Tropical Plants and Gardens #116

Elaine,
Save me one of those monster whites, please! I also have lots of cuttings, but mine are a gold and lite pink. I just cut the tree down and it is in a bucket, got to cut in in smaller pieces.

Sure will. My gold/yellow one isn't nearly as vigorous as the white and the pink ones. I don't have any cuttings going from it yet.

Seems like it's been less than a week since I pruned the Monster and all the little pieces have roots started already!

Anybody have experience with Pitcher plant? I thought it was a tender, heat lover, but it's been putting on new growth all winter, even though I've only protected it a couple of cold nights. It's climbing out of its little hanging pot.

Elaine,
I have two pitcher plants I have had for about 5 or 6 years. They just keep growing. I have tried 3 times (unsucessfully) to root them. No luck. Here they are last year I think. The longest one is about 7-8 ft long.

and the second.....

I also have another I bought last year and its already about 2 ft long.

So I'm freezing up here in Ocala, the only plants are an orchid on my desk from the sale on Saturday in Sarasota, and and at home here in Ocala, along with markdown/rescues from Home Depot and Lowe's! May try to get some plants around the condo put in, but really need to be careful as the irrigation system is not the best. At least we had a good rain yesterday.
In case anyone is wondering, my neighbor is taking care of my yard in exchange for a load of horse manure. Fair trade I think!
Debi

Elaine, I think I would like to try one of those Monster Whites too. For years I had such bad luck with Brugs but ever since I got that Super Spot to bloom I am on a high. Of course, the one I have did not grow very much, it is only about 3' and looks like a skinny adolescent, but it did flower, repeatedly. LOL

Alice, I'll put your name down for a start of the Monster, too. It's super vigorous, I'm sure you will love it. I'll be able to send my starts earlier than Deb, but of course she's probably got backup, if I run out.

Gotta say, I left it in a big pot, rather than planting in the ground as I did with the pink one I grew from Deb, and it's done better. We'll see this spring how it does, but certainly the 'skinny adolescent" description fits the pink one now, too. They are heavy feeders and love water, too. So again, competing with the oak tree roots that are under every part of my garden may not bode well for the pink one. I may sink the pot with Monster in it, rather than plant it directly in-ground.

Paula, your pitcher plants are great! I needed to know what the new shoots that are heading straight up will do, but from your pictures, I guess they will flop over and make pitchers. Looks like I could give it a bigger pot and just let 'er rip, huh.

I'm heading out for the orchid guy's place now.

checking out new plants to get and im seeing some i have wanted for awhile
but i dont know of the reliability of the nursey..they sell off their own website and on ebay..
oaistropicalplantandtrees4U ???
has anyone had any experiece with them..good or bad???
theres some bananas i have had trouble finding for sale that they have
that arent tiny plants..
thanks ..still winter here..though my lettuce is up.. :)

Which plants are you looking for? Maybe some of us could trade with you - we have quite a diverse list of plants we grow and another that we want!

Edited to add: I did an ebay search for this seller and couldn't locate her/him - can you post a link to his store?

This message was edited Jan 20, 2012 7:30 PM

Tn777, I tried the Garden Watchdog (found above under Products & Sources) and it's not listed. Is it Oasis Tropical Plants and Trees 4U?

Anyway, the best guideline you could use would be to watch the Customer Satisfaction percentage on eBay. If somebody has a bad experience with a seller, they'll let eBay know and that lowers the satisfaction percentage. I'd wait a while and let others give them a test or two before sending them your money.

Better throw a blankie over your lettuce plants, there's snow on the way! My kids in Salt Lake have been moaning about the terrible skiing this winter.

thanks kay..and dyzz..
their site is oaistropicalplantsandtrees4U.com
all their plants are tissue culture..their feedback on ebay is good..but
just not alot of feeback.. so u are prob right dyzz..
on the snow.. i just dont think here in ut county were going to get a winter..LOL
temp today was over 50F so i dragged out some potted tropicals..
my lettuce is in a cold frame..so i hope it'll be ok..
im looking for bananas .. that get large.. right now.. kandrain..and saba..
i should also post in plants looking for..
i did with a zanthosoma robusta..and homer came to my rescue with a nursery in lousiana..
my robustas got super sized!!!
thanks again....

OK, tell us the name of the Louisiana nursery - we are ALWAYS interested in a new place to mail-order plants!

Durios Nursery in La. has great plants.

777 If you don't like what you get from Oasis, they will make it right!

My neighbor planted this noid brug in the median in our cul de sac and the two of us fussed over it all summer and fall. It was mostly my neighbor doing the fussing, I would just pass on Debra's instructions and they worked very well. It bloomed profusly in the fall and flowered again this week. This little guy easily handled the cold earlier this month, it lost a few leaves but still seems quite happy.

it has taken awhile to catch up in here. wonderful pictures as always. not much blooming except the shooting star clero. these are super tall.

this is a closer picture

a few starfruit.

even though not much is flowering the philos are always nice

dyzzypyxxy i think the pitcher plants like rain water.

this leaf is so red.

ardesia have you been to palm hammock? isn't it great1 it is right by my job very had not to swing by everyonce in a while.

burgundy one.

one of my favorites

I'm so jealous of your Shooting Star clero's, Cassie! Mine are sitting, loaded with buds trying to make up their minds to bloom or give up and drop all their leaves like they did the last two years. I'm wondering if they need more water, but I think what they need is more warmth.

