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Old Posted Jul 20, 2007, 11:05 PM
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44 San Antonio photos from 7/14/07 ~ Part I

Ok, folks, here they are. Sorry for the long wait. I've been a bit under the weather this week, some crappy cold, so it's been slow going with the resizing and editing. I took a ton of pictures even though I didn't get nearly as many as I wanted to thanks to not having enough time. I had a blast in San Antonio, though.

Enjoy!

Grand Hyatt San Antonio Hotel construction. Just as we drove up they were putting new sections into the crane.


Hilton Palacio del Rio Hotel. This building was built in 1968 along with the Tower of the Americas and Hemisphere Park for the Hemisphere World Fair of 1968. My aunt and uncle attended the fair.




Zenia's. Of course on the day of Lady Bird Johnson's funeral I had to get some pictures of flowers. The lighting wasn't working well here however.


Zenia's like a lot of sunlight and love hot weather. They typically grow to almost 3 feet tall.








Red Bird of Paradise Bush. These originated in tropical jungles in South America. They also of course do well in Central and South Texas.


Zoom zoom.




















The Henry B. Gonzales Convention Center.






Quite inviting. It was hot and humid that day.


A hibiscus. This is the state flower of Hawaii.


I love these fountains, and the plaza at the Tower of the Americas. Great place to hang out and unwind.


A sago palm. These are actually not a species of palm tree, they're what is called a cycad. Sago palms come from Japan. These take a really long time to grow. This one here is probably no less than 20 years old. We have one also in a pot, but it doesn't look anything like this. These can get to be 20 feet across and live for over 100 years.


One of the things I love so much about San Antonio is the landscaping. The city takes great pride in its vegetation. As a plant lover myself, and someone who loves the outdoors, I really have to give a thumbs up for that.


This waterfall sounded amazing.


This is a whole bunch philodendrons. We have two of these in pots, not quite as large, but they're still 4 feet across. They're both about 15 to 20 years old. Not sure how old these are, but they're probably even older than that. Philodendrons grow wild in tropical areas in North America and South America. They can be found in tropical rain forests. Philodendrons are also poisonous. Every part of the plant produces calcium oxalate crystals which if breathed in can be very dangerous, causing coma even death. If the crystals are rubbed off on the skin a rash will occur. But in the 20 years that we've had them, we've never had a problem with them. I have never seen so many of them as in San Antonio. They're all along the Riverwalk in thick lush patches.




























Up next, views from the Tower of the Americas.
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Old Posted Jul 20, 2007, 11:05 PM
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Old Posted Jul 20, 2007, 11:08 PM
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Nice flower pics. Our own bird of paradise finally bloomed this year, 4 years after purchase (apparently died down to the ground in the big ice storm and then came back with a vengeance).
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Old Posted Jul 20, 2007, 11:28 PM
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Nice shots! SA is beautiful. What kind of camera do you use?
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Old Posted Jul 20, 2007, 11:37 PM
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Quote:
One of the things I love so much about San Antonio is the landscaping. The city takes great pride in its vegetation. As a plant lover myself, and someone who loves the outdoors, I really have to give a thumbs up for that.
I'm tentatively scheduled for a Texas trip next week, and look forward to seeing San Antonio for the first time.

I'm a bit of a "plantaholic" & wonder some about which plants grow well in central Texas, if I end up moving to San Marcos.
In particular, I wonder about staples of southeastern gardens (rainy climate with acidic soils) like Azalea, Camellia, and Gardenia ? Is it too cold for citrus like satsuma and kumquat to do well ?
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Old Posted Jul 21, 2007, 3:07 AM
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Those were awesome. Staid away from the typical shots we all do and made a very unique thread of SA.

Very cool.
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Old Posted Jul 21, 2007, 3:57 AM
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Thanks guys. I appreciate it.


@ M1EK - Yeah, I'm considering getting a Red Bird of Paradise. A neighbor up the street and around the corner has one in their front yard and it seems to have done well, even after the cold last winter (and April ).

@ Jam - I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5S It has 5 megapixels and 12x opitical zoom. I don't have a special lens or anything. The zoom on this camera is very good. I've been able to zoom in on stuff way off in the distance that I couldn't even see with the naked eye. I've zoomed in on buildings from here in South Austin that are 11 to 12 miles away in North Austin, even in the summer with semi-hazy conditions. Here's the camera listed at Amazon. We paid around ~300 for our's from Buy.com.
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMC-.../dp/B0007OV46S

Here's a great camera review website with all kinds of info about just about every make and model of camera and talks about all the technical info. It helped me with getting this camera. By the way, the link below is the same camera I have, but mine is silver instead.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec...nic_dmcfz5.asp
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Old Posted Jul 21, 2007, 4:58 AM
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Originally Posted by DruidCity View Post
I'm tentatively scheduled for a Texas trip next week, and look forward to seeing San Antonio for the first time.

I'm a bit of a "plantaholic" & wonder some about which plants grow well in central Texas, if I end up moving to San Marcos.
In particular, I wonder about staples of southeastern gardens (rainy climate with acidic soils) like Azalea, Camellia, and Gardenia ? Is it too cold for citrus like satsuma and kumquat to do well ?
We get less rainfall on "average" than Alabama, so that is something to consider for your garden. But this year we have had much more than AL, this may be the rainiest year on record, we have already had 35 inches of rain this year. Usually we average 30-40 inches of rain a year, compared to 50-60 for AL. Climate and plant wise, I would compare it to Mobile AL or Pensacola FL. Maybe just a little too cold for citrus, unless they can take an occasional freeze. We do get a couple nights in the 20s each winter. With a little watering you should be able to grow anything you grow in the SE US. (Except for this year, no watering needed, it's been a deluge).
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Old Posted Jul 21, 2007, 5:21 AM
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No kidding about the rain. I haven't watered the yard at all since October! The only thing I've watered was just hand watering the potted plants after I brought them out of the greenhouse and some Jasmine, (flowering vine), along the front fence that I had just planted.

