Light patchy frost on the top of the van,but didn't hurt tough tropical plants.
Here's a few pics to show whats happening now in my world!
Spring Frost
White wisteria,sweet fragrance at nighttime.
Blue berries on Leather leaf Mahonia,color just starting to color up,Robins love these berries,and will have them stripped off in no time!
Bull frog looking for the real bull frog in the pond!LOL
He's in there but can't get to hold still long enough for a photo,think he might be camera shy!LOL
Windmill palms doing great,they can handle a little cool weather.
How about a little drumstick onion,flowering.
White peonies about to open.
Everytime banana puts a new leaf,the 50 mph winds destroy it to shreds,spring weather has been brutal this year!
Even here the bananas have been slow to wake up. The nights just keep staying cold. But the larkspur is to die for. $1.29 pkg of seed last fall.
Oh! Wow! Those are gorgeous!!!
Neighbor gave me some of her seeds,couple years back,and stupid me,thought they were weeds ,when they came up in the spring,and back then I was a hurry up weeder and pulled them all out,not knowing what they were,she never asked me about them,and I was too embarrassed to admit my in experience!!!!!
For all the people around think,I'm a intelligent gardner!!!!LOL Live and learn!!!!
Well off I go to plant some big ears I see yours are off to a good start already!!!
I've started some in big pots,and there just now,sticking thru the soil!!!
Because I prefer seed, I have learned to wait awhile before pulling up seedlings. Often it is something I have planted and don't remember. Gave everything a good does of Epsom Salt yesterday. Makes the EE's deep dark green. Overrun with cardinals and dove today. ahhhhh, life is good.
Everything is looking good folks!!! Christi, love your pink larkspur! Gee, I haven't even planted mine yet!! I better get busy!
Marcy, don't know about Ohio but in Texas the seed needs to be out in the fall. I have no earthly idea why. Also threw out a pkg of free poppy seed from Burt's Bees at the same time....mercy me are they beautiful or what!
Tropic Man;
Great stuff! This is in Kansas, and you are a genius!
These are indoors and it takes REAL DEDICATION and GREAT knowledge to pull this off, without the eaze of just setting the plants outside. I always am humbled by your stuff.
Thank you and take care
Christi, yes, most of my larkspur comes up voluntary from seed that drops in the late summer..early fall. I bought some strictly pink...and was hoping to get it into the ground early this spring..but it didn't happen. Soooooo...I will probably wait till fall now. The reason for fall planting ..I think...is because it blooms early in the spring, and the rains and snow drive it into the soil for germination. Same with annual poppies like yours. BTW...those are beautiful too!
T-man. I am fortunate that the EE's are root hardy here. At least I don't have to dig and bring inside. In fact quite a lot of things are root hardy. Just have to start all over every year.
Marcy, I am sure hoping that the larkspur comes back next year. Have had the small siza before and it just sort of disappeared. Think the poppies will come back? I have never had them before either. Thank goodness for seed. I ballon flowers and hollyhock that has been coming back for 4 years now.
Planted several varieties of amarathus today,all my ears that I could pick up,some about 8ft tall in 24 gallon pots couldn't lift today,maybe in a week or two,but did plant several 4ft tall!
Planted about dozen hibiscuses,some over 8ft tall also,didn't quite get all the roots out of the pots,as they broke up and stuck to the bottom,clay pots are tough on getting plants out,anyway there suffering,look bad,hope they pull out of it,I should of pruned about half back,but didn't want to loose are that height,if they don't pull out of it will have to cut back!
Going to have my half banana and milk and off to bed!!! Nite
Hey Tropicman. Do you nurture everything indoors during the winter and bring them out in the spring? Do you have some sort of green house?
Mike
Hey Don. Is it necessary to put in and out of the pots when they are soooo big? Couldn't they live in the pots all the time and just move them to different areas? I put tropical hibiscus in the ground last summer. Thought I could get away with just wrapping them for the winter. Both of them died. I have more this year but they are in a big pot to begin with and will be an even bigger pot later. I'm not going through all that torture of potting and planting. Can't do it myself anyway. Have to pay the yard crew.
Mike, if you just go back to last fall, I don't know the thread but it is in this forum, you will find where we followed Don as he put everything in the 3 greenhouses for the winter. Very neat. Lots of work.
