joe84330

i got some new info last night about the bonsai/gra daht plant. we were talking to our neighbor and she called it hua chang or elephant ear, then she pointed to a beautiful "palm" in my yard that she called hang chang or elephant tail. apparently in high demand at resorts, even a small potted version will run thousands of baht and ours is much bigger than me.

she said it has a beautiful flower so of course i asked when. she said "about ten years old"

lived in this house for 3 years, estimate built 2 prior so only 5 more years to go!

names of plants will vary from region to region and person to person depending on who they learned it from, got a piccie of your palm?

sure do just took two. those are both the one she referred to as elephant tail.

@Joe, so you've already got half an elephant in your garden

This is not possibly the 'palm' you have?

http://www.google.de...w=1024&bih=1121

I coudn't tail a plant named 'elephant tail' on Google. The plant I am showing is the one we call 'elephant foot' in German so at least it would add another member to your new backyard pet.

lived in this house for 3 years, estimate built 2 prior so only 5 more years to go!

http://view.stern.de...-Z2-359494.html

Greetz

GP

i found mostly elephants foot as well. also pony tail. this is probably the same thing, here's a couple of photos. looking down on it there, it's at least 8' in diameter.

i got some new info last night about the bonsai/gra daht plant. we were talking to our neighbor and she called it hua chang or elephant ear, then she pointed to a beautiful "palm" in my yard that she called hang chang or elephant tail. apparently in high demand at resorts, even a small potted version will run thousands of baht and ours is much bigger than me.

she said it has a beautiful flower so of course i asked when. she said "about ten years old"

lived in this house for 3 years, estimate built 2 prior so only 5 more years to go!

Hi,

Another one is the Oleander, I have a spectacular tree that I have grown for many years. Had some Germans at our place letting their kids run wild in the garden, breaking plants etc and when they started in on the oleander I said, you might want to stop your kids, that is poisonous. Was quite annoyed that they felt it was ok to let their kids run riot in my garden so I didn't mention that you had to eat quite a bit for it to actually be poisonous

yeah, that's something most people don't know or care for. If I take a closer look, a third of my garden inventory is poisonous. Oleander, nicandra, brugmansia, potatoes, ...good strategy, @SBK, just kep telling them they'll drop dead by munching one single leaf!

I hate it when people or their dogs aren't careful in my garden. I scold even less-well-known guests and visitors as soon as they step within a 2-cm radius of my plants Can't help myself. It's one thing when my boyf wants to help and accidentally weeds out all my marigolds , but if his niece lets her tiny dog run around over our freshly planted peppers while she stomps on my sempervivum collection, I play the bad auntie.

From your story, I take it you were not in the position to tell those Germans to call their kids back, @SBK? It's a shame people don't see by themselves what to do and what to let.

Greetz

GP

you can also make very casual and matter of fact comments about the size and variety of snakes in the garden and most parents would flinch.

WARNING!

Climbing Lily

From Wikipedia:

While all parts of the Gloriosa contain colchicine, the roots have the highest concentration of the toxin. One-tenth of an ounce of Gloriosa root can be fatal to an adult

PS:

The most common English names are flame lily, fire lily, gloriosa lily, glory lily, superb lily, climbing lily, and creeping lily.

great! looks like i found a local alternative to curare for my poison tipped blowgun darts!

Actually it is not called a climbing lily, sorry angiud, it is a Glory Lily or Fire or Flame Lily, dao dueng in Thai, Gloriosa Superba rotschildiana.

The peacock flower is also called dwarf poinciana (for obvious reasons) Nok yoong Thai in Thai.

Pitcher plants grow wild in swampy areas and used to be everywhere here before people started filling in land for building.

really glad to see that "glory/fire/flame lily" photo posted here. i've got a few blooming right now around the yard and they are frickin spectacular. didn't know the name until now, thanks.

maybe much ado about nothing. just drove past again and it appears to have resumed its abandonment.

probably was just a work crew parking there before breakfast.

