NOT GOING AROUND THE BUSHES

I HAD A DREAM! Somejuat strange. I was listening to some medium age lady tell the story about what a rip off was the cost of some silk flowers or ear rings she had bought.

Your humbleness responded that people would never say something similar regarding doctors, mechanics surely, but not doctors.  Periodontists are the WORST. I have never met an honest periodontist. They all think your mouth is a gold or diamond mind to dig into.

My last experience included a badly infected tooth. The yellow belly scumbag periodontist in Auxilio Mutuo, was talking about a root canal while doing a gum treatment for five hundred bucks.  No mentioning of the painful, swollen, infected, tooth I had to go somewhere else to have extracted.

All periodontists, no matter if Chines or Hebrew or islanders behave like land prospectors, pawn shops proprietors. They will rip you off with a friendly smile.

What is the big deal? Well in the dream, one guy interrupted the dialogue or collective monologue to declare that in no such
way of speak was permitted.  I thought that he meant something else and inquired until I understood the message.


What he meant was that my discourse about doctors being scam artists overpaid like many other professionals could start intense  arguments on the premises if other customers expressed with similar blunt/abrasive register his/her opinion. I agreed, glad to have understood. I was not a gag order, but advice regarding unwanted possibilities.


This dream has brought memories about the blog and life in general. My register is unpalatable for many readers. But put it in context. I am not looking for friends, my country has been destroyed by avaricious politicians, ministers, attorneys, architects, government officials, engineers, preachers and all the accomplices you  may add.


My anger has some immediacy that you reader in BIG countries may have never felt. If something goes wrong here you could move there. I have no place to go even If I would not mind Canarias, Australia, Colombia or New Zealand.


Therefore my tone. Living amidst people with remedial and special education personality traits is not easy. For these reasons I will always cut the chase and will not go around the bushes under any circumstance. You dear reader do not have to agree, but have an argument either way. That will suffice.

that is that

Roberto Delgado and His Orchestra - Amapola

THREE AMAPOLAS

What do you know...This clip was chosen among the following: Jimmy Dorsey, I prefer the music of his brother,
Lecuona Cuban Boys, Ennio Morricone, Benny Goodman the second best, and the film version used in Once Upon a Time in America, a story of betrayal,  one of the best ten films ever from Hollywood in color, not colored,  in your humbleness opinion. Placido Domingo was considered, but I prefer Franco Corelli or even better Jussi Bjorling.

At any rate amapolas are two different things if you live in Europe/Asia or America to name two. The most profitable flower in the world, Papaver rhoeas, in addition of creating many addicts used to deal with pain, causing thousands of deaths for its manufacture, packing, distribution and selling   since it is one of the varieties used to manufacture OPIUM and other drugs like heroin.

On the other hand, amapolas, for most people in America is/are Hibiscus, if I am mistaken, feel free to throw the first stone.

So there. When you listen to the tune, AMAPOLA, no matter if the instrumental, operatic voices, tropical music or the one in the clip, an orchestra known in their house...What do you think off: Hibiscus/Papaver, both, none or one of the two. 


The clip was chosen for botanical correctness. It  shows both species even if the composer, Joseph La Calle, Spanish, was inspired by one of the two. Papaver. This shows Roberto's cultural sophistication if you ask me. The music is secondary since this is a blog about horticulture....most of the time.

That is that. 

EDITORS NOTE

Do not worry about a thing. I do not intend to use 

a video clip as other bloggers with nothing to say/write do, when bored and lame on TOP.

It will be within the context of the garden, horticulture and perception. The way it should be unless one is just into music.

EDITORS NOTE

The BOURET HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
logo, is courtesy of Tito Collazo,
graphic artist, friend and neighbor. Thanks!

.

A MUSICAL BOTANICAL POST

FROM THE START,  I have suggested the use of botanicals to avoid confusion and time waste when researching. I will present two more examples, since some readers seem to enjoy the mode.

It does not matter where you live, some plants have names used  in distant or close by countries having nothing to do with the ones familiar to in your neck of the woods

Aleli or Alheli is one example. The second spelling is suspiciously Arabic, but you, please research that, The issue is simple. If you search under either one, in most cases 8-9 out of ten the result is Cheiranthus cheiri, not Plumeria alba..


The big classical deal? Well, in our investigation or musical case, your Phillip Marlowe, or humble servant  declares that this tune
Capullito de Aleli, composed by a black fellow, Rafael Hernandez, from Aguadilla City in the concrete/asphalt, one of the great composers along  Agustin Lara, Ernesto Lecuona and many others may have been inspired by Plumerias and not Cheiranthus when he wrote this immaculate melody. Why? I have never seen the others or virtual impostors with a similar name. Besides, even if in doubt, the beauty and fragrance ot its flowers, will leave no choice.


