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| Today was a pretty nice day and I got some awesome new plants. Heres what I got....
- 2 Crinum powellii bulbs - 2 Giant ee bulbs - 1 normal ee bulb - Crocosmia - 9 different tillandsia groupings - Camellia "Long Island whte" - Camellia "Arctic Rose" - 2 Birdnest Ferns - 2 Pachypodium lamerei (Madagascar palms) And I was digging some of the soil and found out that my Pineapple lily that died back in early summer is still alive! I replanted it in a different spot and hopefully it will do better this summer than last year! Here are some pics.... My madagascar palms are getting hot full sun. I'll bring them in if it gets cold again, but they should be happy outdoors the next few days at least. 
The early tulips are about to bloom. 
2 of the 9 Tillandsias 
Saba and ice cream bananas 
Replanted most of this area today. Probably the best looking area of the yard right now 
Fall blooming Camellia "Long Island White" 
Spring bloomng Camellia "Arctic Rose" 
It seems like a heavy bloomer and it already has a bloom on it 
My 15 (or so) year old camellia "Herme" 
I think the yard looks okay for March and I cant wait for all the plants to go out and for them to all start growing nicely this summer! Thanks for looking. Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather! -Alex |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by HardyPalmFreak (7b)(Bronx, NY) (My Page) on Sun, Mar 11, 12 at 21:24
| Great pics Alex! Is that a Bottle Palm towards the end? |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Sun, Mar 11, 12 at 22:08
| Thanks HardyPalmFreak! Its actually a spindle palm which is in the same family as a Bottle palm and has the same swelling on the bottom of the trunk. Spindles do much better indoors than bottle palms though, I never have a single problem with them indoors whereas bottle palms are a little picky indoors. -Alex |
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| Hey Alex, I like all the new plants.I started to by one of those Madagascar palms last summer.It was about a quart size pot and HD wanted $25 for it.I thought that was to expensive for one that size.That Spindle palm and the Majesty palm are getting big.If you don't mind me asking,where did you get your Bananas and the giant Elephant ear bulb at?Nobody around here has Banana plants for sale that big.Love the Red Camellia plant.I've been looking for some around here,but the pickings are slim,Lowes has a few 3gal.size plants.They are all odd colors,orange,maroon and like a pale looking yellow.I want a double blooming red and pink.My favorite color in camellias are red,my wife's pink.I think the ones with double flowers look like a rose flowers,almost.I can tell your looking forward to summer,LOL.Happy spring :) Randy |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Mon, Mar 12, 12 at 17:56
| Thanks Randy! The Madagascar palms are pretty expensive. Mine were for sale at 45 dollars, but with all the discounts and stuff I got it for about 25! I got the Musa Saba off ebay (as a small plant about a foot tall) from Brians Botanicals in October 2010 so what you see is just 1 season worth of growth and 2 winters indoors. They are really fast growing and it has doubled in size from April 2011 to now! It doesnt look like he has anything for sale now, but hopefully they will be selling more plants in a few weeks! I got the Ice Cream banana off of ebay in April 2010 so it is 1 summer older than my Saba. It was actually bigger than my saba when I got it but the saba was so fast growing that it caught up with the Ice Cream banana. I dont know the name of the seller though. I also like the red camellias. People always see them and think they are some type of early blooming rose! So far my favorite that I own is still my "herme" because the coloration is really nice and it also has fragrant flowers (which is rare for camellias). But I might have a new favorite once my new camellias are in full bloom! I got at least 3 or 4 compliments on my camellias as I was leaving the nursery, they are pretty great plants! I keep on waiting for Summer and I cant wait until the hot weather is here to stay and I dont have to look at the forecast every 10 minutes to see if there is a freeze on the way! Thanks for looking -Alex |
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- Posted by brooklyngreg 7a NYC coastal (My Page) on Tue, Mar 13, 12 at 11:16
| Hi Alex, You keep expanding you tyropical plant variety and I see some stuff I haven't even heard of. I started uncovering palms too but with hesitation. Yes, I am a little weary of watching the weather looking out for a freeze also. Last nite ABC meterologist starting saying we may see 80 soon. Yikes, something is wrong and what goes up must come down and my guess it next year we shall pay in terms of cold. Not only has our mild winter been a blessing for palm enthusiasts, but it seems to be increasing its above nornmal temp upswing. April should be "interesting", will it be summer by then LOL or truly April weather. |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Tue, Mar 13, 12 at 15:27
| Thanks Greg! The collection definitely gets bigger and bigger every year. Already got 3 new species of tropical potted plants just this month and a ton of subtropical things that are going in the ground. I definitely believe it can get to 80 soon. Last year was a cold one, but we still did manage to have 1 day in the 80s in March (the duration was no where near as great as this one though!). I hope the warm weather continues. Even if we do have an average April, I think I'll be okay with it because that means days at least in the 60s and hopefully no more frosts! The forecast still looks great! Lots of upper 60s and even some more 70s! Right now its 73F outside, might get a little warmer than that today. Only bad thing about all this heat is that I have to keep on watering the plants. We got a nice rain this morning, but it wasnt enough to keep the plants happy. Today I noticed my cannas starting to come up. Not only did they survive the winter outdoors, but they are shooting up before the first official day of spring. Keep in mind that its still technically late winter! Pretty amazing weather, I really hope it continues because if it doesnt, then I have a lot of plants to take back inside. lol -Alex |
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- Posted by brooklyngreg 7a NYC coastal (My Page) on Wed, Mar 14, 12 at 14:49
| Hi ALex, I notice also that cannas can survive our milder winters. In NC they leave it in the ground. Its in the low 70s again here today in Park Slope Brooklyn. |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Wed, Mar 14, 12 at 19:08
