Also check out my "Florida 2005" album; I was in Florida last week and got plenty of inspiration for tropical-style gardening!

Thanks for posting your photos. I have several hardy palms & hope to plant one or two of them outside this spring.

I was wondering about the Fatsia japonica. How big was it when you got it? Did you use any winter protection for the first few winters? Any culture tips? I might be interested in trying this plant in my garden just outside the Beltway in Kensington MD.

Thanks & hope we get an early spring!

Dan

Here are some photos from last winter, showing what the plants look like during a deep freeze and their almost miraculous recovery afterward.

Are you a botanist? You seem to be knowledgeable about a number of plants. Do you know anything about aralioid hybridization, besides fatshedera? If I get any flowers this year, I have several members of the panax tribe I want to force pollinate. And nobody on this continent has fatsia polycarpa. I can't even find seeds. Sounds great, but just like ficus dammaropsis, it almost seems mythical.

Yes, I am a botanist. But I'm also a fanatical gardener and I love plants of all kinds.

I don't know of any intergeneric crosses in the Araliaceae besides xFatshedera but there have been some molecular studies published in the last few years that suggest various relationships within the family. One of the most intriguing is that Fatsia and Oplopanax, a genus from western North America, are very closely related--somebody should definitely try some crosses between those two. Oddly enough, Fatsia and Hedera are not particularly closely related. Maybe this suggests that other wide crosses within the family might be possible?

The only source I know for Fatsia polycarpa is in the U.K., Crug Farms Nursery. If it's worth growing, I'm sure it will be more widely available within a few years.

DrZ

I have several of these small clumping bamaboos and I will try to look up the proper name for you. They only grow about 2-3 feet tall and maybe 2 feet wide and the tips of the leaves turn bright red in the winter and gradually by summer turn back to green for a few months.

What is the best growing sabal minor variety in your experince in our area?

"I can't view your photos but have a question. I am in PA, USA zone 6 and we planted three 'hardy palms' that were purchased over the internet and guarantee to survive to -10 F. We have been away and I just noticed this weekend that two of the three are turning brown is this normal or am I losing them? Any suggestions on what I should do or is it too late?"

Where in Pennsylvania are you and do you know what kind of palms you have? There are no palms that are reliably hardy in zone 6 without protection and the only two that MIGHT survive -10 degrees are needle palm (Rhapidophyllum hystrix) and dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor). Even those will be pushing it with a low of -10 degrees. If you have windmill palms (Trachycarpus fortunei), there is no way they will survive those kinds of temperatures without considerable winter protection. Brown leaves in mid-winter are NOT good but depending on the severity of your winter and your low temperatures so far, even with some foliar damage the palms might survive; I would give them until at least May or June to see if they put out new growth.

I don't mean to step on your post, but I live in cental PA, zone 6a. ANYTHING without protection this year is going to be dead or dying. We do not usually get below zero from now til spring so I would spray the palms with fungicide and put some kind of rain protection over them until spring....plastic garbage cans upside down work good for this.

I am using the insulation board boxes that Kevin introduced to the palm forum and will never use anything else. They are great!!
Craig