Tropical Plants and Gardens #120

Card carrying member of enablers unlimited here. ;-)

You will like that one Drew, it goes dormant in the winter so it is really easy to store.

Yea, me to!

Thanks again!

Debra. those are gorgeous! Go ahead and post your vacation pictures!!!

And it has cool flowers and seeds itself! (the Worm Killer)

Is this canna is the most bizarre colored plant you've ever seen? Think I like it better without the flower, the leaves by themselves are a work of art, but that blazing orange flower with purple and hot pink stem . .. right over the top! Too bad cannas don't make good cut flowers.

Ohhh, that IS pretty!

oh my goodness i am ready to go get a tropicanna! is that the variety of canna pictured?
btw thanks so much for the advice, dyzzypyxxy! i will definitely locate and talk to a good nursery nearby, quite soon!

transit of Venus anyone? its overcast here, hopefully it'll clear up before sunset, or we will miss it!

Yup, it is a Tropicanna. Got a couple of them from Lowe's a few weeks ago. They had some more there last Saturday.

Yes, too bad we have clouds today, probably miss seeing the transit of Venus altogether.

I have a big clump of Alstroemeria 'Sweet Laura' that hardly ever shows a flower, but I have two this week!

My crazy coleus 'Florida Sun Rose' still making all sorts of different color leaves. All these were propagated from cuttings from one little plant that I got last year!

This little corkscrew ginger is a cutting I got from Rita last summer. It's finally getting a foothold, and making its pretty variegated leaves.

Last pic is a cutting from Cassie that I have lost the tag for - squirrels had their way with my new little pots while I was away. Anybody know what this is? Looks like I'm going to need to give it something to climb on.

last pic looks like a self heading philo of some sort.. pretty!
this bloom in KayJones garden took my breath away

Deb, did you get a start of that from KayJones? Those Princess Flowers or Tibouchina irvilliana make good house plants. You could grow it easily in your wonderful basement garden in the winter then summer it outdoors in partial shade.

Come to think of it, I'll bet you went home with a whole bunch of new plants and cuttings, right? We want to see ! ! ! That's why you didn't make it further down into Florida, your car was already full of plants?

My mother had a Tibouchina as a house plant up in Vancouver, Canada years ago. It went out to her patio for the summers and bloomed wonderfully.

I found some nice looking perennials on the 75% off rack at Lowes yesterday. They got well watered during the storms last nite. Over an inch of rain in the guage this AM.

Elaine, she and Sherry indeed did go home with a car load of plants - they had a blast and I got to thin out my lovelies! It was entirely MY PLEASURE to have them here and can't wait until they return!!!!

Yes, I came home with some wonderful lovlies, and I can't leave the home without checking on them all.
Even tho it seems I have too much to take care of, Joe enjoys helping me, and for that I am grateful. Today is our 32nd anniversary, and I woke up to another Arbor, waiting along side a new windmill. ( last one from Pauline got crunched in the branch falling even a few episodes ago)
Anyway, I am really very very happy with all my adopted babies.

I broke another toe. How does this happen? LOL here is wishing me luck at work today.. ugh.
Last pic is
Sherry, KayJOnes, Me

Teeehhhheeeee at the picture - sorry my mug ruined a beautiful shot!

How in the He-doublehockeysticks did you break your toe?! I will pray that you can do your arduous job, while feeling exhausted AND with a broken toe - BLESS you!

I am so happy - just purchased a double-blooming Cajun Hibiscus named 'Bayou Rose' from Lowe's - STUNNING!

Bayou Rose is stunning in full bloom. Hopefully mine will bloom this year, it was too small last year I think. I always get my hibiscus from Big Bad Flower, they are small when you get them so sometimes it takes awhile for them to bloom.

I just happened on to them at Lowes.

home for lunch, off to work again, wish I would have picked up this one at the lowes in Vicksburg, but we had a full car load already LOL

Debra, let me look and see if Lowes has one of this color.

Oh my Debra, you need a bigger car. LOL

This message was edited Jun 6, 2012 3:22 PM

Alice,
Watch for a package Friday!

i must ask for someones input/opinion on crossandra. i always look at it and want to pick it up and bring it home from the store, but i'm nervous that i've never seen any growing around here. they are such pretty and bright colors. so do any of you grow crossandra?
thanks

Yes - I do. I have orange, growing in a pot - I bring it into the greenhouse in the fall.

oh ok, so would you recommend using it in a perennial border or is it too tender to perennialize?

