Tropical garden #121

That's really an elegant little Alo, Drew. I do love things with black stems.

I'm with you, KayJones. Enough, already! Wish this storm would move along. Been raining and blowing all night here, and it looks like we are right under the "train" of a big juicy rain band this morning. I went out before it got dark last night and found several big pots tipped over. Decided it was better to leave them lying down, rather than to stand them up and have them blow over again.

Some of my orchids cowering under the patio table. I do have a few blooming, too.

we were doing ok, until last night, 5 foot roof venting pipe came off tore through the pool cage, 3 yard fence panels are down, have them temp fixed until the fence guys get here on thursday, had several leaks in the ceiling, numerous tree limbs down, other potted plants are staying on their side as well, don't want to keep picking them up until it has moved on. So all in all not too bad. One women was killed from a tornatoe, they found her holding her 2 year old who was still alive, the moms arms still wrapped around the child. This news makes you appreciate just having structural damage.

Jan

Wow Jan, Puts it all in perspective.......


Thanks you guys! Let me take a picture from the abaxial (bottom of leaf) side. I think you will appreciate the black veins even better Alice.

Hello Everyone!!!

Jeri11, please pop back in whenever you find the time. I too, am in a similar situation. My time is no longer my own but I do love it that they need me! My GKs went home with chiggers last weekend, now I am in the doghouse.

dyzzy, thanks for the labeling tip. I hope that you are drying out and back in your garden. Love your Gloriosa lilies.

ardesia, thanks, I bought that Uncarina from Tropiflora, it has been blooming since spring.

homer1958, as usual, I am totally impressed with the size and rarity of your plants. Is that your Alocasia Borneo Giant in your first picture?

Kay Jones, Glad to hear that you did not have much damage from the storm.

Joeswife, that is good news concearning the Siam Ruby!! The mister for $16 is a good deal, I just purchased 10' for $25 from Lowe's.

A few old reliables starting to bloom

Hey mjsponies, glad to see you back!! Hopefully Rachel will be next. I have missed you guys.

Thanks Rita for such a warm welcome!!! It is good to see so many members that I remember. Hope everyone in the path of Debbie stays safe!

A few shots from yesterday.

My fish.

Natchez crepe myrtle starting to bloom.

My fountain in full bloom

My Texas Star Hibiscus is shining today.

This is the 1st time this hibiscus has bloomed. I got it from Logee and it was a 2" plug in April.

Oh Rita...that is too funny! I bet the kids had fun 'getting' the chiggers! I remember getting them when I was a child and they itched like crazy!! My husbands swears by a chlorine bath...he runs very warm/hot water and pours some bleach in it and sits in it for 30 minutes or more. I have never tried it. Might not be good for little ones though.

I, too, soak in a bath with bleach when I get chigger and mosquito bites - works for me!

Rita, Borneo Giant is on Thread # 120 ... Post #9159816.

Rita, Jeri ... Sensory overload!

Elaine, my Ensete Banana pants are fairly protected with a line of trees between my next door neighbor and I.


As I said I would....

It's just beautiful, Drew. So you spend your days laying on the floor of the garage?

Then slide out at night and take pictures of your pants . . uhh, plants.

So far we have only had a very few sprinkles, far less than we need but Debby has brought us a light breeze and a big drop in the temp. For the first time in weeks we can sleep with the windows open and the hedychiums are right outside the bedroom. Normally it is way too warm, the AC is on and everything is closed up tight when they bloom so we don't catch the scent but tonight it is different and lovely.

My favorite coleus and its many colors.

I have been air layering the hibiscus tillaceus, sure looks funny with the aluminum foil wraps.

FL Friends, please be careful with all this flooding.

Oh, Alice - that's a pretty Hib.!

Alice is that the Tri colored Hau? I fell in love with those when I 1st saw them years ago growing. Do you have better luck air layering than rooting hormone in soil or water?

Thanks, you OK in the panhandle???

Drew, the coloring on that plant is striking.

Yes, that one is known by tillaceus, hau and even mahoe, the Hawaiians have many names for it. This one has grown in strange directions so I am trying to shape it and I have had excellent luck with air layering. I air layered the the top 20" and it grew long and ropy roots in just 4 weeks, that really surprised me. I scrape the bark a bit, making sure there are several nodes in the area, dust with rooting hormone and wrap with damp spaghnum and plastic wrap then I cover it all with foil.

These will be demos at a propagation class, it is always fun to open the foil and show the participants the new roots. I bought the parent plant at Zone 9.

Yes, Alice - all is calm here in our area - thanks for asking!

Thanks, Alice. I need to try air-layering my Skeleton Rose geranium. It's gotten really leggy and ugly, but I've had no success at all getting any cuttings to root.

Weather is improving here, with winds turning more westerly and moderating. We did have a few more heavy rain squalls today, but it feels as if the worst is over for us, at least. I may even put the orchids back out in the garden so they can dry out and stand up my big pots again. Won't need to turn on the irrigation for a couple more days, though.

Same here - sprinklers will go back on Friday. I went out and picked up 4 trailer-loads of limbs and stood all the plants back up. We have not even a breeze here right now - think the stormy weather is over for now. Of course, the weather channel predicts we will have about 14 tropical storms this season, so it's just a matter of when.

Picking up after a little storm is always a royal pain you know where. It is the big storms I fear. I still have way too many containers around the garden, I am afraid they would become missiles in a real hurricane. I keep planting and planting so there will be fewer pots to worry about and when I think I am done I seem to promptly go out and buy some more! It is a sickness. :-(

All the large planters on my deck are on rolling stands so i can easily scoot them into the house when necessary.

Love that variegated ginger Elaine.

I'm thinking of tethering all my container pots to shrubs and trees!

