Hardy Tropical forum.

Tropicanna, I'll make a deal with you (and the others ;o)

Post your questions and discussions in the Tropical Plants Forum. If there is sustained, widespread interest in this topic, it will be your threads covering up the Heliconias and Taccas threads and the hue and cry will be from those posters to give you your own forum so you quit crowding theirs.

If/when that happens, then we'll see about splitting off a forum for [name to be determined]

Terry,
Have you checked my thread yet? :)

Sorry - I haven't. I'm trying to clear the decks here today as quickly and efficiently as possible ;o)

Good luck!!! :)

well a friend sent me here but I doubt many are hardy in Sunset zone 11

hellnzn-try going here and asking questions. Lots of good people there!!!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/816690/

I'd really like to see a hardy tropical forum. I love to push the envelope on zones :)

Ok

hellnzn11...i am confused. i would have thought that you could grow lots of things.

I also would love the forum. I tried a lot of things in Raleigh that did not make it but am gonna try them here at the coast.
Hope my Thiland Giant makes it. Its 70 here one day and 44 the next. Driving me crazy and I am afraid to look at the mulch heap where the EE is located.

Lavina

mamaJack we have a hard time growing everything in the high desert. We got 8 degrees or something like that about three times last year and broke records when we all had the freeze, but normally it gets a couple of months where we can get 20's-30's in the night time. It sucks.

ooooooooooh!! so your plants have to be able to take cold and drought. how hot does it get?

Dry heat but it gets as hot as 117 in a heat wave during Aug. and or Sept. but usually it is about 102-110 in those hot months. We got less than 2 inches of rain last year but usually it gets about 7 inches, I think. We exceeded both this winter, thank God. It gets really cold though and that is what the subtropical plants do not like here, I gather. Or is the heat also too high? I know nothing, they do not grow here hardly at all.

I had a Camelia once and it never died but it was in a shaded area and never grew beyond a twig and I moved it like 4 x's and it just would not flower or grow.

Gardenia's can grow in a pot in a real microclimate only with a lot of fuss.

I think your heat is probably too high and your low humidity doesn't help them either--most tropicals are from humid places. The combination of high temps and low humidity can really fry a lot of plants.

Dont think ill be moveing there LOL

hellnzn11, all i can think to say is bless your heart and i really mean that. what does grow there? that's just about as extreme as you could wish for. i whine every year about texas but before i complain this year i will try and remember rosamond, ca.

do tell us though what you can grow there? surely something.

Tumble Weeds LOL

phicks, i would love to hear you and mike freck and resin on one thread. does that ever happen? lol. tumble weeds, indeed.

only 2 things come to mind that could grow in rosamond.... yucca and prickly pear cactus

(I will give Common names so I don't have to remember all the proper names)Joshua Trees and California poppies. Afghan Pines, uuum? Lots of weeds.

Pampas Grass which is banned, coyote bush, Four winged salt bush, Roses with a lot of ammended soil because in neighboring areas in the same zone they do not have as high a mineral element in the soil and alkaline and hardpan as we have here in an old Dry lake.

We can grow some stuff in raised beds. I am finding it easier and cheaper.

We live right near the gate to Edwards Air Force Base where the space shuttle land in (Edwards dry lake) if that gives you a clue at how hard it is too garden. If I drive around the whole town you barely see anyone with a garden because it is too hard and expensive. Only us die hards that refuse to quit. If I get a green house I would like to try some stuff that might make it through the Summer in a sheltered area in Pots or something just to frustrate myself.

Count your blessings

hellnzn11--there have been tons of information availble on the Tropical Plants forum. Since that's where we've been posting these kind of questions, I bet you'd be surprised the response you'd get if you did a similar, "What can I grow here" question. Those are some pretty extreme swings, but there's lots of knowledgeable folks that may be able to help:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/tropicals/all/

and it would prob. benefit you greatly to plant with those watersorb crystals. but can't you grow agave and yuccas? and what about beschornerias? and what about bearded iris?

yes I can grow a lot of native plants and there are more plants than we mentioned. It takes a lot of preplanning and timing of planting. Almost the hardiest of all plants in this zone will die if planted close to or in Summer. Late winter, early early spring and fall are best to plant here. A lot of stuff does grow here, just the real wonderful plants and the gorgeous large leafed ones don't. It is a tough place to garden if you love variety.

I know it is possible to do it because I did before, but this place is much harder.

I will have to look up beschornerias. Irises in ammended soil and in afternoon shade do fine. glads and crocus, tulips, many bulbs as long as you ammend the soil, A LOT/

hellnzn11, you probably have some information that would be helpful to other people and you might get some new ideas if you started a thread like--"What plants can survive extreme climates?"

you may get more ideas than you think and might be helpful to others as well. More people will see it if it is posted here:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/tropicals/all/

also, maybe salvia greggiis. i have a back garden named THE GARDEN THAT TEXAS CAN'T KILL. those are plants that get all day full texas sun, no fertilizer, no water, no amended soil....nothing but nature. there are s. greggii, dl's, iris, crossvine, grape vines, daffs, lycoris radiata, a flame plant i think, malvaviscus drummondii, mexican petunia, coreopsis, and i had a huge cardoon plant until the rains did it in or it might have been age. also, ditch lilies, gladiolus byzantius. muscari. mexican hat. and an amaryllis. it's never bloomed but it lives. also, red texas yucca.

mama...lol...I think that would be a great thread for the Tropical Plants forum I posted a couple a of times above..lol, probably would help many of us

Here is a good read about cold hardy cactus http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E2DD163FF93AA1575BC0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

and here is a list cactus http://www.gardeningclub.com/Articles/Article.aspx?id=127982

Robynznest: Ohhhhhh---thank you for those links on the cacti!

I know it is another Garden site, but I just got the magazine in and read the article on what Jon Spain is doing in zone 6a. It sure opened my eyes to a whole new world of growing plants outside the zones.

Hey thanks i will look up all of the above, I need some variety here and my utilities are killing me so I need low water plants on this much desert land. I will look right now.

Trop. I have posted this before on the Southwest site, I think it was. I do need to see more stuff that works for others with these same miserable conditions. I should post it. maybe I will.

hellnzn11, i am bad about shortening everyone's dg name after i talk to them 1-2 times but i hesitate doing that with yours. lol but i gotta think of something shorter as a term of endearment for you. just can't think right now. maybe i'll start a thread to help me choose something. anyway after you research that stuff i am sure that i can supply some of them if you can use them. we prob. get more rain than you so look at that too. good luck.

Mama, I am planning on starting an outdoor cactus garden this summer. If you have some of the ones on the list, can we work out some kind of trade?

cat, i don't grow cactus. i do have one that i don't know the name. i am not a fan of thorny plants. lol.

Sorry! LOL. I read the post wrong. Gonna have to slow down and paymore attention!!!

Cat I just started some false red yucca and soap tree yucca for you. They should be ready to go just in time for the party.

Great! And both are hardy here?

yep they are.

Thanks Robin

You're very welcome.