Not all is peaches and cream with Plumerias. There is one ugly ducking in the family with the best looking flowers and worst architecture: Plumeria pudica. I do not like the leaves either, but some people in Puerto Rico enjoy them.


Now, Nat King Cole, a oddity when you put together two plus two in the historical cultural trends of USA. A black fellow not handsome like Harry Belafonte (no I am not gay), a television star, one of the greatest of during the Jim Crow years, as brutal as the Apartheid Era, was probably the FIRST cross over STAR ever.


If anyone thinks Nat King Cole was a spectacular singer, with an original voice technique, in either Spanish or English, take some time to watch him at the piano in a trio/quartet setting playing some hot, cool, swinging jazz.


I warn fans and foes, there are a few more examples regarding the subject. There is no other way to treat this wonderful theme. Music, botanical names, cultural bio-diversity and nomenclature...Buahaja thinks I of the foolish architect in el museo de arte, when in a futile attempt to be cool quoted Shakespeare, A rose is a rose or some similar crap. FIN.

that is that

apaga i vamonoh.

A WORD

FROM THE EDITOR

I chose this clip for two reasons, the first is Nat King Cole,

the second is Havana/Habana. The San Juan metro zone,

 looks dilapidated like that wonderful city. Day by day, it is getting closer to it and expanding its territory, fungi like.

Perhaps, they may think, Puerto Rico could compete to attract  the tourism that may enjoy the abandoned cemetery quality 

of some/many streets and barrios in that city.

Nat King Cole - Cuba and Capullito de Aleli

3 GARDENIIAS

THE TRUTH is THAT I have 3 Gardenias for all, one in the north garden at home and the two mentioned in this clip from Buena Vista Social Club. The recording is one of the best in Cuban musical history, ever. Ibrahim Ferrer, Compay Segundo and Ruben Gonzalez all RIP, were part of the impressive orchestra put together by the genius Ry Cooder, a USA virtuoso guitar player USA capable of handling flamenco, Tex/Mex, blues, country, reggae and singing, you name it with ease...

Gardenias are originally from China and Japan. Mine in the north garden, are not two years old and already blooming. It was a cut stem rooted in water, a present from Rengui. This shrub, along with Plumerias, Jasminun multiflorum,  Mirabilis siciliana, and Pedilanthus tuberose are perhaps the most captivating fragrances in me garden, not forgetting Passifloras, Durantas, Citrus aurantifolia, Proiphys amboinensis, Jasminum undulatum, Eucharia amazonica and Bauhinias. To watch them Gardenias blooming for the first time, to feel that essence, is a not a common occurrence gardening wise and  a wonderful experience with a relative short waiting period.  Rather unique in my concrete/asphalted reality.


 

2011 has been a fortunate year in this regard. Seven years for Guaiacum officinale,  and six for  Ochna mosssabicensis. These two are also in that VIV (Very Important Vegetation) group of first time ever bloomers. 

That is that.

  Apagad e idos

DIVA'S 77 BIRTHDAY

What can I say, but to wish my best and constant gardening friend for such a long time than a Japi Belday?

I remember our early morning trips to El Morro, circa 2003. The ultimate happiness in her face, when the leash was removed, taking off with the speed and grace of a thoroughbred.


The fear among some people at short haired dogs with such features. Unknown to them, her good character, friendliness and a permanent desire to play and enjoy life.

Now we are both getting old, the speed is not the same, nor is the stamina. However, the character and good will remains.

Happy Birthday Diva Ines!.

POTPOURRI POST

IT IS A REAL trip to read so many inane blogs over here and/or over there. They all deal with the same issues, the majority from the news media, yet all pretend, make believe, believe themselves to be original, cute, wise, with a pathetic lame result.

ONE of these, perhaps classical in that fashion, states without any shame: '' To die blogging is to live forever". Palabras con luz demos gracias a Dios. However he, a bilingual from the far west and former PR emigre added insult to the originality to the first quote adding: ''This blog feeds from/with your comments".


If I had waited to feed from comments in my nine/ten blogs, past and present during the last five swell years, I would be bulimic/anorexic or dead. Comments are comments. Some are bright, to the point in question. Most are ramblings of a few who want to leave their tag as in graffiti on a wall, without any significant argument reflecting any understanding regarding whatever it is I have stated and not worthy a hogs fart.  No valen un peo de puerca in Cervantes'. Cabrones.


But is not so simple. Register and education, social status/education/political ideas/profession/religion and personal agendas manifest themselves in every comment. Some choose from the whole scheme of ideas/concepts expressed/denounced in my Pulitzer quality exposes to pin point the paragraph of their interest. And that is that.


