tour2004pg8

The Adventure 2004, Part 6

We went with Border Life, a group dedicated to educating Winter Texans' about the Rio Grande Valley to a citrus farm. The grapefruit were blooming, the air was sweet with the smell. We learned a lot and had a fun afternoon.

A grapefruit tree with the last of this years harvest. These are Rio Red grapefruit. They are marketed as Rio Stars, indicating they were grown in Texas, not in any other state.

Above, looking down the rows of grapefruit trees. At this farm they cut off the tops of the trees with a hedge cutter. They also never till inbetwen the rows and they use chemical weed control. At the end of the season, they will clean all the debris from under the trees and in the rows.

Left is an aspargus fern. This one started out as a house plant, was moved into the yard of the owner of the citrus farm. It is hard to tell the size, but it is about 4 to 5 feet TALL! Note the wooden fence in the background, it is about 6 foot tall.

Right: I call this a houseplant gone mad! This plant was planted as ground cover, the leaves are about 4 inches long. Once it starts up the tree, the leaves get substantially larger, some were about 12 inches or more long, and they get pretty splits in them. I grow this plant at home in Michigan as a houseplant, leaves about 3 inches long.

It has been very interesting seeing plants growing in the ground here in the Rio Grande Valley, that are grown as houseplants in the north. They grow ficus trees here in the RV park as ornamental trees (in the ground!). The ficus trees are 20 foot tall or taller. Takes my breath away every time I see them!

Above, beautiful hot pink bougainvillea between two century plants. This is in a garden area at the citrus farm. I think that might be a rubber plant in the right rear. Bougainvillea comes in lovely shades of hot pink and purple. They are stunning in a land that many times is dusty and windy.

Click here for more of Installment 6 of the Adventure of 2004.