Hibs for the holidays

The sun peeped through for a few minutes this morning and although it was too bright I just had to snap a picture of this plant. Nothing fancy but it is always nice to have flowers in late December.

Hope Santa was good to all.
alice

Merry Christmas Alice!

Santa was pretty good to me...but no Christmas hibby blooms here! I was hoping Cherry Ice would bloom, it's got pretty red and white colors and green leaves so it would have been perfect!

Merry Christmas Alice. Christmas has been nice and there is more to come. We have a dinner to go to yet today. I do have one bloom today on Gator Pride. She is sitting in the bay window so the picture has a bright white "snow" background.

What a pretty picture Brugie, that is a present in itself.

We haven't even opened presents yet. My dinner is in the oven,the pies are all made and I am sitting here biding my time until DH and DS get ready to play with the gifts.

My Ocean Spray came alive today with triplets.

And what I think is Apricot Brandy. The pic makes it look yellow but it's really a peach color.

Elephant Ears blooming like mad.

A red single whose name I can never remember.

Cecilia

Mysti Morning with yellowish edging instead of her summer white.

And the strangest thing of all. There are no grasshoppers to eat these buds, so this is the way they bloomed. This is what I think is a red and green variegated single, (Fire and Ice, I think). Its summer blooms were as large as most of the others. That's my 25 yr. old son's hand behind it. They are tiny. So pretty though for whatever reason that it's doing this.

Anne,
I want the tiny hibs. It is adorable. Santa was good to me, and so were the hibbies, which I will post on the hibismas thread.
Alice,
I know what you mean. The advantage of zone 9, is that we get to enjoy our babies almost all year round.
Ocean Spray is looking pretty purky and Gator Pride looks like she is saying "ahh sun :)"

This is my first year with this particular hib. I know the flowers were definitely not that small during the summer. I'm going to keep a close eye on it to see if it continues to do that. I just began spraying with Messenger foliar spray so I'm guessing that's keeping them healthy. Although that one got a little too cold and the leaves have been droopier that any of the others in my makeshift greenhouse. I think that this is a picture of them during the summer.

This message was edited Dec 25, 2007 11:34 PM

I have had those tiny flowers before. They are so cute! I wish I could remember what the circumstances were when they occurred. If I kept a garden journal like an intelligent person I could give you the particulars. Sighhhhhh, one of these days I'll get organized. :-))

Yeah, lol, I have the same problem here.

LOL Alice, your son's hand is SO BIG!!! He is the same age as my kid.

I am about to eat my Christmas dinner all over again. Tom just brought in some deep fried oysters. We had them raw yesterday. Soon to come, some 21 day aged prime rib. I am ready. LOL Though by tomorrow I may want Chinese.

I may have a hibiscus in bloom outside. I had one earlier in the week. I didn't go outside today. First I wanted to go to a public garden to take pics, then I decided to go to Macy's instead, then as it got late I went with going outside to prune my roses. I ended up sitting here all day doing nothing. Thank God I had to get up once in a while to use the facilities or I would get blood clots from inactivity. I am all Christmased out.

We have had no frost this year so my plants outside are still blooming. I moved all my backyard hibiscus in the hoophouse but the front ones are still out in the open. Alice, what zone are you in? Looks much warmer than here.

Aunt Anne, I want your hibiscus! I have killed a few of those already over the years but would love to have a big one. I love the foliage so much.

I think that the son's hand is mine. He's 25, 5'6 and 100 lbs on a good day. I think that he has a hollow leg because he eats like a horse. He got his build from his father and his appetite from me. Thank goodness for him. I've always had good luck with hibiscus. They've always been very easy for me. I've tried a few new things this year like brugs, and datura and they've worked well too. This year is the first time that I've ever gotten a geraneum (sp) or coleus to live for me. So I guess while my hair is getting grayer, my thumb is getting greener. lol

Anne

Oh it is your boy. Sorry. I have a 25 year old too. He put the white in my hair. I think Alice's boys are a bit older. I should know but I forget due to all my white hair. LOL Aren't sons the best? Mine is a charmer. I fall for his lines every time. LOL

So do you have a GH for all your tropicals, AuntAnne?

This is the arbor at the west/southwest end of my trailer. It is about 28' long and about 8' wide. We enclosed it with plastic (well dbf did anyway) for the winter. It is pretty airtight. I have grow lights and some lamps for heat. I tried putting heaters in but they keep blowing the breakers. So far the heat from the sun on that end of the house and the lamps have been enough. It did get down to 29 the other morning outside. I don't think that it got that cold in the gh. The only damage done is a place where air got in and burned a couple of leaves on one of my brugs. Two of the baby brubs are trying to bloom, though I don't expect to see anything for another month. It works better than previous years when we enclosed part of the porch on the north side of the house. I think that this will work way better. Next year we hope to convert the old garage (detached) into my greenhouse. It will be larger and have adequate electricity to run heaters or heat lamps.

