I'm looking for tall and sun tolerant. My trading list is recent, and if you don't see anything you like there, I have more plants I could part with.
Steve
Anybody have any to trade?
I'll have Annabelle cuttings in about a month. Would you be interested in them?
Just looked it up - it's a beauty. Can you remember to get in touch with me when your cuttings are ready?
Steve
I'll try my best. Do you have any hydrangeas cuttings to trade? How about any perennials that live in zone 7B? I can't grow tropicals here (don't have the space inside).
How tall is tall? I have tall, as in the lacecap Queen Anne's Lace, but sun tolerant in Florida? Are you sure hydrangeas can do that? This lacecap gets to be about 8 feet tall and is a fast grower.
Also have an unnamed mophead with large flowers. It's tall and can take sun here in the NW, but I'm not sure about Florida. I might have a rooted one of these.
What else do you have to trade?
pins - I have some Purple Heart, Tradescantia pallida, that people grow in the Carolinas - it should grow in your area. Check them out:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/1160/index.html
I have Sweet Potato Vines that I just propagated - they're young, but rooted
Steve
Pixy - I've looked some up on different web sites, and they say full sun - doesn't say where, though.
We've traded before - I sent you the banana - how's it doing, by the way?
If you're looking for tropicals to grow in the house, I have Bloodleaf, Devil's Backbone, and Sweet Potato Vine - they're all supposed to make good houseplants.
Steve
How about I just send you some cuttings for postage? The banana has put up a new leaf so it's doing well. It was pretty shocked by being sent, but I've put it on top of the warm sand in the greenhouse to keep the soil warm and it's doing fine.
I would not recommend trying to grow hydrangeas in the full sun in Florida. Even in the Northwest, most hydrangeas do best in partial sun to shade. If it were me, I'd check with some other gardeners in your area to find out which varieties, if any, can take the full sun in Florida.
I'm glad to send you some cuttings for postage if you can wait until after the holidays. It's not a great time to do cuttings right now, anyway.
Let me ask some other Florida gardeners if they grow them -there's a forum here. I'll get back to you, OK?
Melissa,
Don't know if you're aware of it, but bananas are extremely heavy feeders. I think yours would be happy (and grow more quickly) if you could mix some composted manure into the sand, or peat moss, or something else organic, or all of the above. They also like a lot of moisture, but need to drain well.
Steve
Oh, thanks for that!! I will add some composted manure to the soil in the pot. It's in a potting mix that drains well, but I can't remember what I put in it. I can also water with seaweed fertilizer. Thanks for the tip! I love the little leaves on that thing! In spite of the warm sand, my greenhouse is a cool one so I figured that it just needed warmer temperatures to really take off.
Melissa,
I think you're right. We're in a cold spell here, with nights in the 40s, and mine have slowed way down, too.
I'm glad to hear that your plant is doing well. For a while, it sounded as though it wasn't going to recover from it's traveling.
Steve
Melissa,
I got an email from a woman who is not far from me, and she grew four hydrangeas in the open sun last year. She didn't have any names, but from what I've been reading, the different types are more sun tolerant than others.
I'm working out a trade with a guy in Pakistan who wants one of the bananas. I have one that's just a few inches high, that I'm going to send to him. This should be ineteresting.
Steve
Melissa,
Yes, it's Kaleem. I traded with him once before, without any problems. What happened to you? Did you ever get the plants? Did the PO notify you that your plants had been confiscated?
I never got the plants, and what I got was an empty container saying that the plants had been confiscated. I know that Kaleem has traded with lots of people with no problem. It probably depends on where the plants are headed, but it's illegal now to bring plants into the states without the proper permits. It gets me extremely irritated because I know that he is not going to send diseased plants. I know there are lots of plants smuggled into Florida, so maybe your inspectors simply have their hands full and yours will get through.
Did you find out what kind of hydrangeas your friend grew? Likely H. macrophylla, but even so there are some cultivars that do better than others so knowing which cultivars she has would help you. Better yet, just get cuttings from hers in the spring! Or maybe some of hers have layered some branches naturally. They have a tendency to do this and you can then just cut off the branch and have a new plant.
She didn't know the name.
As I remember, Kaleem wrote 'Happy Birthday Steve' on the outside of the box. At the time, I thought it was a little strange, but I guess he did that to try and help the plants get through.
Very likely. If it's something really special, it might be worth a try, but I just send plants for a trade for something non-plant. He's sending me belly dancing stuff for my daughter in exchange for a large box of plants I sent. It cost me almost 40$ to send the box. Many of those plants arrived dead. It took almost an entire month for the box to reach him. I had packed that box full of hydrangeas, succulents, and many other things. I was extremely disappointed that it took so long to arrive. He told me that smaller packages don't take as long, so I'm going to try sending a small envelope with a few things and see what happens there. I've send things to him three times, and each time it seems to take so long to reach him that the plants are barely alive when they arrive. IN the first little package, I sent hostas and they were all rotted. But he is a good friend and he has so little available to him in Pakistan, I want to keep trying. I want also to send succulents to Yasir, who has such a lovely collection already.
I sent Kaleem a couple of Bromeliads, and being the weird plants that they are, they arrived just fine. They would probably survive a nuclear holocaust.
This time I'm sending him a banana. If his plant doesn't reach me, it's no big deal; I want him to have the banana.
