Calathea burle-marxii

Calathea burle-marxii is a particular favorite of mine. The species is one of numerous that were named after Brazilian  landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909 – June 4, 1994).
There are three cultivars of Calathea burle-marxii: "Blue-Ice", "Green-Ice" and "White Ice".

Calathea burle-marxii "Blue-Ice" at Alafua, Samoa 2013

Calathea burle-marxii belongs to the Plant Family: Marantaceae also known as the Arrowroot family and the Prayer Plant family for the way the leaves of the plants in this family move up in the evenings and during the night as if in an attitude of prayer. This is not that noticeable in some members of the family but in Calathea crotalifera (Rattlesnake plant) it is very marked as the leaves move more than a hundred degrees to an almost upright position.

Calathea burle-marxii "Blue-Ice" at Alafua, Samoa 2013

 In Samoa I had several specimens of Blue-ice and Green-ice which I had acquired from Tanumalala, Lefaga and nursed along carefully until they became established and started sending up suckers which I then carefully harvested and replanted elsewhere.

Calathea burle-marxii "Blue-Ice" at Alafua, Samoa 2013

 Basically they like shaded and semi shaded spots where the soil remains moist or does not get dried up for too long. It is a good understory plant. The main issue I found was that you cannot let the soil dry out but it does not like waterlogged soils either. I found that a good friable soil with lots of mulching kept it quite happy both in the ground or in a large pot ... and when I say big I mean enormous. You need to give it room to grow as it will start sending up suckers once it becomes established.

Calathea burle-marxii "Blue-Ice" at Alafua, Samoa 2013

 The one big enemy to these aside from too much sun and getting dried out are dogs. Or more specifically dogs that like to dig up gardens or like running and gamboling like the crazy creatures that they can be. It is a soft stemmed plant and easily knocked over even by a dog that likes to take short cuts through plants like ours did. I ended up putting up some posts and chicken wire to block off the whole section that the dog was going through. I caught her on her way back afterwards and the look of surprise and confusion on her face when she came to the fence was worth almost as much as knowing that she would not be using that shortcut again.

Calathea burle-marxii "Green-Ice" at Alafua, Samoa 2013

Above you can see one lot of Calathea burle-marxii "Green Ice". They are in one huge pot under a lemon tree. We get so many lemons that there are often lots of over ripe ones falling down. I put all of these into the pot which means that I also had the occasional lemon seedlings.

Calathea burle-marxii "Blue-Ice" at Alafua, Samoa 2013

 I initially planted some Calathea burle-marxii "Blue ice" under the overhang in a corner by an outside tap thinking that would make it easier to ensure they got water. But first I had to deal with both chickens and dogs. the first liked to dig up the soil to look for worms and the second to make a nice soft sleeping place regardless of the plants. So I found some old bricks and put them around to dissuade these pests. It worked but the area was too dry since we have a large overhand (about 6 feet) which makes the house dry even during cyclones but not ideal for growing plants that require moisture. I ended moving these to a much better location.

Calathea burle-marxii "Green-Ice" at Alafua, Samoa 2013

 Above you can see the large pot I used for the Calathea burle-marxii. The rectangular blue container was a cracked container I found after the cyclone (down in the stream that runs along one part of the property) and was using as a nursery for some Heliconia psittacorum I had gotten also from Tanumalala and wanted to regain their strength and develop some nice healthy roots before transplanting them to their final location.

Calathea burle-marxii "Green-Ice" at Alafua, Samoa 2013

order Zingiberalesincludes the following families:

family Cannaceae

family Costaceae

family Heliconiaceae

family Lowiaceae

family Marantaceae

family Musaceae

family Strelitziaceae

family Zingiberaceae

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Checking up on Torch Gingers

Went by Malifa yesterday to check up on the plants, water them and see how things were going.
The Torch Ginger's (Etlingera elatior) at the back overlooking the river. Well ok ... we call it a river in Samoa but in reality its a creek that runs dry during the dry season.

Anyway the Torch Ginger was doing ok. There was only one flower in its early stages. There were also quite a few suckers that could easily be removed for transplanting. I will do that when renovations at the house at Alafua are complete and I move there. They will require careful watering after transplanting. The only way I can be sure that this will happen is if I am there to do it. I will be transplanting a whole bunch of other plants there too including some blue irises.

The yellow rattlesnake plants (Calathea crotalifera) I planted next to the water tank have really grown alot in a year and need to be thinned out. The only problem is that doing this is not that easy because the soil there is very rocky and digging them out and cutting the rizhomes loose is hard and frustrating work.

Last time I took some I ended up pretty much destroying half of what I cut loose. I planted some between us and the neighbours to create a barrier against their dogs and two of the 5 plants that I planted took. The others kept getting uprooted by the dogs. Here are the two survivors.

Unfortunately my sister did some "cleaning up" along the boarder between us and the neighbours mainly to get rid of the annoying fue that grows over everything and as usual ... cleared other things as well. Typical Samoan style clearing as in cut everything down INCLUDING the two plants that had survived and were begining to grow quite well. They grow close together and very thickly and would have eventually developed into an inpenetratable barrier against the dogs. Now ... well ... I dont know. The roots are still in the ground at least so hopefully they will recover and send up shoots.
Here is a before picture I took a few days before to show how well they had recovered and were growing.

An interesting fact about these plants is that they are part of the Marantaceae or arrowroot family which is also known as the prayer plant family. the reason for this name is that in the evening their leaves fold up as if in prayer. Then in the morning they spread open again. These are not the bright yellow I have seen elsewhere. I have one small clump of brownish ones which I planted far far away because it appears to have some sort of leave infestation which has not cleared up.

Another plant that has had set back due to people indicrimitaley chopping them down or cutting back their leaves are the giant helliconias on one side of the property.

I think these are Helliconia caribaea "Jaqcuini". Well I think it is Helliconia caribaea Jaqcuini it looks alot like this one which that say is Helliconia caribaea Jaqcuini. There is also of stand of pale yellow ones.
What I find frustrating is that no matter how often I explain to some people that you need to just let the plants grow and that if you keep "trimming" them they will not flower. Also I planted them to act as a screen / barrier and provide shade. Once they attain their full growth then the will provide shade and still let breezes through which will be cooled by the shade. Geeze its simple physics ok thermodynamics but still ... I don't understand why it is so complicated for anyone. All you need to do is take note the difference between a breeze that flows through a well shaded area and one that does not pass through any shade.
It never ceases to amaze me that when its blazing hot and people are outside they gravitate to shade trees and YET even though they have used those shade trees they will still go ahead and chop them down or "prune" them within an inch of their lives and then complain  about how hot it is.
Sorry tree killers are one of my major sources of headaches.

Anyway some Zephyranthes that were transplanted a month or so ago have obviously recovered and are growing well. You can see them at the bottom right. An earlier group in the centre just before  the purple grown orchids have been happliy multiplying and flower every now and them. When the whole lot flower it looks fantastic. these are the pink ones which grow the best being resistant to African Snails (Achatina fulica) and grow well by dividing as well as seed.

I have some white ones which only grow by dividind and slowly at that. Very very slowly although I am planning on some experiments with different soils to see if that has any effect. I'd say the pink zepheranthes multiply 4-5 times faster. As for the yellow ones ... well I'm nursing the few I have along hoping to get more. Of course the fact that the African Snails so obviously love them is a problem that I am going to have to resolve.