plantpictorial A visual commentary about our favorite plants | September 2013
Garden Spotlight FIT Botanical Garden
Pictorial Showcase Stephanie Flowers & Ansel Oommen
MELBOURNE, FLORIDA Livistona decipiens
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Plant Pictorial Showcase
Stephanie Flowers & Ansel Oommen
6 Letter from the Publisher................................................ 5 Reader Plant Pictorial.................................................... 24 Last Page.........................................................................47
FIT Botanical Garden
Conservation and Compromise
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LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
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Issue Three - Keep Her Steady Flower Power, Dent Smith, and new regulations Welcome to issue three of plant pictorial. This month we visit FIT Botanical Garden in Melbourne, Florida. Another fantastic garden rich in history and dedication. I’ve said before that researching the history surrounding these gardens is as exciting as visiting. Melbourne, Florida sits just south of an imaginary line that separates the sub tropical and temperate climates. What’s fantastic about this transition area is that it allows one to grow plants from both climates, a mix of subtropical and temperate climate plants. There are even some plants that are only found in this transition zone.
This months plant pictorial showcase is from Stephanie Flowers and Ansel Oommen. Thanks for contributing to the magazine Stephanie and Ansel. Beautiful photography, be sure to take a look. If you want to contribute to the magazine please visit www.plantpictorial.com and submit your best photos using the photo upload link. We’ll put them in the magazine! If you have any suggestions, would like to contribute or simply want to say hello. Visit our website at www.plantpictorial.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
plantpictorial Issue 03, September 2013 On the cover: Milkweed, (Asclepias tuberosa) Photo by Stephanie Flowers Sterling, Virginia // Zone 6b Questions and Comments bob@plantpictorial.com Website www.plantpictorial.com ©2013 plantpictorial. All rights reserved.
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Plant Pictorial Showcase Photographer Profile Stephanie Flowers Sony DSC-HX300 Sterling, VA // Zone 6b Why do you love photography? I can capture a memory, a moment in time and I can go back and re-live it. How long have you been taking photographs? I’ve always taken pictures. One of my earliest memories is watching my father’s slide show of his time overseas and thinking I want to capture memories like that.
© sjflowers Sweet coneflower (Rudbeckia subtomentosa) Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
Do you have a favorite subject you like to shoot? I enjoy landscape, micro and nature What’s the most interesting location you have ever photographed? The most interesting would have to be at the Talisker Distillery on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Only because, drink or shoot? drink or shoot :) Do you have any tips for plant photography? Keep in mind your lighting and tripods are essential.
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Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida)
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Š sjflowers
Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
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Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia)
Š sjflowers
Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
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White thistle
Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
Š sjflowers
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Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
Š sjflowers
Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
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Thistle
Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
Š sjflowers
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Š sjflowers
Yellow Cornflower (Chrysanthemum segetum) Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
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Unkown Flower Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
Š sjflowers
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Lantana
Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
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Milk weed
Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
Š sjflowers
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Golden Yellow Echinacea Sterling, VA // Zone 6B
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Plant Pictorial Showcase Photographer Profile Ansel Oommen Olympus FE370 Why do you love photography? It allows me to catch brief moments of stunning life that cannot be replicated. How long have you been taking photographs? Three years. Do you have a favorite subject you like to shoot? Trichosanthes cucumerina (snake gourd)
Š ansel oommen
What’s the most interesting location you have ever photographed? United States Do you have any tips for plant photography? Plants are just like people, each with its own personality.
Snake Gourd (Trichosanthes cucumerina )
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Š ansel oommen
Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus)
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Reader Pictorial
Each month we showcase reader submitted images in this section. Submit your images using the photo upload at www.plantpictorial.com.
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Share your obsession with the world. Be featured in the Pictorial Showcase! Submit your images using the photo upload on www.plantpictorial.com. Each month we showcase a reader pictorial showcase and an additional section of the best user submitted photos.
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Unknown Banana (Musa) Satellite Beach, FL Zone 10A
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Bamboo (Bambuseae)
Melbourne, FL // Zone 9b
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Unknown Banana (Musa)
Indian Harbour Beach, FL // Zone 10a
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Cabbage Palm (Sabal Palmetto) Vero Beach FL // Zone 9b
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FEATURE STORY
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FIT Botanical Garden I’m lucky to live close to many impressive public gardens. This month I visited the FIT Botanical Garden in Melbourne, Florida. This gem is located in the heart of the Florida Institute of Technology campus. There’s a lot of history at this property, specifically regarding the man who helped create it.