I think they are opening a new Indian restaurant there.

dam_n. i was hoping for a tailor shop/cd and sunglasses and a travel agent with a 7-11!

specifically that multi story shopping center? just drove past and it looked like quite a few new construction items had been dropped off inside the gate.

anybody else?

hm, not sure which is worse? mimosa growing throughout my lawn or three kids with nothing to do...

We used to have a simple remedy. Get the kids to wee on the plants.

you don't own stock in the juice box company do you?

hm, not sure which is worse? mimosa growing throughout my lawn or three kids with nothing to do...

We have the sensitive plant, which is a bloody nuisance when it grows into the lawns.... it has more of a reddish leaf than the Mimosa pictured in your link.... They have thorns or barbs, pain in the as ... or feet if you sit or stand on them! Seeds its self and creeps along the ground..... but can reach about 30cm (12" high)

Ha...! And I pay 5 Euros for a tiny one in a 5 cm pot?! Never again...

Next!

Yeah...more 'next', more beer

you pay 5 euros for a small mimosa?

i have to bribe my kids to pull it out of the lawn every two weeks or else it will cover the place. what a pain in the keister that thing is.

Joe, can you show a picture? IPhone quality will do.

Greetz

GP

sure, attached. i just took this from the top down, it stands 6ft tall and nearly that wide.

considering i pulled (or thought i did) that plant approximately 6 months ago, i'm really impressed with it. seems determined to be there so i'll work around it.

the people i talked to called it bonsai, so i asked them to write it in thai just to make sure i wasn't misunderstanding anything and it is what it is.

No idea, could be they don't know the name, not every Thai person is clued up on plant names, Alocasia is gra daht in Thai.

A similar plant, with pointier ends the Colocasia, is gla dah

gra daht eh? i will make sure to pass that on to the head of landscaping.

Hi,

Joe, I think your little big survivor belongs to the alocasia family. My guess is Alocasia macrorrhizos:

http://www.pacificbu...ex.php/Alocasia

http://www.spicegard...ia-macrorrhizos

http://en.wikipedia....ia_macrorrhizos

Looks great btw!

Greetz

GP

sure looks like it. curious why it's referred to as "bonsai" though. maybe since they survive but are stunted with less sun?

the first version of this one that i moved is going strong but seems far less happy than in its original location. oops.

Joe, can you show a picture? IPhone quality will do.

Greetz

GP

sure, attached. i just took this from the top down, it stands 6ft tall and nearly that wide.

considering i pulled (or thought i did) that plant approximately 6 months ago, i'm really impressed with it. seems determined to be there so i'll work around it.

the people i talked to called it bonsai, so i asked them to write it in thai just to make sure i wasn't misunderstanding anything and it is what it is.

hey can someone please tell me an english name for the large, green broad leaf plant that the thai's call "bonsai"?

no, it has nothing to do with what we call bonsai. i've got an absolutely beautiful specimen in my yard that showed up by accident, or providence i suppose as the birds must have dropped it into my garden. when it first showed up, i wanted to keep it but not where it had started growing, so i pulled it and placed it elsewhere. not only has it grown back in the same exact spot but it's come back large and in charge. i'd like to know what it's called!

hey jimmy i just got done looking through your album to see if i could spot, and hopefully name, a couple of plants in my yard.

i will try to get a couple of photos but i only ever use my iphone so quality is an issue.

i'm really perplexed about a bush growing around my yard. it was obviously planted there specifically but never taken care of so it's quite pathetic really, nothing much to look at but it has the most intoxicatingly wonderful fragrance that only happens at night but it's not a night blooming jasmine. it's more like an abelia based only on the flowers but i used to live in an area overgrown with honeysuckle and they are fragrant all day. 5 of these neglected bushes planted around my houses are enough to perfume my entire large (by local standards) yard. interestingly enough, there probably aren't even 8 or 10 flowers on any of the bushes, one bush in particular isn't even flowering. i want to start paying them some attention because they are amazingly fragrant. love it. comparing photos online and the plants in my yard are absolutely pathetic. less than 10 flowers on the entire bush whereas an abelia can and should have dozens if not hundreds of flowers.

it's an evergreen, one "bush" is barely over a foot tall and i've got another at 7 or 8 ft tall. each bush is at least 5 years old. since they've been there for longer than i have i can't really change the soil but i'd like to start giving them some attention to encourage more of it. i think they are pathetic now due to the land owners "management" style. for the first year i lived there, he would basically come to the house once every 6 months and scalp/hard prune literally everything, even the grass. nothing would survive this guy. i asked him not to come back anymore and all living things are much happier now.

