Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Dormant Tropicals, 1 by glendalekid

glendalekid wrote:
Steven,

The lantana and the night-blooming jasmine are planted in the ground. They died back even though I kept them covered with frost cloth on cold nights. They are both coming back with new sprouts. The regular green-leaved lantana also dies to the ground here and comes back from the roots. My next-door neighbor in CA was a Mexican lady who told me that in Mexico the jasmine is called "Smells In The Night."

I had 14 brugmansias that I started last year from cuttings. All but two are coming back from the roots, and they are planted in the ground as well. I understand they are easy to grow from seed, but I haven't tried it myself. I tend to be impatient with slow-germinating seeds.

My two "why did they die" mysteries are my tecoma stans, which should have been hardy to 10 degrees, appears to be very dead, and my English walnut, which the trunk died again, is coming back from the roots. As far as I can tell neither of these should have done this. With the tecoma there are some kind of volunteers coming up under it that I think may be baby tecomas. I'm going to leave them until they are big enough to be sure what they are.

Some of the potted plants I lost may have drowned rather than died from cold. They were in pots that I had outside, and I covered them on cold nights, but I think they got too much rain. I believe this is what happened to the starfruit. Lesson learned for next year, keep potted plants out of the rain. LOL.

Have you tried passionflowers? We have one of these, and it never even lost a leaf all winter. It is hardy to your zone. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1264/ Right now it has dozens and dozens of buds (I lost count after 60) and a number of blooms already. Here's a pic of about half of it. It's planted on the corner of the deck, so it goes both directions on the trellis.

Karen