I think we're just now starting to get that "Where's the machete look" out back.
We started w/ very small stock so it's been a bit of a long ride.
Having about 75% shade slowed the project a bit too.
The bananas and Alocasia were 4" pot-lings 3 years ago.
Here's a backdoor shot (which is actually our side yard)
Ric
You definitely have the jungle look!!! You have done a great job creating your own tropical paradise-just beautiful. How about a few more pictures??
It's hard to get good shots here because of the shade.
Here's one of our young P. bipinnatifidum.
It's a cutting we started last year.
Ric
This is the parent plant out on our porch.
Ric
Here's a back corner shot.
Notice the young Canna in training. lol
Ric
Awesome!!
WOW...I always thought the midwest only grew corn! I can't beieve what you guys achieve!
It's a jungle out there!
Ric your P. bipinnatifidum is beautiful, now is that the same thing as a split philo.?
Your Jungle is pure envy. I have EE's and a few bananas but they aren't together in groups, just scattered around. Next year I may do a different thing, and plant some cannas around them, and other neat looking tropicals. I have really gotten into the tropical plants this year. My real problem is over wintering them. I don't have a GH and I have limited space in the house.
You have a done a great job with your yard. Give yourself a great big pat on the back. I know I am, can you feel it.
Linda
A split leaf is Monstera deliciosa.
It is basically a whole leaf w/ cut-outs, holes or splits.
It's a HUGE vining plant.
It has edible fruit.
And as the name says it is deliciosa-ous!
Philodendron bipinnatifidum is a lobed plant that doesn't vine.
It comes up from a base.
Here's the difference w/ a young MD in it's new home.
The planter is 2' across.
It and the P. bipinnatifidum next to it are in new rolling planters I'm finishing this weekend.
They are 7' tall and weigh over a 100 pounds each when watered.
My partner suggested them as we were getting tired of dragging the old pots in a out each year.
Ric
Speaking of my partner she gets as much credit here as me.
We don't only do Tropicals as many of you here know.
She's more a flowering Perennial, Giant Hosta and Fern person.
I'm mini-Hosta, Succulents, Tropicals (most ESPECIALLY Aroids), Aquatics and recently Orchids.
I'm propagator and Containers (about 300), she's the ground planter.
I'm the nurturer and maintenance, she's weeds. lol!
We combine on building projects such as the fence, ponds, stonework, Hoop-house, GH and sculptures.
I'm the wacky one (giant rolling planters, rope-light Pink Flamingos, Christmas lights scattered thru the yard, etc)
She's more traditional.
(So the rope light Flaming is in the yard........
not being used as a weather vane on the roof! LOL!)
Though she's getting more insane thanks to all you here at Dave's.
We now have 'Her' Flamingo Garden ;-)
Between us we have amassed over 700 named plants in the yard.
(We gave up counting the hybrid Hosta, Pulmonaria, etc volunteers a long time ago.)
Quite a trick on 1/8 acre.
We said we'll stop at 1000.
Course we said that at 500 too.......................
Thanks for the comments!
And MANY thanks to all you here for plants,
(W/o the cuttings, trades and gifts we've gotten here we wouldn't be nearly as lush..........
Well we probably would but we'd a LOT poorer)
planting ideas and tips!
Thanks also to you in the warmer climes.
Listening to the Zone 8+ gardeners here has really helped.
Your day to day growing experiences influence a lot of my growing techniques.
Most especially I'd like to thank the un-tropical Tropical gardeners here.
I couldn't have done it w/o your help.
It's fun pushing the envelope ain't it?
We are a weird breed!
I'll try to get some better shots.
I usually do single plant shots for our Database and Plantfiles.
Getting scene shots is a lot harder because of the tight angles involved here.
Here's a shot from a few minutes ago.
The EE's are submerged in 5 and 3 gallon commercial iced tea dispensers.
(Hey where else you gonna do Manure tea???)
Ric
Amazon,Ohio!!!!!
Where's the heck is that???
Great job!!!!!
Thanks Tropicman!
I've tried to get some more scene shots.
Here's the entrance to the Amazon. lol
Ric
thanks for sharing pics henryr10..... it looks wonderful..... I put a bunch of my split-leaf philos out in pots this year.... they do add a bold statement to the yard and have done really well for me..... I grabbed them up late winter when tropicals were like 5.00 a pot - where else can you get that big a plant for that price ..... that adds instant impact in the garden.......
Of course now that everyone has seen how wonderful yours looks in a tropical setting - I probably will have a more difficult time finding them .... others will be buying them up like crazy to capture your Amazon Ohio look.......
Ric, I don't know which I enjoyed more...pictures or comments about you and your partner!
You may take it as truth from an old Florida cracker that your beautiful tropical paradise is exceptional even by Florida standards! I can't imagine the amount of care and work it takes.