Yeah Iphone and Ipad images do not look good on the "big screen" another reason I got rid of my Ipad...

This plant sounds like the one Thai's love to use as a hedge... not quite the the same as Abelia, but some what close... I actually don't like it, or its sickly smell (to me... but then too I don't like the smell of Gardenias, which most people seem to love ) The leaves look a bit like privet, flowers smaller than what I remember Abelia flowers were like...

It could be Wrightia religosa, just glancing through my book,(Plants for Landscape Architectural Uses in Thailand) but then too it could be Murraya paniculata??? No Thai neighbours around at moment to verify... but I just took a picture of what I think it might be.... not many flowers at the moment. I will try to post image when I have a bit more time.... But you can try too!

Sounds like you need a fertilizer program to get your plants up to snuff!

Now back to sorting pictures for the TV calender.... which is what I started doing ... no more interruptions please!

Here is a close up picture of what I think is Wrightia ... the plants are not looking so good, as they have not been sheared or fertilized!

Wrightia Flower Pic here....

yep that's the one for sure. the land owner here is a puzzle, he had this place landscaped when he built these houses, including those wrightia religiosa, bananas, coconuts, ferns and a number of other things but he refused to tend to anything. unless by tending you mean cut everything back to nothing and let nature sort it out. nothing was flowering or blooming, not the bougainvillias or wrightia or anything really. i asked him not to come back anymore because we don't even pay him the rent. we've only been in this house for 3 years now but we get loads of people stopping to take photos now.

tesco has those seeds, quite a few. not in the normal gardening aisle but on the far end, close to the helmets and water pumps.

they probably had at least 10 packets of sweet basil seeds. not sure i'd count on any good germination rates from seed sold like that but it is what it is.

That must be some pretty desperate robbers to try to take the Centara on in Chaweng. I wonder if this could be the beginning of a robbery wave, not only on Samui but around Thailand with many desperate people after the floods. People who possibly lost everything already and have nothing else to lose.

i don't know any of the details, but i do like to speculate haha.

"big" robberies, large institutions, casinos etc obviously require some planning and thought to execute and escape. much less likely to be someone down on their luck from the floods than an inside job by someone who knew the cash pick up schedule. just my two satang.

have pre-ordered a 30 fill helium tank via the link rooo found. deliveries aren't going out until father's day, with a two day delivery here to samui. the man on the phone just laughed when my gf asked him to make sure it was here before christmas. "suuuuuuuuure"

1,800thb , thanks everyone for the help.

hey jimmy i just got done looking through your album to see if i could spot, and hopefully name, a couple of plants in my yard.

i will try to get a couple of photos but i only ever use my iphone so quality is an issue.

i'm really perplexed about a bush growing around my yard. it was obviously planted there specifically but never taken care of so it's quite pathetic really, nothing much to look at but it has the most intoxicatingly wonderful fragrance that only happens at night but it's not a night blooming jasmine. it's more like an abelia based only on the flowers but i used to live in an area overgrown with honeysuckle and they are fragrant all day. 5 of these neglected bushes planted around my houses are enough to perfume my entire large (by local standards) yard. interestingly enough, there probably aren't even 8 or 10 flowers on any of the bushes, one bush in particular isn't even flowering. i want to start paying them some attention because they are amazingly fragrant. love it. comparing photos online and the plants in my yard are absolutely pathetic. less than 10 flowers on the entire bush whereas an abelia can and should have dozens if not hundreds of flowers.

it's an evergreen, one "bush" is barely over a foot tall and i've got another at 7 or 8 ft tall. each bush is at least 5 years old. since they've been there for longer than i have i can't really change the soil but i'd like to start giving them some attention to encourage more of it. i think they are pathetic now due to the land owners "management" style. for the first year i lived there, he would basically come to the house once every 6 months and scalp/hard prune literally everything, even the grass. nothing would survive this guy. i asked him not to come back anymore and all living things are much happier now.