Yes Mike,nurture is the right word!!!!
Fighting the insects is a lot of work,for the plants are so crowded in there!!!
I need to give ,more away!!
Christi,yes I could just leave them in the pots,but you don't get the same rainforest affect
when you see the landscape with pots in it.
When I dig them up in the fall root prune,so I can keep them in smaller pots,and also prune a third to half off the top as well.
These pots are so heavy it takes about 8 bags of 40lb potting soil to fill the pot.thats over 300lbs,this year I'm using a 2 wheeler to move them around,back can no longer take lifting them and carrying them around,it's a lot slower getting them from the greenhouse to the yard,but lot easier on my body!!!!
Something I also noticed,the palms that were in the sunroom,it has glass and the other greenhouses are covered in plastic poly,anyway the palms should have been hardened off better with the glass than the plants than the plastic,but for some reason it didn't work that way,the palms have had browning of the leaves,and the plants from the greenhouse has none,figure that one out!
Well storm has started,so I'm off to bed!
We had a wonderful gentle rain all day yesterday and last night---1/2 inch. As slow as it was, probably every drop sunk in and didn't cause run-off.
Looks like it could rain any second now!
Don, who would have thought a tropical paradise right smack dab in Kansas! A rainforest with Don as its' native...remind me Don, to send you a sarong. Amazing gardener you are!! Here I am complaining having to haul out just a smidgeon compared to what you have in your 3 GH.
My banana trees are about 2 ft. tall peeking from the ground. Giant EEs will vie for attention to. Got so many more varieties of curcumas and a giant crinum to set out. Yeah...not ╬╬╬╬ this gal in!!
So how long does it take you to haul everything out of your 3 greenhouses Don?
Heaven....most of my bananas are four ft or taller with two or three leaves!!!!!!
I have one curcuma coming up...well several sprouts....no crinum. but I have several hibiscus and two daylilies in bloom. My Mexican Fan Palm is taller than the fence!
J----you are a month ahead of me :P and your summer's longer too! Envy those whose bananas can fruit outside! Throw me a couple of hibs. my way!
Hedys are up, but not the curcumas yet, they'll be later. Lord knows I am very patient. Good thing is my floribundas have more blooms than leaves. Amaryllis finally woke up after 3 years in the ground. Patience He says, and He rewards me!
Ok Don..I know you love your garden, but please be good to your back too!
I love being here! We used to live near Morehead City NC. I wasn't a gardener then....just out of high school and newly wed in 1970. There is a big difference in even a zone's difference!
There we occasionally got snow, and here only once that actually stuck to the ground in probably twenty years! It's great!!!!
You are a great gardener and very patient, and you are correct.. HE will reward you! I've only been gardening a short time compared to most. I'm just thrilled what I have is ALIVE!!!! LOL!
What type of palm is that one to the right of your Fan Palm?
You are very observant, Mike. I had to go back and look again. Yeah, Jeanne, what kind?
Christi
Mike it takes about a month,working just on the weekends.
All my crinums returned and are up almost a foot now,same with the Amaryllis.
Just got back from DR,sinus infection,off to drugstore to get meds!!!!
Somehow my sinus infections always coincide when things start to grow.
I can relate to that,had one last year about this time.
Mike, that is a Majesty Palm. It has been in the ground for about 3 or 4 years. It got off to a slow start, but now is doing much better! The other one one other side of the yard is doing much better. It is by the AC and it gets much more water.
It loves it there!
Sounds like allergy starts the ball rolling. I can't go out just now without a lot of sneezing and eyes watering. Thankfully it is not bad enough to cause any complications such as you two have to deal with.
Christi
It's the hayfever time for you all up there. Lots of pollen in the air!
Yep! The glass picnic table on the deck is covered in green dust. We are choosing to eat inside for the time being.
Christi
Yep grass and tree pollen is very high this month,4 inches of rain so far this month should calm it down
Pollen is low here since it's constantly raining. lol. Don't look forwards to it being high again but at least it doesn't bother me like it does you guys.
It's Robinznest's birthday today....I started a new thread to wish her Happy Birthday. Come join us over there!
Thanks Jeanne, you are so sweet.