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| Summer went by fast, still a few more weeks of good growth left though. And the one good thing about Fall is that there are a lot of things to look forward to with my plants. My Thanksgiving Cactus will be blooming by November, my Butterfly and Spiral gingers will be blooming soon, my Long Island Pink Camellia will be blooming soon, and the elephant ears, bananas, and cannas look their best in September and October.
Here are some pics of how things are doing now, and a few comparisons from last year at this time... Plumeria zoom lens 
Moon vine flowering on the Gazeboo. It germinated in late May, so it takes about 11 weeks from germination to bloom in my experience. 
Probably my favorite tropical vine, Allamandas. Anyone overwinter these indoors before? These pics were taken during the daytime since the flowers close at night. 
Solitare palm looks good from the backyard, but a view from above definitely shows the indoor fronds (damaged from the sun) and the fronds that grew outdoors (which are healthy). So far it has grown 2 fronds this summer, it will probably finish off the year with 3. 
Spindle palm has no fronds damaged from being indoors. It grew 1 frond outdoors with a second frond coming up now. 
Plumeria from above with zoom lens 
Front yard plants 
Adondila 
Plumeria and shrub daisy 
Purple heart as ground cover for the plants by the pool 
Musa Bordelon 
Croton 
Agaves 
Majesty palm 
Livistona 
Monstera 
Plumeria divine had a lack of blooms this year after having 6 inflos last year! 
Sabal minor and Ensete 
Crape Myrtle zuni bloom 
Spiral ginger 
Dragon wing Begonia 
Pindo palm 
Front yard plants September 19, 2011 
Front yard plants August 25, 2012 
Pool plants last year (Ice cream banana did much better last year than this year, but the elephant ear, butterfly ginger, and cannas (the cannas survived the winter, the others went indoors) all are growing much fuller this year. 
Pool plants this year 
Butterfly ginger and Alocasia 
Elephant ear 
Solandra maxima and plumeria 
Eucalyptus 
Passiflora 
Hibiscus 
Ivy geraniums are definitely one of my favorite summer annuals. The flowers are self cleaning unlike other geraniums and they bloom non stop all season long 
Purple heart bloom 
Plumeria inflo 
Volunteer cypress vine that has really attracted a lot of hummers to the yard 
Macro lens Hibiscus 
There have been 10s of butterflies in my yard because of the mint that is blooming 
Brugmansia took a long time to start growing this year, but it's doing great now and growing fast 
Shrub Daisy 
My largest and oldest plumeria has 3 inflos this year. I can only take a pic of it from the upstairs window 
Some of the potted tropicals during the day time 
Front yard plants in the daytime Mexican Petunia 
Thanks for looking! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by Springpatch77 5b/6a (cuja1@yahoo.com) on Fri, Aug 24, 12 at 23:27
| Looks great! Very tropical! |
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| I agree, amazingly tropical! I love those Allamanda flowers -- they are a challenge, even in zone 9/10 California. Those far enough from the coast to get some heat and who also have major canopy overhead can grow them outdoors. In Hawaii, they will quickly spread and cover an acre of trees! Strange how a beautiful plant can be a delicate beauty in one place and a complete thug in another. You have a fine collection going, hope they remain healthy for you. |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Sat, Aug 25, 12 at 3:04
| Thanks Springpatch! Thanks catkim! The Allamanda's are growing like weeds right now in the hot humid summer weather (already climbing the tree next to it and it has put out about 3 feet of growth in the past 3 weeks), but I dont think it will be as vigourous once it goes outside after a winter indoors. Im going to have to find a warm sunny window for it and really hope for the best! If not, hopefully the local nursuries will sell this vine again, it's a beauty! I have seen it really take over an area in the tropics though, it must be nice to be able to consider such beautiful plants "weeds"! -Alex |
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- Posted by tropicbreezent (My Page) on Sat, Aug 25, 12 at 5:16
| It is a bit funny about plants, weeds in one place and garden plants in another. Although, weeds often start off as garden plants. What you're calling Cypress Vine is Ipomoea quamoclit and we call it Fern Leaf Morning Glory. It's a declared weed here and highly invasive. Same with the Mexican Petunia, Ruellia tuberosa. Another one that's hard to get rid of. |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Sat, Aug 25, 12 at 11:33
| Very true tropicalbreezent! Half the plants I grow in my yard are considered weeds in the tropics (things like Bananas, cannas, elephant ears, and many others). Some of them have actually proven to be weedy for me too. I also cant get rid of Mexican Petunias (no matter how much I try to dig them out!) but they are beautiful plants so I do keep them. If I knew they could survive NYC winter's so well I probably wouldnt have bought so many of them since they are growing fast and in places they shouldnt be! This winter was a mild one though, so I'm interested in seeing if they will survive an average winter, although Im going to guess mine will since the roots are probably very deeply established by now. I can see why Ipomoea quamoclit is also considered weedy. I never even planted that one! A seed or 2 must have dropped into the pot at the nursury I got it from. But I wouldnt get rid of the vine since the flowers (although not all that interesting on their own) do attract lots of butterflies and hummingbirds! Thanks for looking! |
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| I still want a time lapse of you hauling all those pots in in the fall! Nice job, Alex. V |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Sun, Aug 26, 12 at 0:47
