Big-Belly Trees Revisited ...

I have had a response to my last post from a garden forum friend and a CZBRAT.

CZBRATS, or Canal Zone Brats, are Americans born and/or raised in the Panama Canal Zone (Zonians). Thanks to Lesley for this beautiful picture.

Here is her picture of "big-belly" trees in full bloom

Panama Vacation

We have just returned from a short vacation in Panama. We stayed at a beautiful resort about 20 minutes from Panama City and situated in the rain forest on the shores of the Chagras River. The resort is the Gamboa Rainforest Resort
and we recommend that you have a look at it if you are considering a warm weather getaway.

Naturally, we were busy with our cameras and I have some pictures to share. First the flowers of the rainforest.

Bougainvillea ...






Next the orchids ... hundreds of them ...









We found this little guy on the ground, and our guide 'planted' it in a crook of a tree so it will keep growing now.




And more beautiful flowers everywhere we looked, growing wild.







We saw hundreds of pelicans at the canal ... enjoying the 24-hour sushi bar. And there were spectacular hawks soaring over the river that we enjoyed every afternoon from the balcony of the hotel.









Have you ever tried to grow a bird's nest fern in your house? They grow wild here.





These are seed pods on a palm tree. They change colour as they ripen.


The afternoon view from our balcony. The first two are looking upriver on the Chagras. Those white-colour trees in the third are called "big-belly" trees by the locals. They store water in large bulbs at the of their trunk. In January, when this picture was taken, they drop all their leaves and by the end of February they will be covered in flowers. After a little research, I believe they are some sort of kapok tree.







Here are some shots of beautiful Panama City, the Pacific Ocean and the Panama Canal.













And finally, I leave you with some pictures of friends and family. Have a great day.

Container Gardening Lessons

I learned a few things this summer about gardening on a deck. Some of it I already knew and conveniently forgot in the excitement of creating a summer paradise.

Petunias: They're hardy, readily available, colourful. They are also very common, require excessive deadheading, produce a yucky sticky substance during the deadheading process, tend to get leggy and are really overdone in many gardens. I already knew this, of course.

Watering: Container gardens demand frequent and consistent watering throughout the season. If you are planning a vacation, you will need to have someone come to water your plants. If your vacation is during the hottest days in July or August, you will need to water at least every day and possibly twice a day. I think this is something we all know too, and try to convince ourselves that if we over-water Friday night, everything will be fine until Sunday night after a weekend away. It won't.

Fertilizing This is a new learning for me, compliments of my novice gardener husband ... he who does the garden maintenance. If you cut the strength of the fertilizer by half, and apply it three times as often, you will have much more abundant flowers. And yes, it is important to use the right fertilizer.

The three numbers on the labels of fertilizers are important. They represent the content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, (N-P-K) in that order. In very simple terms, here's what each of N-P-K will do for your gardens:

Nitrogen: Promotes growth
Phosphorus: Promotes rooting and flowers.
Potassium: Winterizes your plants.

I used a fertilizer with a higher P value (middle number) on the flowering plants. This is also good for your vegetables. I used fertilizer with a higher N value on the herbs, because I wanted more leafy growth and not flowers. I didn't use a higher potassium fertilizer because I'm not too concerned with winterizing plants.

For a more complete description of fertilizers you can check this site.

Great Customer Service

I have just had a pleasant customer service experience!

In January my son moved to Whistler, BC for the skiing season. My son is also an avid reader. As a going away gift to my last-born child, I ordered about 12 books for him from Chapters.

When he hadn't received the books after three weeks, I checked the order status and discovered that somewhere in the ordering process, I mixed up some numbers in his new address.

I put off calling the fine people at Chapters for two days. Not because of any bad experiences I have had with them, but because of some bad experiences with other large companies.

With reluctance, I dialed the customer service number and ended up talking, as expected, to a recorded voice. The unexpected thing was that all I had to do was select English or French as my language of choice and suddenly I was speaking to a very pleasant and helpful person.

When I explained what had happened (and I expected to pay some penalties for my mistake) she first checked inventory, then re-processed the order and told me it would be on it's way to the correct address the next day.

I didn't have to give my name, telephone or account number more than once.

I didn't have to listen to anyone tell me I had caused this problem myself.

I wasn't asked to reimburse or repay anything.

I'm a happy customer. In the past I have been a lucrative customer for Chapters, and after this experience I will continue to be a faithful and lucrative customer. And I will tell everyone about this.

Bravo Chapters. In an age of abysmal customer service, you shine like a beacon of hope.