Yeah Iphone and Ipad images do not look good on the "big screen" another reason I got rid of my Ipad...

This plant sounds like the one Thai's love to use as a hedge... not quite the the same as Abelia, but some what close... I actually don't like it, or its sickly smell (to me... but then too I don't like the smell of Gardenias, which most people seem to love ) The leaves look a bit like privet, flowers smaller than what I remember Abelia flowers were like...

It could be Wrightia religosa, just glancing through my book,(Plants for Landscape Architectural Uses in Thailand) but then too it could be Murraya paniculata??? No Thai neighbours around at moment to verify... but I just took a picture of what I think it might be.... not many flowers at the moment. I will try to post image when I have a bit more time.... But you can try too!

Sounds like you need a fertilizer program to get your plants up to snuff!

Now back to sorting pictures for the TV calender.... which is what I started doing ... no more interruptions please!

JIMMY!!!!!!!!

nailed it on the first guess! it is wrightia religiosa for sure!

this one was definitely throwing me for a loop. so many similarities to both night blooming jasmine and abelia's. i will buy you a cold beer sometime, you saved me quite a bit of googling tonight haha.

had no idea it was as common as the link states, can't remember ever smelling this fragrance here in nearly 6 years now. thanks jimmy!

hang on, I bet I know what it is, Cestrum Nocturnum, Lady of the Night, or Night Blooming Jasmine, Ratree in Thai:

http://en.wikipedia....strum_nocturnum

thanks sbk but that's not it. i named my daughter after that plant. love it.

the flowers and leaves are different. the reason i suggested it as an option was due to the fragrance in this plant only coming out at night. i will see if i can get a decent photo in another hour or so when it starts kicking in.

it's confusing me because i think it's a type of abelia but it's not fragrant during the day.

as for the fragrance, i would try to describe it as peppery, like a black pepper but a mildly sweet, sensual black pepper. not a sneezing obnoxious black pepper. love it. even my kids have been sitting out on the porch in the evenings to take it in. wonderful stuff. not quite as nice as night blooming jasmine however.

hey jimmy i just got done looking through your album to see if i could spot, and hopefully name, a couple of plants in my yard.

i will try to get a couple of photos but i only ever use my iphone so quality is an issue.

i'm really perplexed about a bush growing around my yard. it was obviously planted there specifically but never taken care of so it's quite pathetic really, nothing much to look at but it has the most intoxicatingly wonderful fragrance that only happens at night but it's not a night blooming jasmine. it's more like an abelia based only on the flowers but i used to live in an area overgrown with honeysuckle and they are fragrant all day. 5 of these neglected bushes planted around my houses are enough to perfume my entire large (by local standards) yard. interestingly enough, there probably aren't even 8 or 10 flowers on any of the bushes, one bush in particular isn't even flowering. i want to start paying them some attention because they are amazingly fragrant. love it. comparing photos online and the plants in my yard are absolutely pathetic. less than 10 flowers on the entire bush whereas an abelia can and should have dozens if not hundreds of flowers.

it's an evergreen, one "bush" is barely over a foot tall and i've got another at 7 or 8 ft tall. each bush is at least 5 years old. since they've been there for longer than i have i can't really change the soil but i'd like to start giving them some attention to encourage more of it. i think they are pathetic now due to the land owners "management" style. for the first year i lived there, he would basically come to the house once every 6 months and scalp/hard prune literally everything, even the grass. nothing would survive this guy. i asked him not to come back anymore and all living things are much happier now.

Ok , try this it's for Air Swimmers,you might have more luck there.

http://www.facebook....hailand?sk=wall

thanks rooo!

the balloons i have bought for the kids are, in fact, air swimmers. i will not be denied my helium!

Contact these guys: http://www.th.airliq...s-products.html

email sent, thanks for the link.

no luck there either. pretty curt email response really, straight and to the point " Thank you for your interest in the company. We can not deliver helium gas to you. "