| Thanks Wetsuiter. I will definitely have to do a post this fall about the plants going in this winter. Usually I spend an entire weekend bringing them in and that usually takes care of about 70% of them. This year is going to be harder than ever to get them inside! -Alex |
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| you put them in a garage or basement? some of those look pretty large, you must have a huge area for them for winter |
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| Hey Alex How is your Saba doing(maybe I missed it?)any luck? |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Sun, Aug 26, 12 at 15:29
| Lindenska, I dont have a big space for them, just lots of smaller ones! A few do go in the garage (very few), most go in the kitchen (have some skylights there) and living room and dining room that isn't used too often, but this year I am dedicating another room to the plants so I should have a little bit more space to work with! Hey Jim! The Saba is doing really good. It's growing normally now after starting off the year with unusally long leaves, followed by unusually short leaves. It has 3 pups now, the tallest one is about 4 feet tall, pretty great growth considering that pup didnt exist before this spring. Here's one of the pics of it from above in case you missed it. The Saba is to the left.  How is your saba doing Jim? Mine has 7 leaves so far this year, working on the 8th now. |
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| Everything looks nice and healthy! - US_Marine |
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| Great pics, amazing to see how much some plants grow when you look back. Its strange to see some plants flourish and others just limp along. My upright EE's are still not growing, are yours in ground or potted. I guess your musa velutina didn't make it? |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Mon, Aug 27, 12 at 16:44
| Thanks US Marine! Thanks Chadec! Everything really has grown a lot, especially within the last 2 months. It's always a really interesting comparison from April to August! |
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| Incredible array of plants. Most impressive! |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Tue, Aug 28, 12 at 20:42
| Thanks Jacklord for the compliment! -Alex |
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| Alex My Saba has put out about 10 leaves,maybe averaging one every few. The lack of rain is the problem-we did get 1.74" Sunday but
The TD is coming and they are saying maybe 3" +. |
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- Posted by ericthehurdler NOR CAL 9a (My Page) on Wed, Aug 29, 12 at 18:48
| a true master gardener! |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Thu, Aug 30, 12 at 1:44
| Jim, My saba is only on it's 6th leaf now, counting the leaves it made indoors, it's on it's 8th. The bananas have grown slower this year than usual, hopefully next year they will grow fast again. My Ice Cream banana is growing too slowly, it's being shaded by the cannas (now 12 feet tall) and elephant ear (now over 6 feet tall). Hopefully it grows at least 3 more leaves this summer and Im hoping for 4 or 5 more leaves from the Saba before frost! Issac should give you a lot of needed rain! We ended up with about 4 inches this month, not bad but the tropicals definitely respond better to more rain than that as long as it's warm out! Thanks Eric! I wish I was a master! Plants have minds of their own. One year they might grow great, the next year they might not grow at all. My bananas have been slow this year and my Bougainvillea is usually covered in blooms by now, but it doesnt have a single one at the moment! But I have had a lot of luck with my cannas, and elephant ears this year, I'm always learning, but even if I do the same thing year after year and the weather is similar, the plants still respond differently! |
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| I am seriously considering leaving my Saba in over winter...possibly with some extra "heat"-I think if this one could get a foothold the growth would be remarkable. |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Thu, Aug 30, 12 at 12:57
| I agree, I think Sabas really thrive when their roots are well established since my Saba pups grow extremely fast, but the mother only grew fast it's first year in the ground (it had no root damage that year). If you do overwinter it, I would definitely be really interested in seeing how it does! I have a lot to overwinter this year and not a lot of time to do it one fall comes so I might wait until next year. When I overwinter it, I think I will cut it back to about 2 feet of psudeostem and protect it with a garbage bin in a similar way that I protect my other marginals. -Alex |
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- Posted by delreytropical 6 (My Page) on Wed, Sep 12, 12 at 21:23
| This has to be one of if not the best display!! Dont know if I saw a cococunut in there? Definitly would fit in nice! So many varietes to look at ! I can see your southern windows being filled to the brim with all these! Good luck and thank you for posting all these pictures, really are fantastic! |
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- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Thu, Sep 13, 12 at 11:20
| Thanks a lot delreytropical! I appreciate the compliments! I have 2 coconut palms, only half of the tall variety one is visible in the adondila pic, but the dwarf malayan is shown completely to the left in that pic. They are pretty easy to take care of as long as you have a warm window to put them by! I will probably make an update this weekend since the yard has definitely grown a bit in the past 2-3 weeks! Thanks for looking! |
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