As for citrus fruit. Well, it depends. I mean, west of Austin and San Antonio certainly, the largest peach orchards in Texas are out in that area. As for other citrus fruit, I've never heard of anyone growing oranges or lemons here, though they do it down in the Valley near the coast. But I wouldn't be surprised if they could be grown here. I have seen banana trees in Austin and San Antonio. We had some in our front yard that we had planted and they even produced bananas, not very good to eat, but it was neat to watch. They eventually died, though during a freeze. It was hard to wrap them up. Friends of our's down in New Braunfels have a good amount of them in their front yard.

As for kumquats. I looked into those, and wikipedia mentions that they like high temps from 77F to 100F, and lows down to 14F. The only concern I would have is the heat. We regularly hit 100F during the summer, even hotter. Though, this year Austin hasn't hit above 94F once this year thanks to the rain. As for lows, we hardly ever get that cold. The coldest temp I can remember in Austin was 4F when I was 7 or 8, about 20 years ago. But I don't think we've been as cold as 16 to 18F in the city for at least 15 years. It's very very rare. Typically the coldest we get down to is around 23F in the dead of winter, and that's for like an hour at the very end of the night just before the sun comes up. However, out in the Hill Country west of Austin it does get very cold. Last winter it got down to as cold as 11F in San Saba I believe. Usually in the city it stays warm enough. Austin usually stays at least 10 to 15 degrees warmer than out in the Hill Country during the winter. But then it's odd, because during the summer those are usually the areas that get the hottest. I guess because it's drier out there it heats up faster.

My aunt had two pear trees in her backyard for as long as I could remember. They died a few years ago supposedly of old age and had to be cut down. They produced pears every year and were good to eat.

I'm not sure about satsumaes. I looked those up at Wikipedia, too, but they didn't have a climate listing for them. What temps do they usually like?

As for Azaleas, Camellias, and gardenias, those grow fine here, though you'll probably need to water them pretty well. We've had both azaleas and gardenias in the yard. Not anymore, but I think the gardenias weren't getting enough sunlight where they were.

Central and South Texas is great, though. We can grow just about anything that likes warm climates, and everything from semi-desert like to even tropical. There's a pretty surprising range of plants that you can grow here.
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Old Posted Jul 21, 2007, 5:40 PM
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Thanks, guys.

Satsumas and kumquats are pretty common in Mobile (but not regularly grown farther north in AL), so might be worth a try out there. They can handle temps of 15 or higher without problem, but a mature plant can handle down to about 10 before significant damage occurs.

My main concern about the azaleas and camellias is their preference for acid soils, but I guess adding a lot of peat moss could take care of that issue.

... The Tower of the Americas looks really nice, somewhat akin to Stratosphere in Las Vegas. Are there any good, not-too-expensive restaurants within walking distance ?
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Old Posted Jul 21, 2007, 7:16 PM
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Originally Posted by DruidCity View Post
Thanks, guys.

Satsumas and kumquats are pretty common in Mobile (but not regularly grown farther north in AL), so might be worth a try out there. They can handle temps of 15 or higher without problem, but a mature plant can handle down to about 10 before significant damage occurs.

My main concern about the azaleas and camellias is their preference for acid soils, but I guess adding a lot of peat moss could take care of that issue.

... The Tower of the Americas looks really nice, somewhat akin to Stratosphere in Las Vegas. Are there any good, not-too-expensive restaurants within walking distance ?

If they can take 15, then you won't have any problem. Along the I-35 corridor from Austin to San Antonio (including San Marcos), it is extremely rare to drop below 20F (once every 10-15 years). The last 4 winters I have not dropped below 24 total, and one winter it did not drop below 27F. The hill country is another story, they can drop another 10 degrees lower, but in town San Marcos should rarely, if ever, see below 20F. You can actually grow quite a few tropical plants here, the most tender ones you would have to cover once or twice a year. I have several palm trees in my yard and they do fine. You might see 4-6 frosts a year, maybe more, maybe less. last year we did get one ice storm but that is rare.
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Old Posted Jul 24, 2007, 2:00 AM
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My advice for growing azaleas and camillias is to replace the entire bed with peat moss and then raise the bed somewhat to provide good drainage. You need to replace enough top soil with peat moss to ensure the roots of the azaleas and camillas do not reach the alkaline soil. Once the roots get into the native soils, then the plants wither and die.

Kevin, I have a philodendron in a large pot on my front porch and it has been perfectly happy there for many years. I used to bring it in during the coldest winter nights, but since it has grown so large, I just leave it out. Since it is placed on an inside corner of the front porch that faces south and west, it has been relatively protected during the winter and has continued to survive. A few years ago, I took a portion of the stalk of it and put that in another pot. It is growing nicely, as well. I have also planted several oleander in my yard and they are getting as tall as the garage.

My cousin has several banana trees in her yard, here in Fort Worth and they are also surviving in colder weather. Scattered about my neighborhood are some palm trees, as well.

I have always noted the abundance of tropical plants on the Riverwalk and in San Antonio. I think it is just far enough south that the winter is moderated enough for tropicals to survive and even thrive in the proper locations.

By the way, you really outdid yourself on these photos.
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