Disappointments, wow I have a few. Lets start with my vodoo lily that never grew. My ferns that died in July. The entire back bed along the house was lined with variegated grass that died out. Lost my largest trachy to spear pull in April.

Don't want to complain too much. My cannas are over 8'.
Agave Ovatifolia has grown from 1'x1' to 2' x 3' in a single summer. I have 3 of these.
My must bajsoo is 14' .
My sabal palmetto doubled in size an split its fronds.
My sabal minor savannah ga. started producing blue fronds.

I dont have any dissapointments yet, but Im worried about some of my plants because today was COLD! It was also rainy all day. Since this is my first winter with plants I may put them in early so I dont have to worry about them. My positives are my velutina has some fat little pink bananas! There is anoter bloom on it as well.
-Hunter

Sorry about your loses chadec, but glad to see and read of some of your successes!

Hunter, your velutinas are looking great! I wouldnt worry much about the cold. It seems like everyone is dealing with it this week in the east (even in the south!), but I dont think the plants will mind it too much. Just some very gloomy fall weather in late summer!

-Alex

The only thing I am disappointed in this growing season was the growing season. The start and middle of the growing season sucked. Record low daytime highs and too many days of rain/overcast and not enough sunlight. I am a little disappointed that my basjoo did not gain a ton of height. What it lacks in height it sure has made up for it in leaf size. Those things are getting big. With this week coming up being the hottest all season I expect my basjoo will put on a foot in height and all my palms (with the exception of a newly planted t.f. nainital) to put out at least one new frond.

My Positives

bougainvillea bloomed like crazy this summer also.
butia yatays are getting big!!!
tracky really big!
good growing season for fruits and veggies too!

disappointments,

Brooklyn NY had a 5 week dry spell coupled with record heat in July that almost crippled my garden. I had to water every day. If just one of many heavy T-storm would have made it to us, it would have been even a more tropical growing season.

My biggest disappointment was my lawn. The drought took its till, even with watering. I also lost a new 3 gal.windmill palm because the sprinkler wasn't reaching it. By the time I noticed that the palm was in distress, it was too late. Fortunately Home Depot has a one year guarantee and I got a refund.

I was also disappointed that the dozens of sabal seedlings I had planted in a protected, isolated back dune area succumbed to the drought. I feared lack of rain more than winter temps. I'll try that experiment again, but with seeds instead.

My biggest success has been my oldest windmill--in ground for six years now--and my new pindo. The windmill finally topped the porch railing and is now taller than me, having pushed out about 8 fronts since early April with two and a half months if growing season left.

The pindo is my first attempt at something more tender than windmills. I was told that they grew slowly. This one practically doubled in height and is now nearly as tall as I am. Not sure how many fronts it pushed up, but it must have been four or five since it was planted in late April. I've never had to protect my windmills in winter since temperatures below 20 are rare here in Coastal Delaware. But I really am liking the pindo and will build a leaf cage and wrap it with Tyvek to give it a leg up.

My biggest surprise has been the two dozen palm seedlings coming up around my gardens from the handful of sabal palmetto and windmill seeds I scattered around. I know that the windmill seedlings will survive the winter, but will be monitoring the sabal (and several Med Fan Palm) seedlings to see if they survive the winter unprotected.

I have several disappointments. Despite the warm mid-summer, neither my sago or Dioon spinlosum flushed this year, although sago is starting to flush now.
- My eucomis did not bloom at all first year in the ground.
- Basjoo is smaller than normal at about 10-11' tall although it still looks good, just not as tall as it should be for 3 year old.
- Ensete ventricosum (6') and what are likely dwarf cavendish only got 5' on a plant in full sun, and 7 feet on another in partial shade.
- Cannas took a long time to bloom and only about 3 feet high.

Hmmmm well my biggest disappointments have to be

- Washingtonia filabusta lost its crown lots of bud rot
- Magnolia BBB bad storm snapped trunk at ground its dead
- Dioon angustifolium leaves got bleached by sun real bad
- Ensete maurelii over wintered in basement rotted
- Basjoo all tiny this year dont know why
- last and hurt the most over 3 different sever hail storms tore most of my plants to shreds leaves look awfull

The few achievements my yard made this year

-Washingtonia recovered completely has new crown of leaves
-Trachy wagnerianus x 2 both double there sizes
-Trachy fortunei female is load with seeds
-Sabal minor also has 2 stalks with seeds
-Ensete glaucum went from tiny to almost 10-12' tall and still growing
-Phoenix dactylifera recovering slowly but surely do to being put in 34" pot

Honestly my biggest disappointment was my veggie garden. Mother nature didnt help out with the consistent 100+ and drought.

