Tag Archives: Canarius

Pollinating a rare Cycad: First phase, collecting the pollen from the male

Male cone of Cycas multifrondis Canarius | Sunday July 22nd, 2018 |
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A male cone is ready!

We grow different species of cycads as mother plants in order to obtain seeds for propagation. Here we show the mountain form of Cycas diannanensis. In february 2018, as our plants are about 8 years old, the first specimen achieved maturity and it is a male. Once the tall cone is fully exposed and developed it starts to shed yellow pollen.

Here in Tenerife, February is cool and wet. No females are ready, but one of the adjoining plants is now showing the tip of a female cone, which is much shorter and wider. It will be ready later, probably in mid-summer when the hot weather will make it grow faster.

So we collect the pollen from the male Cycas diannanensis ‘Mountain Form’ and store it for a later use. The pollen is put in a paper envelope and gently dried. It has to be refrigerated in order to last for months. Once the female cone will be ready we will try to inject the pollen inside to make the pollination happen. Our goal is to produce seeds and seedlings for our website www.canarius.com

Pollinating a rare cycad:

What is Cycas diannanensis ‘Mountain Form’ ?

rare male Cycad

Cold-hardy cycad from high elevation, with broad leaflets. Leaf margins are flat or undulate, not twisted on the rachis. It is a widespread species in China, distributed through central and eastern Yunnan, often found on steep slopes high on ridges, between about 600 and 1800 m. This species was described in the 1990′s. Leaves are bright green or deep green, highly glossy, 140-330 cm long. Cycas diannanensis is another frost hardy species.

This particular form of Cycas diannanensis was formerly named by Chinese botanists Cycas parvulus, known from the material collected around Mengdian village.


Know all the benefits of pineapple

Benefits-of-pineapple Canarius | Thursday July 14th, 2016 |
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Pineapple is considered one of the most popular tropical fruits in the world. Its sweet and refreshing taste makes the pineapple, also known as Ananas, a common food in the homes of many families.

It is a tropical fruit that contains lots of vitamins -such as vitamin C, B1, B6, B9 (folic acid) and some vitamin E- and minerals such as potassium, magnesium, iodine, copper and manganese.

In addition, the pineapple has diuretic and detoxifying properties that boost elimination of all those substances that can affect health if not properly removed.

Pineapple fruit has diuretic and detoxifying properties

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Much of the pineapple’s composition is water and a lot of fiber. That, together with it being very low in calories, makes it an ideal diet fruit.

Most of the benefits of pineapple is due to the presence of an enzyme called ‘bromelain’. An enzyme that improves digestion and has the ability to destroy intestinal parasites.

What is ‘bromelain’?

Eat-pineappleThe ‘bromelain‘ in the pineapple has anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, anti-edema and fibrinolytic properties. In fact, the pineapple’s antiinflammatory action could be useful in treating diseases involving inflammation. Such is the case of acute sinusitis, sore throat, arthritis or gout.

This enzyme present in said fruit also acts as a natural anticoagulant besides causing beneficial changes in white blood cells.

At Canarius we have pineapple!

ananas-comosus-cv-md-2-pineappleWe offer certified living plants of pineapple. MD-2 is the famous Del Monte “Gold Extra Sweet“, the best commercial cultivar of pineapple.

This supreme hybrid was developed by the Pineapple Research Institute in Hawaii (dissolved in 1986), which conducted research on behalf of the major pineapple companies. Del Monte released it later, in 1996.

It tastes twice as sweet as the former commercial varieties, and has a very high content vitamin C. This selection has been a revolution in the worldwide market of fresh pineapple (non-canned). In just ten year from its relase, it has taken up more than 50 percent of the global market, being the commercial pineapple of top quality.

The plant we offer was originally raised in vitro in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Then it was rooted and grown for months in a greenhouse, in order to achieve robust plants of a good size.

Our plants are 20-30 cm in diameter. Size in cm is variable, but we will always choose one well-rooted robust specimen.

When will it bloom and fruit?

Pineapples grow fast in full sun and hot weather. Our plant will take just one year to bloom if kept in a warm environment. On the other hand it can easily take three or more years in a weakly heated greenhouse in Europe. Pineapple is a tropical plant. It is sensitive to frost and cold weather in general. Keep above 10º C in Winter.

