Staghorn tour

12 years ago

Here's a tour around the staghorn ferns in our modest downtown Orlando backyard.......

Here is one of the original Mama Plants...we continue to add new chains to support the heft of these large plants

Here is another Mama...Before the 2004 season of hurricanes these plants hung from trees and a "swingset"....Afterwards we hung the staghorn remnants from 4x4's and pipes to block the sightlines from the nextdoorrentalapartmentwindows....

I start the pups in wirebaskets and let time and nature do the rest....Here are a row of 4 baskets

Given the chance they all would become big BLOBS.....That's a blob remnant wired to the 4x4 support

I like to try and control "Mother Nature" by growing the ferns in "found" objects....Here's a four-legged stool....the top remains flat enough for a lemonade-tray

Here's another...a 3-legged table just ready for it's glass top

So we're bringing some pups from the big ferns to the GardenParty....they're planted in 511 through the sides of 16 oz plastic cups.... this allows the roots to establish before final planting

Here's an old painted wire cat basket....well now it's a planter

Or the front and back of a circular wire wine rack.... enclosed with some hardare cloth

And finally here's a little glass shelf unit....I ditched the glass and added some more hardware cloth to contain the soil.....this one is made to hang on a fence

Thanks for looking......See ya at the GardenParty.....

dougandpam

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Comments (7)

whgille
12 years ago
Hi Doug and Pam

Those are some cool plants! I can see that you are very dedicated. I have no experience with them but I would like to try one, do they need to be in shade? or can take sun.
Thank you for your nice offer and I see you on Saturday!

Silvia
Randy Ritchie
12 years ago
Doug and Pam,

Thank you so much for the staghorn garden tour; I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed it! Sadly, I won't be able to go to the meet-up at Fairchild Gardens, but hope you will be able to go to coffeemom's swap. I would love to pick your brain!

Oh, and your wire basket ideas are quite novel! Better watch out tho, as if you're scouring/dumpster-diving my neighborhood night before bulk trash day, you might have competition, lol. Now that we know what to do with all those cast-offs at the curb, there'll be fewer of them in landfills, for sure.

Seeing how well you grow the staghorns, have you ever considered taking on a brief educational spot at a garden gathering? I'd bet others would enjoy hearing about your fab staghorns. Do you grow different varieties of them?

Thanks again, and enjoy the gardens at Fairchild.

Randy
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Top half where the hanging plants are is done. Starting with the front side, next to the door is the sunny side where my sunny orchids hang. I only have 2 vandas and I love them so plan to buy two more. That's all the room I have for them. Next to them is a Brassavola nodosa and next to that a Dendrobium lindleyi. Sorry the picture doesn't shows these two well. I'll take another one soon. The cattleyas and other sun lovers will sit below them on the bench. Next. This side gets dappled sun throughout the day. That's my monster polypody on the left! And here it is again below. It measures almost four feet across. I rescued it from Walmart two years ago from the trash bin. Paid a dollar for it and it was tiny and very sad. The back side. All shade. Spiders and another rabbit's foot on the left that was left to die when my neighbors moved out. The left side (garage side) More to hang: my staghorn to the left of the boston fern. Then we need to make the benches for more ferns, orchids, peace lilly which is sitting on the floor now … you can see its top above. It's as big as the polypody. I also have a Ficus (benjamina) and a Duranta, each about 5' tall and easily 4 feet across, a bird of paradise, a hibiscus, a bat plant and a cereus that need winter protection when we get those really cold night. I have allowed space for them too. All the plants except the bird of paradise, the vandas, the bat plant and the monster plant made the trip from the north with me. They are happy plants! They have spent most of their lives indoors until now except for about 4 warm months in the summer up north. Some of them are quite old. My cereus was given to me as a stick about 30 years ago. The ponytail which is now planted outside is at least 25 years old. You may notice shade cloth (30%), hanging on the top half all around except on the back which always in shade. Plan to put it on the bottom half as well. Will leave it up for a couple weeks because even the sun plants can burn if they have not been in direct sun before so they need to acclimate.
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Yme405
12 years ago
Love the repurposing, very cool! Excellent work.
Chrissy
abnorm
Original Author
12 years ago
Thank-you Chrissy

Randy.....thanks.....we'll be attending the Oakland Garden Party of Silvia and Willy on the 22nd......sorry for any confusion....

Except for an exchange.....All the stags owe their "Genes" to some native plants collected by my father-in-law along the Indian River in Brevard County back in the 1950's.....
He loved the outdoors....a born naturalist......

Silvia....they tend "sunburn" in direct sun....With no blooms and thick leaves they tolerate DEEP shade and even very dry conditions......but they grow best in Bright/Shade with plenty of watering.....

A GardenBuddy of mine simply wires the singles to slabs of wood....Beautiful...very Zen....I'll get some photos....

See ya soon dougandpam
hester_2009
12 years ago
Phenomenal! A lot of work too. They are something....
wish I could meet you all at the upcoming meets and parties, but I don't drive distances any more. But you all have fun!
Hester
Randy Ritchie
12 years ago
I wish I could attend the Oakland one, but it's just too long a trek for a day trip for me, from Fort Lauderdale, anymore. If I had a travel buddy, maybe...but not solo.

Have a great time at Silvia and Willy's party all!

Randy
abnorm
Original Author
12 years ago
As promised here are a couple more Stags simply wired to a cedar shingle....courtesy Em and Claude's garden

and again......

I've also started wiring them directly to some tree trunks....

Four roofing nails and a short section of wire.....

Thanks Hester.....these plants actually have to fend for themselves after planting/hanging.....I keep a soaker hose running thru the baskets so watering (when needed) is an easy chore.......the rest is Time and Nature

Happy Fall Gardening All !

dougandpam

Staghorn tour

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whgille

Randy Ritchie

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Staghorn tour

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whgille

Randy Ritchie

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