Alice, we are having 25 m.p.h. winds, whipping everything around and bringing down dead limbs. I'll watch for you to fly by and try to catch you!!!
Tropical Plants and Gardens #128
I'm fastening my frost cloth down with bulldog clips, as a windbreak. Got a whole new box just for this eventuality.
Orchids are tucked away in the little greenhouse units, and I'll be out there filling the jugs with hot water tonight before bedtime. Can't complain, it's been an awfully nice winter up to now.
Freezing here too...and wind! Been in the GH all day, at least its warm in there. Here are a few pretties...
Anyone know what dendrobium this is??
#2 nun's orchid beginning to bloom...have 3 more pots of them
#3Mini phalenopsis
#4love the color on this phal
#5 this bloom isn't much bigger than a nickel - tried the macro zoom
My macgillivrayi hoya is putting on a show once more. It has 8 other blooms on it.
Beautiful blooms, Elaine and Paula. Alice I am soooo jealous of your camelias. I do have a few roses in a vase College girl brought home from work to gaze at, they were 5 bucks a pop and now they are 50 cents. LOL
I feel bad for you guys not used this wind and cold, but hmmm, excuse me while I *choke* again on my zone envy. I just know your things will be JUST fine, l bet your freezing time is only for a couple hours, and ours is all day and night. and day and night LOL
Oh, I will be watching the skies for Alice flying around the vortex of a tornado, and for KayJOnes tent city to be falling about my pear tree.. :) ( imagination is a wonderful thing)
Drew, I didn't think it got that cold where you are at... wow. I am geographically challenged I think.
Quick 45 minute blast of snow!
Deb, 3-4 times a year down in the mid teens.
This message was edited Feb 16, 2013 4:49 PM
Deb, you can root those roses!!!
You are right Deb, I am ashamed because I am so spoiled, if it does get cold here it is only for and hour or so early in the morning and I am always amazed by the weather conditions that most parts of our country have. Remember though, with warm weather comes 3" palmetto bugs and about a billion gazillion sand gnats. LOL
Beautiful orchids, I bought a tiny little phal the other day in Publix. It has just started flowering and there were 3 stems so it will be in bloom for a while. I'll bring it to my son's girlfriend this week so she can enjoy it.
The wind has died down and I got the frost cloth out without aerial incidents and the temp is even rising a few degrees, maybe we will be OK.
Here's our predicted weather for tonight/tomorrow moring:
12 am Feb 17
38°F Clear
WIND: NW at 9 mph
1 am 37°
Clear
WIND: NNW at 8 mph
2 am 36°
Clear
WIND: NNW at 8 mph
3 am 35° Clear
WIND: NNW at 8 mph
4 am 33° Clear
WIND: NNW at 7 mph
5 am 32°
Clear
WIND: NNW at 6 mph
6 am 32° Clear
WIND: NNW at 6 mph
Sunrise at 6:21 am
8 am 37°
Sunny
Paula, post that dendrobium pic over on the Orchids forum. February bloom thread. Awesome people over there will surely ID it for you.
Here's what a tropical garden looks like when frost and wind chill threaten our tender babies:
1 On the roller top right is my big frost cloth "tent" that covers this tiered stand with 5 Earth boxes on it. (please ignore the scraggly tomato plants, just waiting for the last of the fruits to ripen before I rip them out and replant the box). I've pulled all my small pots of brugs and begonias in under there, plus the challis vine, caladiums blue clero and a few other odds and ends. See Deb's brug Monster White blooming lower left!
2 Here it is with the "tent" unrolled, and clipped together with bulldog clips. Florida snow?? My flurry only took about 5 minutes.
3 This is my big Brug. Charles Grimaldi under his windbreak. He's at least 8ft. tall and has been blooming non-stop all winter. Think this may be the end of that for a while . . Also sheltering the Colocasia and Spathoglottis orchids. Near the pool stays warmer anyway, water's in the high 60's.
4 Darned if the Nun's Orchids didn't choose today to start opening
5 A blue Thunbergia popped open today, boy, is he in for a chilly surprise!
Is your nun's Orchid just the brown-blooming one? I need a yellow one and a pure white one!!!
Yes, that plant is the regular Phaius tankervillea - brownish one with purple lips. I also have an all-purple one called 'Rabin's Raven' that has not bloomed yet, and a little plant of Phaius Microburst 'Wild Thing' that I think has some yellow but it just put up its first bloom spike so I haven't seen it in person yet.
The big plant that bloomed last year that I thought was 'Wild Thing' had cream petals and a dark red lip. Let me dig up that picture from last year - it's the single big flower on the left, and the regular Phaius are on the right. That one is out in the garden getting ready to open 4 stems of flowers, can't wait!!
