Awesome pics! I really enjoyed looking at them! I cant help with the ID for the last one, but their are a few that I can ID. The nice flowering tree growing on the mayan ruins is a Brachychiton discolor. I learned about that one for the first time when I saw it at the San Diego Zoo. They are such cool looking trees! Also the 20 foot ginger looks like a heliconia to me. They are definitely one of my favorite plants and a symbol of the tropics for sure! The Aloe Vera growing in the tree looks like a bromeliad to me. Not sure what family its in since I dont know a ton about bromeliad families at all! The Staghorn fern/bromeliad is an orchid. Im not sure what type, but it looks really nice! Thanks for posting the pics! Looking forward to seeing the animal pics too! -Alex

I bought a 15 gallon (Kona) Sharwil from Atkins Nursery in Fallbrook (CA), They now have two 15 gallon and a number of 5 gallon Sharwils left. They said they do not ship 5/15 gallon trees because of the weight and the Avocado is too sensitive to do bare root shipments. They seemed to be nice people to deal with and they give a 1-year warranty on their trees. I do have one concern. Most of the other 15 gallon Avocados were bearing fruit while the Sharwils were not. The Sharwils have flowers that had dried up and are crumbling. Does anyone know anything about that? I would like to know if that indicates that there will be a problem with the flowers in the future; I would like to know the answer to that before I plant the tree. I want to do a little more investigating of Mangos before deciding which one I want and going to visit Ong Nursery. Thanks for letting me know about Ong.

Had the pleasure of a guest from this forum to my house today. Lycheeluva and I did an extensive walk thru the yard checking for new developments.....especially on the lychee front. It looks like the rest of the mangoes that have not bloomed, are almost all beginning to push their annual buds. Yes, even the miraculous Chou Anon is going to now bloom. There's no point in deliniating any further between the next to bloom. The late varieties such as Keitt, Neelum, Kent and even Valencia Pride haven't begun pushing bloom as of yet, but they will be shortly. I am also awaiting bloom on a couple of mango seedlings that I have never had fruit from. Mangoes survived the freeze very well here and we should have a very heavy crop (barring any more ridiculous Arctic oscillations). As trees set their crops I'll post pictures.

JF - yes, that sounds about right for Carrie, especially for you in Cali (the Cali mangoes seem to be slightly smaller than "our" Fla grown specimens). Carrie - I have never found it to be a likable mango, year in and year out...and yes, when it gets overripe I don't find it to be over sweet, but instead it get almost "fermenty" and mushy. I have not found Duncans nor Fairchilds to be overly resinous. I have had some Duncans that have a slight resin component but not all of the,. I find them to have a great blend of sweetness and acidity with a touch or spice. The Fairchilds I have had have had no resin whatsoever. Very odd cause I find them very juicy and sweet. Lady's Choice, nah, don't need to drink my mango... Rob