Croton tour at FLAMINGO GARDENS (OUTSTANDING)

Special thanks to Mike for his work, Stan for just being Stan, the Garden for allowing us to meet there and everyone for coming out. Jeff and his little helper(Ron) for another great auction. We have the best non-group that anyone could ever hope to be a part of, maybe someday we can pay dues to someone and have those great newsletters again. Top left Milky Way. Top right Pam Kiefert bottomQuirko

 

As a newcomer to the group, I would like to thank everyone involved with this meeting of the minds and shared passion for crotons. I felt so welcomed by everyone there, and it is a great reflection on the (non)group as a whole. What an amazing place Flamingo Gardens is, and Stan, well, that is another chapter. What a great day! I look forward to keeping contact with all members, representing a wide part of the state. Hopefully I'll have some of my own air layers for the next auction. Jeff, I'll send you your cut for the auctioning later. That was 10%, right?

 

As another newcomer I want to echo Tim's (kwtimo's) thanks for those who made the meeting possible (Mike, Jeff, Ron, Stan and perhaps others), and restate how great it was to meet all of you. What a great, fun, and welcoming group of people! Thanks for making my weekend so interesting and wonderful. I also want to thank those who gifted me crotons (Lamar, Ron, and Jeff), and those who grew the beautiful crotons I won at the auction. I am so happy with my new plants and can't wait to make them part of my garden. I feel I learned a lot from you this weekend and hope to continue my croton knowledge on this forum and future meetings. Thanks all!

Ana

 

Yesterday was GREAT! Mike, thanks so much for planning everything. Can't believe you did that while moving your household. Please convey our appreciation to Stan for the tour and the use of the garden. I hope he'll continue to be associated with the group. Jeff and Ron, you conduct a great auction. It's like watching a comedy show.

It was good to meet the newcomers and to catch up with those coming from around the state. Can't wait for the next tour at the Glocks.

 

Wow! What a great day I had yesterday as well. And for several reasons. For starters, I want to thank several of those that came, especially the ones that drove such long distances. Anna, Tim, Phil, Keith, Perry and the Glocks. Mike, a big thanks for organizing this and to Stan for spending time with us, (I'm sure on his day off). Flamingo Gardens is a beautiful garden and I've had the pleasure of making many,many visits over the last 25 years. When you think about all the extensive plant collections there and the many State and National Champion trees found there, it's pretty overwhelming. And I must admit, I throughly enjoyed the auction too. With the "sisters" down in front and Lamar constantly handing me more and more money, it seemed like he was going home with more crotons than he bought. Lamar......you truly made my job fun! Look forward to the Glocks garden later in the fall.
Jeff

 

It sure was a great day.The weather was perfect and the garden was in good shape.Lots of furious bidding on many varieties, ,Lamar would be great at a poker table as he would be considered an action player!!Thanks to all that showed up ,this week has been a blur but it was a nice way to end a hectic week.

 

some of yesterday's eye candy...

 

Looking forward to a meeting at the Glocks

Maybe after that Lamar & Mike would consider extending some Plantation hospitality.

 

Mike - thanks for organizing such a fantastic croton gathering at Flamingo Gardens. We really enjoyed the tour of the garden and hope to visit there again to see the areas we missed. It was gracious of Stan to tour us around and give the history of garden. It's always great to see a part of "old Florida," and the beautiful crotons in the garden. The crotons around Stan's place are breath-taking! How do we convince him to show up at our auctions in the future with air layers in hand? Jeff and Ron, you guys are awesome for taking care of the auction and entertainment! Thanks to all who brought such wonderful plants to add to our collections. It is so exciting to bring home new additions. I will say DITTO to all those who are looking forward to visiting the Glocks this fall on the west coast, and thank them both for being willing to host a tour. It was especially nice to meet the newcomers - Welcome aboard!

 

A Plantation tour sounds great for next April as my plants will all be going into the ground over the next 2-3 months or so.They should be in nice shape with a year of growth under their belt.The soil in this area looks really good.No stones at all and very little sand.

