Vanny's picture of Mondulkir country site

Welcome to Vanny's trekking here is the picture at Mondulkiri Province of the pine tree site close to Dak Dak village and between Putro village , it is nice landscape there for the touris and family or friend and the weather is good . you can travelling by motor or car go and back and especailly we have elephant trekking a day and over night , trekking by on foot to staying there at the forest or at the waterfall is easy with guide .
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Welcome to Vanny's guide 

ORNAMENTAL PLANTS TO AVOID IN YOUR CENTRAL TEXAS GARDEN

Fall is here and it is the best time of year to plant trees and shrubs for next year’s garden enjoyment.   We see many articles and resources about best and recommended plants to grow in our region, with emphasis on native and adaptive plants well suited to our climate and environment.  However, there is a flip side to that coin - plants to avoid for various and very good reasons.    

First of all, we should avoid the spreading of non-native invasive plants that overwhelm and threaten our local native plants.  A list of these is found in the City of Austin’s “Grow Green” book - free at any nursery or plant center in Austin.    But in addition to those recommendations of plants to avoid,  I see many other plants sold at local nurseries that can create major problems in your gardens and should be avoided.   Here’s my top 12 “no grows”.  

• Photinia fraseri - The "Red Tip Photinia does produce dramatic color on new growth but has many reasons not to use it.  It grows rapidly and ultimately into a small tree,  yet is planted like a shrub. As a member of the rose family it is subject to a fungal disease (black spot) and requires considerable pruning maintenance.  Most often,  they are planted too close to foundations and to each other for hedge effect.   This inexpensive and a widely overused plant comes with many potential problems for the homeowner.

• Artemesia vulgaris -  This species of Artemesia spreads rampantly throughout your garden from roots which can spread 5 - 10’ underground and send up new plantlets everywhere!  If even a tiny piece of root is left in the ground, a new plant will emerge.  It is extremely rampant, yet a variegated variety (Oriental Limelight) is pending a patent and it is being widely sold at nurseries.  That would be like buying variegated nutgrass for your garden!   Container grow only.

Artemesia vulgaris 'Oriental Limelight" - Beautiful but a menace in the garden

• Euonymus japonica - This plant has bold variegated color to offer along with Euonymus scale and other pests,  frequent reversion to solid green,  and short life.   It is an inexpensive plant that is overused in landscapes.  However, E. fortunei does not have the same problems as E. japonica .
• Wax Leaf Ligustrum  (Ligustrum japonica) -  The green or wax leafed ligustrum is a rapid grower,  has a pungent smelling white bloom in spring,  and ultimately grows to small tree proportion but is planted as a shrub.  It is one of the most overused and inexpensive shrubs used in initlal landscapes and if often planted too close to foundations and to each other.  Watch out for wax scale also.
• Variegated Chinese Privet (Ligustrum sinense)  -  This colorful small leafed shrub is overused and inexpensive but generally looks very nice in landscapes until it begins to revert to solid green!  This is a problem!   It spreads rampantly by seed endangering our native plants.  
• Nandina domestica (Heavenly Bamboo) -  The red berries are beautiful but all one needs to do is take a walk in an urban or rural nature area and see this plant coming up everywhere from bird spread seed.  It is very invasive and endangers our local native plants.  Only non-berry producing varieties should be used.  Nandina can’t take our intense bright sunlight and heat of summer well either.
• Indian Hawthorne (Raphiolepis indica)  -   Although popular for it's spring bloom,  this plant is very often infected with scale, a sooty mold and other diseases.   This plant tend to be overused in southern landscapes, contributing to the spread of these undesirable infestations.  It favors acidic, organic soil so is not suited well to TX hill country. 
• Chinese Wisteria (Wisteria sinsensis)   -  Spring blooms are beautiful and fragrant but this vine can grow almost 12" per day and strangle anything nearby.  It is especially invasive and hard to control - almost like Kudsu.
• Pampas Grass  (Cortaderia selloana)  -  People who plant this regret it!  Clumps get extremely large and  thick,  blades contain sharp cutting edges, and it takes a stick of dynamite to remove!
• Running bamboos  -  Bamboos are a fascinating plant, but can run rampant among your garden area unless container grown.  They are very difficult to remove, once spread out, so avoid running varieties unless you have acreage to spare.  Clumping bamboos, also spread but from the base, not runners, and can be controlled with periodic basal trimming. 
• Clerodendrum bungii (Cashmere Bouquet)   -   This beautiful root hardy sub-tropical plant is enjoyed for it’s fragrant large cluster of bloom,  large foliage, and tropical look, but spreads rampantly from underground roots, plus wind and bird dispersed seed and can create it’s own jungle in short order.  Unless contained, avoid it in the garden.
• Pittosporum tobira -  The Pittosporum also gets large,  requires much pruning to maintain,  and is subject to being damaged at below freezing temperatures and wax scale infestation.

This of course is not a complete list so do your homework before going plant shopping.  I recommend going go a nursery or garden center with a specific list of researched plant selections in mind, and if not available look elsewhere.  I let my fingers do the walking (telephoning local sources) when looking for a specific plant.  Before deciding on an alternative plant, I once again do my homework first.  So, Fall; is a good time to be thinking about next year’s ornamental garden and getting new permanent plantings in place so they can become well established by spring.  This is especially true of deciduous and spring flowering trees and shrubs.  Knowing which plants to avoid is as important as those best suited for your garden.    