If these little showers would just let up for a few hours, things would dry out and I'd be able to break out the "big guns" - my leaf blower and power washer - to at least clean the pathways.

Weeds are huge, but some of them are welcome - Ipomoea quamoclit aka cypress vine always pops up somewhere. Hope the hummers weren't all blown away.

Glad to see that that tree limb is still attached to the tree.... loosing that would me a terrible thing to your garden below....

We are enjoying a beautiful start to the day, hardly any wind, no rain (at least for now) and just all around good.

Jan

We ALL have the S.I.C.K.N.E.S.S. Alice!!!!!!!!!

'
New leaves on the Big Boys! Will post later this evening! Can you believe this...? 58 for the low this A.M. 103 Fri., 101 Sat. and Sun. for highs. 'There will be blood'.

This message was edited Jun 27, 2012 3:44 PM

I agree, Drew. Not only do we all have the disease, we all make it worse for each other and spread it around, too! What a sick bunch we are. Plantsilitis? Pneugrownia?

Jan, I agree it would be a tragedy if the oak tree ever drops that limb. It would take out a good piece of the fence, and a lot of my precious plants, too. That's a big old grand tree, though. It's so big and solid, I have a lot of confidence in it.

My big tall gingers got knocked down by the wind and rain, but the cannas sure love all that water!

Strepthroatocarpus?

Tropicana Gold

ahem... kansas has highest temps in nation... ugh. 115 in Hill City.... Guess I will be bringing in the tropicals since this pressure thing is going to stay with us again this year.. I can't stand to see them suffer.Good thing I didn't take out the chalice vine, it is all over it's space down under lights in the basement and it looks like it is going to bloom soon. I will be cleaning up the first room to make ready, if this is the only way I am to see things thrive..

You have StrepThroat Alice?

Hope everyone Florida way makes it through this tough time as easily as possible!

Elaine, is that Colocasia Midouri Sour or something like that?

Hear ya Deb! Never in June, 3 triple digits in a row. Got ya some beauties there!
Forgot to put the chair by the other guys for scale... been a long day .... I'm headed to horizontal!

This message was edited Jun 27, 2012 9:45 PM

I have to admit that I have the illness BAD! I have learned to say no thank you and I have no room and that has worked very well for me this year. If I could just quit looking online and at Logee's catalog I would even be able to say that I have some money but I was quite ill and looked online and bought and did manage to throw out the Logee catalog without even open a page but them they got me with the sales emails so I have decided that I'm really loosing this battle.

We had a sultry 99 today and it felt like a cool wave hit us. I was busy with different things that I have ongoing today and just sat down and it's already 10:00 P.M. Maybe I'll catch up tomorrow.

Got to admit, the good thing about these tropical storms is they do cool things off. We haven't hit 90 since a week ago, and tomorrow is supposed to be "low" relative humidity, too. Heading out there early to get more stuff picked up and ply the leaf blower to the pathways. Tried it today and barely would move the top layer of leaves and twigs, it's so wet.

Nope, Drew the only Colocasia I have is Blue Hawaii. I just like the feathering pattern on the new leaves. (and I hate to post without a picture) It has dark purple stems and leaf veins. Mm, well, I do have a start of 'Lime Zinger' that Cassie sent me, plus two 'Stingrays' but they're Alocasias, I think. Then there's the "mystery philo" with the red stems that Cassie also sent. It's taking off and I really need to ID it. Will take a new picture of it tomorrow, before I attempt to re-pot it. (it's just barely out of the pic below). Baby brugs.

lol, No strep here, I was just giggling along with Elaine's plant related illnesses.

Drew, How do you keep those pots with huge plants watered? They must transpire gallons a day.

E. bidwillii is on its second flush.

Elaine, the lime zinger is a Xanthosoma; stingrays are Alocasias. Send a picture of the Philo. when you can.

Alice, I spend about 6-7 hours a day on the plants and gardens around the house. I keep 2- 5 gallon buckets full of water, and a hose is never more than a few steps.

That Monstera deliciosa will have to be potted up in the next couple of days as the past week or so I have been watering every other day.

Hey guys!

Sorry I haven't been on much lately.... Things have been interesting around here, in the ancient Chinese meaning of the term...

First, my one grandmother gets sent to the hospital with chest pains (the best they can figure is that it might be related to her radiation treatments), then my OTHER grandmother gets sent to the hospital because she collapsed, and she's now in a rehab home (thankfully). Then on Saturday morning, my plant-loving uncle in South Carolina was rushed to the hospital because he was going into convulsions. It turns out is was because he wasn't taking his thyroid medicine....

Then I find out that the listing agent finally got back to my agent in regards to the offer for the house I'm buying, so I ended up spending two hours at the bank yesterday signing loan paperwork.... Since I couldn't find anything in the fine print about Souls, involving Virgin sacrifices, First-Born children or Arms and Legs, I figure I'm good, although they do have more extra fees than the used car dealers by the interstate.

Not much going on in the garden, although, while helping dad clear out some of the weeds near the bird bath, we discovered a true seedling of our old, huge Rose of Sharon... It is one of the varieties that have the white flowers with red centers... The seedling (well, more like sapling) is the perfect size for digging up and moving to the new house, whenever I finally get around to closing the deal on that (which may be as late as two days before my wedding. >:().....

I'll try to post a picture later.

Congratulations on the house and the wedding!! Its so much fun to have a new house, BUT so much work!! We just built a new one and six months later, I still don't have things unpacked or my landscape done. But when its just one person doing everything it takes time. Hope all the family is doing better!

Here are some of my plants.


Third one is Rugosa. I thought this had died, but noticed it coming up...glad I didn't throw it away!!

Fourth - vargigated crown of thorns

Fifth - begonia listada