Welcome to new members

[Nick]

Welcome Steve to the forum, as Cathy said we all like to see and share photo's on here,
Nick

[Dave Brown]

Just wanted to say hello, I've been wandering around for a few days & have just joined. I'm a bit of a fraud really as I like any kind of plant & I'm not really sure where ordinary ends & tropical begins. Promise not to show pics of ordinary stuff! I've got a fairly large garden, very scruffy but time is what it is. A lot of my plants are nameless as selling plants with names is just catching on here (Italy). Nice to meet you all Jo

Hi Jo, I missed your post , Welcome to the Forum By exotic I think most of us think of as unusual leaf forms etc. I'm sure many Italian native species will be exoitic to us. Chamaerops humils is native to parts of Italy

[Cathy]

Welcome Jo A P, Chalk Brow and all the other new members I have missed!
Cathy.

[Tessa]

Hi, I'm Tessa. My husband Jim and I grow tropicals on the edge of the Cotswolds. Stroud, Gloucestershire to be specific. We've been working on our small back garden and courtyard front garden for about 5 years now. It's not complete yet but then again will it ever be? is anyone's garden ever really "done"?

I've been an occasional poster and visitor to a couple other UK tropicals forums so some here may recognize me. We obtain our plants from a miriad of sources including local garden centres (Blooms/Wyvale, Highfield), DIY garden centres (Focus, B&Q), specialist nurseries (MULU when it was in Evesham. We haven't visited their new site as of yet.) Specialist nurseries via the internet (Hardy Tropicals, Easy Tropicals, Silk Tree), plus eBay (Box Tree, Shady Plants in Ireland (ferns), Cornwall Chilis, Hot Plant Co., and last but not least Barry, my top eBay tropicals supplier. Hook me up with the good stuff Barry, my main man! ).

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly:

The Good: LOVE ferns! Tree ferns, ground ferns, any and ALL ferns. Ferns are my thang. We have a small pond with a short sheer drop waterfall in our small fernery. I have about 35 varieties of ground ferns and 6 tree ferns of varying heights. Smallest trunk is a foot, largest 10 feet. My pride and joy is my double headed 4 1/2 foot pair that sit at the waters edge. A smidge worried about them now, as I type this, as no sign of croziers yet. Other Dicksonia antarctica's are unfurling all over the garden (we have 9 Dicksonia antarctica's in total) but no signs of life from the double headed yet. I'm sure it/they will be fine. Just taking their time waking up after the long hard winter. I'm not worried - yet.

The Bad: Lost our grove of Basjoo's this winter. Had Mum almost 5 years so she was a good size around with a 7 foot stem before her massive leaves. Her pair of 3 year old pups were almost as tall but not as big around. Her 2 year old pup was 4 ft tall, before leaf. And her 1 year old pup was 2 feet tall. Whether they are gone for good or will grow from the ground we are not sure yet. We've only just begun to work on the garden this year (due to family situations that have taken our time and attention) snd we haven't made it to where the banana's are yet. (They are within the fernery and I'm clearing from the outter edge in, around the pond. Have about 3 feet to go until I reach the nana's.) Part of me fears what we will find (Total mush to the roots?) and part of me wants to just get it over with so we know what we are facing. Those banana's were like members of our family. We had always successfully overwintered them as they stood in the garden and they had done well. Several years ago we had bought a gunnera from a couple in Bristol and they had a massive Basjoo that stood at least 20 feet tall and was over a foot thick. When we inquired how they had achieved such a feat here in the UK (banana cage? fleece? christmas lights?) and they said "We do nothing. We let it harden itself." So thats what we did and before this year it worked a treat. Now our beautiful nana grove is a mess. A brown crinkly pile of leaves and mushy stalks down to the ground. Oh dear. I actually shed a tear. Several even. So my initial reaction: That's it! No more banana's! No more plants that can't survive the worst that the UK can dish! But I miss them. The three plants that define my garden are the 12ft Trachycarpus, the tree ferns and the banana's. It just won't do to try and go on without them. I'm ok without other plants that didn't make it this year. I just pull them out and toss 'em in the compost heap. C'est la vie! But I can't go on without the banana's. So watch my posts for updates on the condition of my grove and whether we still have life there or will be seeking large specimens to take their place. (I can't start with some ditsy 3ft baby this time. I will need at least an established 6+ foot stem with some girth to it. Yes, I want a carbon-copy of my Mama plant. I want to go back to how it was last summer with the long glorious leaves of my nana brushing up against the fronds of its neighbor Dicksonia antarctica to create those lovely patterns on the sandstone paving. It's not asking for much really. )

