Play hookey,and tropical gardening in the greenhouse!

Hi Chrissy,
Have you started building the ARK Yet????
Are work and no play,driving me crazy!!!
Dark when you go to work,dark when you get off work!!!
Tired as a dog,when I get home,then it's a rush to get things done,and take of my plants and parrots.
So today I stayed home and got lots of things done!!!!!
And the sun is shining and 57*,windy but very nice outside.
Opened the doors to the greenhouse and sprayed down all the foliage,and gave every plant a shower.

So nice out,decided to barbecue some ribs on the barbie!!!!
Few pics for you all to enjoy.

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Nice to see you back, TM, we were wondering where you were. Lovely pics, beautiful orchid!

Thanks Bhm,
Been working so much not enough time to get everything done,and then being so tired to get to do the things I like to do!!!
Then these short daylight hours always keep me tired until spring time,just gotta have some sunshine in my life!!!
Is the sunlight hours shorter there as well?
The cold weather keeps my arthritis in flame,joints ache,and the stiffness ,thanks to Tylenol
I can still move!!!!LOL
Hope to post more pics in the future,waiting on a bird of paradise to bloom,it's getting closer every day,I think about another week she'll be showing herself to the world!
Tell everyone I said hey!

Don

Hey Don, good to see you! The green house and plants look great! Keep up the good work! Take care of yourself as well!!!!!

Nice pictures!
Are you sure your boss is not reading this thread? LOL

Thanks Tg 77
DL1,hmmmm
Well I don't think so,but his wife might,always running into him and his wife at the local nurseries and Lowes 2 or 3 times during the summer!!!!
We use to live just a couple blocks from each other,but he bought a new home a couple years ago,right in the middle of my favorite nursery and Lowes! LOL

TM how wonderful to see your greenhouse lovelies! no sunshine ..I can relate (well almost) rain ...storms ...wind ...but WARM
The garden here shows no restraint whatsoever! when the weather gets like this it is though mother nature ... says move over! get out of the way! here I come! ...ready or not!!!! ha ha ha ...Sorry I should not be laughing when you are missing your Summer sun ...this is growing overnight here as well as during the day,
it hangs over the second floor balcony, you smell it as soon as you open a window or door!
take care of yourself mate ...we need our tropic hero :)

Oh Don, sorry to hear your arthritis is kicking up, even your body says that you were born to live in the tropics away from the cold!
No, we don't really have too much difference in the length of days being closer to the equator - the sun sets at about 5.30 pm in the winter and 7.30 pm in the summer. No long summer twilight evenings for us as you have in the north. A favorite pastime in the islands is to take a glass of wine out to the beach to watch the sun set and look for the green flash. it all happens in a matter of minutes...
Chrissy, I imagine with that warm rainy weather you can hear the plants grow...stand back when the sun comes out!
Aloha

Hey, Don. We have missed you. So glad you are just working hard and nothing is amiss. Jenny, I am sooo ready.

Christi

Good Morning Everyone,
I am new to gadening and to DG, of course with a thousand questions. I thought of asking here since you seem to garden at high hardiness zones. My question for you is , where do i find the hardiness zones for the caribbean or for different parts of the globe for that matter?
See i have a sister who lives in the caribbean (lucky gal) and loves to garden, she wants plants that would be hardy over there. I want to get her some seeds, but first i need to know what her hardiness zone is. If anyone knows how to get this info please help me, thank you in advance.
~Soris

Aloha Soris, and welcome! I would imagine your sister's zone is 11, as mine is - John?

The only thing you have to watch for is the chilling factor, many plants won't grow here because there is no cold, such as many bulbs and spring flowers. Any summer annuals will do well, in fact many become perennial. Any seed that says half hardy may not be such a good choice.

How nice of you to send your sister some seed, watch out for sending plants though because many islands have strict import laws because of plants that can become invasive in the tropics. You might google the island and see if the seeds you are planning to send are considered invasive, islands have very fragile ecosystems and the native plants can easily be overtaken by imports that escape into the wild. We are doing battle in Hawaii with miconia, a pretty plant that escaped into the wild and is smothering everything. We have teams of people who go out to seek and destroy this plant, but it is already overtaken what human beings can cope with - sort of like kudzo (sp?) has done in the south...

Where in the Caribbean is she?

We are both from the Dominican Republic, but she did not befriended the cold. Decided to stay.
Thank you braveheart for your input. I actually was thinking about the invasive factor, the heat there will just let some plants grow out of control, vines for example. I was checking some sites and i have a general idea of the seeds i would send her. (No vines, he, he). I can just imagine what a morning glory would become there. I should confess i am dying to go there and help her with the garden. I am going the 19th of December for the holidays.

Dutchlady i would guess that your zone is similar to the one at DR. Do you know of nice looking plants that have not invaded all of your garden?

Hi Soris and welcome to a wonderful place! Here you will find all kinds of topics, ranging from how-tos, how not to's, fish, food, plants, etc....So many kind folks just living the gardening life and sharing a common passion about life.

