Tropicals & Tender Perennials: My tropical garden, 0 by bruglover

bruglover wrote:
Thank you all for your kind words. Tropicman we both know you are still the King!! Kell the vine is a mandevilla. Sue, we do have lots of humidity and good soil-I don't have to do anything to it. I do not have a greenhouse so I have been working the past three years on things I can overwinter in the garage and house. The garage is attached and when a cold snap comes I have to run a space heater for a few days. I just make sure it stays above freezing. The past few winters haven't been that cold so have been lucky that I don't have to run the heater very often. The average temp probably stays around 40 in the garage. Yes a majority of the plants are in pots. Most of the banana's are planted in the ground and so are the brug's and elephant ears. They just do so much better. They have gotten so big this year it is going to be fun digging them. One good thing about putting the brugs in the garage is you don't have to cut them back to fit through the door!! (also don't have to deal with the mites) This way I can have blooms in late May-early June. Here is a picture of the base of my orinoco from last year. I had to cut it down because it was to big to for me to handle. This spring these 3 babies came up and boy have they grown. One more thing I might add. When I bring my plants out in the spring they look terrible!!!! I keep them alive this way but not thriving. Lots of them don't have leaves so you don't have to worry about the leaves burning just stick them straight out in the sun....