A Trip to the Garden of Eden

Yesterday we called up the owner of the Botanical Garden which sits just right across the river from us.  Peter, the owner, has been here since 1987 and now has 45 acres of unbelievable plants.  It is quite the stroll thru all of these different kinds of plants that grow here in Costa Rica, some native some not.  We wanted to get an idea of what sort of plants we would like to get to put in our newly cleared lot.

Peter showed us a large variety of things, from eatable plants, fruiting plants and decorative plants.  For our first go-round we came away with a Traveler's Palm, Black Pepper vine, a Bromeliad from Panama, Argentine Rose and an eatable plant that we can use the leaves in salads. 

Here are some of the plants that are eatable, the one in the foreground is the one we got.

This is part of the nursery where Peter grows his own variety of Bromeliads.

Here are some heliconia that are native to Costa Rica that we have never seen before but will be adding a few of these to the back lot.

This is called a bottle palm.

This is the Ylang-ylang plant that produces fragrant flowers during various times of the year. Maybe next time we are there it will have owers.fl

This bromeliad comes from Panama and was discovered only a few years ago.  This will be joined by others once I make a place to let them grow.  They need to attach themselves to a host in order to grow.

So that was our first attempt, but that we know what we want we will be going back for more until we have all the perfect plants in their perfect places.