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To live and enjoy every day to its fullest, use my gifts to help others, I travel to wherever passion finds me.

What Will She Paint?

So many friends I met here...!

Monday, March 30, 2009

POTTERING - ABOUT MY STAG HORN


Sunday has turned into a pottering day. This huge pot is on my patio, filled with geraniums. Next to it, in the shade you may see the lemon scented geranium. I put some cuttings of that in the huge pot. I am taking advantage of the still nice temps.

So after our delicious buffet-meal at Indian Cook House, we went to buy some containers with daisies and potting soil. My hubby planted them by the fence, next to the Wisteria. Most of the leftover potting soil I used for the huge pot with geraniums since I only was half filled with soil:)



This may be a plant you don't know: a stag horn. Scientific name is Polypodiaceae bifurcatum. I had a tiny plant in my house before I knew it was a stag horn!
In the time that I did all those big flower paintings (Celebrity Collection-Jan.09), my hubby did a job on the property of a lady who propagated them. When he started asking her questions about all the plants he saw, she gave him one for his wife (meaning me, and she did not even know me!). I was very enamored with my gift.

One Sunday after that, we went to Roger Gardens (an upscale plant place in this area) to look for a lemon scented geranium, to ward off mosquitoes. And there we saw the same plant as the one given to us by the generous lady. I really would like another one, I said to myself. My mouth dropped open, and my plans changed in a heartbeat when I saw that the small ones were $60.

The size you see in the pic were around a $100 -yikes! They had even larger ones, with a price tag you don't want to know about. They were all mounted on wood, hanging vertically, hanging in the shade.

When we came home, I discovered that the tiny plant I had nursed for a year in a pot, was the same as the pricey ones in the store. Now I really got excited, but it needed to be mounted on wood, because it feeds on water and air. My executive assistant sawed an oblong piece out of the middle of an oak piece of wood, and put chicken wire in there. Then put some sphagnum moss around the roots of the tiny plant and tied a piece of wire around the moss and the wood,to keep the whole thing together.

Most people who have them, tie the plant with the wood "container" onto a tree trunk, in the shade. They can grow very large, but grow very slowly. Just a few years ago, my hubby and son cut down a 30 foot tree. They had to go to three neighbors to ask permission to go into their yards, in cutting this huge tree down. No problema, amigo, everyone wanted this one down! So, I lost my big tree trunk, but I still have time to think where to hang it, since they grow so slowly. For now, it's in the shade of a bench, on the ground.

This is the stag horn I really want, and as far as I know imported from Europe. Scientific name: Platycerum bifurcatum. I saw this one hanging in the Botanical Building of Balboa Park in San Diego. The leaves are more narrow, and look like the antlers of an elk. I have not found a supplier yet. So, if you know one, please tell me. I would be ever so grateful!

22 comments:

Kat Mortensen said...

I can see why it's called a Stag Horn. It's pretty spectacular. I'd much rather have that than a real deer head, wouldn't you?

I love the painting in your sidebar. It really is lovely. You should illustrate books (if you don't already).

Kat

Michelle said...

Staghorns LOVE banana peels! Just throw em in and leave em.....

Jeannette StG said...

Kat,
I never could have a stuffed deer head. My kids would kill me LOL. One time we saw one in a store, and my daughter was the whole day upset about it.

Kat, thank you for the compliment -which painting do you mean? the pastel or the sketch? As a matter of fact, when I was in my teens, that was my ultimate wish, to be an illustrator. But now I think of the deadlines illustrators cope with! And I like to be my own boss. Hope that does not sound arrogant -it's not meant that way.

Jeannette StG said...

Michelle,
I guess you know about stag horns! Yes, that's what one of the nursery workers said, for the potassium in the bananas.

SAPhotographs (Joan) said...

Oh I like this Jeanette. It works great!! Thanks for the change.

I love pottering about in the garden. It can be hard work at times but if you do it regulary, there is little to do but maintenance and that si a pleasure.

I love that staghorn. We have them here and they are just as expensive but what a pleasure to have.

Jeannette St.G. said...

"Regular"...most artists are not known for that, LOL. This is the first yard we have, and most of the year the sun is burning hot, so it's very easy to neglect it!!

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Gracious, what a plant! And perfectly named, by the way. What a wonderful thing to already have geraniums blooming. Still too chilly here, I'm afraid. But, soon.

Jeannette St.G. said...

I wish it with you Pamela, soon:)
At the nursery I also looked hydrangea (a favorite of yours!), because there was one with huge blooms before in the back yard, but it had died. They told that they would bloom in 2 months!

Reader Wil said...

Stag horns are very expensive in the Netherlands as you will remember! The polder is not far from where I live, a 10 minutes' ride by car.If you want to have one of my photos I can send them to you!

S said...

Hi, thanks for stopping by at my blog! I really like your paintings, especially the one titled "The Potter". You have a nice cosy blog! :o)

Sreddy

Unknown said...

Oh, I love a stag horn, but I've never been able to keep one alive. After trying twice, I gave up because I hate to see plants die... especially at my hands.

Irene said...

I seem to remember that those plants were very fashionable in Holland when I was a little girl. Imagine my surprise when I found out that they were such a specialty item in California. I think they are lovely, but I have not seen one here in the plant shop, though I may have to go to the nursery to find one. I will keep an eye out for one now and see if there are any about.

Irene
XOX

Jeannette St.G. said...

Reader Wil,
In Holland I never looked at staghorns, so thank you for that info.! You are so kind, Wil, I might take you up on one of your photos sometime:)

Jeannette St.G. said...

Shreddy Yen,
Thank you. Keep in contact, hopefully in some months I can make prints of my paintings available for my readers.
Really hope that you are still doing poetry - the one you posted was very good!

Jeannette St.G. said...

Gaston Studio
I understand, I have that with orchids - no green thumb LOL. I hope I'll meet someone close, who I can check with from week to week:)

Jeannette St.G. said...

Irene,
I like the changes you made on your blog! And you're getting quite a bit of followers! Have you seen Reader Wil's comment? (She is from Holland) They are expensive!

Reader Wil said...

Thanks Jeannette for your visit to my blog!

Lynette said...

Omigosh, I have seen photos of staghorn ferns but I had no idea they were that expensive to buy. I love your photos and I would be excited to own one too, what an amazing plant!

Jeannette St.G. said...

Reader Wil, You're Welcome! :)

Jeannette St.G. said...

Lynette,
what is so cool about this plant is the thingie (I don't know what the exact name for it is - can you tell, I had teens, they call everything a thingie - haha) where the leaves come out of - first it's green, but then turns brown.
Today, for the first time I saw your "other" blog with the paintings from France - I'll go back to really read and look at it:)

A Cuban In London said...

Stag Horn. What a strange name and what a beautiful plant! And your photo makes it more regal actually. Many thanks.

Greetings from London.

Jeannette St.G. said...

Cuban,
that's how I call you:), unless you like to be called by a different name?
Thank you, it's a different kind of a beauty than my roses. I think that a stag is some kind of deer, and the leaves look like antlers - maybe that's how the name originates.
Sunny greetings from L.A.