Chanin

Simply stunning! The wavy planter is very interesting. Love the Euphorbia stenoclada and the colourful aloes. Gift is so lucky to have you as his landscaper. This must be one of the best birthday gifts he ever received.

Chanin,

What a great job you did, by the way did I tell you I have a birthday coming up :)

Cheers,

Rick

Very nice Chanin! I specially love that Alluaudia with it's wavey arms - to me it is such a graceful plant. I struggle to keep one alive through our cold, wet Winters! I also like the 'wavey' planter! Is the front section filled with gravel going to be kept as a path?

I am sure Gift is looking forward to his next birthday when you are going to do the other section of his garden! Or will that be the Christmas gift to Gift?!!
Well done and thanks for showing!

Japie

Excellent job, Chanin! xDyckcohnia 'Bone Mahogany' is gorgeous, and is that Aloe dorotheae with the orange leaves? I love that one, and the way it picks up the color of the Ae. blanchetiana. The tall Alluaudia and Pachypodium are very nice too.

My only question is about the Alcantareas. Are you sure they will do well in a xeroscape?

Hi Chanin - You have achieved a very professional result. I especially like the lighting and the fairyland effect it creates. All the best, Nev.

Incredible! Did you guys end up planting the dwarf old man or keep him in a pot?

I had the same question about the Alc. as Lisa. If it doesn't work out I'm sure you have another nice fat spiney brom that would look great.

Fantastic Chanin. Love the structure plants - the tall ones & the yuccas. Can't wait to see what you'll do in your own place.

A beautifully sculptured garden, Chanin! Pure art - fantastic!

I imagine Gift is over the moon?

Thanks for the show.

BTW - were the workers paid extra 'danger money' for handling all those spineys?

K

Very impressive from start to finish. The lighting is the final, perfect touch!

I enjoyed the workers colorful hats, scarves, and gloves as well!

(^_^)" Thanks everyone, Gift must be proud that you guys love his garden.

Actaully, we cross the fists with each other, my friend must create a Tropical Garden
for my new house when it finish in next few months.
In fact, I would love a xeric one, but there is no sun enough in my new house.

For Alcantareas question, yes I'm pretty sure they do thrive
as we had test their sun tolerant for awhile.

Mike, we keep that dwarf old man palm in the pot, but plant another variety
which has longer leaf-stalk (Coccothrinax crinita v. brevicrinis)
in the right corner of the garden behind Alcantarea.
{{gwi:517753}}

He He He...Yep this tool help us not have to pay the extra "Danger Money"
{{gwi:517755}}

I just sat here at my computer oooohhhhing and awwwwwwwing at everything I saw. You folks simply blow me away with all your plants and how you arrange them & group them to show all the colors, textures, and heights.

All I can say is amazing!!!!!
Great work and a beautiful sight to behold.

I was wondering if I could get a GIFT for myself????LOL Then I wouldn't have to do all the gardening around here by myself. (big Grin)

Happy Gardening, Marian

@(^_^)@ Thanks Marian

{{gwi:517757}}

Stephania,I have a OT question. Have you ever grown Amorphophallus titanum?. Here,whenever they bloom it makes the front page of the newspapers.It's native to your climate-Borneo. I have never seen a post of them grown in a tropical garden like in Asia or Hawaii.
Those 100 pound tubers must be massive in real Mother Earth. I can't imagine a more fantastic garden plant.

I noticed Oxalis in one of the pots of Barrel cacti. Is nobody exempted from the (true) "Evil Weed"?..lol.

I like the purple evil weed....and gee thanks Chanin..I cant find that darn orange aloe any where

Very nice!

Yes Stanofh, I have but couldn't keep it for long, rotting :(
Some aroid lovers here have kept a few of them which were imported
as small seedling.

At Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden, they can grow this amazing aroid
to blooming size and use to be on the first page of our newspaper two times.

There are 50-60 species of Amor. native here, some of them are very interesting.

Amor. maxwellii found in the deep jungle, west of Thailand.
{{gwi:517759}}

This is an unknown "Black trunk" that I found in the north of my country.
{{gwi:517761}}

Hi Chanin!

Very nice job and I am sure that Gift is flippin excited and extra happy about his new garden...Do I see some South African Aloes there?

I also like Amorphs! I havent seen that black stemmed type before....lovely!

Dennis

Thats very interesting Chanin,really adds to their mystique of being difficult to grow even in the tropics "in captivity"..That black stemmed is a beauty. Great find.

Chanin:

I echo everyone else's comments here on a stunning landscape job. Since I grow most of these very same plants outside here in Guatemala I had to smile at the familiarity of the components and composition. You guys really did an amazing job with that garden. Your friend must be feeling pretty pleased with the end result.

I suppose that after seeing enough of your posts nothing one sees out of Thailand anymore should be surprising, but I will admit that the specimen-sized Didierea madagascariensis was very surprising!! Did you gow that or is from another source? I have found seedlings to be pretty fast under greenhouse conditions, but still...

