Hey there! I like your plumerias. They look well taken care of. I see you have an oleander, is it permanently in the ground? I didn't think they could survive in zone 5. Is the plumbago in the ground as well? one more question, what variety is your brugmansia? I see it has a bud.

Four Winds nursery is a great place to get citrus. I have a Meyer lemon, a Cara Cara Navel orange, a Minneola Tangelo, a Mexican Sweet Lime, a variegated pink lemon, two Murcott Mandarins and two Valencia Orange trees in my yard. Four winds nursery stocks citrus in most local nurseries around here so they are widely available.

Here are a couple of mine, in an hot, arid, meditteranean zone 9b (we recieve less than 10 inches of rain per year all in the wintertime and in the summertime, we normally get above 100 degrees F. Today's high is 109F).

Erythrina Crista-Galli. I started these from seed last year and this is their first bloom. This particualr one has two more flower spikes and is branching profusely.

{{gwi:59778}}

{{gwi:59779}}

Madagascar Jasmine (stephanotis floribunda)

{{gwi:59783}}

Barbara karst Bougainvillea. Planted this spring

{{gwi:59785}}

peace lilies sending out a couple of flowers.

{{gwi:59798}}

This is my Kentia palm. It is planted in with an eastern exposure so that it only recieves direct sun until about noon.

{{gwi:509917}}

Brugmansia "frosty pink"

{{gwi:59788}}

{{gwi:59789}}

Santa Rosa Plums

{{gwi:1313175}}

White Brugmansia

{{gwi:502986}}

Tibouchina Urvilleana (princess flower)

{{gwi:59792}}
Giant Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia Nicolai)

{{gwi:1141240}}
Meyer Lemon blooms

{{gwi:1303001}}
Mixed cannas

{{gwi:59794}}
Red oleander

{{gwi:1303009}}
Purple Bougainvillea

{{gwi:1303010}}
And finally some blue potato bush.

{{gwi:1303018}}

Hope you enjoy!

Hi there - I love your pictures, and it just makes me want to move to zone 9 or 10 :( I'm sure I'm not the first person to imagine the sheer joy of planting something in the ground...

To wit, all of the tropicals are in pots. The brug, plumbago, and oleander are all in ginormous pots (ouch, my back!), and everything else is creeping up to that size. I think I will stop at 24" and they'll just have to live with it (or, in it, I guess).

The brugmansia is white with pink shading. I picked it up on a whim and have been gloriously surprised the last two years. It requires little more than water, the blooms are incredibly fragrant at night, and it happily goes dormant in the basement only to bounce back the next year.

I love your bougainvillea - what a great plant!

-Jeff

Hey jeff! (image is a link)

Hi Eric - those rollers would be great, except all the big plants are in grass and gravel :(

Hi Jeff,

Beautiful garden and greenhouse! You seem to have lots of 'tropical' plants and you managed to grow them in your zone 5 setting. Now that's quite an achievement!

I live in a 'tropical' country, so my yard is basically 'tropical' with 'tropical' fruit trees and plants. I can tell you that many of the plants you have there are widely cultivated here and are essentially the 'icons' of a 'tropical'environment: forget-me-not, bougainvillea, hibiscus, plumeria, banana... I guess I'm missing the coconut tree (which is the most common plant you see here), but overall, yours is quite tropical-looking already with those plants and the 'Aloha' sign... :)

Here are my yard photos with other tropical plants which may interest you...

{{gwi:803728}}

{{gwi:188340}}

Hi Tropical Philippines...I would love to see an up close picture of your Vanda orchids. Its interesting how you have them mounted. I usually have mine in a wooden orchid pot hanging from a tree.
Sylvia

Hi, Backyard pictures in Denton Texas. John

Here is a link that might be useful: backyard

Hi Sylvia,

I think we're going out of topic. Anyway, to answer your question, I just mount my vandas on trees or on pieces of tree trunks using strings or nails. {{gwi:188334}} most of the green string that was used was already removed but you can spot a few remaining. (Strings are removed once the vanda is already firmly attached to the trunk.)

As for nails, I usually just leave them to rust as they aren't much of an eyesore as are the colored strings:
{{gwi:188336}}

Just visit my photo site if you want to see more photos of my vandas, orchids, and other plants.

tropical

here you go..

Boca Joe

Here is a link that might be useful: Boca cay tropicals Summer 2008