Some commentators come and go with a life cycle of fungi. Every time they find something offending their beliefs written in stone, they abandoned ship. Good riddance states I.

Horticulture, agriculture and related branches, have kept humanity alive and kicking. Some, those with water and intelligent irrigation systems have kicked the balls harder than the others, those without. In consequence, talent is what it is.

I have some. Others seem to be short, scarce on it. Always with the same tune. Me mind moves, wave like, ocean and sound, never satisfied, always expecting some worthy of merit opposition. Nevertheless, one thing is clear...I have to reiterate, what matter is flora and fauna, the collection, the environment, no one is indispensable. 


Too many blogs become some chit chat like call and response, repugnant to my eyes, without any transcendental proposal . I read every comment. I appreciate four out of ten, for that reason, I am not in the fad of answering every other foolish tag.  You know what you know and vice versa, without any kind of reinforcement.


If you have noticed, NO JUAN has cojones to discuss comments in their blogs or in general. I got some. Thanks for reading. Leave a comment or not. I will keep on trucking. Gabriel, not Peter came in a dream to dictate my vocation/vows: Set Trends, not more not less.

Dario Apagais la luiz....

FROM THE EDITOR

NO ONE HAS NOTICED THE

BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS,

WELL THEY ARE ALMOST  100 YEARS OLD, NOT MANY BLOGS GOT THEM.

THANKS TO TITO COLLAZO FOR THE SCANNING AND COLLABORATION.

this reminds me when people dropped by http://endemismotrasnochado.blogspot.com without bothering

to read a fucking sentence to babble: Nice pictures!

AMIDST SPECIAL NEEDS POPULATION WITH LOVE

YOU HAVE no idea how difficult is to realize one lives among mongrels without imagination, any sense of logic, without any hint of intelligent reasoning, and to be an outcast in return. The bastards in question, broke the wire I had placed in the gates of the abandoned house next door to hang out while it rained.

This construction company building our sidewalks,(me cago en la madre que los pario) 787-289-2787 AND 787-898-7507 are  scumbags. But considering this is a matter of national security WIKI like, you are invited to puertorrikenhadasinmostaza.blogspot.com where I will insult them riff raff without much consideration. People like this,  particularly, the engineer in charge, should be blown alkaeda like. Society will not be at a lost. Lazy trailer trash material without a trailer..


TO be continued

UPDATES ON SIDEWALKS, ARCHEOLOGY TERRACOTA AND KNOT GARDENS

I KNOW some fans and foes have wondered about your humbleness. Well, I have been totally absorbed by a couple of projects that have not only taken all my attention, but have also screwed up me neck for remaining more time than would have been reasonable in an awkward position painting me Sixtine Chapel on the the grounds of the west garden.

Tito Collazo found in front of his residence in the crevices sculpted thanks to the intense rain and the stupidity, laziness and lack of respect to the right of the citizens from the engineer and riff raff employers building the sidewalks.

On Friday they spend most of the morning loitering in the abandoned house next door, leaving plastic cups and even the empty plastic gallons the keep leaving in the front yard of  different houses in the vecinity. They went through the motions, hiding next door every time a little drizzle fell upon them, without any desire to finish the work or pouring the concrete as it was necessary. 


As a result of leaving the work unfinished, the intense rains  on Saturday, dragging sand and rocks all the way down to San Agustin street and Ponce de Leon avenue, leaving these gullies in front of four houses. The photos will show the damage to the four layers of asphalt in some areas, along with water meter pipes and roots exposed. There is no doubt, Puertoricans do it better.


In the south garden I am working an installation with terracota tiles, broken pots and a couple of  brick s found in the street, besides the rubble left by the sidewalk construction bums.

The bricks were found in Tito Collazo's archeological discoveries, and a couple of bottles from the early 1920's. I know because I have never seen any, not even in photos. None of these a big deal, but news somehow...Antigonum Cajan does not watch the news to report. We make the news. HaJa single bilingual laugh.


Finally, I am still waiting for some seeds offered from Abq. Apparently our hero there sent them in one of those cruise ships going around the world or the Wells Fargo Pony Express.


Almost forgot about knot gardens. As you know, one could plant vegetation using perspective to create  intricate visual effects, contrasting colors, textures and sizes as in geometry with intense maintenance and pruning. Your humbleness got the idea from a fine gardening magazine...applying the concept to concrete, creating a couple of knots in a six feet area.

SOON SOON 

the photos for all the above.

Now is time to go. 

Good luck to Titania, down under who is taking some rest from blogging.