I don't think it will survive under zone 10 or 40 degrees.

this Rose is back to normal this year. Last year it shut down.
Carribia

I had a lovely Tropical Hibiscus Collection at one time..

some are probably common, but they look tropical and unusual to me..
sweet pink was as big as a saucer

I have a few more , the poodle in red, plain red, and a Kopper King,I have no yellows now, no peaches,no whites. I am ready to get back to Lowes and Wally World. All the plant stops are half price now.. hmm
The Button Bushes are in full bloom now..
morning glorys greeting me every morning
on the way home from Ar, I stopped and found these growing in a field

I've got the 'mutt and jeff' of gingers going - my Dr. Moy variegated hedychiums are over 6ft. tall this year. I don't know what came over them.

Then there's the little Peacock Gingers that lay their pretty leaves almost flat to the ground. They have funny little mauve flowers, new ones open each day. It's hard to photograph the color, but the ones out at the edges of the pictures are the most accurate. The flowers have that reflective diamond dusting so even on a cloudy day they reflect too much light for the camera.

Good morning, everyone! Your plants continue to amaze me - just beautiful!

Elaine, the little petal peeking out near the upper left corner reflects a more accurate color IMO. I love the peacock gingers, we are in the middle of Garden a Day tours here and Tuesday's garden had lovely ones that were showing off for the crowds.

Debra, I too used to have a wonderufl collection of the tropical hibs but the few cold winters took all but one of them. I still have Susan';s Sunset because I got to name that one and I do baby it.

This message was edited Jun 7, 2012 6:45 AM

I still have yet to see one of my gingers bloom, but sis in law, Dana got the ones I gave her to bloom. I saw KayJones had one about to bloom, so very pretty they all are.
Alice, I bet you miss the ones you lost. I know I do.
red riding hood was my favorite.
monarda and cones are finally open all around the yard

You are right Debra,I do miss the hibiscus, they give you so much bang for the buck. If only they didn't get so darn big here. Too big to bring them all inside or protect from the cold.

Sadly I have been complacent, the deer have not bothered me for over a year but last night they had a taste for begonias. Grrrrrr, already sprayed 2 bottles of Deer Off this morning.

Ooh, Alice what a shame. But it looks like they will recover. You're right the little flower in the upper left is the only one that shows the color on the peacock gingers. Sweet little flowers, lilac with white centers.

I really sympathize on the deer issue. I am in the heat of battle with a greedy raccoon who raids the mango tree at night. All the CD's hanging from the tree, and spray deterrent have not slowed him down at all. Right now the score is 4 to 2 - he has eaten 4 mangoes and I've only had 2. I went out right before bed last night, and sure enough there was suspicious rustling in the tree. He ran, but obviously came back later because there was another mango seed on the walkway mocking me this morning. Good news is the squirrels haven't been in the tree yet, that I've seen.

Those hibiscus pics you both showed are fabulous. I only have one - they've been very bug-prone in my garden. The huge old double red outside the gate gets a handful of fert in the spring, and a little bit of water, and that's all. It keeps on blooming through the worst cold, and doesn't seem to get spider mites or aphids the way all my others have. Right now the poor thing is totally engulfed in Virginia creeper and wild grape vines, so when I went out to take a pic, couldn't get a shot of a bloom but they're in there! On the other side of the gate opening is this cute little white crepe myrtle that literally was run over by a truck during garage construction, and my C. Pulch blooming it's heart out already.

Hello, all!

I don't know if anyone remembers me from when I was more active here (from 2006 to 2008), and was posting all of my insane zone-pushing experiments....

Anyways, the reason I kinda dropped off the face of DG was due to school, losing my job and having to find another and other such stuff. Currently, I'm in the process of buying a house, so I'll be able to do a better job of experimenting.

So to get to the point, here's the latest results of growing marginal plants under horrible growing conditions (medium to heavy shade in heavy clay soils): I actually still have two Windmill palms (out of something like 6 that I planted originally), but they aren't doing the best, mainly due to being shaded out, three Dwarf Palmettos (Mc Curtain variety) that are also struggling with shade and weeds.... I'm going to try transplanting them when I move, but I'm half tempted to try starting fresh with large 5-gallon+ specimens. I still have all my bamboos (although half of them aren't doing so well due to too much shade).

