Return to the Tropicalesque Garden Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
New photos
| | |
Posted by Johnnieb Washington, DC (My Page) on Thu, Sep 2, 04 at 22:11
| Here are some photos I took of my gardens last week. These were taken from a second floor window overlooking the back yard. The perennials are mostly finished blooming, but the big tropical foliage plants like Musa basjoo, cannas, and elephant ears are still going strong and will look good right up until frost. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Slide show
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: New photos
| | |
| Wow that's really great! Such a wild feel in such a limited urban environment. How old is the garden? How much space are you dealing with? I love the jungle look to it, you must get a lot of compliments and what a great view from your second floor window! |
RE: New photos
| | |
- Posted by Josh z8 GA (My Page) on
Wed, Sep 8, 04 at 15:18
| Very very nice! Love the layout and everything looks like it's thriving. josh |
RE: New photos
| | |
| Amazing! How do you keep it watered? Everything was so lush you must be out there every day with the hose. What's on the agenda for next year? |
RE: New photos
| | |
| I love it! You did a fantastic job. |
RE: New photos
| | |
| One nice thing about a small garden (I keep trying to tell myself all the nice things about having a small garden!) is that it's pretty easy to keep watered (and weeded and pruned etc.). I keep meaning to put out soaker hoses but the last 2 years we've had enough rain that I haven't bothered. I've also tried to plant the real water-lovers (like elephant ears) where it's easy to reach them with a hose. I'm basically a lazy person so I water as little as possible, and concentrate on those plants that really need it. My soil is mostly clay, which helps with water retention, but if it goes more than two weeks without substantial rain (and especially if it's hot and sunny) it does dry out enough to make the more moisture-loving tropicals unhappy. If it's been a week or so (or if I notice things wilting) I'll pull out a hose and spot-water; after a couple of weeks I'll set up a sprinkler for 3-4 hours. But there's no getting around the fact that the secret to a lush tropical garden is water and fertilizer. I "push" my tropicals like bananas, cannas, and elephant ears with heavy feeding and particularly with high nitrogen fertilizers early in the season to get them going and then fertilize regularly after that, and water when necessary. I don't bother fertilizing or even regularly watering most of my other perennials and annuals. |
RE: New photos
| | |
| You should be quite proud of your beautiful garden!!! It's a dream. Can you suggest any tropicals that could be wintered over outside? Do you dig all of yours up and take them inside? I love tropicals and would like to include a few throughout my garden. Again, your work is awesome. Margaret |
RE: New photos
| | |
| The banana (Musa basjoo) is completely hardy in zone 7; I cover it with a big pile of leaves & mulch & compost and it comes back every year. Cannas are apparently hardy through most winters here, but none of mine made it through last winter (our coldest in about 10 years). |
RE: New photos
| | |
| Johnnieb have you ever thought of growing magnolia ashei? Several years ago I bought one from woodlanders and it has done quite well . The leaves are extremely large and tropical looking and it is easy to control in a small garden as I discovered a couple of years ago. Some workmen accidentally lobbed the whole thing off to ground level and ever since then it has been very full. It has reached its former height of about five feet and is covered from top to bottom with its large leaves. If it made any offsets I would send you one but unfortunately it hasn't. I just thought I would share this idea with you. It's a tropicalesque plant I'm very happy with. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Magnolia ashei
|
|
|
|
