Love the caster bean in with the canna's! *I do the same thing*

Kevin,

You are making me drool again. You promised me that once you dig them, you will send me more info. :)

I'm really in love with your garden. In fact, I'm copying it. :)

Awesome!!! Gorgeous!!!

Neil

Hey arctic,looks like you get some strong sun there,also just curious when the first frost comes there on avg and what your low temps have been like.Your garden looks awesome as always!Have you ever tried growing the castors with the huge green leaves?Post some pictures of your palms on the palm forum,I'm sure everyone over there would love to see them .Hey.also I was wondering when you box up your palms for winter if you water at all during the winter and if so how much and if you could put a remote sensor on one of your palms to see what the low temps they see are,I think it would be interesting to see what the temps are like in there when its well below zero,thanks for posting!

Wow, your gardens are amazing. So very beautiful. You did a excellent job designing them.

Thanks for your comments, Irish Rose Grower & Neil. Neil, what information would you like? Jimhardy, I've grown the green castor beans years ago, but I like these Tahitian purple ones because they are more compact and blend in the beds I grow them in a little better, and give a contrast to the green leaves of the cannas. I will post some palm pictures on the palm forum. Our first killing frost usually comes mid September, but we've been lucky this year. So far, no frost yet. I expect it will be October before is happens, which I am extremely excited about! Regarding temperatures in the palm boxes during winter, I have never found out how cold it gets. Sometimes I loose a few of the newer fronds to the cold, since they are more tender, but have never lost a spear. All I know is it has been -40 F. outside, and my palms are warm enough inside.

Kevin,

What is the tall color violet or maroon plant with star-like leaves in the 4th picture? It's very nice! Is it perennial or do you also dig it?

Thanks,

Neil

v1rtu0s1ty, those plants are castor beans, a variety commonly called Tahitian Purple. They are annual plants in our climate. The seeds were given to me by a nursery owner that I sell canna rhizomes to, here in Utah.

Lucky I was still awake and browsing, then saw your post. But how were you able to make it that tall? Do you bring them in too during winter? Or do you just sow seeds every March?

Thanks!

I just did some slight research and found out that they are a very very fast grower. I also found out that they are poisonous. I also found out that they are annuals so they die in winter. Some guys just seed again in March/April or May. Question now is, is the branch strong or easy to remove during cleanup in fall? I'm thinking of buying seeds too next year or maybe this year since they're really inexpensive. When is the right time(month) to sow the seeds if I am in Chicago?

Thanks!

Neil, once they get established in the ground, they do grow rather fast. They are now at least a foot taller than when I took the pictures. I did not start them this year until the first part of May, and did not transplant them into the ground until the latter part of May. They are fairly easy to dig up in the fall with a normal shovel. Next year if I can get some seed, I will plant them inside in April, so they should grow a lot taller during the summer. In Chicago, you could probably transplant them earlier than in northern Utah, since you are one climate zone warmer. Good luck!

So how will I know when it's time to dig them? Do they droop? I just bought 15 seeds of them. :) I can't wait for spring. Oh, since they become tall, is it safe to cut them? Are the stems soft or like a tree?

I also bought maurelii. I saw your maurelii on our other thread and it's very beautiful. However, I'm going to put them in a pot for now. Next year, I will plant them in the ground. How do I overwinter them in the basement?

Thanks for the tips!

Hi again, Neil. If you were referring to the castor bean plants when you mentioned digging them, I just dig them up when we have a killing frost, cut them up, and put them in the garbage can. Luckily, we have not had a killing frost yet. This is the longest we have gone in a season without one. They are for the most part, soft tissue. There are several ways you can store your ensete bananas in the basement. Sometimes I have cut them off to three feet high, potted them in 15 gallon pots, and stuck them in an unheated, unlit storage room, and they have survived until Spring with just watering them once during winter. Others, after repotting and cutting them to three feet, I have put in a basement room with a little heat, but very little light, and they have grown leaves during the winter despite the low light. My biggest one I left upstairs in good light and sun. The only problem is, you end up dealing with spider mites the whole winter, but this is one one that took off in the Spring to grow 9-10 feet high.