Some Kinds of Litchi Chinensis in Tenerife

Litchi-chinensis Canarius | Wednesday July 6th, 2016 |
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Lychee is a subtropical evergreen tree native to eastern China, where it has been cultivated for thousands of years. The tree has a medium size reaching up to 2-3 m (6-8 ft).

Its fruit is smooth, aromatic and juicy inside the thin, rough, slightly spiky and leathery pink to red shell. Litchi chinensis has a small inedible brown seed. Rich in vitamin C, it is available mainly in mid-summer. Eaten fresh, used in fruit salads, also bottled, canned, frozen and dried (lychee nuts).

At Canarius we have Litchi chinensis. This variety thrives and fruits regularly in the warmer coastal Mediterranean. It does not grow well in the tropics, because it needs cool winters, with temperatures below 12º C in order to induce flowering. It only takes short, light frost.

LITCHI CHINENSIS KWAI MAI PINK

The “cold-hardy” lychee tree. This Chinese lychee variety produces fruits in cooler locations and and fruits very late, in mid-summer. Fruits are greenish-pink and quality is very good.

Kwai-Mai-Pink

LITCHI CHINENSIS EARLY LARGE RED

The variety “Early Large Red” has a fruit slightly more than 2,5 cm (1 “) long, usually obliquely heart-shaped, crimson, with green interspaces, very rough, skin very firm and leathery, adhering slightly to the flesh. Flesh greyish-white, firm, sweet and flavourful. It is a moderate bearer, early in season.

Early-Large-Red

LITCHI CHINENSIS TAI SO

“Tai-so” is a vigorous chinese cultivar of Lychee. It produces regularly and abundantly. The fruit is sweet, pink to red. It is also called Mauritius Lychees in the western trade, but also Hong Huey or Hong Huay, Da Zao and Tai Tsao in Asia.

Tai-So

LITCHI CHINENSIS KAIMANA

One of the best tasting large lychees. It is a subtropical perennial tree native to eastern China where it has been cultivated for thousands of years. The tree has a medium size reaching up to 2-3 m (6-8 ft). Its fruit is smooth, aromatic and juicy inside the thin, rough, slightly spiky and leathery pink to red shell.

The variety “Kaimana” has a large fruit, deep-red, of high quality, and the tree is a regular bearer. Lychee thrives and fruits regularly in the warmer Mediterranean. It needs cool winters, with temperatures below 12º C.

Kaimana

Here we present some of the newest in our online shop:

LITCHI CHINENSIS SUEY TONG

LITCHI CHINENSIS CALCUTIA

How to grow Cycads? Maurice Levin tell us:

Cycads-Canarius Canarius | Thursday May 19th, 2016 |
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cycas-tanqingii-specimenCycads (division Cycadophyta) are unique plants from remote and primitive ages. They’re a species with similar forms to palms and ferns, despite not being related to each other. They’re also gymnosperms, in the Cycadales order, so do not produce flowers but do produce cones, such as pines and other conifers.

Cycads live in tropical and subtropical environments: humid rainforests, dry rainforests, cloud forests, pine-oak forests and shrubland. They’re often in danger and restricted to innaccessible or hard to reach areas. However, others grow in mountainous areas with cold temperatures, even tolerating frost and snow.

Some Cycads have become popular ornamentals

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dioon-edule-specimenMost Cycad species grow well in the garden and they’re excellent potted plants. Some have become popular decorative plants, while others are very rare and are protected by law, such as CITES species (an international treaty against over-exploitation due to international trade).

Cycads are easy to grow because they do not require particular treatment. Watering frequency depends on the temperature and exposure of the plant: the soil of a plant that’s exposed to the sun will dry very quickly, so it should be watered more often. Although we must also be careful with waterlogging plantpots as it’s not a species that’s very tolerant of this.

Of course. Farmers should be very patient, since they’re slow-growing plants. As a revealing fact, we can highlight that Cycads can live for more than 2,000 years.