The Ugly: Nothing ugly really. Lost a few plants this year. We all loose at least one plant every winter, don't we. Circle of life. I have decided that the plants we did loose are weaklings, inferiour, and so I can't be bothered with them anymore. (Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood have nothing on me. I'm the toughest gal in town. Except regarding banana's it seems!) I guess you'd say I was a plant collector. (I'll have ONE OF EVERYTHING PLEASE!) Trying to buy everything and anything available to us in the UK and trying to make it work. I've lost many a tall gorgeous borderline tender palm in my quest to make it be what it's not - HARDY! (So to ANYONE who thinks they can make a travelers palm, a fistail palm or a s.nicoli happy and successful in their garden over winter think twice. Just won't work. Take them inside BEFORE, weeks before - month or two before, any chance of frost, before you get any chill in the air. The nicoli will look ok for awhile but then, one morning, unexpected, as you gaze out the window with your cup of tea you'll see the droop that cannot be fixed. You read it here. Be warned. Be smart. Learn from foolish, sad, pitiful me. ) So I've decided I'll be plant collector no more. I'm going to plant what works by gum it! Even if it means I've already got it. What I've learned is that some plants romp and some fizzle. It may be the temerature, it may be the soil, it may be the light, it may be the wind, it may be the location or a combination. A plant that works for someone else won't for me even though I try it several times. Some folks nurture and coddle a plant only to see it perish while other toss a plant in the ground and the next they bother to look in its direction its a jungle. Rhyme, reason, I don't know. I do know that I've spent 5 years thinking TOO MUCH about the exactness of it all, the variety of it all, and not nearly enough time enjoying it all. So out with the old and in with the new. Things will be different this year. All the plants that haven't shown themselves to be winners need to be be very afraid. There's gonna be a whole lotta yankin' and tossin' goin' on.

So what else? My t-rex has a sucker. That's why I found this place, this forum of like-minded folks. I was in Google mode looking for some assistance on the matter. We had planted the t-rex IN a pot in the ground to avoid the whole suckering business of wee t-rex's popping up all over my garden, the neighbors garden, YOUR garden! but the darn plant has found a way around. Kinda ticks me off to be honest. We'd been looking for a plantable-sized t-rex for several years before Andy at Mulu allowed me access to his private stash. We were thrilled when it took off and reached a height of 7 foot by last October. It was the first to show signs of waking up early this year and is already 6+ feet as of typing this early May 2009. I was pretty jazzed with the plant until I found the sucker. Grrr!

So that's it pretty much. I will end by announcing that I am the proud grandmother to my first granddaughter. She's just turned 1 and is the joy of my life. The back garden has spikey things, mildly dangerous things and, of course, the pond, so its off limits to her and will be for several years. The front courtyard garden was created and planted to be 100% baby/child friendly though. Lots of textures for her to touch, plants to explore, a safe relaxing environment for baby and all.

I've got some photos of the back garden on my puter from summer 07 I can post if anyone is interested. We didn't take any photos last year but will this year to compare the growth. We'll also take photos of the front garden. Lots of ferns in it so right now it's just beginning to come to life. It was just planted last fall so I've not seen it in all its glory yet. It's always tense but exciting waiting and watching to see if reality meets vision.

So that's my looong Hello! post. They won't always be so long. I promise.

~ Tessa

[Dave Brown]

Hi Tessa and welcome to the forum.

Sounds like the winter has hit you hard, do you know what temperatures you had I lost some of the smaller M.basjoo stems but the larger ones are ok. I have moved one clump as they were growing too large and have migrated to the front of the border. The largest stems were 6 and 9 feet. I had intended to put them on ebay as collection only, but having re-appraised the situation. I have so many large gaps this year. I need the basjoo to create the height vacated by Ensete ventricosum, Maurelii ect. We'd love to see pics of the garden

[collins99]

Hello Tessa welcome to the forum...

nick..

[bobbyd44]

hey and welcome tess more knowledge for the forum is great!!
and get the pics coming!!

[Nick]

Hi Tessa, welcome to our forum, lets see some photo's please.

Sunshine Nick

[Tessa]

Thank you Dave, Nick, Rob and Sunshine Nick for the welcome. Below is a link to my tropical garden pics on Photobucket from summer 2007. My vision, theme, inspiration for the garden is California, from whence I hail. Yup folks, I'm American. A California Girl. Born and bred. I'm even blonde with blue eyes.

