Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Tropical Garden #91 - February 2011, 1 by plantladylin

plantladylin wrote:
Oh, it's great to see all the smiling faces of our friends here on DG. Y'all look great!

Debra: I searched but couldn't find the thread showing your purse planter. I just threw an old leather purse out a few days ago, I should have kept it for another planter! I might have to make another purse planter in the near future but I will have to poke holes in the bottom of the purse for drainage ... yep, I did something like that once using plastic inside and it was hanging out in the rain and filled with water ... the plant floated right out.

Kay: you might be able to grow the Tree Philo's (P. bipinnatifidum) in your area. http://www.floridata.com/ref/p/phil_bip.cfm I know everything states zone 9a and higher but we have a large stand of them in our side yard that were here when we moved in. They've survived a number of freezes over the past 36 years ... turning completely to mush when we have heavy frosts and hard freezes, but always re-sprout in the spring. If you have an area that has tree cover for a bit of overhead protection and mulch heavily I think they might just surprise you!

Martha: Great photo of you ... and Bop! I've always loved horses from a distance ... I've never ridden one though, I guess they scare me a bit because of their size. My husbands eldest brother (now deceased) raised a few Arabians many years ago.

Gordon: The home you built for your mother sounds amazing, the perfect type home for growing tropical plants indoors with the huge skylights, doors and windows!

HollyAnn: I had forgotten that you were a scuba diver! My husband loves to dive but doesn't get to do it very often. He hopes to be able to go back to the Bahamas for a few weeks in the summer. It's been five years since we were there. I'm not a diver and my husband and our friends who dive keep telling me what I'm missing with all the beauty beneath the sea ... but I prefer to stay on the boat. I would never be able to dive because I panic too easily, and I'd probably have a heart attack if I saw a large shark or barracuda ... no thanks, I will watch from up top, LOL.

I haven't been to Bok Tower Gardens in years, it is a beautiful place to spend a day: http://boktowergardens.org/the-tower

That Canna looks like one growing in my backyard but I can't remember if mine is named Cleopatra. I used to have photo's and names on my computer but when my laptop crashed a year ago I lost thousands of photo's and files. My husband gave me an external hard drive and told me I should do a backup every so often. I think I learned my lesson, but still don't do backups as often as I should.

This is a photo of the Canna last summer: