Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Tropical Garden #112, 1 by dyzzypyxxy

dyzzypyxxy wrote:
Hey all, finally home from planting bulbs in Salt Lake - Phew! We planted almost 300 daffodils in rocky clay soil. I am so tired it was a treat to sit on the plane all day yesterday.

Alice, my synandrospadix vermitoxicus is also going dormant, as we've had a few nights in the low 60's while I was away. btw it does have a shorter name, (I went back to Tropiflora's website to look it up when I got worried about it). "Worm killer"! (yuck) The site says they called it that because the indigenous people used the tuber to cure intestinal parasites. (oh, yuck again!)

Here's a shot of the lovely little 'Don Miller' begonias you sent me. Thanks again they are doing SO well.

Kay, more 'greenhouse space' can be had if you are able to make a frame out of PVC (cheap white plastic pipe from HD) or bamboo and plastic drop sheets. A friend here makes herself a big hoop house on the south side of her house against the wall every winter. The wall acts as a heat sink to collect warmth from the sun all day and release it at night.

Rita, I have another friend who grows tropicals in Salt Lake City. He keeps his greenhouse warm and humidified by using waterbed heaters immersed in tubs (plastic storage tubs from Target) of water. The air there is extremely dry and they get below-zero temps in winter but he figures it only costs him about 10 cents a night to run the heaters. They're very efficient because they heat the water - the larger the tub, the better. Just thought this might be a good way to help keep your Borneo Giant going through the winter - put a tub and waterbed heater beside his pot in your hoop house. Warmth, humidity, good light - what more does an elephant (ear) need?