ROBERTO SANCHEZ VILELLA THE LAST SIGNIFICANT PUERTORICAN

ODD TITLE, after all, my fans and foes may be thinking. Well, yesterday was Borders day. Puerto Rico has no use for libraries as you may know..Basketball courts, baseball parks, in every school, project, corner, even a building for that crap of chess, but no libraries. The one Mr. Carnegie donated could be seen dilapidated in my flickr link to your left.

Aniguai, forgive me for been so jumpy. I have two works in progress with the painting and laying some terracota tiles in the south garden. One for aesthetics and a more pragmatic use: Diva my eternal company is prone to dig holes for the hell of it. Now she will have to find another amusement.


The tittle is significant since I have no heroes and rarely mention any person alive or dead deserving my admiration. Roberto Sanchez Vilella is one of them, (perhaps the only one) at that level, former governor during, perhaps, one of the interesting periods of the concrete/asphalt isle in terms of the political relation with USA, development and economics.

All this thanks to a book by Celina Romany, 

La Verdadera

Historia de Roberto Sanchez Vilella

The history, the facts are narrated in a rare fiction like unusual flow in our letters, no matter if short story, essay or novel,  pushing the reader to keep on page after page.

The book is thirty bucks, the paper, cover, font, photos, are brilliant. During my visit to Borders, I concentrated on the affair with a black female attorney. Sanchez Vilella and his lover were married with children. Imagine the scandal!

However Munhoz Marin, the frog like cartoon some like to compare to great world figures, also married his lover.  A tradition of sorts, that your humbleness has never approved. Lovers are fun in the hiding, clandestine, once wives, is the same old story again...Not for yours truly.

Particularly in a racist culture, ferocious is the adjective used by this bright author to describe it, with a lengthy career dealing with women, workers and defending the rights of others. My selection of the topic discussed here does not reflect the whole at all. It is an important book, a solid reference.

Buy the book if you got the money.. I recommend it!

Back to the studio

My work in progress have kept me busy since painting is always a challenge in terms of improving color, texture, contrast and design  scheme. 

Installing the terracota tiles is also a work of challenge, effort and energy. I found these choosing thirty in the rubble left in the middle of the street by  the dirty, loud, riff raff, scumbags building the sidewalks...Check me post on that theme in puertorrikenhadasinmostaza, the sidewalk blues. 

that is that

apagad e idos

ME QUALITY OF LIFE DOWN THE DRAIN

A COUPLE  of days ago, me life took a sudden an abrupt downhill turn after the Krups expresso coffee machine passed away with the aid of ALTO GRANDE a local, 'gourmet' (expensive), not so hot brand.

The coffee grounds are so dense, the machine, almost a decade old, had difficulty to force the water through, blowing up as a figure of speech.

Now I have to use a stupid, shitty Greka to have coffee in the morning, a decades old habit, until a substitute is found.

Coffea arabica, of the Rubiaceae family and related to gardenias,  does not look or taste the same, lacking the rich bubbly foam possible from the heated vapor.

Puertoricans, ever with the inferiority complex due to our USA foster mother political relations, will tell any gullible nitwit, that our coffee is the BEST in the WORLD, because once upon a time the Vatican had some of it.


However, there are 70 countries in Latin America, South East Asia and Africa producing coffee. I like Colombians a lot since I had a chance to taste them during my exile in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan.  Therefore do not accept that silly untrue claim.

Let the record show that isle nationals are not prone to collect the beans in the heat, inclined terrain, with plenty of nasty insects that make life miserable, receiving in peanuts in turn, for the effort. For that reason the crops continue a similar down hill turn...Eventually, we will pack coffee from Costa Rica or any other cheap one, and sell like the rums, as Puertorican. What is the difference?

The worst national prevarication is about Puerto Rican Rums.
Saccarum officinarum, or sugar cane is the essence to manufacture rum. Bacardi, Don Q, Palo Viejo and everyjuan else lies to you, to me, stating, calling these rums Puertorican, when the molasses are imported from Dominican Republic since there is NO sugar cane in concrete/asphalt isle except to make perhaps a couple of bottles of guarapo.

That is that. 

Me voy.

THE BOURET HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY PRESENTS THE NORTH GARDEN INVENTORY

The project has been spinning on me mind for some time. What a better present for the day celebrated tomorrow than to present every other dk and known species by your humble, faithful, people person and loving gardener, in this paradigmatic north garden?

The reader will have a take home assignment. Organize this botanical inventory in strict alphabetical order, not the way we do it, in the now in, third person.  Later, divide in the pertinent group: ground covers, vines/climbers, plant, bush, succulent and such. Here it goes.

