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David recently moved to Thailand, where is is having to cope with less garden space, and a huge new array of plants from this South East Asian Paradise! |
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The latest addition to my small garden here in Thailand, is a coconut palm tree. A little bit of an exaggeration, for as yet, it is simply a couple of leaves that have emerged from a coconut that we found - washed up on the sandy shore of a coral island, recently visited. It is looking a bit sorry for itself at the moment, as it has spent a forgotten two weeks in a storage cupboard where I hid it in order to stop the neighbour's cat from peeing on it! More of the coconut later. My garden is essentially small, for it is a container garden. A collection of plants basically. At the moment I rent a small house in Pattaya, Thailand, with no actual 'soil' garden. Just a tile-covered courtyard. I will be moving sometime in the near future to a house with a 'proper' garden I hope. For the time being though, I have to bear in mind that any plants I collect, will have to be transported. Needles to say, most of them will stay in their original posts until the move. Most of my working life was spent in the UK as a landscaper - building gardens that ranged in size from large patio-based areas to country estates. A mere 'collection' of plants that form my small garden is taking a bit of getting used to!
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What really takes a lot of getting used to, is the fact that I am surrounded by plants - in the wild and in markets - that I do not intimately know. Some, I can ascertain the family by means of botanical details, but have been constantly surprised at the huge range of plants available. Much of the garden consists of plants that I formerly knew of as 'house-plants' in the UK. And of course, everywhere in Thailand, such houseplants are used to great effect in parks, gardens and road-side plantings. The plot is adorned by a small collection of orchids. These have generally been collected by Jeap, my friend, who arrives to help me with my work each morning - often with a plant in basket of motorbike! Fortunately, we have similar tastes in plants. Jeap recently arrived with a magnificent orchid specimen; deeply scented in the mornings; Image number 6 below. A member of the Cattleya orchid group Watering of the 'plot' is not the problem that it might seem. We have quite a high humidity content to the air here, and that helps. So this is a great boon in managing to grow quite large plants in small pots. Many of the plants - especially the orchids - are also epiphytes (which is to sat that they get most of their food/moisture requirements from the atmosphere!). I was rather surprised to find that a plant which I have always grown in the traditional pot and compost way in UK - Medinilla magnifica - is actually an epiphyte from the rain forests of Asia. At the moment, it is in pot with chopped coconut husk, so no food available to speak of. I will try to keep it that way and see what happens. Coloured foliage is used extensively in public plantings here in Thailand gardens - public and private. As you can see from my smallest garden picture, I am also a fan of foliage colours.
This last Sunday - 19th July 2009 - I wandered to the local flower and plant market in Pattaya, on small motorbike with wire basket carrier. On offer are plants ranging from the smallest orchid through to mature palm trees. So, restricted by the fact that I had to drive said motorbike, I hunted for some small choice specimens. I was not disappointed. I found the smallest of orchids, wired to a piece of wood and already with supporting roots clinging to its home. I also managed to get a Stag's Horn Fern. Nothing unique about that I hear you say. Ah, the price was 100 Baht - about £1.75! A brightly coloured cluster of epiphytic air plants; the Medinilla mentioned earlier; A shrub with white flowers - yet to be named, and a large Morning Glory Vine - Ipomoea tricolor. All carefully wrapped in old editions of the Bankok Times, and suitable large carrier bags, the fun part was getting them back home on the bike! Monday morning saw looks of approval from Jeap - I had managed to negotiate good prices in spite of being a foreigner - but with the suggestion that perhaps I should not now buy any further plants, for space was now at a premium. Jeap turned up on Tuesday morning with yet another glorious orchid!
Oh - and by the way - we have just
started our own dragon fruit farm! Well, at least we have 6 cuttings
to root. But, more of that later.
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