of person that people need to get seed material to. I'm going through your post trying to say something intelligent about each point, but as you know , it's all new to me and way over my experience level - fantastic reference material for the future, especially since 90 percent of these forums and boards are about what people can grow in Pacific Northwest, California, and Arizona ; not that there is anything wrong with that - after all, thats where most of the people working to expand the envelop are. I think (?) you have mentioned the Australia Outback Plants Nursery in Ariz., I like their web site, very informative.I saw your previous post on Amplifolia, very exciting ornamental. What works in Florida is much more likely to work here.Wish Texas A&M Univ. would trial more exciting things.San Luis Potosi, Mexico, there are bound to be naturally curious people trying new plants down there , just below us, I just don't begin to know my way around down there, I just read fascinating stories , someone in the mountains out around Montery with pecan trees and the parrots come and eat them. OK, I just lost about 1 to 2 pages in Microsoft word by hitting the wrong key.I had completely finished my reply and sighned it and was going to submit it,and closed out the wrong thing.It's just tough to start all that over. I hadn't thought of dividing eucs into large,shade,timber trees; and smaller,ornamental trees on the basis of investment lost during an arctic express. But, yes , the big shade tree represents years of investment lost, but the smaller ornamental type can either be re-grown rather quickly to flowering age, or better yet, can recover from it's lignotuber (like a Corymbia) quickly. Wonderful offer on the Casuarina cunninghamiana seed . I won't lie, I had never heard of it before . What a beautiful tree. Makes me pine less for the cedar of lebanon that grows in Socal. Don't know where I'll be this time next month though. I'm thinking that I have never recieved a seed offer from so knowledgeable a person ( with particulars as to provenance,etc.). If I ever get 'my place', I hope we can do some swapping at some point.Don't have much you would want.I have Erythrina humeana ,and Eryth coralloides (from Mex. states on the gulf side), but they are only 2 years in ground and have no seeds - and they may prove to be too tender and unadaptive anyway. Yes on the ornamental value of Callistemon, I have rows of citrinus and viminallis in the ground 3 years.Yes, Melaleuca argentea is a beauty, and (as I just read from googling)blooms from July to frost. I'm wondering how frequent the flushes are - may be more frequent than C.viminallis (on and off from frost to frost). Never had heard of Myrcianthes fragrans . Reminds me (form,leaves,berries)of Yaupon holly that makes a real pretty little ornamental tree here - no fragrance however.I wonder if the robins get on M. fragrans in the winter like they do yaupon here.Just googled that monarchs,cardinals,and mockingbirds use this , so count me in.Yes, I do aloes,probably not as varied as you do. I have a 10 x 40 foot patch of A. maculata for the hummers Thank you for the Invitation, Richard. I look forward to it sometime. If by chance you have any interest in Bamboo, there is a nice guy down in Harlingen with this web site: http://www.boonut.com/photoalbums/boonut_tour_2007/index0.html http://www.bambooweb.info/ShowPictures.php?Type=B&Button=Search&BooID=142&Desc=&Loc=&Match=AND Richard , thank you for the wealth of information in your post. Sorry for the long post. Tom Alford in Pearland(Houston),Tx., Z9a
98.194.26.53
Richard, Incredible reply.
I had not heard of Melaleucas.Googled it. Sure sounds interesting, bird bee,bat attracting,looks like a long bloom period.knarled shape of the trunk gives it a little european olive look.
Yes,from my understanding it would be difficult to clone the large camaldulensis that best survived the '89 event, And those genes should be preserved,like having an entire species field trialed by a once-in-a -century event,maybe advance the breed by a century with such a step.Only dedicated individuals will ever do it , there's no commercial push.Maybe if there was some place to get it tissue cultured for a fee - way over my head. Last time I asked Texas A&M Univ. Ag. Extension to look into Erythrina pests , I could hear snoaring on the other end of the line - hey, maybe I'm just all wet.
http://bambooweb.info/bb/viewforum.php?f=11&topicdays=0&start=0
Parker's giant and some dendro. in these pkotos from Florida:
Info on Dendrocalamus giganteus 'Quail clone' here (he may be first in Tx. to actually grow it:
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