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF BROMELIADS

Bromeliads are one of the best kept secrets in the plant world.   My goal  is to introduce you to the wonderful world of bromeliads and try to let you know what you are missing if they are not part of your plant collection.

They are diverse, fascinating, and relatively easy to grow.  There are 54 genera and 3,168 species of identified bromeliads throughout the world.  They have been hybridized extensively and many new striking plants have resulted with both bloom and foliage that offer more color than any other plant I am aware of. Because bromeliads are "different" looking than traditional plants and most people consider them exotic, therefore perceived as hard to grow, bromeliads have not caught on among  plant enthusiasts nearly as much as they deserve to. Newly discovered or hybridized plants often sell to collectors for big bucks, but in a matter of years become affordable to most people as they are reproduced asexually by dividing "pups" from the developed plants. Most plant nurseries don't offer bromeliads in wide varieties so the really nice and choice plants most likely will need to be purchased from specialty growers. 

Bromeliads in their native habitats (unique to the Americas with one exception in western Africa) grow in such diverse places as 13,000 ft elevations to sea level, rain forests to deserts among cacti and succulents, and even as far north as the Virginia coast and as far south as southern Argentina.. In nature, epiphytic bromeliads provide habitat for frogs, aquatic insects, and lizards as part of the tropical and subtropical ecosystem.   Some are true "air plants" like Spanish or ball moss (Tillandsia) while others are terrestrial like those sweet pineapples we enjoy as a popular fruit. . Most are epiphytic deriving their nutrients from their cupped shape.  The optimum temperatures for bromeliads range from 70 to 90 in daytime to 45 - 60 at night F.   Most bromeliads like good air circulation and 50 - 75% humidity.    There is no general guidelines for growing bromeliads in general as they are so diverse.  You need to know about the specific genera and species and what it takes to grow it well - but with that knowledge, you will find them relatively easy to grow and enjoy.

INFLORESENCES can be cupped, bracted, branched, single spiked, or insignificant. FOLIAGE can be smooth edged (Tillandsias), spined, or succulent. BLOOM PERIODS range from less than one week (Billbergias) to greater than a month (Vrieseas). RELATIVE SIZES can range from less than one inch to greater than three feet wide and tall. These variances can occur within the same genera of bromeliads depending on the particular species.

Tips on Growing and Enjoying Bromeliads

• For  epiphytic (non-terrestrial) varieties, we grow bromeliads in small pine bark as a soil base. This provides excellent aeration and circulation for the roots that form, and provides sufficient support for the plant. For terrestrials, use a loose and light organic soil mixture. For small epiphytic tillandsias, mounting them on driftwood or cork is an excellent and healthy way to display them. 
• • Location is everything! Since different bromeliads prefer different levels of light, they will let you know how to please them. If the foliage becomes bleached or burned, reduce the light. If the plant isn't producing  the color you know it should have, increase the light. Finding the right level of light makes all the difference in bringing out the colorful qualities of these plants. Good air circulation is a common and vital need to all genera of bromeliads. 
• • Bromeliads should not be fertilized regularly unless you are trying to increase pup production. There are some exceptions. Tillandsias and Cryptanthus respond well to regular fertilization. Fertilization will reduce the coloration in most bromeliad hybrids that are noted for their color., e.g. Neoregelias and Billbergias. When fertilizing, use a liquid soluble 20/20/20 fertilizer at half the recommended strength.  Never use urea based nitrogen fertilizer.  Avoid mineral salts of any kind.  Most city water supplies are fine for bromeliads.  Never mount bromeliads on chemically treated lumber.   Water with pH of 5.5-6.5 is preferred (avoid alkaline water).  
• • How to display bromeliads is always a good question. Some suggestions follow. They can be grown in large hanging baskets with three plants average per basket. We group the plants by commonality, e.g. Neoregelias in one basket, Aechmeas in another, or mixed genera that share the same light requirements.  Other ways are to display them on single poles with pot loops in spiral form. Yet another way would be to incorporate them into a ground level display by digging out a hole, placing a one gallon nursery container in the hole, and inserting an 8" plastic pot into the nursery container with the plant potted in small pine bark. This gives the appearance they are terrestrial without them ever touching the soil. As long as the basic cultural requirements are met, bromeliads can be displayed in a number of other imaginative ways. They can also be attached to trees to resemble their natural habitat. However, collector or rare plants might best be grown as individual plants for greenhouse or other special display. 

After the plant flowers, it will produce "pups" or young plants then die. The young pups will take over the next generation. Pups should not be removed until visible root structures can be seen at their base or they are at least 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the mother plant. Make sure the pups are cut off with a solid base.  Some bromeliads reproduce so abundantly, you'll be sharing them with friends.  Dead flower stalks can be cut off if unattractive until the mother plant dies.  All bromeliads require winter protection in central Texas, except the ball moss (Tillandsia rotunda), seen in our native oak trees, but  most can adapt as house plants during winter months.  Exceptions might be Tillandsias (air plants) which require good air circulation and high humidity.  

For more information about growing bromeliads, go to www.centraltexasgardening.info/bromeliads.htm .  There you will find more resources for learning about these fascinating and easy to grow plants. 

A patio display of colorful bromeliads