Tropical Project

Little girl's are the Devil. LOL

HA! hate to see what she has to say about the 'big' girls LOL

LOL, I'll leave that one alone.

I imagine if I had to work with plants all day I might not be as enthusiastic about the yard myself. It's nice to come home from work though and mull around in the yard (usually I'm after Jap beetles, darn things are nuts this year). I sorta worked myself out of a hobby earlier this spring though; I'm out of room to plant much of anything else. Though I can fit those 4'oclocks in nicely I'm sure :)

OK you guys, I go away for a few days and you take my name in vain. LOL

Yes Core, I do think 4 o'clocks are invasive in the Midlands and because of the enormous root they are impossible to get rid of. I have one here and it has not spread much but, try as I have, I have never been able to get rid of it either.

HaHa Barb, thanks for the birthday wishes and at this point it is not how many but too many. But, I am eligible for Medicare now so there are pluses.

The Philodendron Selloum and the other ones with the holes (I can't remember the name, that's what happens when you get this old) are cheaper in the houseplant section than in the nursery section.

I think I put a Selloum in the ground this year - I have trouble with some of the philodendron ID's.

I also took a monstera deliciosa cutting (I think that's the one you're talking about with the holes) and put it in the ground. BUT... that's a zone 10b plant and I'll be shocked if it survives (maybe it's like the pothos though, LOL).

Funny thing about monsteras is I couldn't find them anywhere about two years ago, so I starting buying and taking cuttings of them from everywhere I found them. Now I have so many large monstera plants they are about to grow me out of house and home. Figured I'd put a few in the yard, LOL. You definitely don't see those growing outside here. But everyone loves them in the house - they give a real tropical feel to a room, especially if they are large with the holes.

Keonikale: I have a Selloum in ground which has survived two winters so far just fine. I have 3 monsteras in pots, that I sink into the ground for the summer. Haven't had the nerve to leave them out over winter yet, tho. They do tend to multiply, don't they. :)

I seem to have a bumper crop of those cursed Japanese Beetles here this year, too. I'm picking dozens off a wide variety of plants every evening. Grrrrr! Hate 'em!

Deb

my selloum has been in the ground for 2 winters also. It doesn't come back really huge though, but i think that the drought last summer had a lot to do with the lack of growth. This summer has been pretty dry as well, and there are only 2 largish leaves showing so far.

I'M BACK!!!!! (from FL, not india.....yet) and how dare y'all have this awesome conversation w/o me???!!!??? lol

Welcome back Dhrd!

thanks! i saw the hugest chinese fan palm! it was like 40' tall

Did you dig it and bring it back?

haha i wish i could have but it was at a university and i was on a trip with the church and we were already cramped in the vans so i couldn't even bring back any dioon pups

What's a good trip without a Plantnapping? LOL

I might put a few more Selloum in the ground this summer; if that's what they really are. You know how BBStores label stuff. Guess we'll find out next Spring. I just planted my first Red Abyssinian Banana yesterday, so I'm excited to watch it grow. I still can't believe how big one of my basjoo is this year (first year in the ground after about 10 months in a pot). It's almost taller than me now.

wow what have you been doing to it??

My hint to make them grow would be to always leave any dead leaves you cut off on the ground under the plant. They are supposed to be full of potassium which bananas love. A friend even chops up the stalks that are past their prime and leaves them under the plant. It looks messy but it works. The ones I had were in the 12' range and I never fed or watered them.

I'll start letting the leaves stay under the plants in the back then, I had no idea they were fertilizer.

I've been giving mine a lot of water and blood meal this year. I can't say for sure which is more beneficial, but I've given water almost daily and the fertilizer every 2 weeks or so. Even the smallest basjoo's are about 3' now - just compare in the photos, I was shocked looking back. My basjoo last year (the ONE I had then) hardly grew to 4' all summer. I thought it was the pups that were restricting its growth, but the one in the back, which isn't in any of the photos I posted, also has 3 pups (that formed in April after I planted it) and they're also around 3' tall. So maybe it's the location, but both the parent and the pups are huge. I'll have to post a photo of it next update.

This message was edited Jun 27, 2008 4:58 PM

I've never fertilized my basjoo either, but I do leave the dead leaves at the base. It's in nearly full shade. It's grown from 1 foot to about 6ft. This is it's 2nd summer.
Deb

The other thread reminded me to post another update. These are from the middle of July, but the Before/After stuff I thought was neat. We purchased the house Jan 2007. I'm already out of yard, or close to it.