I am IN LOVE with my nuns orchids they are still blooming, so now I want more ..... Gee tanks!
it was so cold today and going to be in the 60's tommorrow go figger. I was out dumping laundry water around the yard today and saw the monardas, mint, beardstounge and poppys are all popping up already. sheese! the lilac cuttings I stuck in the ground up against the back of the house last fall are budding so that is good news.
Gee Alice, that is a nice thing to give your sons g/f. Are you hoping for a future daughter? ;D I would LOVE it if my son even dated.
KayJones u already read my mind, now I don't do well with inside cuttings, but I am always willing to give it a try, and I will. The wisteria cutting I took and stuck in a pot is leafed out and ready to go somewhere else. It is the purple kind.
I have two more cuttings leafed out and really nice sized off of the chalice vine from Rita. Had to trim one brach it was way out of wack.
I tried a begonia leaf on sand like Someone here showed me and I have roots LOL now if I just don't mess with it I might get a plant. I transplanted thre tomatoes and two peppers from the nursery seed starting are to their own pots, excited that so much is ready to transplant. My alba Mimosa someone sent me a seed of is thre inches tall. YAY!
Elaine, you tents remind me of when we were kids and we draped sheets all over the furniture to make our own secret "tents" Gee, those were the days.
Kay, look at this one. I had it, but for some reason it died. Made me sick! It was beautiful!
Oh Paula that is beautiful. You have to get another one!
I would if I could find one. I just lucked up on that one. Bought it at a nursery for 10.00 because it had finished blooming. It was in a 3 gal pot. I didn't even know what color it was till it bloomed.
I had that white one, but it died. It's 33 degrees here this morning.
Good Morning Kay, We always seem to be up at the same time. Not sure what it is here, but if you are 33, we are probably about 27. YUCK!
Weather channel says 30, but feels like 22, with wind of 9 mph. Brrrrrrr!
Elaine,
That compost tea?
Deb, the g/f is a saint and we do love her. They have been together for almost 5 years now and they're already on their second home, a gorgeous contemporary on several acres, but marriage does not seem to be on the horizon. Just doesn't seem to be their thing. This son will be 40 soon and she is not far behind so children are unlikely but they both love plants. Anyone who loves my son and plants has to be special. :-)
There is a skim of ice on our bird bath today although the thermometer says 36. Whatever - it is COLD here.
This is the tiny orchid, the flowers are only about an inch or so across.
I found these cute tiny red carrots at our farmer's market yesterday. The largest was only 1/2" in diameter.
Nah, wish it was! I put used coffee grounds in the water. Makes it absorb more heat from the sun. I need to "dose" the other jugs today! Come to think of it, I might have a little bit of compost to make some tea with . . . thanks, Drew! We don't collect grass clippings any more, so I rarely get much out of the compost heap that's useable. It just doesn't "work" properly unless I have grass in the mix.
Blazing sun here, but not yet warm even in the sun - still breezy. I am wearing long pants and socks!! =+(
Alice, those colorful carrots are fun! My daughter planted a packet of seeds of mixed colors and she got red, purple, yellow and white ones as well as the regular orange ones. We roasted them for Thanksgiving dinner, as I recall. Delicious!
On the tiny orchid, (lovely!) if it is in a pot with no air holes or drainage, I'd advise you get a little clay orchid pot (they are about $1.50 at Lowe's) and carefully transfer it into that. A pot with no air or drainage is a death sentence for a phal. Also if there is wet, packed sphagnum moss around the roots, at least loosen it and take some out so the air can get to the roots. Or you could drill holes in the pot it is in. It looks healthy, and it's a good sign that it has roots sticking out of the pot. But if the ones inside the pot get root rot, it's toast.
You may have seen these little ones at Publix for Valentines day. It is in one of those skinny pots, not more than 2" at the widest. I have already broken off saucer on the bottom, it was permanently stuck on. I do have some little clay orchid pots, maybe I'll transplant it before we head up that way on Wednesday.
Still only 44 and windy here.
You're welcome!
It's warmed up wonderfully here now. This warm air is headed north, too so everyone should be getting a taste of spring soon.
I planted out some new tomato transplants this morning, and made space against the front fence for one of my dark red Allamandas. After one really cold wintery night, it feels like Spring!
Brazilian Red Cloak seems to have weathered the cold just fine!
Same here....it was 26 here this morning...so much frost it looked like it had snowed. Then went out about 10 and it felt really nice and the rest of the day had on a short sleeve. Tonight is only supposed to be 40.
We lucked out here, the coleus, which I consider the canaries in the coal mine, are all fine. A somewhat tender red banana, Musa sum x cross looks unhappy, it seemed to lose a lot of color in its leaves. All the camellia flowers are fine, no brown edges this time. Whew.
see? I told ya! ;D
Moved to correct thread.
This message was edited Mar 6, 2013 9:24 PM
deleted and moved to correct thread.
This message was edited Mar 6, 2013 9:25 PM
Lilypon, Please see thread #129. Thanks!