As far as tropicals,palms, and others i would say this

little disappointed
-thailand giant didnt get very "giant". flowered though so maybe some seedlings soon.
-mammoth elephant ears never got very "mammoth"
-2 NOID plumeria never flowered, oh well maybe next year.
-citrus were re potted so crop is lower than what I expected. doing well though.

did well
-pindo, needle, and dwarf palmetto that I got on clearance all did very well. now I just have to figure out protection
-basjoo grew as expected, 10 tall from a 3 foot start. made about 8 pups, one removed and replanted, 1 about 5 feet tall still attached to corm as backup for this winter, and the rest removed and never did well. they are still pushing new leaves.
-dwarf cavendish banana did well and gave me 3 pups.
-assorted canna have taken over the tropical bed. will have to thin them this fall.

mike

Likewise veggies for me. All healthy plants, but far less fruit than expected. My basjoos did not do well either. I think part of the problem there was that I never seperated the pups from the moms after the Winter. Main plants did not come back. Was going to, but never got around to it. These guys are the shortest they've ever been, and Irene gave them a good shredding.

On a better note, I planted an old Majesty in the ground after treating it very harshly by leaving it out in March for a week. Thought it was a goner, but has come back nicely. Now, do I dig it up and bring it inside, or try a little experiment and cover it with a heat source? And my trachy just gets bigger and bigger...

Alex

The issues this year haven't necessarily been with individual
plants(although I could name names(-:),as much with the growing
season itself.
Temps 7-10 degrees colder than last year in March-April and then
horrible heat combined with no rain-58" less than last year,
May-Sept-and the heat(as mentioned)really did a number on everything.....
so much so that I removed my Basjoo.

Not to mention(although here it is)4 separate hail storms and one windstorm
that 1-2'ed any tropical big leaved plants
and made them into Swiss cheese and snapped carrots..

If this trend of hotter summers and no rain continues,
I will be greatly reducing the number of tropicals I grow.

BTW

The Basjoo have been a source for WSM that have wiped out
my palm collection for 4 years-they will not be returning.

WSM?

White spider mites

Sounds like we all have our share of disappointments this year! I think Jim is right, the weather has a bit to do with it! It was still in the 90s this time of the year last year, but now we are stuggling to get to average (80F!).

I think the season is coming to a close now, but I notice that my bananas continue to push up leaves and my Trachy is growing faster than ever, so things are still going well (out of the things that have been doing well).
-Alex

Disappointments:

Washingtonia Filifera barely grew, then started to grow in August, but now fronds starting to turn yellow and die off and stopped growing again, no idea why.

Basjoo slight disappointment, not as big as last year for my most established.

2 of my 3 in-ground trachys only grew 1 frond, must be establishing themselves.

Surprises:

Sabal minor and Louisiana both grew much more than I would have expected.

In-ground needle palms gained some nice size since being planted in June.

Yellow Groove bamboo kind of making me nervous, seeing it creep along the ground further than I would like.

1 in-ground trachy has put out at least 9 leaves so far this season, been in ground now for 3 years.

Musa Yunnanensis definitely growing faster than basjoo.

Hello Everyone,

I have had my dissapointments as well,

My tomatoes look like they are just barely trying to hang on...LOL and i continue to grow these every year!!! When will i learn. : ) I just love "Homegrown Tomatoes" nothing is better...than Homegrown Tomatoes... LOL remember the song? Anyone..."John Denver..."

Any way, some of my other dissapointments was losing a Windmill in the rock pond that my DH wanted to put in. I knew that The tree was to close to the water and the pile of rocks...so ...yes, i witness it slow death and it killed me. Finally had to see if one of the Palm boys from down the street wanted to come and rescue it but it was to big and to awkward to try to move.

Then i finally had to give the word to get the chainsaw out and take it down...i hate to admit it but it was only on its last leg and looked really bad. At least i can blame it on my DH!!! He still says that it wasnt all of the digging and the rock wall and the fountain..but i know!!! We all know our trees...and it did it to my poor baby!

That was my biggest disapointment of the season, losing one of my 16 footers...

But all is well, it looks good in that corner now, and "his" rock garden is doing great!! LOL

MY rewards for the season is that my palms look great after the Hurricane, Earthquake and Tornado all in one week here in VB...LMAO!

Can you believe that?

My Plumies are all doing great and i will post a new set of pics under my JUly thread when i get home so you can see the change in the look of the yard in 2 months.

I have had more blooms (inflos) on my trees than i ever had, so for that im very grateful. You all know that i am a plumie nut along with being a Palm nut too! LOL...OH well...

MY other greatest gift was that of my daughter..she is doing great after her heart surgery and for that i am the most thankful mom in the world....

Nothing could be better right now...

"Life is good today...LIfe is good...."

Got to love Zac Brown!!!

Take care evevryone,

That you ALex for this great threat to let us sound off and let the frustrations out!!! Also to let us share the joy of the summer with all of our friends here on this great forum!!!

