Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Waking Up Our Tropicals

Judy--

Tempting to do all of the above--but I don't trust this "glitch" of summer weather...yet..
A good month to go yet to our frost-free date....
But--it IS a good time to work on all our beds--general clean-up, digging up, etc..

I will be doing the in and out--in and out-for a while. I am fortunate to have a covered patio.
The seedling flats all spent yesterday outside my front door--total, bright shade.
I think the Daturas grew an inch! :o) The Brugs are not doing much growing this winter..??

Maybe i can take my Clivias outside--in the dappled shade...Luckily--I am down to only TWO pots!
Thanks to Paul.....He always thinks of his friends who wanted some. So--he bought 4 from me...

Already put a couple HB's out by my front door..easy to grab and bring back in if needed...
I am sure all the Spider HB's can also go out for a breath of fresh air . They are not that touchy-feely..
Meanwhile--just playing the waiting game...it is so hard.......

Yesterday--I swept and cleaned up and set up everything on my patio. looks nice now...
Almost hate to hang the big bird feeder back out--that creates a mess....but the birds need food--
as they are all nesting right now...

OK! Good, new Thread.....lets chat away! Gita

I usually do one big moving day in and one big moving day out, none of the in and out for me.

This year, however, I have a desire to wake up a few of my semi dormant alocasia and colocasias so they will look like a plant instead of a tuber. Mostly , I want awakke and growing ones for any requests for the Spring Swap!

Tempted to grab a few, tripple water them well outside where I can really flush and drain and recondition container soil for moisture as they have been 'dry' all winter since bringing in while I have one or two really warm days to do it and then put them back in my enclosed porch where they will stay warm til Moving Day

Most of mine are still in the garage. I do water them once a month so that they're not completely dried out. I leave them in there until I'm sure there will be no more frosts, even if they're showing some growth. Once they're outside I water them well and give them a good drink of Aggrand's 4-3-3, Bonemeal and a little 0-0-8.

Last fall I didn't pull up some of the cannas that I got from Holly and Ric. I figured it was warm enough by the south wall, and sure enough, there was new growth already when I removed the extra mulch I'd placed on top.

The Japanese banana (musa basjoo?), which is in the same bed, also had extra mulch for protection, but I'm not seeing any new growth on it yet.

I brought out the Cavendish banana and planted it in a very wide pot. It's zone 8 hardy, as opposed to the basjoo, which is supposedly zone 7. The roots/bulbs looked healthy enough, but definitely dried out. None of the dormant tropicals were watered over winter... I hope they didn't dry out too badly!

Coleup, I'm hoping to plant the elephant ears I got from you in my rain garden, but I have no idea when that project will be finished, so I may have to just pot it up soon. :)

The beautiful little tropical hibiscus that Sally gave us at the fall swap died a little while ago. I had no idea what I was doing with it!

Some other zone 8 plants are out already, such as the dwarf lemon. It's in full shade right now and will gradually transition to full sun.

Tropical hibiscus seem to be very temperature-sensitive -- I put mine out too early and all the leaves died, even though I know it didn't dip below freezing. I'm hoping the main plant wasn't killed.

I overwinter my Tropical Hibiscus in the house because they never made it in the garage. This year I used the Systemic Granules which was a huge help for prevention of pests.

I have one upstairs in an east facing window. It's small, but alive. The one in the South facing window is HUGE!

I've moved three big brugs outside, warm sheltered spot, and started watering them.
Black stem Elephant ear has put up a new leaf after being dormant. and after I gave it a little water.
will have caladiums, haven't touched yet
, hymenocallis ...are going to be planted right into the bed with asparagus to benefit from extra water and rich soil- bloom dammyouse!
Strelitzia has stayed green all winter, needs bigger pot
Plumeria the buds seemed to be plumping up so I started some water. I will take a cutting or two and try rooting them AND hope the flower buds from fall finally open!
Tropical Hibiscus from Dutch Plant Farm in February has started growing, but I'll be careful on the chill.

I heard on the weather forecast this Am thar the week will be nice and warm--but by Sat. the highs will be 50*
and Sunday night lows with be around 40*.
SO--I will wait and see what next week is like before I take my Brugs out, don't want to rush....

Good deal all around for Gita & Paul & his friends on those clivias... Gita's plants are so sturdy! :-)

I wonder when our caladiums are coming? Better drop Bill a line...

I overwintered several tropical water lilies with some smaller EE's in a tub of water under fluorescent lights in the basement... The original plan was for them to be in the big aquarium, but that never quite made it down to the basement last fall (ended up being home to a few ferns in the family room, but it has got to go!). They didn't have quite enough water depth to keep growing over the winter, but at least one was starting to put up baby leaves when I moved them out today. I have half a dozen new TWLs "floating" in their water pot homes, waiting for me to go to the dollar store for cheap (clay) kitty litter so they can be potted up. Turns out you can do a whole lot of water gardening with no pond, if you're willing to buy a bunch of big pots (Costco has 22 inch ones for just $20... and I've lucked into some sales for $5 and $10 ones).

And then there are the lotus... played with them also as I was messing with the water pots outside. They look tropical, but they're actually hardy -- to zone 5, I think. I've partially buried their pots for a little extra protection, but I bet they'd be fine without that. So far, I have divided 3 from last year and have extra tubers from all... 'Pretty Princess Peyton', 'F. Thousand Petal', and 'Chawan Basu'. I'm amazed that more people don't grow them, because they're so easy! Fill pot with clay dirt, to within 6" of rim, then fill with water. Place tuber in center of pot, put a rock on it to hold it down. Top up water every week or so (much less often than any other kind of container plant!), add fertilizer tabs and mosquito dunks once a month. http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/3338/

The night blooming epi from Gita that's resided on a bar stool in my bathroom (still in it's 4" pot mind you) has now sent a 'stalk' up that touches my ceiling and is curving over...crazy thing. Grabbed the spritzer with the alcohol in it to decimate those nasty mealies on my sambac (companion to above mentioned Epi) only to realize all these warmer temps - increased watering and daylight hours have caused buds not mealies!!! Woooowhoooo!!!

yay!!!!!

My plumeria buds from last fall are growing.

Go, buds!!

Sally, I remember your wondering if those buds would turn to blooms, and when. :-)

I just need the temps to get warm enough so I can get these guys out side. I swear that most of them are just huge. I will say that my varigiated Sky Blue Vine is looking pretty darn good coming out of the GH. Who knows maybe it will flower this year for me.
Chantell, LOL what a great surprise.

Sat. night into Sunday morning---temps are predicted in the 30's.....
One more time! I am tired of this irregularity!
Would love to have some sturdier plants outside for fresh air--and then the nights
throw in a glitch.

Chantelle----
My same Epi grew these ridiculously tall shoots all the time--like 4' tall--and I was
told it was "normal"....A couple times, I just cut them off. I still have one pot of the NBC Epi
slowly growing to resemble the mature plant that I rooted from pieces of this long shoot.
Seems it will--eventually, grow a plant.....but it is a long way from having the lush leaves it should.
I am guessing this is about 4 years old now..... G.

This is how this NBC Epi looks--after several years...pretty puny.
Close up of the long stem pieces it grew from.

How exciting everyone's baby's are waking up. Haven't put any of my tropicals outside yet - only a few of the plants that will be going into the ground. You'll have to tell us how those plumies smell, Sally!! Holly and and Sally pics please?!

Hmmm...Gita...never thought about rooting it. IF it won't hurt the mama plant any - I'm happy to cut it and whomever wants it...its yours