NG INVENTORY

In fiberglass pots

Citrus aurantifolia

Capsicum florescens

Coccoloba uvifera

Crinum amabile

Pink Plumeria

Datura stramonium

Dracaena marginata

Dipteracantus prostratum

Tin Can Department

in the hanging or ground

Proiphys amboinensis

Asparagus

Daylily

Miosotis

Other spots by the wall

or fence

Allium

Aloe vera 

Barleria repens

Chryosothemis pulchella

Bryophylum pynnatum

Croton

Hibiscus

Lipia micromera

Occimun basilicum

Mirabilis siciliana

Hippobroma longiflora

Ipomoea aegyptia

Gardenia augusta

Diffenbachia

Catharanthus roseus

Euphorbia pulcherrima

Trimezia martinicensis

Turnera subulata

Thumbergia alata

Scadoxus

Ruellia brittoniana

Rosmarinus officinale

Plectantrus amboinicus

Nephrolepsis

Origanum vulgare.

Now if you add this evening post inventory with those climbers in the interview, mentioned earlier today, the total is almost fifty or fitty. 

How many species per foot?

Fifty point bonus

for the assignment.

Remember: The complete inventory: THE ONE HUNDRED CLUB in Caribbean Botanical Review.

PALABRAS CON LUZ

Motherhood has always been a tough matter in this quarters.
At 15 I decided I would be the last male of my generation with the name. I detest pregnant women, and proudly declare never been around or close by one, and no chance, at six decades of age. Than you lord.


Motherhood makes possible the earth destruction thanks to over population with religious and or ignorance reasons. The sexual exploitation of children, work slaves, over five hundred million abandoned ones and what Puerto Rico seems to be now, half a population of single mothers.. 

Now even lesbians and homosexuals renounced to one of their inner virtues: no children. They are manufactured in vitro, rented women and else. 


Motherhood has kept all WOMEN on earth as second class citizens, particularly in the third. Until women become owners of their bodies, NO CHILDREN, they will remain slaves and docile servants of men.


I am getting ready for all the sappy, silly stories about motherhood tomorrow. Get ready you too.


apagad e idos.

MOCK INTERVIEW THE NORTH GARDEN INVENTORIY IN A CHANGED PERSONA

INTRODUCTION

Well, here is is I. Better yet, here we are in the third. A most despicable old fashion manner to say/write things. Even if popular among the people of low and high culture, we have an innate dislike of it. It is hard to explain

Hickman is the interviewer who unknowingly provided the concept.

Antigonum Cajan is your hero..  

the interview

H: What is the big deal with you, the garden, Bouret Horticultural Society and those bejucos hanging betwen the fence and the iron grills of the house in the north garden and the other one?

Antigonum Cajan:  Before addressing the four issues, I would like If I may, to state my view regarding the little deal with you, Borincano and Ivone Acosta Lespier, since the 3 of you represent a dead way to write, look at our reality, the world. 

H: Fine. But the interviewer has the authority to determine the order of the happening; could you respond and move along?

AC: Well. Bejucos first. Botanically, the term bejucos is Spanish is not an insult, but any vine that stays in the ground, often becoming a ground cover, or climbing as those we have in our known in five continents garden.

Merremia quinquefolia, Antigonon leptopus, Ipomoea quamoclit, Passiflora edulis/ pallida L/, foetida, Clitorea ternatea, Canavalia maritima and Centrosema pubescens represent a wide collection of vines endemic and not, that should be in ANY botanical garden. In addition to the most attractive woody climber Bouganvillea and very popular Allamanda cathartica.

H: Are you finished?

AC: Not at all. That is just a list, not even five percent of the collection. Let us discuss now with the mandatory briefness and unheard humility the relevance of this seemingly meaningless feature in our garden. Bejucos.

I am unwillingly in the line of Lord Nathaniel Britton and Agustin Stahl regarding flora, for a simple reason, I propagate many plants that are not available in nurseries. Not in  scholarly or academic fashion. These vines are  room and board for Spindalis, an endemic and hansome species, food for Reina Mora, nectar/pollen for hummingbirds, black beetles, butterflies and Spindalis. In turn, home for flies and insects of all kinds that our Anolis lizards munch on.

H: Could I proceed with the next question?

AC: Sorry. I am just starting.  That is just a description of empirical matters that could be confirmed through research. Now I want to discuss two issues: vertical gardens and green roofs, since they are widely in use nowadays.

If vertical is anything hanging from vertical surfaces, the north and south garden are vertical gardens. If a green roofs is defined as vegetation in flat surface, the vines work as such creating shade, decreasing the temperature on the concrete and house walls.

H: What about the other 3 subjects not yet discussed?

Antigonum Cajan: The people know we are busy setting trends and have other things to do. However, Sociedad Horticultural Bouret, one of the questions, is me, myself, and I, just like that Mingus record. That leaves two for the next interview.