Best regards,

J

Hi Dennis, yes we have some tree Aloe such as A. ferox, A.bainesii
but I think A.dichotoma will not tolerate our rain.
Yesterday we added some more small species, A.striata, A.imalotensis
and for the Broms topic, I also put some different varieties of Orthophytum saxicola.

Stanofh, I think the trick is you have to sterile the soil mix,
Amor. tritanum prone to rot with Phytoptera fungi, I didn't.

Thanks J, you guys will suprise if you know how we get those Madagascan spinies.

Those plants belonged to a collector, he has kept his plants on the upper deck
for decades. It was not too difficult to buy them, but to move them down ! here....

{{gwi:517763}}

{{gwi:517765}}

{{gwi:517766}}

{{gwi:517767}}

{{gwi:517769}}

{{gwi:517771}}

{{gwi:517773}}

{{gwi:517775}}

{{gwi:517777}}

{{gwi:517780}}

{{gwi:517784}}

{{gwi:517787}}

{{gwi:517789}}

{{gwi:517792}}

{{gwi:517795}}

{{gwi:517798}}

OMG, what an operation that was! I certainly hope Gift appreciated the amount of effort you all put in! See if you can get him to smile for the camera. ;-)

What is the name of the shrubby plant with the cascading zig-zag stems between the Androlepis and the Aechmea? Some kind of Adenia or Fockia perhaps? Very nice texture.

Chanin:

Ever more astounding! What a Herculean enterprise to get those things to your friend's property in perfect shape. I also grow most of my spines on a large open terrace, but fortunately it overlooks my garden and parking areas one story below, rather than a public street.

In my experience here, several Alluaudia spp can easily be grown to that size in pots from 30 cm rooted cuts in several years, but the flawless Didierea and Decaryia specimens are a very different deal. It is, however, good to know that Didierea can handle your heavy rains, since I have not trialed them yet outside here. Many people in the 'States will find the "tropicalized" Echinocactus specimens surprising, but I find that both golden barrels and Ferocactus glaucescens do very well exposed to heavy summer rains when potted in very free-draining media.

The Dyckia 'Keswick' is also very handsome! You guys certainly have quite a seasoned and gifted group of growers there.

BRgds,

J

Hi Lisa, that's Decarya madagascariensis a monotypic species in Didiereaceae.

Hi J, years ago I visited to the south of Madagascar and I found Didiereas
growing by the ocean, they seem to be thrive in our rainy season too.

Wow! Congratulations Chanin and Co. - it seems you have overcome "mission impossible" to relocate those established spineys with great foresight, team work, and ingenuity. I am very impressed!

Long may Gift enjoy his xeric paradise :)

Cheers,
Kerry

Chanin - You never cease to amaze. You always seem to have a camera around and we reap the benefits!

Tell Gift he should pop in here and say hi sometime, considering everybody's seen his garden and all!

Wow, now that is a job well done. Such a great layout for the number of plants you have. So very impressive! A true carefree yard.

I probably missed it. Where were these photos taken? Zone 10?

Thank you so very much for sharing your photos with us.

I think it was zone 13 Thailand.

So much time has gone by since this post...seemed like yesterday. In that climate they must be harvesting armfuls of cuttings by now.

Just think... in Thailand, I bet there were any number of directions his landscaping could have gone. I hope he posts pictures a year from now. Once those plants get settled into their new home, they'll take off. It will be such a lush garden top than many of us can't fathom.

Way to go!

The original post was 8 years ago.

OMG, can we see new photos? Oh my, I suspect they've forgotten that they made this posting. Oh well. Aren't we fortunate to have seen the photos that he took at the time. Thanks Stanofh to let me know.

Hi everyone.

Xtal – Wow what a big disappointment I’ve just had. I had thought Chanin was back posting on this forum once again until I read the date on the post and see that it was an old post resurrected from Dec. 2008;………how time flies it seems like only yesterday we were reading his posts and admiring his pictures; certainly the good old days.

In case you don’t know spephania (Chanin Thurot ), he was from Thailand and a regular on these forums right up until the breakaway group formed the new South African forum and like many of the old regulars he never seemed to post much more after that. By the way, that’s him (back left) in picture 4.

His main interest was Xeric plants which included his wonderful collection of Dyckias and Hecktias many he hybridised himself and grew from seed. It didn’t stop there however as he also hybridised Cryptanthus and who can forget the wonderful Cryptanthus ‘Lisa Vinzant’ which he bred and named after Lisa Vinzant, another regular on these forums in those days. See: http://registry.bsi.org/?genus=CRYPTANTHUS&id=1776#1776

He was interested in all things from nature and he also had a great interest in tropical fish and all of his hobbies were regularly shared with us though his wonderful photography and I’m sure you could still find many on the archived threads interesting as unlike many, he didn’t remove his pictures once they had been posted.

I very much doubt if he is reading these threads after all this time, but if you are Chanin, please come back and join us, we’d love to see you posting again.

All the best, Nev.

Enjoying the memories of the good old days :)

We should keep posting until 2008 returns!. He's not the only one who went from a regular to never posts at all.

You never know - a new generation is just forming that will fire up all the boards again

Very beautiful Nev. As good as any start for a revival.