Maurice Levin, Cycad Expert

Below, we share a video in which planter and preservationist, Maurice Levin (founder of Jurassic Garden — A&A Cycads, a family-owned rare plant nursery in California), explains what Cycads are and their most optimum growing methods:

At Canarius our Cycads are plants grown from seeds, two or more years old, and grown in tall planters. All plants are grown legally.

We offer the largest selection of Cycads genus in Europe, with many new Chinese species resistant to cold. Visit the Cycad section on our blog and find out why our plants are of excellent quality.

Curare enano: fried, baked or boiled

Curare-enano-banana Canarius | Friday April 15th, 2016 |
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The banana is an important source of food in rural areas of most tropical and subtropical countries. Curare enano is a dwarf cooking-plantain from Central America, with excellent fruit quality.

The Canary Islands

In Honduras, Curare enano is the second most cultivated fruit and it’s available all year round. However, as we have already mentioned in the past, thanks to the subtropical climate of the Canary Islands, at Canarius we also have Musa “Curare enano” – Dwarf Cooking Plantain.

Thanks to the subtropical climate of Tenerife, at Canarius we also have Curare enano

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Also, the variety of Curare enano plantain is found mainly in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Colombia, where it’s exported all over the world.

The preferred method for consumption is normally fried, but it can also be baked or boiled. In addition, it’s ideal for making patacones or plantain chips.

Some features of this banana

musa-curare-enano-dwarf-cooking-horn-plantain

The plant normally doesn’t exceed two and a half metres high, making it less susceptible to wind damage. It also requires a low dose of water for production and is quite easy to grow.

A Curare enano is harvested nine months after planting and yields between 35 and 40 bananas per cluster. It’s advisable to keep them in greenhouses when you want to grow them in areas that aren’t of a tropical or subtropical climate.

These types of advantages are part of the great current business opportunity regarding the Musa “Curare enano” on the international scene. Although good agricultural practices are also crucial for providing good yields of this variety of banana.

Alluding to these banana leaves, often have wavy blades. This is not a disease or disorder but it is typical of this dwarf cultivar, a difference in morphology just like its dwarfness.

What do we ship?

packing-canarius

We ship a stout rooted sucker, not a potted plant. You will receive it with the corm wrapped in a bag with moist sphagnum or perlite. In spring, suckers may not have roots. In this case, suckers are easy to root if temperatures are kept between 20 and 30º C.

Let’s talk about our Canarian Honeydew Honey

Banana-Honeydew-honey Canarius | Thursday March 17th, 2016 |
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These bees are doing something really special! They are collecting resinous secretions from below the bracts of a banana inflorescence. They will use them to make a different type of honey, the renown honeydew honey. “Honeydew” is made out of anything except flower nectar and it is different from all other honeys. It is considered healthier than typical bee honey.

Honeydew honey or ”forest honey” is a sticky liquid, rich in sugar and produced by bees from the sweet secretions of aphids or plant lice (group of soft-bodied, sap-sucking, disease vector insects) and other plant sap-sucking insects. It can be found in banana (banana inflorescences) or avocado plantations.

Other species from which honeydew honey is normally extracted from are pine, fir, oak and cork trees, along with other shrubby plants. However in Tenerife, it’s most common in the aforementioned plants.

Honeydew honey is produced in the northern part of Tenerife Island during the warmer months

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Honey-bee

Aphids or “plant lice” inject their mouthparts into the phloem (plant tissue consisting of vessels or sieve-tube elements that carry the produced sap) from which they extract the sugary liquid forced out of the end opening of the gut.

Unlike the common honey extracted by bees from flowers, which is more transparent and sweeter, honeydew honey has a much darker colour. It also tastes less sweet and solidifies with difficulty.

Honeydew honey is very healthy and often recommended. It’s a food that is high in minerals, especially in iron (because it has more conductivity than other types of honey). So it is recommended when there are deficiencies in body iron levels. The sugar levels are also lower than the other honeys.

Honeydew honey is produced in the northern part of Tenerife Island during the warmer months. This type of natural food is very popular in Europe and Turkey for its medicinal use.

On our Canarius online store we sell honeydew honey (also called forest honey) certified, in a glass jar with a net weight of 485 grams. Go ahead and try our honeydew honey. Remember it’s healthier!