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FEATURE STORY
The land was originally owned by V.C. Brownlie and donated to the University of Melbourne in 1960. The University would close its doors several years later. Prior to closing, Mrs. Virginia Wood, Chairman of the University of Melbourne and strong conservationist recommended the donation of the land to FIT with the caveat of conserving the natural hammock that ran through the property. Once the land was acquired, FIT founding President, Emeritus Jerome P. Keuper began landscaping the campus. A strong effort was made to conserve the natural hammock and vegetation while introducing more exotic plants. In 1961, a cold weather event stalled landscaping progress. Keuper sought help from a nearby palm and plant enthusiast, Dent Smith who was living in Daytona Beach and had recently founded the Palm Society. He also had built an impressive collection of palms at his property in Daytona Beach. Keuper visited Smith’s property and the two became friends. Smith contributed to the garden for years and to honor that dedication, FIT named the main trail through the garden the Dent Smith Trail.
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Growth and Compromise
As FIT continued to grow, building a new dormitory did not come without a major issue. The only route for Florida Power and Light to bring power to the dorm was through the hammock and garden. Understanding that the only option was compromise, Keuper and FPL came up with a creative solution. The trench was dug through the hammock and garden, but the trench weaved around the trees. Without realizing it, once the trench was filled it created a natural curved trail through the hammocks and it served as a shortcut for students going to and from school/dorm. This path is the Dent Smith Trail. Keuper and Smith began planting Livistonia chinesis through out the hammock which accented the native Sabal and hardwoods of the hammock. Located adjacent to Crane Creek, the garden is on a flood plain and the soil is fertile which is the perfect recipe for growing tropical and subtropical plants.
The Palm Collection Peak
By the early 1970’s, the garden which was nicknamed the jungle, was officially named the FIT Botanical Garden. At one point there were over 400 species of palms planted in the garden, old man winter made several visits over the last couple decades reducing that number to around 60. There are several fantastic things about this garden’s history. The first is conservation minded individuals standing by what they believed in and more importantly being able to compromise when habitat destruction was imminent. The second is that fact that Dent Smith helped build this garden. Smith is the founder of what is now IPS or the International Palm Society which has thousands of members that share the common interest of growing palms. I consider Smith a trailblazer, following in the steps of David Fairchild. Especially in regards to his meticulous plant logs he kept and his zone pushing in Daytona Beach.
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FEATURE STORY
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FEATURE STORY
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FIT Botanical Garden 150 W. University Blvd Melbourne, Florida 32901 (321) 674-8038 www.fit.edu
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Be featured in plantpictorial. Pictorial Showcase
Be featured in the Pictorial Showcase? Use the Pictorial Showcase Submission form at www.plantpictorial.com.
Reader Pictorial
Each month we showcase reader submitted images in this section. Submit your images using the photo upload at www.plantpictorial.com.
Want to contribute an article?
Use plantpictorial as a platform to share your knowledge and expertise. Visit the “want to contribute” link on the website and submit your idea today!
Is your garden ready for the spotlight?
Share your garden with the world? Garden Spotlight showcases reader gardens. Visit the “want to contribute” link on the website and submit your garden today!
Visit www.plantpictorial.com for more informaiton.
THE LAST PAGE
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Garden Reform
New sweeping garden regulations In the past I’ve mentioned how my hobby, let me rephrase, my passion for plants may seem like an out of control obsession to an outsider. Purchase seeds, germinate seeds, raise in a pot, transplant into ground, collect seeds and start again. What a beautiful and exciting cycle. For me, the cycle above is constant. I’m always planting seeds, moving things around, collecting seeds. Then I get a phone call, it’s a friend who thinned out his ginger and bananas. I can’t pass this up. Enter new plants stage left. More plants, more pots, more seeds, etc. Light bulb goes off, why not propagate the biggest banana corm. I slice up the corm into eight pieces and into pots they go. A month later, my normal plant cycle is running on all cylinders. My new ginger and banana are in the ground and in pots. The propagated bananas are growing like crazy, that’s eight new bananas from one! I’m out of pots, need to buy some more. I search my favorite plant forum and come across an offer for seedlings of my favorite three palms and at an amazing price! I think about palm
seedlings traveling through the mail and how in the past I have lost some after replanting because they are shipped bare root. To be safe, I’ll order enough so if any don’t make it I have a buffer. A week later, thirty new palm seedlings arrive. Thirty more pots and lots of soil. Things seem to be going well and then it happens. A dissertation from my spouse about my hobby, the time, space and lawn it’s taking up. She must be on to my master plan, each year my plant beds get about a foot larger. She says the worst thing a gardener could hear, “If you plan on planting anything else out there in that salad, you have to remove something and plant in its place.” How could this be? In the meantime I’ve been developing a plan, a compromise of sorts. Maybe thin out some of my main beds? I have a very large tangerine tree that takes up a lot of yard space, maybe remove it? Probably not, but I will have to think of something. In the end, a compromise will be made and the cycle will continue full speed ahead.
“If you plan on planting anything else out there in that salad, you have to remove something and plant in its place.”
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