Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Tropical Garden #122, 1 by dyzzypyxxy

dyzzypyxxy wrote:
Alice, give it a top-dressing of some compost or potting soil each spring and fall. Maybe that would be enough to keep the soil from getting too saturated with the natural phosphorus? IF the roots were in the original potting soil, and now have started reaching out into the native soil with all that phos, that could explain how it did well last year and is waning this year.

I do the top dressing with my two that are in-ground. Our sandy soil just lets all the organic material wash through, so need to keep renewing it. Down here, they get nematodes though, I discovered. I'm resigned to just renewing the ones in the ground every 3 or 4 years. When I finally bit the bullet and yanked my old original NoID pink one, the roots were completely knotted up with nematode damage.

Just came in from dousing all the big ones with Epsom salts solution. Had completely forgotten about that!
1. Monster white c/w top dressing and mulch (please ignore all those weeds . . .)
2. Cypress vine self-sows all over the place
3. Gingers and cannas are lovin all this rain!