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ABOUT US
Sherm (my 21 year old son) and me, Randy (the 49 year old dad) have been interested in plants for a very long time. We aquired the plant bug from my side of the family. My mom has always been into gardening for as long as I can remember. I also remember my grandfather out in his back yard in New York watering his vegetable garden in his blue pants and white tank top. He told me if I planted eggs I would get Eggplants and if I planted jellybeans they would grow. I believed him...
We have seriously been collecting plants for years with hundreds of specimens growing in pots, hanging baskets, planted in-ground or on our patio. Here in Central Florida the weather is great for growing a lot of different plants, having to move or cover a few during the fairly rare frost or freeze warnings we get during Winter. We did loose a lot of specimens during the multiple (3 to be exact) hurricanes of 2004 which we will never forget.
Within the last decade Sherm and I have really got into variegated and mutated plants... from variegated vegetables found searching through hundreds of normal ones to specimens that have been in collections overseas for hundreds of years like variegated Clivias and Palms. If you ever come across a variegated plant you think we'll like let us know... we'll make a trade or work something out.
A few years ago we had the pleasure of having Betsy Franz, a feelance writer and nature photographer come out and visit and write an article for the Florida Today newspaper about variegated plants. Click here to read the article. Click here to read the second part of the article.
We don't have a greenhouse, just a lot of trees and big hollowed out shrubs to shade and protect a lot of plants. We did put up a small shadehouse to house some specimens since the hurricanes destroyed some hedges and trees.
Some of our other interests are fishing, basketball, football, music, cars, PlayStation 2 (not me... too many buttons, Pong is more my speed) and taking digital pictures. We also bring home injured animals (mostly turtles and snakes) that we come across. Some of the critters we've adopted (and then turned loose) are Red Rat Snakes, a baby Gopher Tortoise, a Diamondback Terrapin (in our living room as we speak), Scarlet King Snakes and even a Cuban Tree Frog with an injured leg from a weedeater. We even hatched some Softshelled Turtle eggs that we removed from a buried nest before construction workers widened a ditch. Some animals that live with us full time are Mullet our mutt and June-June, our 3 year old African Spur-thigh Tortoise who will be 100+ pounds when full grown. Mullet and June-June get along great often laying around together in the grass. Our newest addition to the family is Cleo who thinks Mullet is her big sister and runs to her for protection. Cleo and Mullet frequently sunbath together in the courtyard.
Sherm and I would like to thank my wife Audrey and my 22 year old daughter Kimberly for putting up with us over the years. When we tell them we're going out to the local nurseries or out of town to visit other collectors they just shake their heads wondering what we're going to be bring home (like variegated Poison Ivy...I'll never hear the end of that).
June-June the African Spur-thigh Tortoise eating a variegated Cactus pad
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