Subtropical Garden in Carmel Valley

I grow my papaya plants from seeds. They are mostly the small Solo papaya you get from grocery stores. After I opened the fruit and scooped the seeds out. I plants the plentiful seeds in the garden. Lot of seeds sprouted during the warmer months and grow rapidly reaching 1-2 feet by year end. Most of them succumb to the cold winter chills and died. But a few survived and bloomed. That’s when I found out papaya can have only male flowers, female flowers or both on the same plant. Unfortunately, the biggest papaya plant I have was female. So, although it started to flower in the second year, there was no fruit. Next year the male plant also flowered, but only when the weather really warmed up in July. Then I artificially pollinate the female flowers. The fruit started to grow until it turns cold. The fruit did not grow at all until nest May. Now the papaya plant is really tall (~10 feet tall) and it is a chore to pollinate and pick the fruit. I am considering top the femal...

I bought this bamboo at a plant sale at Quail Botanic Garden 4 years ago in a 10-gallon pot. It has beautiful canes, yellow with green groove on alternating sides up the length of the culm. The cane is especially beautiful in spring when it is suffused with red (really purple-red) color. The red color seems to be more intense when the bamboos receiving plenty of sun. The leaves were also variegated early in the spring. The leaves were green with white stripes. So, both the cane and leaf are very ornamental. Unfortunately, the red color faded when the cane matured to pure yellow color with only one patch of green groove per segment. The white stripes on the leaves were also less clear when the leaves mature. It is an evergreen bamboo and the canes seemed to last 2 or 3 years leaves turning yellow. The cane was about 1 inch in diameter and height is about 12 feet. It is a very aggressive runner. Although it is planted in a flower bed surrounded by cement wall, ...

It is the time for the annual cymbidium flowers. They spent most of the year in pots under a trellis facing east with morning sun. In October, the flower shoot stated to grow. Oh they grew ever so slowly. I staked them one by one as they grew taller. Finally they started to bloom. What a beautiful sight. The flowers may be white, pink, yellow, green, mauve or deep red with different combination of deep-colored lips. I kept all the cymbidium in the east-facing corner under a trellis. I watered them once a week except winter time. I used fine fir bark/perlite (1/1) as the growth medium. They seemed to like to the medium, although I probably could fertilize more since not every plant bloomed every year. However, I have enough of them, there are 8-10 plants flowering each year. The cymbidium flowers lasted a long time on the plant. The flower spkes almost are very good cut flower lasting 2-3 weeks in water. Overall, they are wanderful, beautiful and easy to care. I only wish...

This is the time the ornamental kale at its peak. I have a few ornamental kale started from a six-pack in the spring of 2005. Now they are about 4 feet tall. The colorful leaves are a kaleidoscope of purple, pink, and green or green yellow and white. They look like huge rose blossoms, but last a lot longer. They are also easy to propagate. Just cut a branch off from the plant and stick it to the ground when it is warm and it will root and grow right away. They also last a long time as cut flowers since they are actually colored leaves. Sometimes, the stem will even sprout roots in the vase. The rooted stem can then be planted in the ground. Ornamental kale is a perennial here in San Diego . It will flower in the early spring. The flowers are actually quite attractive. They are typical Brassia flowers, however, the color is a bright yellow and flower shoot is quite long with numerous 4-petal flowers. I have seen gardens beds with flower ornamental kales that w...