I also planted three Yucca recurvifolia (a.k.a. Y. gloriosa var. Recurvifolia) in 2006 that have been in slow decline since, due to too much shade. Last summer, I dug them up and planted them in 3 gallon nursery pots (I tend to save all the plant pots I get when I buy plants from a nursery), and not only did they grow profusely when moved into a sunny part of the yard, but they successfully overwintered without any protection in the pots with no leaf damage!

I'm also really excited this year, because not only has one of the local nurseries started stocking such plants as Musa basjoo (hardy banana), Hesperaloes and Yucca rostrata, but last summer I went with my fiance (girlfriend at the time) to Chincoteague, and all the nurseries around there have windmill palms and various trunk-forming yuccas to try out.

Anyways, I look forward to getting to know the newer folks better and spending more time here.

regards,

Ben

Good to have you back Ben!

Ben, it will be good to have more plant pictures for us to lust after!

I'm just blown away that you can grow those plants in Greencastle at all. Way to go!

Thanks guys! I probably won't be taking any pics until I get my stuff moved into the new place (one I get said place bought... The purchasing process is currently proceeding at the speed of government)...

Ardesia: Not only have I been growing them, but I've been growing them with minimal care (the last three years anyways, mainly due to school and other stuff) and no protection, so I think I can confidently say that the following are definitely hardy in Zone 6b:

Sabal minor "Mc Curtain"
Trachycarpus fortunei (with the caveat that individual plants can have up to 20 degrees difference in cold hardiness, with some individual suffering leaf damage at 10 degrees, and others being able to take temps down to -10 degrees or so... It's kind of a crap shoot)
Yucca recurvifolia (about the only hardy tropical "tree" type plant that I had 100% survival rate)
Phyllostachys rubromarginata
Phyllostachys atrovaginata
Phyllostachys aureosulcata (the most widely grown bamboo in the entire state)
Pseudosasa japonica (although it suffers almost total leaf loss most winters)
Musa basjoo: I had 6 plants at one point, all planted outside with NO protection, and they came back 4 years in a row, but were in constant decline and finally died due to being in a shady spot... There is a guy who lives about 5 miles away who has two HUGE specimens that grow about 15' tall each summer, and he is constantly removing pups and throwing them into the woods behind his house... Not only do most of them survive and take root, but the ones in sunny areas near the edge of the woods keep coming back!
Fargesia nitida (hardy clump-forming bamboo)
Poncirus trifoliata (hardy orange): I have 3 plants, one of which was the first 'tropical' I had planted in the woods, back in 2005. They have all survived the winter with no damage (except the one where its hardware cloth barrier got knocked over and it got eaten half to death by the insano voracious rabbits that live in the woods behind my house)
Aspidistra elaitor: They die back to the ground every winter, but keep coming back, usually making an appearance around July.

Here are some of the non-tropical plants that I've been growing that LOOK tropical:

Hosta "Blue Angel"... Has HUGE leaves, goes good with bananas and such
Yucca filamentosa, both the base species (which is naturalized around here) and the "Color Guard" variety.
Symplocarpus foetidus (Skunk cabbage): Not tropical by any stretch of the imagination, but as my fiance said when I showed her a huge patch in Millersburg, it does look like some kind of "dinosaur plant".
Various Osmunda ferns... I love these ferns.
Asiminia triloba (pawpaw): I actually managed to transplant some saplings, but one got washed away this spring when the stream it was planted next to flooded.
Rhodea japonica (sacred lily): I got two plants from Plant Delights nursery in 2006 and 2008, as well as two from Lazy S' Farm and Nursery in 2007. They have been thriving, but as anyone who has Rhodeas will tell you, growing very slowly.

...So yeah. I would like to try some other plants, namely Cordyline australis, because there is this one person in Greencastle who has had two specimens growing in a brick raised garden in front of their house in downtown Greencastle for at least the past 7 years and even though they look raggedy by the end of winter, buy late spring they're good as new. There are also quite a few Yuccas I'm going to try (including Y. rostrata, Y. aloifolia, Y. gloriosa and Y. baccata), the Hesperaloe (red yucca), and some Zingiber mioga (since Tony Avent seems to be selling it at his nursery again this year)...