That looks so nice. Do you grow anything on your arbor in summer? I bet that works so well. How will you get sun into your old garage?

I have a hoophouse we put up usually in October though this year not till December. And we take it down in March. I have a small oil heater in it for night. My husband figured out how to make it very tall in years past to accommodate my big brug trees but this year I left them all outside. If they die, oh well. I consider them more of a weed than I have in years past. I do have lots of smaller ones that are special ones that I hope to see flower at least once but I have only moved a few of those in. I really should bring more in there. I did move in lots of hibiscus. It takes too long for them to recover in spring from a cold winter.

I also grow begonias and dragged in about half of my collection. If I get a cold snap you will hear me crying all the way in Texas. I just am so lazy this year.

My dad built it with some sort of thick plastic on one side and boards on the other with a tin roof. We are tearing down the shed that is on one side (it's rotted down just about) and are thinking about putting up clear corrogated plastic on one or two sides. Will have electricity run out there and that way we can put grow lights and heat it.

I got into Morning Glories this year and had that covered in Morning Glories. I plan to do that again this next year. I had a tree there that shaded it from the worst of the summer sun but it died from the drought of the previous year so was cut down. I need to get something else there to help protect it. Thinking of a car port because the walk from the porch to the garage goes through low areas where water stands. I'm still thinking on how to do that.

Sounds like a great plan. And your morning glories are just so healthy looking. I plan on growing some Japanese ones this summer. I just love them and they do not seem to reseed like some.

I love your arbor Anne and I love your hoop house Kell, I am so envious of people who live where they can put up structures without jumping through hoops. We have neighborhood restrictions against things like that. Why oh why do I live here??????
I had a wonderful GH in another home; I can't remember how wide it was but it was 14' long and I could fit lots in it. Then I had a glassed in sunroom in my last home which was a huge help; now that I have all these tropicals all I have is my prayers to protect them.

Kell, if you do move, make sure you can have your hoop house wherever you go.

Ah but I bet your neighborhood looks a lot better than mine. LOL.

What zone are you in, Alice? How cold does it get there?
Funny how we are talking on 2 different forums. LOL I have been so busy the last few months, I have not been as chatty as I usually am. Now I won't shut up. LOL

LOL, I am in the top end of 9a I would say. I am supposed to be 8b but the newest zone charts have a tiny strip right along the edge of the coast as 9a. So tiny you can barely see it in most charts. From Jacksonville north to Charleston the coast is dotted with sea islands that seem to stay warmer and I am in a particularly toasty spot. Neighbors who live on the golf course (no trees) do get much colder and experience damage to their plants.

I just got back from kayaking with my son. The weather is fantastic today so we just paddled around watching the birds; it was so relaxing.

Anne, love your pics. So cozy. I am trying to grow mandellas and jasmine along my fences. The jasmin is doing well, but the mandellas....not so good.

I was looking at some jasmine last night. I can't put things along my fence since my neighbors on the west and south side have horses and the ones to the north have cows. Thinking of cosmos in the front though. My mom planted crepe myrtles along the front years ago a couple are ok, but she has 5 or 6 I am looking to get rid of them and replace with brugs, or hardy hibiscus.

Anne

You know brugs will probably die back to the ground in zone 8B Anne. I lost all my in ground ones last winter in our cold spell. They died and did not come back. I replaced them with roses. LOL

I love crape myrtles. They are more substantial than brugs which are more of a weedy plant . When they grow big they are such a pain to try to keep neat as the older leaves are forever yellowing. Looks terrible. I have one of the floor grabbers and I try to reach way up and pick those leaves off.

What are mandellas Cat? Mandevilla? I bought a few of the newest ones last summer and the tag said they do not do well in the ground, keep in pots! So I promptly planted one in the ground and it never even flowered while the potted ones put on a continuous show all summer. Some will live outside here but some croak fast in the cold.

Alice, in 9A you must be in a warm spot to keep tropicals outside with no extra protection. I can't believe you were out kayaking. What fun!! My kid would toss me overboard if I went with him. LOL

There are a few DGrs in this zone that swear it can be done. One just south of here but still in 8b even plants trop. hibs outside. I'm not going to try that, but have mulched as best I can and though it's only gotten to 29 so far (and then not for long) it's so far so good.

Anne

They swear about brugs or hibiscus? I find that plants that need to grow back from the roots every year, take forever to flower again. I guess I am into instant pleasure. LOL

Good luck!! Lets hope for a short and warm winter.

Amen to that!

Brugs for sure and Flowerjunkie is just north of Houston still in 8b and keeps some trop. hibs out in her yard too. Like I said I'm not going to try the hibs but am trying the brugs for the first time this year in ground.

Anne