Thank you all....

Take care,

Laura in VB

Sorry to hear about the loss of your big Windmill palm. That would tear me up inside for a while, but you have lots of beautiful other plants that helped lessen the pain of that.
And Im very happy to hear that your Daughter is doing well after her surgery! That's definitely a happier feeling than any plant can give you!
Glad everything made it through the hurricane, earthquake, and tornado well, lol! Talk about some weird natural events. I'll admit that hurricanes and tornadoes aren't too unusual around the eastern states, but an earthquake is a real shocker, even if it was weak!

Islandbreeze, I have a very difficult time getting washingtonias to grow also. I gave up on them for a while, but maybe I'll get another one for next summer. My trachys were also very slow growers in their first year (only 2 fronds if I remember right), but now they gain about 4-5 fronds a year, which is a pretty good number for plants in the ground for only 3 years.
I definitely want to try a Musa yunnanenis. Im not too impressed with my basjoos, but maybe it will survive the winter and give me a reason to keep them in the yard!
-Alex

Disappointments:

All my bananas struggled in the heat this year.

Grass is fried due to heat and lack of rainfall

Surprises:

Largest Trachy put on 13 fronds since March

Trachy planted last year at end of driveway put on 8 fronds

Trachy that I had to move twice due to landscaping is thriving in the new soil and has put on 7 fronds!

Butia has 4 new ones after some ice damage last winter

Finally, my biggest surprise...Med Fan is literally outgrowing the kudzu in N. Ga!!! Proud of this little...errr, BIG beauty!!!

13 fronds on ypur trachy, thats very impressive!! And I think anythink that can ourgrow Kudzu deserves an award! I wish my Med fan palm grew like that.

Sorry to hear about your grass, the grass here has been very green most of the year with all the rain, but in July, it was starting to dry up a little because we only got 1.5 inches of rain in July with lots of heat and sun!

-Alex

My Musa Basjoos was vey small compared to last year. The Sabal minor and Needle palms did not grow much. It was a slow start for all of my tropicals. I guess this spring and last spring were way different.

Disappointments:
Whole vegetable garden.
My only Tracycarpus died.
Thousands of herb and flower seeds did not come up at all.
Poncirus Trifoliata (Chinese bitter orange) growing very slow.
Seedling Kumquats growing insanely slow.
All seven apple trees had little to no fruit this year.
Palms growing very slow in general, few new fronds apparent.

Happier stuff:
Bald Cypress tree grown from seed quadrupled in size.
Juniper bushes planted a few years ago suddenly are 4-5 times larger than last year.
Musa Sikkimensis (Himalayan banana) planted last year reached 15 feet this year. (and had 4 pups)
Musa Basjoo bananas planted last year all came back.
Passionflower (maypop) appeared on its own.
Figs more than doubled in size.
Spearmint grew huge patch around pond.
Hardy Hibiscus (Hibiscus Mosceutos) planted last year went crazy.
Butia Capitata (Jelly palm) survived winter!
Gardenia bush planted late last season came back!
All 20+ American Persimmon trees planted from seed last year returned, some have quadrupled in size.
Bamboo did very well this year.
Flowers such as Chrysanthemum, Spider lily volunteered in parts of the yard where never were before.
Cypress vine came back from last year.
Rosemary bush grew a few more feet.
Planted two peach trees that cost 1/5th normal prices.

hmmm... now that I type it out, it looks like this was a better year than I thought!

Chicago palm, I totally agree, this past spring and spring of 2010 were completely different. In Spring of 2010, we had 90F weather in the first week of April and it was consistently mild after that (something I hadn't seen that early since 2002).
This past April, we actually had a rare snow in the first week of April! It was too warm for any of it to stick and it was a very rain and snowy mix, but it was a good 20 degrees below average for that time of the year.

Crispyz7, sounds like you ended up having a good growing season! I gave up with edibles since they never do well for me. Im glad to hear that the passionflower came back for you because this is going to be the first year in the ground for mine! Im mulching it even though its a zone 6 plant. Its better safe than sorry. Im expecting it to come back and I will miss it if it doesnt.
Wow, a 15 foot tall Musa Sikkimensis, thats huge! You should post some pics of them! I like Bald Cypress, I do see them a bit around here, but I think they should be planted more!

-Alex

Hey Tropic, yep, my largest Trachy put on an incredible 13 fronds so far and I'm guessing I'll see another 2-3 before things grind to a halt for a few months! The Med Fan is truly growing like a weed. Last year it had a trunk (I'm training mine to grow three trunks, similar to a Pygmy Date as opposed to a shrubby look, like the Needles and Sabal Minors) about 4 inches tall and now it's over 8 inches tall. All in all, a good summer for the palms because they got daily watering whilst the grass suffered. Cheers!