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk14 ... s/?start=0

It's been fun looking at the photos again. I haven't viewed them in probably over a year. How some things have grown! The pair of waggies on the deck either side of the butia eriospatha are much larger now. The cordyline and phormium bed is jam packed and overflowing on to the decking and sandstone paths. So sad seeing my beautiful banana trees (photos 25... ++ & 68) that are now mush. But hopeful that my double headed Dicksonia antarctica (photo 69) will frond. That's Jim, my husband, in the hot tub, photos 31 & 32. Some plants have taken a beating too though. The butia capitata has less fronds now after the harsh winter. We recently cut off half a dozen dead brown fronds. So sad. Same with the washingtonia filiferia. A few agaves in the arid beds have suffered. Still alive though. May have to rethink overwintering ideas. Still not happy with the smaller of the two arid beds. I expect a big overhall of it this summer. May have to rethink the whole idea, move the existing agaves and alpines to the larger bed and start fresh with a different idea using the Phoenix canariensis_CIDP as its focal. The iron sculpture is a 5 1/2 foot tall standing alligator our daughter Sarah made as a Uni project. We have variegated ivy growing on it. I love iron sculptures tucked in the foliage and have several smallish ones in the garden including a large spider (photo 12), sun (photo 16), sea turtle and lizard. The large blue, white and green ball in the fernery is thick blown glass on a cast iron stand. I favour spheres, you can see them all over the garden. I also favour the colour blue. It really pops against all the green and it reminds me of home, California, and the beautiful blue Pacific. And, yes, that really is a surfboard in the corner of the fernery. By summers end you can hardly see it due to the ostrich ferns that surround it. The plant I take the most care with, am precious about, is the elephants ear aroid (Alocasia macrorrhizos, photo 23, 36), which I have had in that same pot for about 5 years now. I have a slew of other aroids I keep in the conservatory year round but the elephants ear goes back and forth spending 6 months inside and 6 months out. Isn't it just the most glorious plant? So calming, so lush. I adore it! Fabulous plant!

Thanks for reading and viewing my photos.

I think I'll just copy and re-post this to a new thread, its own thread, so those that don't read the newbies thread can also view my photos if they wish.

~ Tessa

[Cathy]

Hi Tessa and welcome!

Been away over the holiday weekend and only just seen that you have joined our happy crowd!

Cathy, (1/2 of the couple in Bristol!)

[Jo A P]

Thanks for the welcome, my garden is fairly normal with some exotic stuff & my oddbods (cactii & such). It's a bit too dry for a lot of the big leafers but where there's a will & all that

[Dave Brown]

It's a bit too dry for a lot of the big leafers but where there's a will & all that

Yes, The will is 80% Colocasia happily grow in a pond if the temps are warm, so you could grow those in tubs without drainage holes, just keeping the water topped up.

[Jo A P]

I do have a colocasia, an name unknown one that I leave out all year. It does turn to mush but so far has always come back (I keep a reserve indoors, just in case). I like the idea of tubs as keeping pots (even with xtra large saucers) watered is often hard & in the ground is no good really, I just can't keep it wet enough. I've tried the colocasia from the supermarket but they don't seem to last too well & a black one I tried I lost (tried 3 xs!) just can't seem to keep them going.

[AndrewBird]

Hi to all you trpical fans!!!!!!!!!!

My name is AndrewBird and I live with my parents in Uxbridge in London. I have started to get into tropical plants this year and found this wonderful website. Im rally keen to learn and turn our garden into my own tropical paradise.
We went on holiday to Thailand last year and i really loved all the plants ad palms and want to create my own place at home. My parents are not theat keen on the garden although the like it to look nice they normally have lots of bedding plants (yuck)and other boring things.
So far I have bought 6 palms from Wilkinsons (2corylines, 2 phoenix canariensis, and 2 chamaerops humilis) how fast will they grow? there is also a very nice garden centre near to me called Smiths, it is in Denham and I am going to buy more plants from them. I wont to get some bamboo plants as wel and some banana plants. Can you grow a banana tree from a seed? Which is the best bamboo to buy.
Thankyou all for this wonderful site.

[tropical-pete]

Haven't been around for the past couple of weeks, but it's great to see we've picked up so many new members!!! So...

A big welcome to all our new members!!

It's great to have you here and we all look forward too seing you around

Enjoy!