These first two shots are of the last project we did. The back right corner was a mess of scrubby trees and vines. And it made my bed in front of it look messy. So we cleared it and brought in a ton and a half of river pebbles.

Another view of the same project.

OK, now the good stuff. I can't WAIT for these guys to really get big next year. All these bananas, are first year in the ground. Got pups?

Probably the most noticeable change in the whole yard.

Back of the house. Just moved a bunch of stuff up on the deck so it looks even more tropical now.

Entire back.

And finally, two collages.

Upper left progress

that looks GREAT! thanks for the update

you really did get a lot done this summer! congrats, it looks nice!

Thanks, now I just need a bigger yard. I'd probably go broke if I had a bigger yard though, lol.

now THAT is impressive! awesome foresight on how you did everything! I think you need to go in the landscaping biz...and if you need a bigger yard to play in come fill up the rest of mine LOL

lol, thanks. I'll definitely have to get me a house out in the country next time.

Way to decisive. Looks like you had a plan and executed in short time.

You're making me look bad. I'm fiddling around seeds and cutting with no real direction. LOL. I'm on the 5 year plan so I'm not worried. Seems you were on the one year plan.

i have no plan... i get and plant what i like where i like it

I do a lot of digging up and moving. I have moved some of the bananas a few times this year. I think I'm OCD on having it look just right, LOL.

My garden looks as if it was designed by a committee.
You are making us feel like slackers, Keonikale! :)
Deb

The problem I have is I'm not sure exactly what everthing is going to look like when it gets bigger. I'm also not to good with timing flowering etc. Next spring I think I'll be doing a reshuffle on a lot of plants and fill in some more. See what that looks like and it will continue to the next year.

I need to get more into flowering plants; they really add something to the beds. Luckily my wife has an interest in those so it helps balance the overload of green foliage. I have probably planted bananas and cannas way to close - digging them up in a year or so will be "fun." The single banana I planted last year sent up 14 new pups this year so far, 4 of which I split off. The thing hardly grows because it has so many pups and I'm concerned a few others I put in this year may do the same. I'm literally going to have a grove if I don't split them regularly (I think I put in 12 or so this year). I just get excited planting and go overboard, lol. Mathematically that's a lot of bananas within three years. And I can't bring myself to kill the pups. So I guess I'll try and sell them.

Funny thing about having a lot of the same plant is you get to see how differently they grow. Of the 10 baby travelers palms I purchased at the start of this summer, a few are getting quite large (12" pots), several have kept together at a medium size, and one or two have remained hardly bigger than they arrived (seedling pots) - all in the same type pot (to start), soil, and conditions. I have a first year basjoo doing the same. It's hardly grown a half foot all summer, it looks like I just planted it (it actually looks like a pup, but it's not). One of my other first year bananas is getting close to 6.5' in height and it has three pups my height (I split a fourth when it was about 4' tall). It has to be the conditions I guess (some are closer to trees, and others with better water availability) - or the DNA in each plant one. Very neat to witness that.

This message was edited Aug 15, 2008 11:36 PM

I play musical plants, too, I see nothing wrong with it but people will give you a hard time over it (like it will ever be "perfect"!). Basjoos I have planted throughout the yard all vary tremendously in size, but the largest musa I have now is a blue java which has grown in very full sun quite well don't think it will be hardy here but it can't go anywhere else but where it is now.

for flowering plants, my plantings are always really mixed anyway with perrenials in with the tropicals, but this year I grew a lot of annuals from seed and mixed those more than I usually do, and I like it. as much as I move plants around, it almost makes more sense to have some "temp" plants

Would blue java be hardly here? I'd love to plant some larger bananas. The basjoo I'm sure eventually will get to 10' or so here - or maybe higher? I'm discouraged about how tall they'll get since my second year basjoo is only 5' or so this year.

And the dwarf Cavendish bananas are really just fat stemmed and short - so they either must take years to grow, or mine are on the slow track one.

I like putting lantanas in amonst the plants-they show a lot of color and never stop blooming if it gets dry, and they love the full sun.

The longer that you leave a banana in place, the larger the clump will be. I have a few clumps that are getting some nice size to them now. I think Tropicanna took a picture of at least one of them while she was here....Trop-do you have them downloaded?

My dwarf cavendish has been a disappointment; like yours, it is short and fat. This is it's second year in the ground and there is no sign of a flower yet.