Steve
Hope the banana gets there in good shape. I can see how bromeliads would have no problem at all. I know how you feel about sending plants to him. I never really cared, either, if he sent me a plant, because I can get whatever I want here. I just wanted him to have them. I spent months rooting hydrangeas and sent him about 8 rooted cuttings. I know one of them made it, but I don't know about any others.
Melissa
I faced this problem only in WA and when I sent plants to other states all received with out any problem. I sent seeds to your MIL , she also received with out any problem but when I sent seeds to Bill_cassey, the same problem was obsered. I faced this problem twice , with you and with Bill_cassey. Otherwise my all the plants arrived safely. I remember only these , may be forgetting some one else.
Kaleem
Ahha! There you are, Kaleem! Yes, you told me that you faced this trouble only in WA and one other place. I hope Steve's plant gets to you in good shape. I see that I am not the only one who just wants to see you get some interesting plants! STeve sent me a musa banana last summer, and it's doing well in the greenhouse. Banana should do very well for you because you have more sun and warmth than I do.
Of course, whichever packages get confiscated has nothing to do with you or with the plants you send. It's only just bad luck that they get noticed by some inspector. I think the inspectors for WA are just more careful.
Pixy
Today is very lucky for me...... I think Celamatis....yea ...celamatis have a leave bud and soon that will open, still very small but waiting for the opening ....yes the other hosta sunspot is also have leaves, now both the Hostas are back, another Hyderangea is also showing new leaves.
Kaleem
I am now dancing just like Kaleem!!!!! This makes me very, very happy, indeed! To know that some plants have survived is just like having a Christmas present!!!! I sent you two clematis, both of them from a dear friend's garden. I don't even know what kind they are, but I know the person who planted them and he bought only lovely, interesting plants. He is a much older man from whom I learned very much about gardening. Another family now lives in his home, because he could not continue to care for it. But I see him and his DW almost every week and I take him plants from his old garden. I is very sad to me that he can no longer garden, as he really loved it. But he will be very happy that a clematis from his garden grows in Kaleems garden in Pakistan!
I think this is the only thing about having the plants confiscated that bothers me. It is not so much the loss of the plant, because as I have said, I am forunate to live in an area where I can get almost any kind of plant. But I really love the idea of my plants growing for Kaleem, and I wish that his plants could grow here for me.
So, Steve, I know you will be excited when Kaleem gets the banana all planted. He is extremely able to revive stressed out plants!
I have sent many plants to Kaleem without a problem...I love to send things to see if he will have luck growing them there..we have had very good fortune so far...right, Kaleem. Steve I may have some hydrangea cutting I can send to you...I will see if my rootings are doing well and let you know...not sure what kind they are except that they are the usuall blue ones that turn pink in some soils...mine have been pink and blue at the same time...very intriguing! I will let you know and if not...I will get some started for you, they have been very easy to root for me.
JanetS
JanetS - thanks. So many people here have been so generous in offering cuttings. I think I read somewhere the flower color depends on the soil acidity.
Steve
Kaleem - the banana is packaged up, going in the mail today. It's doing well - just a couple of weeks ago, I potted it in a 1 gallon pot, and it was pot-bound again last night. They grow incredibly fast.
Steve
Steve, are the banana plants hardy to zone 7b? They are so beautfiul. I have seen them in the nurseries here, but was reluctant to purchase because I don't have a green house or enough space inside to winter them over....haven't done much with tropicals.
Janet,
I looked long and hard for info on the hardiness of this plant. I found 1 article that says it grows in zones 9B - 11:
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/MUSSPPA.pdf
I'm in zone 9A. I'm considering setting it out in pots. If you can over-winter it somehow, you might want to consider doing the same.
I bought an inexpensive greenhouse ($127.00, plus shipping) this Fall just for that purpose - to over-winter tropicals. It's fairly easy to put up and take down, and it's coming down just as soon as the danger of frost ends here. It does the job - plants are growing in it.
Steve
Thanks for the info. I remember when I was a child a neighbor had a hughe banana tree with fruit on it...I was amamzed. Perhaps I can go to a tropical nursery here and check to see is there are some that will survive our weather...
Steve you are correct about the color of hydrangeas being dependent on the acidity of the soil - at least in terms of H. macrophylla in shades of pink and blue. This is why on some shrubs you can get flowers that have slightly different colors. They are very beautiful!
The white ones don't change color. I am not sure about H. serrata, but I'm thinking that H. aspera does not change color. Someone else may know differently. I don't think the oakleaf ones change either, nor the climbing ones. It's a very large genus.
Thank you Steve, I will send your Philo on the comming Monday.
Yes JanetS sent plants and received in very good conditions, I also sent her Swiss Cheese Plant, Window Leaf, Split Leaf Philodendron, and she received in good condition also. This is a great fun to send and receive plants and seeds from the other part of the world, no matter if those are in bad condition but we know they are full of love and faith.
Just comming back from other city known as city of nuserseries but there I found common plant s, actually they are plant producer and sell their plants to all the nurseries of Pakistan, But I found there a huge variety of Palms and those are in great sizes and conditions , but very very expensive. I forgot my DC in home otherwise you all will be with me.
Yasir was also with me and he bought three little plants from Cactus and succulent family.
Kaleem