Northeast Gardening: What's Growing - Part 11 -Fall's Upon Us!, 1 by Hikaro_Takayama

Hikaro_Takayama wrote:
Grampapa, Here's a pic of a FEW of the plants I'm experimenting on.....

In the collage, starting at the top left corner: One of my 4 Needle palms... This one was a 3-gallon plant that I got in SC, and it has a 6" trunk that is covered by the protective leaf mulch right now. The brown leaf tips happened the same day I bought them... I was visiting my Uncle in Walhalla, SC (who told me that a local nursery had the palms), over the 4th of July weekend, and I left the containers out on his hot, concrete driveway for a few hours, and came out to see the leaf tips had burnt... OOPS! The new growth (two fronds and counting) has all been healthy, and there has been no cold damage, so far.

In the top Right corner is my "Banana Plantation" which consists of 3 Musa basjoo and 1 Musa acuminata 'Rajapuri' Despite the 4 days of frosty weather we had this past weekend, they were virtually untouched, thanks to being on the leeward side of my mature grove of Phyllostachys aureosulcata (Yellow Groove bamboo). My 4th basjoo, which was in a somewhat more exposed area, got zapped pretty good by the frost. Also in this pic are two of my Cordyline australis plants (including one 'Red Star Spike' cultivar). If you look close, you can just make out the culms of my bamboo grove in the background.

In the bottom left is my Colocasia 'Big Dipper' that I got from Brian Williams (our resident Aroid breeder). They were in a somewhat more exposed area, but as you can see, they were untouched by the cold.... Brian says that these are a hardy variety of EE that he has overwintered outside for the past 6 years or so in his Louisville, KY location. 'Big Dipper' is similar in appearance to C. 'Coffee Cups', but it is hardier, has bigger leaves, grows taller, and the leaves aren't as cupped.

In the Bottom right pic is a Camellia 'Snow Flurry' which is supposedly hardy here. I bought it Sunday at the local HD, and planted it in a recently managed section of the woods. I just cleared out about 20 deal elm trees from that section, as well as what had to be the biggest multiflora rose bush and Japanese honeysuckle vine tangle in the state. I'm planning on mowing a small clearing from here on out, and the Camellia is at the edge of the clearing. This cultivar, in addition to being hardy is also winter-blooming, and it is just loaded with buds... It will be nice to have something in the yard that is not only evergreen but also starts blooming in November, and possibly will bloom through Christmas as well!

I hope everyone enjoyed this small sampling.... I'll try to get some more pics on a day that is more photogenic (I had to do som serious post-work on these photos due to it being overcast and rainy today... my choices were either dark and clear, or bright (by lenthening exposure) and fuzzy (due to my lack of a tripod that is necesarry for taking long-exposure low-light pics), so I ended up, for the most part, of going with the bright and fuzzy, since Paint Shop Pro can fix that in a jiffy...

And FTR, I'm also about 60% German myself..... My Mom's family name, and My family name are both German in Origin. The other 40% is made up of Scottish, Irish, Hebrew, Itallian, and French.... So basically, just about all my ancestors came from a proud tradition of berserker warriors, LOL!