Re: Question about Glasshouse Works

phil mueller (hi23ahg@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu)
Thu, 29 Jul 93 19:58:25 CDT

Perry asks:
>
> Glasshouse Works also offers three plants under the name
> "Vanilla
>
> Vanilla Jamaica
> Vamilla Planifolia Variegata
> Vanilla Roscheri
>
> Which one of these might produce the vanilla bean pods used for the
> flavoring (if the cultivator is skilled and/or lucky)? If they
> all do, which might be the easiest to grow? All three are listed
> as needing tropical greenhouse conditions, but the first two
> are also listed as being acceptable as house plants.
>
> Thanks in advance for your responses.
>
> Perry
>
V. planifolia is the plant commercial vanilla is produced from.
However, I have heard that in Mexico they raise V. fragrans
commercially. I remember a place on the Caribbean coast of
Mexico where they grew the vanilla beans in exotic animal
and bird shapes.

I have only had experience growing the native Florida species.
V. inoderata, dilloniana, and phaeantha are quite hardy, but
all are rather disorderly growers. V. planifolia was introduced
to Florida in the preColumbian period, but I never collected
it.(I lived in Florida in the 1960s not the 1460s ;-))

-- 


Phil Mueller
hi23ahg@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu
Tulane Graduate School
Xavier Univ. of LA History Dept.