Tropical Plants and Gardens #116

Thanks Kay, I believe it is that dark because of the time of year, normally is the the more traditional washed out red/orange.

Twas 41 here this morning, I am glad I did not bother to cover anything. Looks like we are good to go for another few weeks but Feb./ March can be tricky here, hot one day and freezing the next.

Same here, Alice! I guess we'll deal with it! LOL

Kay, That is what I did with pots last spring, but instead, It was in and out of the garage!
Like that cactus Martha!
Good luck in Chicago Randy; You could buy an aquarium and grow miniature plants?

Randy, have you checked the Chicago area for other DG members? You can go to the "extras" page and look for "other members in your area" (or something like that.) First it will bring up those around you now, then you can change the zip code. Maybe you will recognise some of the names.

Randy, here's the direct link to search for other DG members, by zip code:

http://davesgarden.com/member_zip.php

mj that dancing bones is nice. i think you sent me a piece. i hope it looks like that some day. it is in the little pot top right

rj is your tree fern starting to branch off? that will be gorgeous


i will be making banana bread today. i boiled the green ones last night. we made dirty bananas last weekend for carlos birthday. i am running out of recipes any suggestions? i have lots left on this branch and dont want them all to go to the staghorn ferns.

i dug up and moved the crinum lily last weekend. glad it didnt go into shock!

the last of the clerodendrens flowering.

My new Cymbidiums took nearly 3 weeks to open their flowers, but they sure are pretty now. Evidently, I'll have to snuggle them up to the patio door to keep them on the cool and dry side through the summer, but that's not a problem

btw, Drew do you give your Philos a bloom booster fertilizer to make them flower? I'm hoping to see a flower from one of my 'Prince of Orange' plants this spring, but have just been giving them half-strength 20-20-20 while the weather's cool. This is new territory for me.

Boiled bananas? Dirty Bananas? I have never heard of either and I am dying to know what they are. My fruiting bananas never died back this year, they did lose some of their their leaves but there are new ones already sprouting. I hope to have huge bunches of fruit this year and I need to know what to do with them.

If you let them ripen, you can freeze bananas pretty successfully. Also, I use over-ripe bananas to make wonderful moist pancakes. Couple of bananas mashed up in the batter with any regular pancake recipe does the trick. Sometimes i also add bran, or ground flax seeds to make them extra healthy.

I'm jealous of your cleros blooming, Cassie. Buds on mine are still working on the shooting part, heaven knows when they will actually open.

Cassie,
Yup I sent the Dancing Bones. Feed it in summer, very bright light, but no direct sun, let it grow on the dry side in winter. Surprised you don't have blooms on it now, as they bloom while small.
I've never heard of boiled banana's either or "dirty" one's either !!

This is an interesting FB post from Tony Avant about blue orchids.
https://www.facebook.com/#!/PlantDelightsNursery

We are having some warm weather in South GA. Everything is starting to bloom out, the trees beside the road, the tulip trees (magnolia), daffodils, and I even seen a peach tree at a nursery over the weekend with a couple of blooms. I know we are going to have at least one more 'killer' frost. Low 50s high 70s all week. I am really wanting to plant some of my plants in the ground, but I know I should wait. Anyone else seeing things bloom early?

Same here, GA - I am READY to proclaim it's spring and get plants outdoors, but I know Mother Nature has other ideas, so I'll wait!

Red buds blooming here! Some Maples are are probably 10-14 days out!


Newest leaf on Philodendron maximum!

I've seen those blue orchids, and also dyed orange ones at Home Depot for sale. The tags do say the succeeding flowers will be white.

Going to hazard a guess here, that most people who would actually buy a dyed orchid are probably the kind of folks who will throw out the plant after the blooms are finished anyway. Sad to think some grower nurtured the plant for 3 or 4 years to have it thrown in the trash after its first bloom cycle.

Why the heck would you need to dye an orchid? They grow in such incredible colors naturally.

I boil the bananas when they are still green/hard with the skin on just like you would a potato or plantain. Put a fork in to make sure it is soft like a potato then take out peel mash up a bit add a drizzle olive oil garlic , salt pepper. Done! So good.
Dirty bananas are a frozen drink. Ripe Bananas, dark rum, kahluha,ice, milk, sugar and blend. Yum.

I can t believe I didn't even think of pancakes. The hubby makes the best ricotta pancakes so bananas walnuts even better!

Ok...I'm not sure I'd go for the boiled Bananas but I know I'd like the Dirty Ones ! LOL....

I don't think the Blue Dyed Orchids are even pretty.

Cassie, thanks for those recipes.
Martha, I am going to try them, anything with garlic and olive oil is yummy. LOL
.

Alice,
I pretty much love anything with Garlic and Olive Oil too...we primarily grill our veggies, or stir fry in caramelized Garlic, onions before adding the veggies, but somehow....Bananas...maybe if I have a "Dirty Banana" first..........LOL

Mm, I'm going to try that Dirty Bananas drink for sure. My b'day's coming up.

