Wow! I felt like I was looking at photos of the aviary at the NC Zoo (one of my favorite places!). I half expected to see a turtle or bird in the photos! It's beautiful!
Chandres

Wow thanks! Its fun to tinker with.
I bought a few 4" containers of assorted episcias about 2 years ago, and planted them by my stream. Now they have formed a huge groundcover on both sides. The plants actually drape down into the water and kinda grow there hydroponically
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Absolutely beautiful.

Can you tell me how to post pictures? Thanks

Bahai..Wow, your plants are beautiful, absolutely stunning..What exactly are we looking at? Outside in your garden?
Yep, the plant is called 'Silver Nerve' Fittonia..it's doing fantastic too.
About your Black Magic Colocasia..something's different..Mine has strickly black/purple leaves, but yours looks variegated..especially one leaf..It's amazing. You have quite a collection..I can imagine vapors of steam, (humidity) settling throughout the day..You are very lucky living in such a nice place, Toni

Outside in my garden? No way!
These are my "houseplants". I couldn't grow anything in these photos except the Black Marble colocasia, the Milky Way colocasia and the miserable invasive Ostrich Fern in the photo with it outdoors year round here, so I built a greenhouse that I could grow all the stuff I would otherwise have to bring into the house i winter.

My Black Marble is extremely variable, but most of it looks like that. The Black Marble is a variegated colocasia. Other variegated ones I grow are the Milky Way and the Yellow Splash. BLack Magic, however, is not variegated. I have that one too, outdoors in the outdoor ponds.

simply stunning.

plant-one-on-me, in order to post a pic you have to have already uploaded it to somewhere on the web such as an FTP or something like Photobucket or Flickr. In order to post the pic in your message, use the following HTML code:

<.img src="URL%20of%20your%20pic%20goes%20here" .>

Remove the "." from the beginning and end of the code and you're done!

Really Bihai,

Stunning IS the word; just gorgeous! Thought I was in a garden, or a preserve or some left-to-naturalize plot of land somewhere ...

Funny, Toni got there first, but that IS Fittonia, at least the very regularly veined one is. I grew this in a fabulous terrarium 1 yd. around full of it. When I moved into this apartment, I carried it in the car in my arms & the mover asked if I'd sell it to him!

I'm less sure abt the green variegate that looks like Fittonia, but the varieg. looks more random (less regular?).

This area would make for a lovely vacation stroll at the very least -- thanks for the Show!

Thank you guys for your compliments. I love to putter in my plants. Its peaceful.

Karen, I have to ask..did you sell your Fittonia to the mover? How about a cutting? :) Toni

Absolutely a beautiful garden, looks very relaxing...

Thanks for the great pics!

jealous jealous jealous

No Toni, I didn't. I kept the terrarium for myself for a number of yrs. more, 'til I decided I needed the large space it took up for other plants. I also grew some small leafed green Fittonia successfully in a frosted west window (bathroom), where it did great next to the shower.

Really Beautiful!
Where may I ask, are all these plants growing in your green-house? It looks like all the plants are growing on the floor of a jungle, around cliffs and streams! Some looking higher up than others.

Billy Rae

Beautiful!!!!!!

Billy Rae,
they grow wherever they can, LOL. I started collecting plants seriously when I lived in Los Angeles between the years of 1985 and 1992. I was able to bring a few here to Florida when we moved here in the summer of 1992. The house we moved into initially and lived in for 11 years was a 1920's Historic Home that had a 240 sq ft sunroom, what is called here a "Florida Room". Almost every house built between 1890-1930's has a Florida Room, which is basically a large screened porch where people would sleep in summer because it was cooler there and there was no air conditioning.

The people who we bought the house from had glassed in the screen portions with 8x8 plate glass windows and it was climate controlled. The room had a tiled floor with a drain in the floor and an indoor hose spigot so in the old days they would just wash the sand that blew through the screen out via the floor drain.

Of course I immediately started collecting plants once here, LOL and ammassed a huge collection very quickly of orchids, bromeliads, heliconias, and many others that could not stay outdoors in winter and had to be drug into the house and into the Florida Room.

We outgrew that house, and in 2002 we moved out to the "country" to a 5 acre property and I was able to build this greenhouse. The Florida Room we have here is very small and gets poor light, but I do keep some houseplants in there year round. Everything else that would have had to be a houseplant, or and "in and out" plant, became a greenhouse plant.

I didn't want the artificiality of benches and shelves, the plants that I had did not lend themselves to that anyway, I had 30+ gallon tubs of 15-16 ft tall heliconias and ultratropical gingers that needed to be planted. SO I decided to use the greenhouse in the style of a botanical garden tropical conservatory. It is in its 6th year and I tinker with it constantly. I have collected shells, driftwood, rocks, and all sorts of stuff to use to make it look like a natural setting. I have planted everything I can, mounted as many of the orchids and bromeliads as I can, and tried to minimize the use of containers, but there are still a lot of containers, especially hanging ones, because floorspace is, well, gone now. I can only plant new stuff if I remove other stuff. So I Have had to be creative.

I wanted water in there so I have a 20 ft stream and a pond, and am building a drop fall/fountain that goes into a stone basin now.