Thanks for the tip on rainwater for the Pitcher plant - I'll move it so it gets water from the rain barrels.

Alice, the little boulevard Brug looks so pretty. I'll bet having pavement all around it kept it warmer through the cold weather.

I have one bloom on my B.Charles Grimaldi and the plumeria pudica I got from Rita has opened more flowers and branched!

I'm DOUBLE jealous of you, 'cause I don't have a shooting star Clero.!

homer..ya..durios was great !!! plants were big..and didnt go thru any shock.when i planted
my xanthos..they just took off..yea..
? so.youve bought from oasis before?? their webpage has alot on..wanting to make their
custormers happy..ive havent dealt with them..but they have some bananas..i want..so..
lol

Cassie, that Star Fruit looks soooooo yummy !! Saw some in the Grocery store today and they were $2.00 EACH. Yikes !!!!
Well I will probably never get to see a Shooting Star Cleo. as big as yours. I'll need to grow it in a container as it will get frosted here before I'd get to see the blooms if I put it in the ground.

same here, I would never see any kind of clerodendrum if I left them out in the ground..

Lookee what I found in the 'nursery' under my plant stands - Begonia odorata alba with flowers! No scent yet, but we're supposed to have a couple of warm days this week so maybe they will open all the way. My Gryphon (little start of a cutting) also has a little flower bud - all summer when they were growing like weeds and huge and healthy, no flowers. Now . . . here they are. Must like the cool nights for flowering, I'm guessing.

Elaine, I'm on my way to your house!!!!!

Trachycarpus Fortunei Where is everyone?

It has been quiet hasn't it? Guess we are all outside taking advantage of this beautiful weather. DH and I cut down two citrus trees this morning. No one liked the fruit from these trees so I made more room for trees with fruit we do like. The bananas are showing new growth so I dumped a lb. of 10 10 10 around each. If this weather holds we should have fruit this year. According to the long range forecasts it looks like the lowest of the lows around here will be in the 40's so we should be OK. Knocking on my wooden head here. ;-)

This is such a pretty thug, it is a little succulent and I forget the name. There is a lot of it around the beaches in Florida. It seems it likes SC also

I know, missing in action? They're either hibernating, or suffering from spring fever, like me.

It's shorts weather here and I'm having to restrain myself from pruning and fertilizing everything about a month too early. We may get some rain Friday, more good news.

I got a pretty noid orchid on a plant that was supposed to have white flowers!

My Lady Margaret is sure no lady! She's infiltrated the plumbago bush, makes a nice combo, actually.

And while I was tramping around the back fence looking for flowers to photograph, picked up 3 nice ripe passionfruits.

That's a pretty little Windmill palm, Drew. I've seen those living up in Canada, where I hail from, too.

My Shooting Stars are getting ready to shoot . . . . I think! They've only taken about 2 months to make up their minds.

The USDA came out with a new zone map recently.
http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/

I'm still in zone 8b.

Elaine, I am going through the same as you - trimming and cutting, but my biggest challenge is to refrain from pulling everything out of the greenhouses!!! We still have to get through Feb. Some of the coldest weather occurs towards the end of Feb., just when the spring breakers start appearing - it's like they drag their crappy weather with them! LOL

It says 8b for me also and just 10 miles away on the mainland that would be correct but out here on the sea islands we have our own little microclimate. Funny, it says 9a for the Charleston area, an hour and a half north of here, and we are much warmer than they are. We have had some low temps in the 30's but no hard freezes yet.

The only reason I fertilized the bananas is that they are such heavy feeders and if you don't feed them steadily while they are growing you don't get fruit. and Feb. 1st is the usual day to start feeding them here. I'm just a tad early.

I remember snow in late February one year, it can happen again.

I really think those zone maps are outrageous generalizations based on "average" temperatures alone. As you say, Alice, microclimates created by proximity to water, pavement, houses, altitude, even city high-rise buildings and other weather patterns make a huge difference.

Plus you have cases like the difference between California and Florida - both have zones 8, 9 and 10 but what you can grow there is very different to here. Soil, altitude, humidity, and air pollution make it a whole different world there. Plants that can grow in full sun in California don't tolerate it in Florida where we have clear air, thus much stronger sun than there. They also have sea fog along the coasts there that keeps their coastal zones much cooler than ours in summer.

A zone map will tell you that plant x will grow in your zone, only because it will survive temperatures down to x degrees. Lots of plants grow beautifully here in winter, but won't survive through the summer heat and humidity. So what use is the zone map then?

Plumbago hasn't stopped blooming this winter, it's usually kind of ratty looking in December and January.

Well, I am now 8a. Low temps are not near as important as high in these here parts. Most of the 3 months + of summer stays at 98 or above. Time they took the upper temperatures into consideration.