A field trip out to the North Fork of Long Island, NY

August 13, 2009

A field trip out to the North Fork of Long Island, NY

Last Tuesday, I took a little field trip out to the North Fork of Long Island, New York along with my television garden editor, Andrea Mason. The purpose of the journey was to visit some of the wonderful plant growers located out there. Andrea needs to fill the TV greenhouse with gorgeous specimens, but we also wanted to gather ideas for interesting segments for the show. Our first stop was actually in-island at Angel Plants, headquartered in Dix Hills.

Angel Plants is a family owned and operated wholesale supplier of tropical and flowering plant material. Their facility encompasses 28,000 sq. ft. of glass greenhouses, 22,000 sq. ft. of gutter connected poly houses, and 7500 sq. ft. of warehouse space. They work closely with many of the country's top growers to stock only the healthiest plants and along with a fleet of trucks, Angel Plants supplies their customers with beautiful plant material on a frequent and timely basis. Andrea and I were quite impressed with what we found there.

: A very lush stephanotis – the clusters of white flowers are very fragrant and are popular for bridal bouquets.

: Andrea and I were having a field day on our field trip!

: The shiny, firm, green fronds a kangaroo fern, native to Australia and New Zealand

: The very colorful foliage of crotons

: This fern is called macho fern because of its large size. It’s like an overgrown Boston fern.

: Here I am with Russell Weiss, owner of Kurt Weiss Greenhouses, a family business which began in 1850 – he is one of the owners of Angel Plants.

: I showed the September issue of my magazine, Living, to Mr. Weiss – it has a fabulous story about how to decorate your home with houseplants.

: Ficus Lyrata is a decorative tree having broad, bold, giant leaves resembling a fiddle… hence the name ‘Fiddle leaf Fig.’ Lyrata can be trained to grow in a variety of shapes like lyrata braids, standards or bush form.

: Phoenix Roebelenii, or Pigmy Date Palm, is one of the more graceful and delicate looking of all palm varieties.

: Aglaonema Silver Queen – a very hardy, slow growing foliage plant, with striking dark green leaves, heavily variegated with silver.

: Cycads, an ancient group of plants which date back millions of years are often confused with palm trees and tree ferns.

: Here I am taking a photo of delicate and beautiful maidenhair ferns.

: A very colorful bromeliad – in their native habitat, many bromeliads grow on trees as epiphytes, catching moisture and organic nutrients in their central cups.

: Angel Plants has a large inventory of cacti and succulents. Andrea and I are taking notes for a future TV segment.

: The entrance to Angel Plants, Inc.

: Posing with some of the staff of Angel Plants – Ravindra, Bill, Tracy, me, Andrea, Bob, Russell, and Chuck

: #2 – The gateway into the rather large nursery

: Outdoors at Angel Plants stacks of urns and hardier specimens.

: There are many kinds of ivy and standard topiaries.

: Anther view of the macho ferns – I love these plants.

: A row of very colorful dracaena plants

: Aglaonema is a genus of about 40 species of foliage plants.

: Philodendron Gordo – philodendron is a very popular houseplant – a family consisting of hundreds of species.

: Bird’s Nest fern – the apple-green, tongue-shaped fronds of the bird’s nest fern are whole rather than cut. They emerge from a central, funnel-shaped rosette, where the still curled fronds resemble bird’s eggs.