I have written a few blog post over the last two years showing off some of the amazing gardens that members of the Southern California Palm Society (PSSC) have created. Recently I had the opportunity to tour what is most likely the nicest of all of them in Southern California: the beautiful “Cuesta Linda” garden estate…
As part of the second leg of the International Palm Society’s biennial group trip, Singapore was the next stop after Sarawak, Borneo. The IPS had planned three palmy locations to visit while we were in Singapore. Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Botanic Garden (topic of next week’s post) and McRitchie Reservoir. Gardens by the Bay was first up. Before…
Every so often a palm tree makes its way into cultivation and becomes the desire of all collectors. Sometimes this desire puts pressure on wild populations, like what happened with the Foxtail Palm (Wodyetia bifurcata). Poachers eventually led to Australia banning seed export of Wodyetia bifurcata. Luckily the palms grew pretty fast in cultivation and set copious amounts of…
Starting a new business is no easy task. Fellow business owners will tell you that if you want to run a successful small business and enjoy what you do at the same time, then you should turn your hobby into your business. That is exactly what happened to a friend of mine that got bitten by the palm…
This last Saturday I had the pleasure of visiting a garden that I have had on my “to see” list for some time now. Thanks to the efforts of the Palm Society of Southern California (PSSC), the garden of Jason and Virginia Dunn in Fallbrook was open to all members of the PSSC this past weekend….
Back on August 25th, 2015, famed plantsmen and palm tree growing legend Mardy Darian passed away at 82 years young. I first met Mardy in 2008 when I went with a few friends to tour his Vista, California, garden. In an effort to limit visitors and to generate some income to assist with his water bill, Mardy would charge…
After a tiring, but amazing, four days around Andringitra National Park, I headed out for the next stop – Isalo National Park. The four-hour drive from Camp Catta to Isalo National Park was on one of the best roads in all of Madagascar. In fact, I can’t recall a place I drove in Madagascar where you could find a pot-hole-free road for this…
This is a continuation post from last week on my summit of Peak Boby. I stopped my first post at my breakfast break on day 2 in the Andringitra Mountains. I will now continue on with the second half of day two and include day three, which was spent around Camp Catta. This will be the post palm…