How to Root Sugarcane Cuttings

Canarius | Tuesday January 12th, 2016 |
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Sugar-canes-in-Canarius

saccharum-officinarum-ceniza-bengala-striped-sugarcane

Sugar Cane is a 3-5 m tall tropical grass that produces most of the world sugar. Saccharum officinarum grows outdoors in tropical to warm mediterranean climates. Canes can be peeled and eaten at any moment, they are best after blooming. Sugar cane is very fast growing in hot summer weather, with abundant water and fertilize.

Cuttings are the best way to reproduce sugar cane, because they root easily and will give a plant exactly like the original mother plant. Reproduction from seed is much slower and it is only used experimentally in order to produce new cultivars.

The best rooting temperature is 20-30 C. Cuttings can be planted directly in soil or they can be rooted in water. New roots and new shoots will develop from the nodes: these are the dull-coloured rings present on each stem, formed as leaf-scars when old leaves fall off. Usually roots come first and then the buds wake up and form new primary shoots.

  • In soil: use a fluffy, sandy, draining soil. You can do it in two ways: stick the cuttings upright, burying 2/3 or them in the soil mix, or place the cuttings horizontally underground, lightly buried for a few millimeters. Keep them moist.
  • In water: put the cuttings upright in a tall glass filled with water. Roots will show up in one or two weeks. Move the rooting cuttings to soil after about one month from the start of the process.

how-to-root-sugarcane-cuttings

Cuttings can be rooted in sun or shade. It does not matter, because during about one month the rooting plants will live at the expenses of the sugar stored in the stem. After this time, the rooted plants should be moved to full sun as soon as possible, so the canes will start to grow thick thanks to their own photosynthesis.

Buy sugarganes from the Canary Islands

Saccharum_Caña_de_AzucarCome and visit our shop, www.canarius.com, and you will find different cultivars of traditional sugarcanes from the Caribbean, Polynesia and the Canary Islands. We ship to our customers packs of two super-thick cuttings ready to root and sprout.

Cordyline fruticosa ‘Lyon’s Black’, the boldest cultivar

Canarius | Wednesday December 30th, 2015 |
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CORDYLINE-FRUTICOSA-CV

The genus Cordyline, belongs to the botanical family Asparagaceae, and it is native to Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia and S.E. Asia; also one species comes from South America.

In this case, we talk about the uncommon Cordyline fruticosa ‘Lyon’s Black’. This dark-leaved selection bears large sized, almost black leaves, with blueish wax. The whole plant is very erect and robust, 2 to 4,5 m tall. ‘Lyon’ s Black’ is one of the boldest cultivars. It was selected at Lyon Arboretum, in Honolulu, Hawaii. It typically blooms in Winter, with attractive sprays of pink-mauve flowers.

Its extremely dark foliage is a must in tropical gardens because it creates an incredible contrast with green backgrounds. The best colour is achieved in full sun.

As most large-sized Hawaiian cordylines, ‘Lyon’ s Black’ grows thick roots underground and is more resistant to wind, drought and cold than the smallest cultivars often sold in garden centres for indoor decoration. If its height is too much, it can be chopped in Spring at the desired height and it will soon sprout back from the cut stems.

About the exotic Cordylines

cordyline-fruticosa

Cordyline fruticosa is a marvelous foliage plant originating in the Pacific Islands. It adaptable to bright shade can grow indoors as a house plant. The wild type has green glossy leaves that are used throughout Polynesia to make food-wraps or the famous hula skirts. Many colourful cultivars have been selected for ornamental purposes.

Our Hawaiian selections will also be perfect in the tropical or subtropical garden. They can take cool temperatures but will be damaged or killed by frost. These “outdoor cultivars” bear leathery leaves and grow thick tuberous roots underground. They can even stand the cold winters of the coastal Mediterranean, especially if sheltered from the wind.

If you grow plants in full sun, you will obtain larger, robust specimens with thicker leaves. These plants will be much hardier to drought, wind and cold than plants grown in the shade.

Cordyline fruticosa ‘Lyon’s Black’, the boldest cultivar

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After a few years, pot-grown Cordylines can start to become tall and leggy. If so, they can be kept low by pruning or air layering the shoots that become too tall. They will sprout new shoots from the base or from the cut.