So that 15 gallon pot does have a soil correct?

Thank you so much for the overwintering tips! ;)

Neil, yes, the 15 gallon pots do have soil, however, if you are storing the plants in an area without light or heat, do not water the plants at all during winter, or the roots could rot. If they are dormant, the moisture in the fleshy roots and stem should be enough. Some growers have washed the soil from the roots and replanted them in a mixture of vermiculite/perlite and fine bark mulch/soil prep., but I have not tried this yet. I may experiment to see if it will work better than the original soil they were grown in. Just make sure the soil is very loose and aeriated.

Kevin

I will have the ensete's next week. They are still young maybe about 24 to 28 inches. I want to put them right now as house plants. However, I don't have enough sunlight coming in to our house, maybe max 2 to 3 hours only. Is that ok?

Hi Neil. (I posted a response to your questions in your post in the banana forum.)

Oh my -- *gasps* Kevin, this is my first time on this forum (I'm new to cannas) and I came across one of your previous posts during a search and clicked on this post expecting something spectacular and I am AMAZED!!!! I actually grew only one variety (noid) this season and just planted in a Bengal Tiger (I think) a week ago but obviously I have a long ways ahead of me in comparison to your extraodinary garden. =) Is this your garden? Or do you landscape? At first, before I looked at your zone, I thought you lived in a mansion somewhere in the Dominican Republic or some tropical island and my jaw just dropped when I saw you live in UTAH! lol...amazing! =) I looked on your exchange page and guess you don't exchange plants but if you ever consider trading, I would be honored to trade for mini/small starts of your spectacular cannas. You are an inspiration to me (I'm in zone 7) and seriously, I think you're my new hero lol. Thank you so so so much for sharing your gorgeous photos of your beautiful garden and I still can't believe you live in Utah! =) WOW, WOW, WOW!

Hi Arctictropical,
I'm just writing to let you know that I will be moving into your canna garden soon. Look for my tent the next time you stroll through your property, I'll be at home amongst the cannas!

Seriously, what varieties are they (in order that they appear in your pictures)? Especially the ones in the 2nd and 4th photos. I must know!

Thanks Paxfleur & shropshire lad. Yes, this is just my yard. I live near Logan, Utah, in the northern end of the state. I've grown cannas for over 30 years and have probably 25-30 different varieties. With our sunny days from Spring through Fall, they seem to do well in our area, especially if you grown them in raised flower beds that allows the sun to warm the soil, and provide good soil with organic material. I'm a fanatic, you might say, for growing tropical plants, even though our winters have seen
-45 F. temperatures before. It's common to have -20 F. or lower each winter. I also grow outdoor palms up to 10 feet tall, bananas, elephant ears, hibiscus, bamboo, and anything that remotely appears tropical. (See other forums for these pictures.) Shropshire lad, in the second picture, when I purchased them, they were labeled "tropical rose", but I have since learned that this may not be the right label for these cannas, so I'm not sure. The cannas in front of the Tahitian castor bean plants are the common, "Portland" variety. If you ever end up in northern Utah in August, come on up! Be glad to have you over.

Kevin

Thanks!

All I can say is AWESOME as always Kevin. Your entire place always looks like a post card. I'm emailing you a link to some of my photos, of course my place doesn't look anything like yours. For some reason my cannas all looked rather sickly this year. I think that it probably had something to do with my butterfly gardens and those darn leaf rollers on the cannas. Boy they can sure play havic with your cannas in just a couple of days.

I think I still owe you some plants but I don't want to send anyone anything that might not be HEALTHY.

I too have castor bean trees mixed in with my cannas. I may have to talk you out of a handful of your seeds. I have no ideal what mine are called, I just know they have a reddish purple cast that looks matalic or something another. Maybe I can find one of those photos to share with you. If you would like some of my castor bean tree seeds I should have plenty in a couple of weeks as mine are covered in blooms right now as are my dutchmans pipe vines. Let me know if you want seeds from either one.

You might recall I don't know how to post photos on the gardening pages. I wish I could, but I'm too old and absent minded to learn. Therefore I'll be sending them to you in an email.

Happy Gardening, Marian