Pati
henry:
What sort bananas do you have going there? Do you bring them in, are they hardy, or are they treated as annuals?
How do you over-winter your EE's? I've always had a more "managable" number of tender/tropical perrenials and storing them in the "root cellar" was a bit of a breeze. This year, however, is a bit different. My bride & I decided to surround our new pond with a 6,000 ft² tropical garden, and I am now the steward of a great deal many more plants whose roots need to come inside for the winter.
BogweedBuck sounds neat do you have pictures??
Henry I love your place, and that entrance to the Amazon is gorgeous, what a clever ideal. I always enjoy looking at all your pictures.
Linda
Thanks Pati that's high praise!
It's tough work in Spring and Fall.
The one problem we don't have to deal w/ is your native pests and diseases. This makes it a bit easier thru the Summer.
We have fun working in the yard together.
As we also 'work' together..........we'd better get along! LOL!
The one Musa is now in the ground....Finally
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/539123/
The others ('Zebrina','Rowes's Red', 'Bordelon') we winter on the porch.
Last year we did a double wall pastic.
This year it will be an actual GH.
The 'Bordelon' bloomed for us in Dec.
The rhizomous EE's are just brought in and treated as Houseplants. They change from water hogs to near succulents in care though. Very little water, no fertlizer and as much sun as possible.
The bulb EE's we just dry and pitch in a brown bag till late Winter.
W/ a heavy mulch Zone 7a should just be root hardy for many of the tropicals.
We have a 20' tall bamboo grove here that has only suffered minor Winter damage. All the Zone 7 'boos we have return every year.
I'm going to try some EE's in the ground this Winter.
They're cheap (we grow them! lol) so no big loss if it doesn't work.
Wow, Ric, truly inspirational! And how fortunate to have a partner to help, I am the lone gardener here and am just this year converting to tropical. I'll just get it all filled in and lush when hubby retires in 4 yrs and we move north, to 8a zone so at least I should be able to redo it.
If I ever get back out there to visit Chele's new place, I want to see yours in person too! In the meantime, I enjoy following your threads and getting all the info I can from your postings. Like you, I find gardening is so much more fulfilling here at DG and with all the enablers here!
henry, I evidently need a green house from what you're saying ...
I have had some C. esculenta ("plasma lime") for a few years now, it comes back with a PASSION every year. The black esculentas I've had have not survived the winter bare rooted.
Outside of that, I've (as much as I hate to admit it) just left other aroids in the ground with a parting wish of "Good luck" as the winter set in each year. This year, however, I got a bit out of control and now have a pretty nifty collection of 'ears, all of which, save 2, are in the ground. Of the whole lot, the only ones I am certain are "bulbous" are my green C. esculenta and the A. macrorrhizas.
Beyond those two, I also have:
A. amazonica 'Polly'
A. amazonica Purplee'
A. brancifolia
A. bullata (guttatta)
A. crassifolia
A. cuculata
A. Frydek
A. macrorhiza
A. sinuata
A. 'William's Hybrid'
C. antiquorum 'Illustris'
C. esculenta 'Black Magic' (but it looks to be more a runner than a clumper)
C. esculenta 'Plasma Lime'
Colocasia Unnamed/unknown
Xanthosoma sagittofolia
Xanthosoma violaceum
Where's the best resource for me to check on the overwintering idiosyncracies of all of these?
Wow Ric it looks great you garden like me I like the machete look. We can grow tropicals in zone 6 just takes more work in the winter and we can't enjoy them as long as your zone 9'ers.
C_Sue,
You are welcome any time!
The price of admission is only 2 loaves of real SF Sourdough ;)
B_Buck that is some collection.
I can think of no better resource than here.
http://www.aroid.org/aroid_l/
Bear in mind though that the Forum is comprised of VERY serious Aroiders
There are world known students, hybridizers and professors in residence.
Sometimes they do go on about very minut details.
That Williams hybrid was done by Brian Williams whose GH and Store are about 100 miles from here. I have several of his plants in my group.
He is a dead serious grower also. He personally collects from all over South America.
Here are his Aroids.
Not much info but a TON of different plant shots.
http://www.cloudjungle.dns2go.com/DotNetNuke/DesktopDefault.aspx?&tabid=47&path=Araceae
Peggy I knew we were kindred souls! lol
Looking forward to seeing you again!
Maybe at Chele's new place? (fingers crossed)
Pati we do have a bit of FL here too.
Well actually Savannah but how about some Spanish Moss w/ your Brugs?
Ric
Ric, It all looks so awsome! Thanks for sharing the pics and how you and your partner garden together. It made me go "awwww. so sweet". Love those ears in the tea containers, their structure displayed so elegantly in the tall cylinders.
Mystic, the contrast in textures of the ears against the grasses makes both more beautiful. Very pretty! Neal.