The plant that we offer at Canarius is 20-40 cm tall and it is about 1 year old from cutting. It is grown in a pot of about 12-14 cm. Would you like to try a Cordyline fruticosa “Lyon’s Black”? Get it right now from us!

 

Plumeria ‘Japanese Lantern’

Canarius | Tuesday December 1st, 2015 |
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japanese-lantern1

Plumerias are small tropical trees native to tropical America, renowned for their flowers. Their common name, Frangipani, comes from a famous perfume of the eighteenth-century. Depending on the cultivar, they can grow up to 3 to 10 m tall. Moreover, plumerias are easy to grow, regardless of the region where you live.

plumerias-canariusWild species of Plumeria are native to warm tropical areas of the Caribbean, Central America and N. South America. These are very diverse in growth habit and their flowers are always white-and-yellow. They are all deciduous and shed leaves during the cool, dry season.

On the other hand, cultivated hybrids of Plumeria rubra are found throughout the world, in warm mediterranean to tropical areas. They are recognized by the showy and very fragrant flowers called Frangipani, developed in a wide range of colours: white, yellow, pink, red, orange…

Plumeria flowers have thick, waxy petals, with a predominance of two colours (depending on the hybrid), varying from the center to the edge of the petal, as we can see in this Plumeria ‘Japanese Lantern’:

 

japanese-lanternPlumeria “Japanese Lantern”

It is an old, classic, great cultivar of Plumeria, with drooping flower heads. Individual flowers have narrow petals, twisted at the tip. They are pink-red, with a small, brilliant yellow center.

‘Japanese Lantern’ is one of the few plumerias that blooms almost continuously throughout the warmest months – In the Canary Islands it can flower from April to December: 8 or 9 months per year instead of the typical 4-6 months of most cultivars. Some inflorescences can also survive to winter and start producing new flowers in early Spring.

The plant is very easy to grow and bloom. It is quite upright and thin at first but very robust eventually, becoming a long lived tree. It is perfect for landscaping where dense summer shade is required.

We ship a well rooted plant, 40-80 cm tall, sometimes branched, sometimes not. Usually an adult tip-cutting that can bloom in one year or less. Plumerias are leafless in winter and spring, so depending on the season, they can be shipped with pots or bare rooted in paper or sphagnum.

In our online store, Canarius, we have an ever-increasing offer of plumerias: Bali Whirl, Palermitana, Kauka Wilder, Sally Moragne… What is your favourite one?

An uncommon Archontophoenix species from Northern Australia

Canarius | Friday October 9th, 2015 |
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archontophoenix-tuckeriArchontophoenix tuckeri, known as Rocky River palm or Cape York palm, is native to Northern Australia. Even though this palm species is native to a tropical area, A. tuckeri can sometimes stand light frosts. In this sense, we can affirm that it is suited to coastal Mediterranean condition.

There is a beautiful adult specimen in Sicily, Italy, that took 13 years from seed to start flowering.

This palm tree grows better in fertile soils regularly and abundantly irrigated during the warmest months. It can be kept at a minumum winter temperature of 0ºC to 10ºC. Archontophoenix tuckeri has a slender solitary stem up to 20 metres tall, of about 25 cm of diameter.

Likewise, the leaves are pinnate (up to about 3 m long) and silver underneath, somewhat pendulous or drooping. Although the new leaves are often in tones of pink, red or bronze. This hard-to-find palm is especially beautiful when it is blooming or when it is loaded with red fruits. Flowers of A. tuckeri are cream-white and have 13-19 stamens.

Fruit are red or brick-red at maturity, about 2 cm long. In our online shop, Canarius, we offer young plants of Archontophoenix tuckeri, sown in 2013, ready for your green space. Furthermore, we should take into account that these young specimens may be used for the decoration of brigh indoor spaces.

Get right now from Canarius a potted Archontophoenix tuckeri sown in 2013. Remember that we ship to anywhere (from the Canary Islands to the world).

Archontophoenix tuckeri, well-known by everyone as Rocky River palm or Cape York palm

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