H: Thanks for the chance. I know you have no use for people like us, Bible freaks, teachers, preachers, life coaches. It has been an honor.

Antigonum Cajan:

Allow me to disagree. No honor to have some Lily Garcia, David Letterman want to be, with lists for depression and what have you.

that is that. Part one of two.

IT WAS NINE YEARS AGO...

WELL, to be more precise if I include the days when I lived in Savarona, before the invasion, during college, it should be: It started 3 decades and seven years ago.  That is when my prodigious career propagating and planting really started.

In total ignorance of those technical issues that now separate yours truly from the people, populace, architects, landscape architects, environmentalists,  and every gardener for hire into maintenance and installation, down these here pastures.

Some taste has been around all the time. I never liked those soft round rocks placed in lines as borders or as dry beds. I prefer flat rocks, rough and preferably orange/yellow. However, I remember collecting some rare green rocks in Ponce, (never to be seen again) when highway 10 between Arecibo and La Perla del Sur,  was being built for my first installation in Savarona. It was perhaps eight square feet. Only one photo from that era exist, and is here through a scanner.

I did composting then, and unable to make my soil since the yard was ninety five percent concrete, I mixed nursery soil with dry leaves constantly, having earth worms in every pot.

The collection then was not remarkable for obvious reasons, consisting mostly of plants adequate for shade and humid conditions, even though Caguas was already a concrete/asphalt hell.

Fast forward to 2002. Lomas Verdes, calle Pavona en Bayamon City.  The two story house was our residence for some time before we moved to Paseo del Bosque. These walk ups are not far from where we live now.

At any rate, recently arrived from the Big Apple, I got into it, with enthusiasm and energy. I bought a STIHL trimmer, the most powerful, not started for the last five years and with less than one hundred hours. Later a push mower still in good shape and sharp. Reel mowers cut in a clean and fancy way that is evident to even the ignorant. In one of the photos, you will notice the grass in two levels. The lower was done with it, the other with the Stihl.

I spent around a year trying to have landscaping maintenance work steady, but the invader competition, distances, cost of fuel, traveling made it silly. That was the end of my gardening for hire days.

The collection in Lomas Verdes was somewhat unusual thanks to the over sixty species Rengui, my in law, had collected and propagated during forty two years, plus twenty or so I added during my stay there.  In Caribbean Botanical Review you may find the actual inventory if interested.

I was an ignorant fool then for a year or two. I slowly became aware of what a remarkable stupidity hedges, lawns and palm trees are for the environment, flora and fauna.  It is abominable to pollute air, water, soil, plus noise, with gas, oil, propane, diesel or electricity. Add the irrigation, water waste. 

The pictures tell the story.  All my previous installations were destroyed: Savarona, Lomas Verdes and  Fundacion Luis Munhoz Marin.

Paseo del Bosque is not included since all my plants were in fiberglass pots and most are already planted in our Patrimony for the Flora and Fauna in Santurce, Nueva Kiskeya, Puerto Rico.

I thought that going back in time will allow some readers to keep gardening in focus. That in one hand, in the other, it keeps me doing what I do best, reinventing the parallelogram and squashing dissidents without the pertinent argument. 

FROM THE EDITOR

The apparent anger displayed often in this space 

is not gratiutous.

In this post just a little token of my personal experience regarding the environment. Now multiply what happened in Lomas Verdes by a million times in  Puerto Rico, one very close by, is Parque Donha Ines at a cost of over eight million toletes. The destruction magnified, not in a private residential scale but the whole isle.

And some hicks wonder if I change personas, perhaps wondering if  this could be written by a ghost?

apaga e idos.

THE GARDEN IS NOT A BLOG JUST A MINIMAL PART OF IT

IN 2002, once I finished the requirements for the Commercial Horticulture Landscape Management from the New York Botanical Garden certificate I moved back to this concrete/asphalt hell, surrounded with flag flaunting fools with any possible excuse.

I thought that my innate humility, the credentials and experience of many years propagating, planting, researching and studying will help to have a landscape management at home business.  

However, as time went by, I noticed how far ahead I was in terms of  noise, pollution, stupid high maintenance gardening and lame design, plant selection and installations.

That was that. Instead I became what I am now. The only, creative horticultural critic with a private residential garden in the CARIBBEAN, with over one hundred species to show in less than two hundred square meters in an almost all concrete
space.

Enjoy the show. If interested,  see the whole show in flickr, there are twenty photos with a couple of Leonardo Rivera my pig neighbor in the north side. Meanwhile, keep on trucking and remember, if your garden is thought in terms of flora and fauna, aesthetics become a secondary object in my intercontinental, humble opiinion.

That is that.

apagad e idos.. 