 

Well that gives me about 11months to get lots of name tags done. Does anyone know a telephone employee, I need some two par wire. I am all in Mike.

 

Lamar,
If that's the telephone wire that's coated in many different colors, we can give you some.
Marie

 

That's very generous of Marie to offer you some, but I'm afraid it won't never "be enough". Lol! I highly recommend buying the small boxes of aluminum tags that you can indent the names on. but the thin little pieces of wire that comes with them is pretty thin and don't use them. I bought my roll of two strand telephone wire on a roll from Home Depot many years and probably gone through about 90% of it now. And...I thought for sure that this would last forever!

Anyways, try HD, but I love using this wire and have never had a tag come off.

 

Thank you to all that put this day together. And great group of people to spend the day with. I brought 8 pots to the event & came home with 6. Success!


I buy the metal tags on line. Great tags, but yeah the wire dissolves after a few years. Impressotags

 

A big THANK YOU to all who organized this tour. Jjust got the new ones in the ground before the afternoon rains come today. looking forward to the next one.

 

Thank you Marie, I took Jeff's advice and went to The Depot, and yes they were glad to sell me 100ft. Now the work begins,you can come direct me anytime you wish.(just kiddin not really)

 

Judy and Pam posing with Pam Kiefert

 

The early arrivals. Many interesting plants already cued up on the auction tables. Hmmmm, those brown bags have me curious. They were "wisked" away a few minutes later, the contents never revealed ...

 

Jim Glock showing off his best side, LOL

 

Wow - the crotons kept coming and coming. Tables are getting loaded. What a great venue for the auction. Mike this was a great idea you came up with !!!

 

Oh my, a little croton fondling action ...

 

JC and Keith off to the side. Perhaps some covert trading negotiations underway ???

 

The Orange Mona Lisa

 

Crotons and Mangos - oh so yummy. Anybody eaten theirs yet?

 

Pam has settled in to her new digs. Her request for a room with a view and the nonsmoking area was honored.

 

Jose primping this huge beauty (Polychrome?) for the auction.

 

Ooh - is that the Prince of Orange ?

 

This croton attracted alot of attention. Some serious bidding action at the auction resulted. The Milky Way

 

Moose - the mangos are delicious!

 

What are the differences between Milky Way and Superstar?

 

$$$

 

My roommate can't keep his hands off my mangos! Wait a minute, that sounds kind of funny... I mean Moose's mangos. Delish!

 

Milky Way has cream colored spots and different leaf shape. One look at the real plant and differences are obvious (not to mention price, availability, rarity, etc....) - and since it is from Hawaii, its cold tolerance at least for us on west coast is suspect.

 

Milky Way has cream colored spots and different leaf shape. One look at the real plant and differences are obvious (not to mention price, availability, rarity, etc....) - and since it is from Hawaii, its cold tolerance at least for us on west coast is suspect.

 

I don't think Milky Way is from Hawaii - at least we've never seen it there. I think Jeff Searle got his plant from Pinecrest Gardens and mine came from Tim Anderson so it at least has South Florida cold tolerance.

 

My Superstar has cream color spots. Can not tell the leaf shape from the pics of M.W.

​

 

Hi Scott, couple of pics. ofMarie's plant from the tour auction.(it has only been here a week hard to call it mine). The second is a hope for I D help from the group 3.5 / 9.5 starts green goes thru great color ends very dark green/black.

 

Lamar. Thanks for posting the pictures of Milky Way in perspective. I can see the difference now.

 

Marie - thanks for the correction on Milky Way. and glad you mentioned Pinecrest Gardens which I'd never heard of and only to discover it's right close to Fairchild! ..and only $3 admission . Worth a stop whenever I'm over there again. Many crotons there?

 

There are many old cultivars at Pinecrest Gardens. They are leftover from the old Parrot Jungle days. Last time I was there you could walk right in without an admission but it's been a few years. It will likely be part of the 2014 IPS Biennial.