Sunday, June 24, 2012

Oleander and Laurel

I bought these two plants from a woman leaving Melaque about six months ago both in large pots. I haven't known what they were but with the help of my neighbor we found them on the Internet a few days ago. She immediately recognized the first one as Laurel (different accent in Spanish). Beautiful plant, at least the part that stands upright. Problem is some side branches end up lying on the ground. This version must be a shrub but some varieties become large trees. Not sure if I should leave it in the pot or stick it in the ground.

The next one is Oleander and it was root bound so I planted it earlier today. I also read Oleander can grow as high as 20' so not much reason to be in a pot. This one has white flowers that I have seen but the previous owner said it has two colors of flowers. Either two plants or a graft I assume. My neighbor had a Spanish name for this and we found it linked to Oleander ... but for the life of me I can't remember her word for it. (She just told me the name and it's "campanero" and I think part of the olive family)


Just a slight mention of the Papaya and the rest of the garden. Everything grew 20% with this last week of rain. Even had a bunch of melon seeds sprout in my compost pile that we will transplant to the vacant lot next-door. Bananas have baby sprouts coming up. Of the two lime trees, one just dropped hundreds of blossoms and new limes starting. The other has two limes that have been there two months an nothing else. Both where supposed to be spineless ever bearing but one has spines developing. Nurseries don't always know what they have it seems.

Laurel

Drooping Laurel

Oleander - campanero

Papaya

Also found this Interesting website with  list of many (not nearly all) plants in Mexico Notes on Selected Plants, Animals & Ecology of Mexico

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate to be a spoil sport, but,
Oleander is deadly poison. It also will make a bee line to your sewer pipes. It will plug them tight. Your rotorooter man will soon be your best friend.

Good luck,

Bob Gill
Phoenix, AZ

sparks_mex said...

I've read a lot on Oleander and it's mainly bad for livestock. With a cat and dog here for over 6 months they have not been tempted to eat any part of it.

As far as sewer goes .... we have septic here and pipes and cistern are 30+ feet from the tree. But thanks for the roots warning

The construction of the house finished in April 2011 and I'm pretty much settled in. As of March 2014 I'm in preparation for rain mode for this coming summer. That includes sealing and painting things and dealing with drainage issues from last year.

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