Hello from Dartford

[khaskings]

Hi everyone. Kim and Mike here from Dartford in Kent.

I (Mike) have previous gardening experience which was put on hold for a decade when kids came along, Kim has la little less experience, but is the keenest neo-gardener I've ever known and really excited to get into some of these fascinating plants

I haphazardly collected Trachycarpus wilkinsonio and Chaemarops wilkinsonio over the last few years (guess where from), but my bigger and older specimens still reside with my ex-wife. Maybe that will change in the future.

Now Kim and I are together and into tropical gardening we are currently overseeing a large stock of sown palm seeds!! (over 400)....and non of them came from Wilkinsons either.

We are in rented accomodation at the moment so all plants are in pots with a view to building up a collection of plants for a hothouse at some time in the future.

Currently we have (excuse my primary school names)

3 x banana - 2 green, 1 red
4 x Chaemarops humilis
2 x Trachycarpus fortunei
3 x Phoenix palms (2 from Wilkinsons, 1 x 4 footer from Homebase £8)
6 x Canna (2 from Wilkinsons, 4 £1.00 specials from Ingoldmells market)
2 x Agave and a whole litter of pups
1 x streliztzia - got bad leaf curl despite being in a sunny position, may need advice here.
3 x Cordyline (the burgundy ones)
Loads of cacti from the landlords own plants (3 types)
Loads of Lemon Scented geranium (same source)
1 x 4ft Areca palm (£1.04 of Ebay)
1 x 10ft fig tree (free if I dug it up)
1 x unknown, possibly a Yucca

It's amazing what you can get into the boot of a 1994 Escort when it's for free!

Sown seeds include;

Travellers palm, Brahmae, Chinese fan, cordyline, Trachycarpus, thatch palm, Monkey Puzzle, date palm, saguaro cactus, Washington filifera, other bananas, passion flower and more.

Now that we've found that there is more variety at better prices than B&Q and Wilkinsons, we are planning a visit this weekend to Crews Hill - the forum can take a pat on the back for highlighting that one.

Our show stopper is the red banana. 7ft high and cost me £10.

As you can see we like a bargain.

We would like to hear from anyone with a hothouse to compare plans from planning to planting to actually enjoying the finished article.

We are very impressed with some of the photos we've seen here, and as a frequenter of many different forums, this has to rank as one of the friendliest weve lurked on. There are definately some high standards to aspire to - noteably the picture of the huge agave next to the house footpath - wow!

Cheers,

M & K

[lee-ann]

A very BIG welcome sounds like you've been struck by the bug. Your among friends here most of them crazy in a good way.

[collins99]

Welcome Mike and Kim

nick..

[Nick]

Welcome Mike and Kim, you already have an impressive collection of plants there,
we are very nosey on here so I need to ask you to post some photo's of your garden, now don't worry about them being in pots, we really don't mind that.
Like Libby said we are all a little nuts here, but no one cares , you are now amongst friends on here so post away, we look forward to seeing them photo's :lol



PS: where it says's your from the UK you need to put your local town Dartford, it helps people to know where you are from.

[bev]

welcome mike & kim

sounds like you've got a fair few plants to be getting on with!

cheers

lee

[Dave in Warrington]

A big Welcome Mike and Kim.

If you don't know the bananas types, pop a photo on the main forum so we can name them for you

[Dave Brown]

Hi Mike and Kim, and welcome to the forum

Not a million miles from me then. The Huge Agave you talk of is probably the one in my In laws garden at Swanscombe, even closer to you

Seems you have a few plants already, but you will probably be like a kid in a sweet shop at crews hill You'll have to let us know how you get on, and what they have at this time of year. I really must get there at some point myself

[khaskings]

Thanks for the welcome everyone

Dave B - We can't believe our luck that the agave is in Swanscombe. Could you PM me the street so we can admire it from the pavement and also, we'd like to see if it can be seen on Google maps from space. What type is it and do you know how old it is? This is number one on my wish list (not your in-laws plant, one for myself )

We shall endeavour to post photos of our collection so far and maybe a sitrep for selected locations at Crews Hill

Cheers,

Mike & Kim

[Dave Brown]

Mike, the big Agave at my In-laws is a pup off mine and is now getting on for 10 years old. They have better soil so theirs is bigger. Mine is on clay so the roots rotted over the last couple of years with wetter summers. I dug the clay out form under it in June to give it a better chance. See HERE

This is a smaller one in the front garden, but it has a few pups, so if you want one, be my guest.

[khaskings]

Oooh yes please Dave. Not sure that I've got anything to swap that you wont most likely already have....unless you fancy a credit note for one of our many sown palm seeds at some time in the future Let me know what the forum protocol is for swaps and paying for PnP etc.

We like it here

Mike & Kim

[parkeey]

hi from orpington, were did u get ur red banana for a tenner, impressive! im am lacking one of those!

ian

[khaskings]

Hi parkeey,

We picked up the red banana at Hall Place nursery in Bexley. They have a variety of bigger plants on display at the entrance to the glass houses and it can vary from day to day. Obviously there are more options in the warmer months. Prices are pretty good too.

Mike.

[Dave Brown]

Is that the one next to Ruxley Roundabout on the A20

[khaskings]

........and a reply comes 4 months later.......

Hall Place is next to the A2 (north side) at the Black Prince turn off. It has a restaurant and open fields there and behind a 7 foot wall is the Bexley Borough nursery, display gardens and hothouse. Entrance is via the only gate in the wall. The stuff for sale is clearly marked. The hothouse has some really nice stuff in it.

Go A2 ---> London, exit Black Prince, head back over the A2 towards Bexleyheath, at the roundabout over the A2 take the right turn (Bourne Road), enter Hall Place about 100m into Bourne Road.

See you there!

Mike.

[kata]

Hello Kim and Mike,

Four months later...hahahahhaa

We're all mad..sumat in the soil perhaps.