| During the average winter, cannas probably would be safest with some mulch around here, but this winter has been so mild thatI think a lot of them will be coming back without protection, including all of mine! Cannas are really common bulb plants in the south because no one has to even think about digging them up! It got up to 73F here after 74F yesterday and a low temperature this morning of 51F and yesterday. It was another really nice and warm day. Unfortunately a backdoor cold front is coming in so that will keep the coastal locations (us) a lot cooler tomorrow and Friday (59 on thurs and 56 on Fri). But after that the mild weather returns with mid 70s in the forecast again next week. It might even get close to 80 next week since they are forecasting a west wind (so the cold ocean waters wont be as much of an influence as they have been). Im going to post some more pics of what is in bloom in my yard tomorrow. The camellia flowers are opening up even more and some of the trees locally are starting to bloom including the early cherry trees, the saucer magnolias, and even some of the bradford pears. Everything is showing life again. Im glad that the cold of winter seems to be behind us (I sure hope it is!). -Alex |
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| Everything is looking nice. If the weather holds gardens will be bursting at the seams before long. I saw some large madagascar palms for sale at a local nursery along with some plumerias. But decided against buying any. Figured since I didn't know what I was doing I needed to start with smaller ones. |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Wed, Mar 14, 12 at 20:44
| Wow Chadec, Madagascar palms and plumerias for sale locally? You must live near a really nice nursery for tropical plants! I hear madagascar palms are very easy to grow and so far they have been. They like the weather warm and some moist soil during really hot days. I can't wait for all the trees to begin leafing out. Looks like many trees will be leafing out before April this year! Some plants are blooming on time this spring, others nearly a month early! Thanks for looking! -Alex |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Fri, Mar 16, 12 at 14:46
| Its been so cold here lately in comparison to inland locations! This weather is really getting on my nerves because I know that hot weather is so close (to our north, south, and west!). So far we have only gotten to 48F today which is 3 degrees below average (and its very cloudy and misty outside so it really feels much colder than that). Low temperatures have been very good so no complaints about that, but the influence of the ocean is definitely strong here right now. It was supposed to get to 65F today, didnt even make it to 50F yet so it seems like the forecast was a good 15 degrees off today! Next week looks mild, but not as mild as before. Originally it was supposed to get to the mid 70s, now it looks like we wont get to much more than 70F. So far we have had 4 out of 16 days in the 70s this month and 6 out of 16 days in the 40s. March is running 6 degrees above average this year so far which is very nice and mild, but nothing historic like in other parts of the country! I feel like I'm missing out a bit! What has it been like for all of you? -Alex |
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- Posted by chicago_palm 5B (My Page) on Fri, Mar 16, 12 at 21:03
| Alex, Always enjoy looking at your vast variety of plants. The weather is crazy here, more typicsl of late May or early June. The soil temperatures must have really warmed up. I am sure we will get a hard freeze that will cause some damage. The last frost day around here is May 10th or so. Keith |
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- Posted by kaotickelly NM 5b (My Page) on Sat, Mar 17, 12 at 20:30
| Awesome! loving your yard! |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Sun, Mar 18, 12 at 2:44
| Thanks Keith! The hard freezes after warm ups definitely can do damage to some plants, but hopefully whatever cold you do get isnt that bad! Forecast still is looking pretty good, but definitely a little cooler after this week. Right now we are having weather typical for mid April or so. Not as extreme as inland areas, but still nice and above average! Last frost here so far has been March 10th, average last frost is April 1st-10th. The earliest last frost in the past 30 years here was Feb 28th, so that's hard to beat! Thanks Kaotickelly! I can't wait until I can start buying some annuals and planting some tropicals in the ground so that way summer can really get started! -Alex |
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| Love the Camellias. |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Mon, Mar 19, 12 at 18:47
Thanks Jacklord! Heres a pic of my first camellia bloom of the season!  -Alex |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Mon, Mar 19, 12 at 19:10
| I didnt want to make a new thread since there arent any palms in these pics, but I just wanted to mention that My Begonias actually survived the winter this year! Have anyone else had luck with having wax begonias come back? I always hear that they are tender annuals and they definitiely are not one of the hardy begonias. It was by one of my Trachys which means that it did get some heat on the coldest night, but still saw many hits to the 20s and even teens since I barely covered my trachys this winter (one of the trachys was completely uncovered all winter). Here are some pics of the begonias coming back!   Here are a few other pics.... My Camellia "Arctic Rose" is a very cold hardy and a heavy bloomer too! This Lantana has seen temperatures into the upper 20s, but spent the worst of winter indoors. Now it's growing back and starting to bloom! Heres a pic of My favorite camellia bloom in my yard. Its a Camellia "Herme" and usually the flowers are very large and slightly fragrant (I dont think thats very common for camellias). Finally got a desert rose to survive a winter indoors, now its blooming too! I was happy to see a Monstera at a local grocery store, I have been looking for these at a good price for years now! Got some nice Tillisandias and didnt really know what to do so I made a hanging thing out of them and I think it looks pretty cool. Im declaring war with these opposums now. They dug up my crinum bulbs I just planted and some other bulbs also. I put these wired cages over the bulbs so hopefully this will work. I took some leaves off my oleander and put it under the wired cage because I'm hoping that the toxicity of the oleander will keep the animals away (oleanders are poisonous for opposums right?) Thanks for looking! |
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