Nature Goes Up and Nature Comes Down!

This time of year is wondrous; a few months into the wet season, plants are growing like mad, everything so verdant and every week brings some new surprise, be it first-time flowering or a new plant the birds have been kind enough to deposit.

For some plants, its definitely the time to be dramatic – this agave is nearly four years old, time to flower, its asparagus-like spear has grown at nearly 2″ per day! After flowering the parent dies off and will need digging out, there’s a tough job ahead! But there will be new ‘pups’ to replace it.

Some bromeliads are equally dramatic; this one with a similar spurt of growth to produce its spear where small insignificant flowers will emerge. I thought these too might die after flowering but they don’t, and the spear produces millions of tiny seeds that get blown around the woodland.

No jokes please on feeding these plants Viagra – we’ve heard them all, they’ve been the cause of much ribald laughter!

But while nature goes up, it also comes down! Here’s the latest two fallen trees, short-living varieties that just rot and keel over, John’s out doing his lumber-jack bit with the chain saw this afternoon.

But there’s a plus – the soft spongy bark is great mulch for the agave/bromeliad bed, with a sharp machete, as easy to slice as cheese. We’ve had six sack loads, a great bonus.

Fortunately these aren’t near the house but they illustrate the importance of knowing the characteristics of trees on your property, or trees you want to plant.

Now here’s a species I would love to chop down, and we have eight – Cecrophia,

These fast growing trees have candelabra-like branches, huge hand-shaped leaves and clusters of finger-like spikes producing flowers and fruits which host a myriad of bugs. The hollow stems also house a symbiotic ant so, all in, the birds just love these trees.

The down-side? Leaves fall every day all year round and get ‘hooked’ in lower foliage, we could collect bunches like this every day from two trees beside the walled garden. They’re a pain so if you’re planning your garden in Costa Rica and want ‘formal’ areas to be tidy, avoid these like the plague and give them good space of their own.

A friend is busy cutting his down because he’s fed up with the mess – its tempting but the plants need the shade and part of the attraction of the ‘new’ walled garden was to sit and enjoy the birds! This fallen branch illustrates a good feed is to be had…

And if we didn’t have our cecrophia, we wouldn’t have enjoyed watching this chap enjoying breakfast outside our bedroom balcony. Maybe they’re worth it so I’m settling for a love / hate relationship. Like so much in life, in tropical gardening you just have to take the bad with the good!

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Written by VIP Member Sheelagh Richards. Sheelagh is originally from Scotland and her husband John who is from Wales are two inveterate British travellers who fell in love with Costa Rica, the beauty of the Talamanca mountain range and the perfect climate of the Rio General valley where they have established a small Bed & Breakfast called Casa de Los Celtas.

You can see more about John and Sheelagh’s very affordable B&B outside San Isidro here and photographs and prices here and you can also see a free online video interview with John & Sheelagh Richards here.

Please contact our Recommended Costa Rica Realtors working in the area: James Drews, Daveed Hollander and John Wieland, by using the simple form below and they’ll send you:

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.