 

LAST SQUARE STANDING OR FAREWELL POLLOCK HELLO ANTIGONUM

ONE 'DEAR' fellow blogger from Cidra City, a wonderful and sophisticated metropolis in the neck of the concrete/asphalt isle, one half of the the Minga i Petraca Lame News Color Commentators Blog Guild, (Acosta Lespier is the other) has dropped by to check this trend setting, cult? blog. 

Too late baby. This zealot, teacher, wondered publicly if the Confused Cuckold (Memorias de un cabron confundido)

(a escathological blogger into shit, teeties, weenies, snatch and piss) and yours truly, write in similar ways as we speak.

It is significant that this wonderer pollito chicken, teacher, shared with everyjuan his predilection for such a standard bearer of obscene, porno manifestation of our sick culture blog. Charlie, a good example of what this obscure wondering about personas dude really enjoys and probably follows in a wider web spectrum at home on his spare time. Do apples compare to oranges?

Evidently he can not write/speak as I do. Nevertheless, I am not certain if  his pebble in the shoe is my, abrasive, insulting, mocking, unfriendly,  not looking for friends or disciples manner and  language usage, utterances and register.  If he was not busy becoming another Lily Garcia, he would  know/remember that http://endemismotrasnochado.blogspot.com, was the original cradle, five years ago. Regarding style, register and intention, bluntness and abrasiveness, all  were borne there, pal.

This pollito chicken, gallina hen teacher believes I pose, assuming another persona as in acting.  I can not help but to be the best I can. I call them the way I see them. Apparently one, two or three local islanders have the intelligence to separate hay from wheat from what I write. You can not. 


I explained in his lame blog, horrendous six grade, template and all, with some restraint, the different possible readings visitors to this or any other blog make of what is written in Shakespeare's. Pearls to hogs?

Every juan takes what is relevant from any source. The experience, education, sophistication, exposure to other cultures and judgment allows to make one's own interpretation in any blog.  What It what I write stinks: a lot, a little or somewhat.  But LAME? not a chance...


I wonder why among the two hundred Minga/Petraca bloggers in the Confused Cuckold mold, this proud teacher, chose this humble and trend setter, photographer, concrete painter/muralist (not writer), but horticultural creative critic with cultural, social, environmental and aesthetic concerns with a fresh, unusual stance,  shared with the people for such inquiry. 


After all, speech is not the same the same as writing. These acts do not require the same skills, (my spoken is better than me writing). No one has to write in the usual register/way of speech or to expect that to happen. It is not possible, darling. Kindly start a research among the Minga/Petraca Guild and share it with your thousands of LOCAL readers. A little research on the web on Linguistics may offer some light on the the subject.  I know a little about this subject, not as much as the environment, flora, fauna, diseases and such, but pretty close. You certainly barked at the wrong tree.

May the lord BlESS you. 

Dear Blogger do you write in the same manner as you speak?  Considering the apparent little essence that has been grasped here I will certainly avoid going there in the future. After all flora and fauna have no use for useless wordy and irrelevant debates. Show me you garden i te dire de la pata que cojeais.

NOW 

Moving to relevant things.

This is the last square. I has been a lot of effort, energy, back, knee pain for ten days. However, the result is impressive according to me wife and Stephanie, from a far away huge island in the Pacific, Indonesia.

This plant was meant for hanging. Its beauty and fragrance is much better appreciate at eye level, or maybe a little lower.I will present a photo collection of the north garden, from the air in FLICKR, if you care, later..

that is that.

apaga i vamonoh...

tu te lo buhcahte, vihte, ehcribi como jabla el pueblo.

jaha bilingual ...

GARDEN UPDATES

I have been mostly designing, measuring, marking, painting for the last couple of weeks. The result went beyond expectation in the north garden considering  the effect of new paint and squares and rectangles on vegetation.  It seems to be on a high relief, brought forward If I may.

The sidewalk construction, brought some ideas ( see post in Bouret Street Sidewalk Blues in puertorrikenhadasinmostaza.blogspot.com). The virgin sand allowed me to restore a couple of gardens in the north and west side corners, using orange/yellow smooth slate.  The The first is the herbs site, the other is moving towards succulents. No pictures yet, but soon.

The color scheme: Battleship, Platinum, Equestrian Gray, Sand Beige and Anti Slip Gray. The area is forty two feet long, eight feet and a half wide.  I had to cover plenty of cracks and holes with concrete and crack filler. This improved somewhat the uneven, rough surface.

As a result, weeds will have less room to grow, less herbicide to spray, less work in essence. This collateral benefit has made the job wider in scope since the intention was to hide the ugly concrete to enhance the area. Now it looks more attractive and has certainly transformed the whole looks of the space.