Ric,have any idea where we could get a few of those skulls that you see in Raiders of the Lost Ark,and place them at the entrances of the jungles!!!!LOL!
I wonder what the neighbors would say,If I had wild noises and parrot calls from a tape player,and misters and foggers coming up everywhere to give the appearance of fog,or maybe a big wall or fence like that in the king kong movie,whoa better get control of myself here!!!!!LOL
Something like this maybe? lol
http://skullduggery.com/extinct.htm#0245
Ric
ric: thanks a million!
Yeah, I've checked out aroid.org quite a bit, but have not wandered into the forums. I would actually enjoy the excessive diatribes into the minutae of all things aroidal. lol I've been talking a tiny bit with the aforementioned Mr. Williams this summer. He provided me with a colocasia that he claims is hardy to zone 5, which I found a bit difficult believe. I was not, however, aware that this Brian Williams was one and the same with the collector from Kentucky. In fact, I was not even aware of this fellow's name until I got the plants in the mail and saw his name on the return label. Here's the mildly humorous oddity ... that song, "Brian Williams" by the Bare Naked Ladies was playing on the radio that afternoon and I had to laugh at the level of coincidence involved. Little did I know that the Brian with whom I had been dealing with was the same gentlemen who crossed the A. amazonica with ... ah, poop, what was the other alocasia species (macrorhiza?)? I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm sure you know it off the top of your head. Anyhow, I just recently connected the dots and enjoyed the serendipity of it all.
Sheesh .... I'm rambling again.
Tropicman - LOL - skulls, foggers and parrot calls.... I usually have Enya playing but now I'm on the lookout for a cd with tropical rainforest sounds.... How cool would that BE.... ? I have foggers in the house ..... I think I will try one outside ....... the skulls..... maybe I should just start with some masks on poles.....
B_B you hit the Williams Hybrid cross dead on.
The BNL song though is 'Brian Wilson'.
That shows a true Aroid mind! lol
I really have to get some shots at the Rain Forest at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens.
QA very tightly planted jungle complete w/ streams, hundreds of small hidden speaks and foggers.
Because of traffic noise they have a sound sensor out on the road near a big hillhill..
As the car and truck noises outside on the street get louder so do the jungle sounds.
As you walk down the paths motion detectors trigger speakers behind you.
So you get scurrying animal noises or in one place a leopard stalks you. You keep spinning around to the sounds but nothing's there.....
As you are in a heavily fogged area it's a bit un-nerving.
Ric
AH HA! Wilson ... that's the ticket! I knew something sounded a bit odd about it all. I was ... how shall we say ... in a markedly relaxed gardening state of mind that fair afternoon. It is probably best left at that.
So ...... this is my first time planting anything of note this late in the season, and about a dozen really young alocasia and colocasia pups have been planted over the past few weeks. Having had mixed results over-wintering certain species of 'taro', I'm starting to worry a tad. With these being pups and this being mid August, do you think there will be enough of a "rhizome" to last the winter or should I pot most of these little puppies up come late September and invest in some metal halides?
Don't need Halides.
They will mostly just go dormant if you let them.
Just pot them up.
Even the pieces of runners.
We quit watering in mid/late Sept here.
By then the cool nights have pretty much slowed the growth down anyway.
If it looks like a long cool wet cycle is starting we put them under roof.
Cool and wet are instant mush makers.
When it's heavy frost time they come in and go in a cool dark spot.
They die back to about nothing.
I might water lightly once a month.
The smaller the pot oviously the more frequent the watering.
You want to keep them just above bone dry.
Come Spring just plop them in some sun until you see a new leaf.
Then start watering well and off we go...........
The odora, macro, and Musa we just put in the GH or in the warehouse at work under natural light.
They slow WAY down and get a bit weak but never go dormant.
Course we do cheat at times.
We kept an 'Illustrus' in water under lights all Winter.
BUT we had a heater in the water and never let the air temps go below 70.
Nothing like coming home to a 6' Aroid after fighting your way home in a blizzard! lol
Ric
I think that would be way cool!!!!
Maybe a lion roar and a elephant trumphets!!!!
Ric those are some cool skulls,but way out of my budget range!!!
Yes the masks on poles would look great as well!!!
Two months from Halloween?
I'm sure you can dig up a skull or two locally..........
W/ our water features, birds and the Summer Cicadas it sounds pretty much like a jungle here now.
Ric
Thx, Ric. I particularly like the idea with the Illustris .. I have several of those around the pond, I think I might give that a whirl.
Now to make up my mind about taking on a Robusta. I *was* thinking of waiting for Agri-starts to start shipping those in the spring and keeping a few for me and parcelling out the remaining 5 dozen or so. Just a little unsure about what some of these collectors/breeders mean by "finicky before they mature."
I think I'll look for some lighted eyeball skulls!!!!!LOL