I live in zone 11. Some excellent plants you might suggest or supply you Sister might be, Ixoras, Bouganvillas, Plumerias, Desert rose, Hibiscus, so many out there....Birds of Paradise, Silverbuttons for hedging...plumbegos for blue color....just type any of these names in the plant files forum and you can see what each plant requires and what they might look like in your gardens....hope this helps, many others out there will surely answer your question on the continuation of this thread. Welcome, enjoy yourself!!

aurabest,
john

(Christi...will answer you back tonight....still at work now!!!)

Invasiveness is a real problem in the tropics. I suggest you read the tropical forum a lot, and if you have questions about any particular plant, ask! Water requirement is a big issue to consider.

Thank you Carib and Dutchlady

THanks for all the kind words everyone!
I will be working the rest of the week,and taking a month off!!!!!
Need a little r&r !!!!
Anyways Crissy your passion flower ruby glow,mine has gone thru 3 inches of snow and temps down to 22* and is still looking fine,where everything else outside has bit the dust!
Mother nature has run over the sun god once again for 6 months!
Remember those huge 3 ft across castor bean tree leaves????
Look at them now!

hehehe. The castor definitely looks bad. Glad the Ruby Glow can handle cold. Now make it hardier so we can grow it outside. :~p

69 here today. The EE's are sooo confused. The largest leaf one is putting out new leaves. By now they should be looking like Don's castor beans. have heard that our climate is harder than Don's. Kansas gets cold and stays there so the plants go dormant. We have a day or two of winter...two or three days of summer...and then start all over again. I run the air conditioner as many days as I do the heat in the so-called winter season. guess I should be grateful. That is the reason our population is exploding. Only half a day or so of ice/snow. Glad you are going to get some rest, Don.

Can I just pull up a chair here and drool over those beautiful pics for a spell? Missed the tropics.
Beautiful frangipanis/plumerias there Tropicman. Chrissy, I had never had the pleasure of a fragrant passi. Yours is beautiful.

heaven, Have you had an opportunity to read the first 6-7 threads about TropicMan's tropical garden in Kansas? It is well worth a back-up. Then, of course, the under-the-sea threads are to die for. They also run 6-7 threads.

Anyone heard from Sylvain today? I worry for his health.

Thanks LouC. Taking that tour now!

We have what I call GREATNESS on DG. A lot of it is right here on
TROPICAL GARDENS.

Thanks LouC. Tonight I learnt from Tropicman's postings that I should not be afraid to try growing Raja Puri! It's the "king" of bananas back home! For years I thought it's impossible to have a piece of childhood growing here unless in zones 9 and above.
I also learnt the difference between taro and Alocasia! Also learnt that it is okay to cut off the leaves before dragging them into the GH. (Sorry my dearest DH)
Willing to learn more.

Isn't it wonderful? There are questions answered that I don't even know how to ask.

Yes, and many are so generous in sharing their gardening wisdom! Sometimes when I think my knowledge is sufficient.....God humiliates me! Lol!

Humbles me everyday of my life.

Gardeners are so friendly and happy! seems to me that if we love our gardens we love and appreciate the gift of life and understand the World a bit better.Our gardens teach us about joy, sharing ,how one thing struggles against all odds and survives and another just does not make it no matter how much you care for it ...so many lessons and so much happiness ...the moments when you just look at something so exquisite that it takes your breath away!
I think mother nature is a hard task master but so so forgiving and
repays our efforts in such a bountiful and awesome way! It gives us everything we need if we want it.
Now having said that! ha ha ha mowing the weeds this morning just about killed me ...I didn't swallow any flies ...didn't get stung by anything and the grasshoppers ...I think I killed an awful lot! (I am awful I know!) I cannot get my toes back to their normal colour ...they now are green despite the shower :) gotta soak them I guess.I did not have time for pics today it has been very hot ,overcast ,no rain YET that is the storm due tonight:)
You just gotta love it all haven't you ? I am very grateful for every day of my life.
Have a good one everyone
chrissy

Glad to know we now have heaven on our side!!!LOL
Just join right in here, the more the merrier!
One thing I've learned is you never to old to learn!!!!!
Lou hot and cold,it's a wonder you don't have pneumonia!!!
Chrissy!
All those spiders and snakes and you cut cut the grass barefoot???Must be a redneck some where up there in the family,and they probably a little green toes!!!LOL

All the rain and heat,you probably can cut the air with a knife all that humidity!!!!
I think you need to let the sheep out of the corral,to eat that grass and weeds!!!!
Wow! Look at me a little sleep and I'm just full of things to say!!!LOL
Of coarse you know I love you all!
And am only teasing!!!
I'm just seeing you in my mind your out cutting the grass in your Daisy Mae outfit with green feet!!!LOL

Chrissy, you're a riot!!! I can see you now, full speed ahead on your lawnmower, too fast to swallow any flies but managed to mutilate all those teeny grasshoppers!!!
Thanks for the welcome Tropicman. I can see that I'll be making lots of stopovers here!
DH was appreciative of the fact that I allow the yard to "winterover". Moreover there are no neighbours to really frown at our choice!
Have a good nite all! A good day to you Chrissy!