Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Tropical Garden # 85, 1 by plantladylin

plantladylin wrote:
I've been browsing around the DG Garden the past hour or so and came across this thread ... I just had to comment on all the wonderful plants y'all are growing! Really beautiful!

Debra: That Stictocardia is really amazing ... really one beautiful plant! What an inspiration you are, growing all those tropical plants in your basement! Do you have lights on timers? Boy, what a job it must be trying to care for so many plants. Great growing!

prita: What is the gorgeous plant with blue flowers in your photo here? http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=8241101 I love the color of those blooms!

mjsponies: Love that Hoya mindorensis ... that bloom is really pretty, is that a fragrant Hoya? H. lacunosa is extremely fragrant, one of my favorites! I have one that just finished blooming a few days ago and sometimes with that plant inside the fragrance can become overpowering and my allergies act up so I have to move it back outside. Wow, I saw your picture with all the frost and I first thought I was looking at a photo from somewhere up north! We haven't had any frost that I've noticed yet but the bird baths have been almost solid ice the past couple of mornings. We've had lows of 30º and 31º the past two nights, but luckily it's only lasted for a couple of hours at most.
Brrr ... too cold for this time of year! I sure hope this isn't a sign of what the winter is going to be like! It's supposed to be back to the mid 70's by the weekend, but then next week the weather reports predict lows in the mid to upper 20's for us here in Daytona Beach!! We usually only have brief cold snaps in January and February and no one wants to see another winter like the record breaking cold we had last year! I lost many plants last winter, some I'd had for 25-30 years. and I think I will probably end up losing a few this winter as well, if the past few nights are a sign of whats to come and the weather folks predictions are correct. My house is real small and there's not a lot of room for plants. I have a wooden rod strung across a window in the guest room where I hang my orchids and hoyas but everything else has to be crammed into the unheated back porch and my husband hung heavy tarps on the north side of the wood deck where other large plants are kept. Everything is covered in blankets but if we have extreme cold like last winter I know many things will not survive.

Dave: Is the Hoya in your photo here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=8239784 a Hoya australis? I have a very large australis that's budding up right now. I look forward every winter to those fragrant blooms!

I am loving the pictures y'all are posting of your gorgeous plants. Great growing everyone!

... I think I need to ask Santa for a greenhouse!

I took this picture last week, Alocasia Frydek usually goes dormant in January/February and re-sprouts sometime in April.