Actually this property has been in my family for 35years or more I inherited back in 2001 when my dad died. I would never be able to purchase a piece of land like that at the price it would sell for. The house I grew up in which my little brother has is across the street from it. I am only 28 an currently have a house 4 miles away that I own. So there is no set plans on the house this is just my property. Years and years away if any. There are only 13 other houses and it is a private neighborhood. All the houses are built on stilts around the natural florida habitat or wetlands. This would be a requirement if I ever do get to put a house on it. But in the mean time if you have seen the blog then you can see I am a man that fears no seed or plant challenge. So I am doing my homework, reading up on orchids and growing new babies, talking to neighbors and I really want to try to repopulate the neighborhood. I took a little stroll through the neighborhood today and spotted at least 5 other trees from the street that had colonies growing on them. So I am very excited about doing this I love challenges so stay tuned and I will keep you all updated on my future endeavors. Here is a partial shot of the property The Live Oaks must be over 100 years old or more. These trees are all over the neighborhood so there is lots of good spots for the orchids to grow. And the other shot is one of the other colonies I saw today. It has almost wrapped around the trees limb completely. Sorry for the long post but it is my first on your board so just trying to fill yall in. Check back on the blog to watch my plants grow. Always posting new pictures. Here is a link that might be useful: My Yard in Fort Pierce FL

Just wanted to put my two cents in. I have Symphony and here, in my garden, there is nothing that competes with it. It is the perfect rose for me--light green matte foliage with no disease, perfect clusters of light yellow roses that take the heat, lots of rebloom. I know nothing of Allux Symphony, though. Is it different than Symphony? I had Charles Darwin here and for me, it sprawled in the dirt and had very bad color in the heat. It is gone. I also had Molineux. It had lots of fast-blowing blooms that took wonderful photos but were small and fleeting. I ditched it last winter after much consideration as some folks raved about it. I had it long enough to know it didn't warrant a prime spot in my garden. On the other hand, Symphony will always be with me. It is worth the wait.

Be very cautious about buying a "Hong Kong Orchid" from a nursery when it is not flowering. The true Hong Kong Orchid is B Blakeana and is sterile. We bought a "Hong Kong Orchid" about 12 ft tall with a 2" trunk for $600 only to find out it was a B purpurea. We rescued four volunteers from the seeds, then asked for our money back from the nursery. After much back and forth, with the nursery claiming that even Hong Kong Orchids have seeds, we got our money back. When we told the nursery to take out the false Hong Kong Orchid, they cut it down instead. Our volunteers are now 12 ft tall with 2" trunks, grown from seed in 3 yr. We are now growing others from the seeds of these volunteers. Our neighbor, who lives on the water, has a 30 ft tall by 30 ft around B purpurea that is 25 yr old. Our Miani daughter's tree is the same size and age. Bauhinias can be ravaged by high winds and freezing temps, but they come back.

Some nice pics up there! I really like the sky pictures. I could look at clouds all day. Although I mostly grow calamondins, here are a couple other varieties. This first is a meyer lemon I gave to my sister last year. It had some real problems when we got the (almost free) tree - root problems, bug problems. But we pruned it and cared for it and it has really bounced back this year. It had 10 big juicy lemons this summer so far. The best we've eaten. 3 still on the tree and the tree has busted out with blooms like crazy. It likes this sunny window. The next tree is a mexican lime that really should have been re-potted this year, or two years ago! We didn't do it because we were not going to keep it (my friend was supposed to take it this summer). And it's not at my house. Now that winter is coming we don't know what to do with it, so it's sitting there till my friend needs a lime I guess.