If you want to have a wider view of the changes, in terms of light and shade drop by FLICKR. 

The first orange Hibiscus bloomed after a year. This bush was collected in Sagrado Corazon street, next door to an old farts nursery. Unfortunately, they got rid of it, and is bare soil now. I was lucky. 


Let the record show that I have noticed, it has been mentioned before that our isle Sierra Club, with a USA national spoke person, Camila Fiebelman and the nationalist/communist fellows from Casa Pueblo are not together environmentally wise. The foreigner is into el Corredor Ecologico and the endemics into el Gasoducto de La Muerte. Antigonum is with neither one, since I trace my own path.


Bouret Horticultural Society: Patrimony of the Caribbean.

Antigonum Cajan

 King of the Humbles

 Legend on his own mind

 Buahaja bilingual one.

that is that.

apagad e idos.

A WEDDING POST

WATCHING those Rolls, Jaguars, Bentleys, Aston Martin, not so much the Range Rovers,  was divine. 
It looked like one of those fast and furious automobiles advertisements in geometrically perfect, even, wide and clean pavements without ANY other cars, pot holes or puddles.  

As a fan of the British Empire and Commonwealth for decades,  you know,  South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Guinness, Bass, Fine Young Cannibals,The Selector, Ian Dury and the Blockeads, Black Uhuru, Triumph, Sunbeam Alpine and MG, single malt scotch, James Joyce and Gustav Holst, The Planets, Oliver Reed, Helen Mirren, Francis Bacon, Goldfinger, The Clockwork Orange, but not fish and chips.  it was a pleasure.

But honestly and truly, remarkable as hell was the intelligent decision to place those trees in the abbey, a magical touch, heavier than the stupid fairy tale, people lacking imagination talked about.  I thought it was outdoors until me wife told me it was not. 

What about the canopy of those perfectly kept trees in the surroundings without any of them looking like a foolish ice cream in a cone?  Impressive and stimulating.

To observe the institutions defining the STATE, church, military and monarchy a show not to be missed. One could remain in the surface whining about the expense...Forgetting all the tourism and  jobs and money generated in consequence.  A royal wedding is a billion times or two, cheaper that those ridiculously expensive, silly Olympic Games...I do not mind the World Cup.


It is all about ORDER.  Considering my beliefs one may wonder, what is wrong with the picture?  If the royal wedding had taken place in Puerto Rico...


Douglas the buffoon Candelabro (our own PJ Allen without the house),  would have placed arecas, liriopes, bromeliads and ferns in the abbey. Instead of the autos mentioned in the first paragraph...Jeeps, Yamahas, Volkys and Harleys polluting and creating all the way up imaginable possible noise with ten thousand watts car stereos.  Pretty much what Seinfeld presented on the Puertorican Parade episode.


Maripily and Ivy Queen would have been the representation of Madame David Beckman,  the ugly, bitchy looking, former singer, wife of the down the hill player,  always stiff and posing as if she was borne a  blue blooded creature.

The menu? Cuajo, guineo hervio,  bacalao frito, alcapurrias, arroh con guanduleh a la kiskeya, tohtoneh de platano/pana frito,  mofongo pa loh de acah, congri i ropa vieja para loh de Cuba, mangu pa loh de Kihkeya con alcapurria de yuca.


Pa enjuagal,  Brugal, Barcelo de Kiskeya i Presidente de chaser o Banbarcourt de Haiti, que ambas criaturas son lo MISMO. Palo Viejo con Medalla pa loh de Borrinken, en Mayaguez, sangria de Fido, USA citizens buscando el nolte como se escribe/dice ahora..

But let the record show that while these images in me mind came back and forth, I was painting the driveway. I had to measure every other step, discovering that the width of it changed every other eight or so feet.  


Nevertheless  my campaign promise is about to be finished. I have transformed a dull, obscure enclosure into a lively, somewhat happy spot.  Now, the five holes where I planted the known vines, hibiscus, Bouganvilleas show all their colors in a different manner, as in high relief.


Here are a couple of photos for those readers, fans and foes alike enjoying the good, not to be bought in the corner store, pleasure that  tools, planing, stamina and imagination provide to anyjuan with will or cojones.

Antigonum Cajan. To set trends, commandements If I may.My way or the jaywai.. ENJOY.

time to go 

apagad e iros , cabrones/as....

FROM THE EDITOR

Antigonum Cajan made his official 
debut playing cajon de flamenco at Triana.
This Spanish Restaurant in old San Juan is celebrating la Feria de Sevilla. The building a former bank since 1903, where one can still enjoy the nice Banco Credito i Ahorro Poncenho logo in the inside. A majestic lion walking on a brick wall.

apaga i vamonoh.
the end.