Here are a couple more photos...a prime example of why I can't keep some of this stuff in my house (and its not hardy here)...this is a rare palm called a Salacca magnifica. It is heavily armed...the undersides of the leaves have large rigid spines. Its what is called an "entire leaf" palm...there is basicaly no trunk. The leaves at present time are approaching 10 ft in length, at maturity a single leaf can be 20 ft tall/long. I have only had this palm for a little over 2 years, it is very fast growing. It would be way too dangerous in the house, and I would not be able to move it. So I had to plant it!
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This is another example...this is a photo from last year about this time when the Jade Vine was in bloom. This is a very highly sought after rare Tropical liana, Strongylodon macrobotrys. Tons of people want this vine, and are willing to spend $50-100 for a plant, thinking that they will be able to keep it in a pot on a trellis and bring it in the house in the winter. But in reality, that can't be done. This vine is a tropical creeper, its name in Phillipines where it comes from is Emerald Creeper. It will engulf everything in its path (I have to prune mine constantly) and won;t bloom until it gets a big woody trunk (usually 3 years after planting). I got mine as a trade when I still lived at the old house, and would never have been able to see it bloom like this as a houseplant:
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I don't look at my greenhouse as separate from my house. My original dream was to build this kind of place ONTO the house, where you would just open a door and step from the house into the greenhouse, and they would be continuous. We tried to figure out a way to do that when we moved here, but the renovation would have cost over $100,000. It just wasn't doable.

So, I consider this my "second Florida Room". I just have to walk a few steps down the driveway, not out a door, LOL.

Holy Crap! Lol. I thought your GH had to be large for so much green beautiful "stuff" but, wow, that is HUGE! I love it!
Your idea about going from somewhere inside the house to right into your GH like another room is something I have always wanted too, but it's just a dream because the cost as you found out is out of this world! Come on lottery, lol

I was thinking what would separate the house from a LARGE conservatory or GH room would be through french doors, so even if the doors were closed, you could still see the jungle through the glass panels.

You are definitely very talented in what you created! Fantastic plants! Fantastic job!

Billy Rae

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is the nicest looking greenhouse I ever saw!!!
One thing, how do you control plant pests with so many of them!!!LOLOLOL
Great job!
I too am jealous!! Looks like you know what your doing..or is it God's hand...LOL

bihai, I haven''t posted on this forum for a long time, but I had to say something about your gorgeous greenhouse - that it's out of this world. I'm so terribly envious, especially after the long, tiring winter we are still dealing with up here in the North. Your plant setup is just beautiful... I can only dream of such a setup... Enjoy it! WOW!

bihai, your greenhouse is just stunning..I couldn't believe it when I saw your lovely jade vines...they are included every year in the Orchid SHow at the New York Botanical Gardens and I just saw them this past Saturday. That shade of green is breathtaking...I have some great photo's of them (and from the Orchid Show) which I will post as soon as I figure out Photobucket. Thanks for sharing your pics and I think you have succeeded in creating a natural looking environment. The NY Botanical Garden has similar palms to yours; they, too, aim for a natural look in their conservatories. It must be wonderful to lose yourself in there whenever you choose!

Bihai..Wow..BIG WOW..What type of palm is growing in the top picture? What's its size, and where on earth did you find it? Does it require a lot of humidity?
May I ask how you fertilize each plant? What type of fertilizer do you use? One or several? Your orchids are doing great too, bet they love their home..
What is the flower, looks orange or pink, in the top pic? To the right, and a little behind the palm?
Your gh looks like a conservatory..I love it..
Yep, I know what you mean about a gh connected to the house..so much easier..
What type of vine is growing upward? I can't tell what it's growing on, but it's huge..
You're blessed with a super green thumb..just beautiful..

Karen, thanks for the info regarding frosted bathroom windows..A friend, just today asked which plant would live in her 'east' facing frosted bathroom window..Do you think Fitonia will work, considering it's facing east and frosted? Toni

Thank you, every one. Its very nice of you to compliment my "house" plants.
Eileen, the Jade Vine is both a blessing and a pain in the rear, LOL! Its a very cool plant, but it is hard to maintain, even in a large space. It requires almost constant pruning to keep it from taking over. Each raceme of blooms drops between 50-100 individual claw-like flowers as it goes out of bloom, and I have to pick every one of them up and compost them because for some reason they have a high tendency to mold on the ground! They make a big mess when they fall, but its worth it!

Hopefulauthor, the palm in the top photo is called a Salacca magnifica. It comes from the rainforest of Borneo where it grows in the moist areas at the base of cliffs. They are becoming very rare in situ due to habitat loss, but fortunately people are growing them in cultivation, especially in Hawaii. I bought this one mail order from a palm nursery in Hawaii. Its currently over 6 ft tall, but the biggest leaves are 8-10 feet long and will eventually reach about 20 ft in length. Definitely not a houseplant!

The palm in the second photo is a Licuala grandis, also called Vanuatu Fan Palm. These actually CAN be kept as houseplants if you have a very large sunny space. They are a lot easier to manage.

I think that the orange plant you are talking about is a bromeliad. The vine going upward is a Vanilla orchid.

I am not picky about fertilizer except for the palms. They get Nutricote year round for slow release, and a top dressing of granular palm fertilizer 4 times a year with applications of chelated iron and trace elements.

The bromeliads I have to be careful with, if they get water soluble fertilizer in their cups it can burn them, but everything else gets water soluble Miracle grow (15-30-15) or 20-20-20. The orchids I sometimes give orchid fertilizer, but most of the time, they get 20-20-20 too.

Bihai, that's your personal hobbyist greenhouse?!? That's incredible! If I had a GH like that, I'd probably never leave it. Magnificent.