Hey!

[Vagetarian]

Hello from Norfolk (apparently the driest county). I'll probably be one of the younger members here at 24, although I notice that there are some that are even younger!

I'm very new to gardening, so new in fact that the majority of my plants are still seeds. This is my first ever year and I started it off with tomatoes, peppers and a few 'black' sweet peas and poppies for decoration. This has very quickly evolved into bananas, cannas, palms, cycads, plumeria and various tropical plants which may or may not eventually give me some exotic fruits. I like tropical plants almost as much as I like to be different!

I have a relatively small and sheltered, slabbed and decked back garden and a 3m2 heated conservatory (brick walls).

[Yorkshire Kris]

Welcome Vagetarian.

There are many people younger than you on here. It seems that exotic gardening really excite younger people who are happier to try new things. Once you get the bug you never lose it!

Any garden pics to share?

[sanatic1234]

Welcome vagetartian.

I hope you enjoy your time here on the forum, there are some very very experienced members on here and you will learn loads like i have. and you will enjoy the friendly banter as well and there is plenty of it.

[kata]

Welcome to the forum Vagetarian

Have fun and remember to upload those mind boggling Images

[Vagetarian]

Cheers for the welcomes guys.

Here are some pics Yorkshire Kris & kata, not an awful lot to show just yet as the majority are still germinating. First, the tomatoes that started it all off! Pictured some time last month when there was actual sunshine;

Way too many plants;

9 lots of banana seeds and 4 lots of palms, cycad seeds now soaking in water

Seed grown peppers and june sown cannas. 5 musa sikkamensis seedlings from pre-germinated seed on ebay and 4 Musa 'Tropicana' from Lidl which I discovered from reading on here last week;

I also have a half price Phoenix canariensis_CIDP from B&Q along with 3 cannas outside, one of which has a flower stem at last (you can just about see its leaves in the top left corner of the last photo)! As you can see, I have gone totally overboard here but hey, I'm enjoying myself with it!

[kata]

A nice selection of plants

but hey, I'm enjoying myself with it!

And that, and the tears are what gardening is all about. I am growing just one Jamie Oliver Pepper I did have two belting plants from seed (Peppers) and went and burnt the roots with a concentrated feed of Miraclegrow so don't make my mistake. I now feed all with my trusty Phostrogen.

The Cannas and the Phoenix canariensis_CIDP will be best indoors in winter. The Phoenix canariensis_CIDP depends how big. There is'nt much time now for it to make anchor roots before autumn.

[Vagetarian]

A nice selection of plants

Getting there anyway! Might have to start up a nursery soon at the rate at which I'm buying seeds

If all of those seeds and seedlings do well in what's left of this season I could have a very full conservatory this winter at which point I'll have to store the cannas in the shed in rhizome form. The Phoenix canariensis_CIDP is not one of 'my babies' and has been in my bad books since it jabbed me in the eye so it will be the first to stay outdoors if there's no room! (I also had to take a 25 mile car ride home with it sitting in the passenger foot well with me, not a pleasant experience I must say!)

Having said that, I'm now wondering if I could overwinter the Phoenix canariensis_CIDP in my shed. The shed is very large and has several windows (including one in the roof). The sun passes over the roof window all day long and I suspect a plant could get a decent amount of light underneath it if raised up on a chair or similar.

[sanatic1234]

Yours plants even have there own security. Brilliant.

[Vagetarian]

Yours plants even have there own security. Brilliant.

Haha yes, but unfortunately at the ripe old age of 15 and with his arthritic legs he's unable to catch anything but fleas!

[GoggleboxUK]

That's the best username I've ever heard!



Welcome to the forum.

[redsquirrel]

hello Vag,welcome aboard enjoy the fun
dont worry about growing too many of the same thing,theres always someone up for a swap of something you dont have

[Vagetarian]

That's the best username I've ever heard!

Why thank you, you know, this is the 2nd forum I've used it on and the other one has a much larger user base. You are the first person to have ever mentioned it!

That sounds good redsquirrel, especially now that all my banana seeds are sprouting!

[Cathy]

Hello Vagitarian, or should I say "Young Man!"
(I'm guessing you are male as us female gardeners seem to be the minority! )

I'm old enough to call most people on here "young" but you will find that our common interest means that for once the age thing doesn't seem to matter!
...but then, if you'd like to come and dig out a horrid, stonking solid 1930s concrete path for me, (after you have removed the grass and top soil covering it) I won't complain!
Cathy, (36 the year you were born!)

p.s. I've just made a new years reVolution to look at this forum more often. apologies and welcome! to all the folks I have missed.

[Dave Brown]

Hi Vagitarian, and welcome to the forum

Norfolk eh..... you lucky s@d. Norfolk just oozes exotics nurseries like Amulree and Urban Jungle. Then for inspiration you have Will Giles' 'The Exotic Garden' in the centre of Norwich.

I started about 10 years younger than you even, and growing from seed was about the only way to get exotics back in the '70s.

With this type of gardening patience is definately a virtue, as without it you need a very deep wallet

[Vagetarian]

Cheers for the welcomes! I am indeed male Cathy and I agree that tropical gardening seems to be more male orientated, that's not quite so true on other gardening forums however.

I'd heard of Will Giles garden a couple of years ago and I actually took my girlfriend to Urban Jungle for a "romantic day out" ( ), for some reason I was kind of expecting it to be the famous back garden so I was shocked and totally amazed when I saw just how much stuff they had there. I left feeling very jealous!

I wasn't aware that Amulree was in Norfolk so I'll have to pay them a visit soon too!

My wallet is very lucky in that the best part about gardening for me is the propagation although I don't think patience comes easily at my age and I can see myself splurging on a palm or cycad sometime soon.