HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Wallaby!!!!!

Have a great day and thank you for being such a precious gift in this garden!

I too wish you an excellent day.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Keep the pictures coming.They are an inspiration

The very best wishes from me to you on your Birthday. My it be abundant in happiness and bulbs and no weeds. Patti

Happy Birthday Janet!

Happy Birthday!! :D

Wishing the Happiest of Birthdays to "The Seed Queen of England"!

Happy Birthday Janet!
Hope you have the Happiest of Happys!
...and warmish weather too!
Susan

Oops, guess you can't send gif files?

Thank you all so much!

Thanks bonitin, love to help, do you need and ID on the butterfly? lol.

jmorth, lovely callas, my collection continues to grow, lol.

downscale, I hope to continue to inspire (and respire) for some time yet!

bbrookrd, lovely colours. Definitely becoming abundant in bulbs, lol what with all those secies gladiolus, lilium, etc, now hippeastrum species, oh dear, that will surely keep me happy if nothing else does, lol.

Deb, lovely, are they flowering now??

Hyblaean, thanks! Such a delicate pink daylily. (ps, I survived, lol!)

Neal, what is that Calla! It's floriferous and gorgeous! My deep, deep purple one that nearly rotted is living, I found a small corm, yahay!!

Susan, thanks, with what I have ordered lately it adds to the happies, lol, nice weather?? That will improve later in the week, this was 11.15am today. Freezing fog, 28F, some sun now but it's getting towards sundown.

I guess not Susan! Nice sunset/rise!

no way Janet! Its not that warm here yet but I'd thought I'd tease you as to what you should expect on yours later this summer. =)

That's Cypella coelestes Janet.

But these Tulipa clusiana var chrysantha have pushed up buds in your honor--T clusiana and its variants are the only ones that naturalize here.

This message was edited Feb 18, 2008 9:36 AM

Ah, I do hope my 'walking stick iris' flower this year!

I have tulips in bud too, one was showing colour yesterday but it was too late to get a pic. I'm going out now, sun is shining fairly well.

Have a wonderful Birthday!!

Oooohh, what an eerily beautiful pic of the frost on the palm! That calla is Black Forest and I think my favorite of all I've tried. Up close they looked like vinyl.

Happiest of birthdays, Janet

Thanks marie, beautiful pic!

Ah Neal, the elusive Black Forest which I tried to get TWICE lol, one rotted the other wasn't. My Black Star didn't live, either of them! I left them out until late as I did some others which are OK, one had rotted but the other (best) one was fine until it rotted later inside, ;~((

Thanks voss!

Here's my tulip after the hard frosts, I have Stresa and Johann Strauss, I think this is Stresa.

Lol, no I don't need an ID on the butterfly!
Wonderful poetic pic of the palm! Is it planted in the full ground outside ?
It looks like the frost is hitting harder in your place!

Yes bonitin, the palm is Trachycarpus fortuneii. I got it as a small seedling and grew it in the greenhouse until it was big enough, then put it in the ground in 2004. It grows fairly quickly once it's established and is hardy to -20C but should be a good size before planting out. I grew it for 5 years first, you would be surprised how much they can grow in 5 years.

We had 2 nights of hard frosts down to -6C in the neighbour's greenhouse, so around -8C outside at least.

:) survived and flourished- it's good to see!

:~))

I've looked it up in PF. It can become over 12 m tall! Probably also a good provider of nest material for the birds because of the fibrous stem..

I also have a 15 year-old one I grew one up from seed brought to me from Rome.
It took VERY long for it to germinate. After growing it inside the house it's living permantly now outside in a big pot since 10 years. Since a couple of years it makes baby plants on its foot. I have no idea what type it is, have to post it to the Palm forum…

Yes T. fortuneii has a very fibrous stem once it gets established, it can grow a foot a year too but I have yet to see that!

Yours looks so much like T. fortuneii, being in a pot would keep it smaller but the stem doesn't look to have much fibre. I thought of Chamaerops humilis when you menitoned Rome as it's very hardy and grows in the Mediterranean, but it is more blue. They both offset eventually.

Others which are hardy and similar that I can think of are Washingtonia robusta, I have some young plants of those I grew from seed too. It doesn't quite look right for that though. There are other Trachycarpus species but they are more rare.

http://www.banana-tree.com/Product_Detail~category~8~Product_ID~17789.cfm

Livistona chinesis (I also have a young one from seed) it does look more like, it is quite hardy, and the leaves droop like yours show.

http://www.banana-tree.com/Product_Detail~category~8~Product_ID~198.cfm

I have tried many palms from seed, some grew well for a start but are not hardy enough or not cold weather tolerant.

Thanks for the links!
In the second link they mention that the seed germinate very fast, but that was not the case with mine, I think if I remember well, it took about 3 months. It also hardly gets any sun, only a few hours in summer time.
The seed was collected from palms growing in the parks of Rome, they are very commonly used there. I've seen it (I think) growing in the South of France. Perhaps it is the same like yours...

These are the offsets on the base;

and a leaf;

I think it is T. fortuneii now seeing the stem close up, it has the fibres like mine has but mine has grown bigger with lots of fibres being in the ground. You could plant yours in the ground, mine was a few inches tall seedling when I got it 9 years ago.

I have another I grew from seed, I think it took 30 days which is quick, they can take longer if not in the proper conditions. Most palm seeds like to be in the dark, I put mine in a bag of moist compost in a cupboard next to the fireplace. It's usually January when many palm seeds are available and fresh, which also helps in germination. Some can take up to 3 years to germinate!

Unfortunately, I really don't have the space for it although I would love to plant it in the full ground! I might have to give it away once it becomes too tall. Sigh....

I see, 3 months is not all that long in palm seed germination!
3 years is an awful lot!

They grow upwards, take very little ground space!

Whoops! A day late... almost 2 days... LOL, I guess it is the 20th already in the UK!

Nevertheless...

Wishing you a wonderful Birthday Week!

:-)

Thanks Critter! Never too late, they keep coming around, lol. That's a sight for foggy days to brighten things up!

I'm curious Critterologist what are these long red stalks ?

The palm grew a lot last year wallaby after I had transplanted it to a much bigger pot. I'll will keep it giving it bigger sized pots in the coming years and who knows there might come an available place in my garden.

LOL... that's a photo from my article on the Chihuly exhibit at Phipp's Conservatory... those are glass!

See more photos here: http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/285/

Hey Happy Birthday! Hope the sun shines for you!

critter, I though they might be some sort of exotic candle! Or exotic stakes, or....just exotic!

Hi Galanth, haven't seen you around! I hope the sun shines on you too, lol, it hasn't been around lately either. Thanks!

They do look like birthday candles to me, definitely exotic... that's why I thought they were suited to your celebration!

Love them! Lol!

Ah I see, thank you Critter for satisfying my curiosity!

You're welcome! It took some fiddling with the layout, but I had fun with that article, thinking how cool it was that I could share the experience of seeing Chihuly's glass in such an exotic setting... :-)

Happy belated birthday, Wallaby!! I hope you had a special day!! :-)

Steve