Today was a nice and warm late spring day. Started off cold at only 49F but quickly rose to 83F by 4pm. Thats nearly 10 degrees above average and tomorrow should be the same.

Here are some pics!

Pool area plants have a long way to go before they look nice, but the plants are all in place and ready to take off once the summer heat is consistent!

This hibiscus struggled indoors, but is repotted now and growing well. It has some buds forming too so it should be making some nice blooms in about a month!

Plumeria and solandra maxima (thats the plant without leaves on it) with my trachycarpus, livistona, purple hearts and whatever else in the pic!

Spindle palm getting its famous swollen trunk now! These are great palms indoors and out. I have yet to have any problems any time of the year.

Giant plumeria looking less like a stick now that I have some spanish moss draped all over it. Thinking about mounting an orchid on it (maybe there will be some on sale after Mothers Day).

Ensete and saba with my brugmansia that still has to fill out. Other plants you cant see include a nice sized alphina and spiral ginger, and some mexican petunias. This area still has at least a month to go before it looks nice.

This area does not have much growing to do. Actually might have a problem with some things growing a little too much since some of the plants are almost too big.

Hibiscus flower

View of the planting bed in the front yard from behind. Looks much better from the front, but its hard to see all the different plants from that view. I have a crape, a kopper king hibiscus (has got to be the last plant in the area to come up, a cone flower, knockout rose, lantana (not seen), foxtail palm, ice plant (not seen), columnar cactus (cant see completely),and a hydrangea.

Kopper king just coming up now. This is my second summer with them and I hear they are very slow to come up (very true) but grow fast once they start growing. Im hoping for some blooms in a month or 2.

Knockout rose blooms

Some spanish moss and a view of the pool.

Passion vine along the fence growing fast. It has a ton of buds (at least 20) so it should make a lot of blooms this year (did not make many last year)

Pansies are still going strong. They are growing in mostly shade now so they should be able to handle some heat

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Heres some pics of the palms that survived the winter.

My trachys...

This one is my favorite of the trachys. It has really noticable white undersides and the fronds are really nice and dark green on top.

Used to be a double windmill palm, but the larger of the 2 died in the middle of summer for no reason that I can think of. Glad that one of them survived!

My shade grown trachy. I think I'm going to give it some espom salt, maybe that will green up the fronds a little bit more.

My Sabal minor looking tropical with the eneste

Livistona coming back from some winter damage. Should look good after it grows 1 more frond.

Silver Serenoa looking good after it's first winter. I hear these can be a little difficult, but so far its been a good palm for me.

This Butia (going into its 4th summer now) never really did well for me. Something in the soil in this spot seems to kill everything that grows there. I did not protect this palm this winter and I expected it to die. It was a mild and dry winter though so it actually managed to live! Got some damage, but new fronds are growing.

This Butia is going into it's second year and it has been a really good grower unlike the othe Butia. The Frostproof Gardenia is also going into its second year. The gardenia is making some buds now so it should be blooming in another 2 weeks!

Med fan palm going into its 3rd summer now

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And heres a list of all the plants that decided to come back (list is from the least surprising to the most)...

(#)Hollyhock (this was only surprising since I didnt know what it was!).

Here are the buds forming...

(#) Camellia "Robert Kemp" (its a lot more tender than my other camellias so I was expecting at least some dieback, but it had no protection and no damage and all the buds survived to bloom!)

(#) Musa Basjoo. (these really did not do well last summer so I wasnt really expected to see them again this year, but they did manage to come back afterall!)

(#) Cannas (I cant get these to survive the winter indoors, but they seemed to have no problem surviving outside this year with no mulch! I even had some in pots that are coming back!)

(#)Purple hearts (these stayed green (or rather purple) for much of the winter so I was not too surprised to see them come back (but I was happy!))

(#) Pineapple lily (it died to the ground in the summer for some reason so I thought it was dead. It wasnt!)

(#) Mexican Petunias (These survived the winter in planters which made it a lot more surprising to see them come back)

(#) Begonias (I was not expecting to see these again, but every one that I planted in the ground has survived. I now have at least 40 of them).

(#) My BIGGEST surprise, my Yellow Sweet Potato Vine!

They are supposed to be zone 8b/9a plants (some websites rate them zone 10), but its coming back. Anyone have these also come back? I would imagine that they would be pretty hardy since they have such vigorous tubers, but everything I ready considers them tender. I planted about 4 of them but after tons of digging I cant even find the location of the old bulbs.

Thanks for looking at the ridiculous number of pics! Hope you liked them. Most of the plants have a lot of growing left to do!

-Alex