Blue orchids look SO fake, I really laughed at Tony Avant's comment in the link about them reminding him of Tidy-Bowl. I guess it's human nature to mess with success. My mother used to call it "Gilding the lily" - when something's already beautiful why decorate it? People who like blue orchids should just buy fake flowers - they'd last longer, too!

The orange-dyed one looks gawd awful!

we are all hanging in here... supposed to get rain tonight, snow on monday.. believe it when I see it..


I agree.. fake flowers would be better than "dyed" ones..

Lots to catch up on...

candela that is a nice bunch of bananas, I noticed most froze here those few cold nights we had the first week of Jan.


mjsponies I really like the dancing bones cactus...I have such a thing for succulents, think it is because I grew up in S. Calif.

I planted a Bromeliad a couple years ago that someone gave me as a gift, not really a fan of them myself. It had blooms on it when given to me but never has bloomed again and yesterday I noticed it is getting some flowers on it...I had forgotten what color they were since it was so long ago that it was given to me.

Bromeliads are wonderful plants if you have dry-ish shady areas where nothing else wants to grow. They come in a huge array of sizes, colors of flowers and colors/patterns of leaves. Take a look on this website www.tropiflora.com and click on Bromeliads. You will be blown away by the array of beautiful plants. btw, this nursery is here in Sarasota and I have to restrain myself when I go there, to not go and walk through their huge shade houses, or I come home with a car full of (expensive) Broms.

A key to growing them is to know that each rosette of leaves only makes one flower. Then it becomes a 'mother' plant and makes pups which will then grow up to bloom, too. If you let them get too crowded, they will then stop blooming, so you need to divide them and spread them around. When you do this, you should eventually discard some of the mother plants that are getting scruffy. They're really easy to divide because they have hardly any roots. You just pick them up and pull them apart and put them back down on the ground again.

Sometimes if you have a variety that has decorative leaves, you don't mind the lack of blooms because the leaves themselves are a nice feature. You can leave them crowded and they will choke out weeds and be good looking all by themselves. I'll post some pics of a few that I have here in my garden, hope others will show theirs, too.

This one was given to me - literally a garbage bag full of big starts - and bloomed twice a year until I let it get too crowded. It has such nice foliage, though, it makes a beautiful accent.

I pulled it apart and sent starts to a bunch of people on this thread, spread it around and as soon as it had some breathing room it started blooming. (see next pic)

The flower is a big pink and purple plume that lasts a couple of weeks.

Here's another I bought, but it hasn't bloomed yet. When the light shines through the leaves the paler spots glow.

You really don't need to buy broms, though. If you have friends who have them, they're the easiest thing to start from a division.

dyzzypyxxy thanks for the information...I guess it is in a dry semi shaded area, the only other thing that likes it is the asparagus fern. Not under irrigation there. Very interesting about them being crowded and not blooming, probably why I don't like them is I see them around trees and in gardens all around here and they hardly seem to bloom...now I know why, maybe I need to go up and knock on some doors and tell them I'll thin some out for them...lol.

This pink one has been living in the old oak tree since before we bought the house. Never bloomed, but it has pretty foliage. I decided to take a few starts from it (see next pic) and the foliage got even prettier!

Can't wait to see what its flower is like.

You'd hardly know this is the same plant, huh?

I've got another one that I liked so well I brought starts from our other house to plant here. It's looking kinda scruffy right now so I didn't take a picture, but it has lovely little delicate blue and red flowers in June and December like clockwork.

Here's the stripey black one that I showed above with the red and yellow flower. See its two pups? If I could just find the right spot to plant it in the garden, I'm sure it will take off.

Ok, last one. Sorry I get carried away, but I really love broms and think they're just a fantastic easy care plant. They also "grow where no plant grows before" like under oak trees where it's dry and shady. The one in the tree has never been watered except by rain!

This is the new clump I created from the overcrowded one. I just pulled them apart, plunked them on the ground, and voila! - all the 6 mama plants bloomed, then put up about 10 new pups! I'll remove the two big scruffy mother plants at the bottom of the picture, and one at left this week, and they'll probably go to town and be a huge clump by fall. In a couple of years I'll need to divide them again.

I know lots of others on this thread have beautiful broms, how about showing Sherri some more?

Elaine

Elaine, don't think, for a second, that we don't love it when someone posts blooms - KEEP POSTING THEM!

Thanks, Kay. Just don't want to hog the thread.

I forgot to post the one of the stripey black brom once the flower opened. This flower lasted over a month, too!

This message was edited Feb 3, 2012 3:15 PM

Oops, and it's still not all the way open in that pic.

This is two weeks after the last shot. Seems it lasted a really long time in bloom.

omgosh... is that real? It is beautiful..

I've got that last Bromiliad, too - mine has a spike but hasn't bloomed.