Tropicals & Tender Perennials: TROPICAL PLANTS AND GARDENS #131, 0 by Hikaro_Takayama

Hikaro_Takayama wrote:
Lovely looking ginger you got there, Elaine! I really like gingers, particularly varigated ones. (one of the reasons I got Z. mioga 'Dancing Crane' and 'Silver Arrow' instead of just plain old Z. mioga). Do the flowers have a kind of sweet gingery scent like most gingers I've seen blooming before?

Anyways, I know I'm a bit late on this, but it was pouring rain two days solid around here, and the sun finally came out, so I now have my promised pics.

First pic is one of the Musa xishongbananensis "Mekong Giant" hardy bananas that I got from Plant Delights about two weeks ago. It's been loving the rain.

Second pic is some of my hardy trunk-forming yuccas. The closest one in the foreground is some unknown hybrid that I bought from Brian Williams (or his dad, more specifically) in 2009 that he got from some guy in Italy. It appears to be a cross between Y. filamentosa and Y. aloifolia, but it's dead hardy and will get a cluster of trunks up to about 6' high. The middle one is Yucca recurvifolia (or Y. gloriosa var. recurvifolia, depending on who you ask) and is the one I got in Chincoteauge last summer. It was doing pretty bad after spending all winter in its root-bound nursery pot in my garage for most of the winter, but since I planted it outside in late March it's been doing fairly well. The furthest one away is Y. gloriosa "Lone Star" which I got at a different nursery near Chincoteague last year, and it spent the winter and all of last summer in the same conditions that the Y. recurvifolia did and was planted out at the same time. As you can see, it seems to be hardier (or at least more robust) than the Y. recurvifolia.

Third pic is my one WIndmill palm that has survived outside with no protection since I planted it in September of 2007 (after purchasing it from Brian Williams, the guy who introduced the "Mekong Giant" hardy banana to the US). The reason it is so small is because where it was planted had almost full shade all day long, yet it survived and perservered where all my other windmill palms died off. Not that I've moved it to a spot with more sun, it's already starting to grow noticeably faster (it's already pushed out as many leaves since I moved it at the end of April as it did in an entire year when I had it planted under horrible growing conditions).

Second to last pic is one of my Poncirus Trifoliata (Hardy Orange), one of my three Sabal Minor (I've had FAR more success with S. minor than other hardy palms, only losing one of the original 4 in the past 6 years I've been growing them outside here without protection). Again it's kinda stunted due to the fact that where I planted it, while initially an open clearing, had the tree canopy close over it during the past 6 years, resulting in it being stuck in almost full shade. The plant on the farthest right is one of my earliest experiments in unusual plants for this area, a Fargesia nitida (Blue Fountain Bamboo) clump that I bought in 2005 from a local nursery. It has about doubled in size since then, but again, where I had it planted before was a bit shadier than it would have liked (now it gets part shade, which is ideal rather than light/full shade it got before).

Final picture has one of my Rhodea Japonica plants that is blooming, as well as the mystery arum. From what I can see of the leaves, I'd SWEAR it was a Calla Lily, but as I said before, they SHOULDN'T be hardy in this area.... Maybe I have some extra-hardy sport, or possibly it's planted close enough to the foundation for the soil temp to be high enough for it to survive, but in any case it's survived two winters outside with no protection.... I'd like to see about dividing it at some point and planting the divisions at different places around my property and see if they survive next winter... If they do, then I might see if any of the local nurseries would be interested in propogating it....

Of course I could be wrong in my identification, so perhaps some of you experts could help me out?