I luv them! I have 3 small ones just put in in April but no signs of blooms yet and don't expect any this year.

Bearstate,
If this is your plant in the garden, how can you resist not pruning off all the dried out foliage? In my opinion, they look so much better when they are occasionally thinned out and kept groomed. These are so easy to grow here nearer the coast, and can be in bloom nearly all year long, but best show is starting now and continuing through March. If you do get another bad freeze, these really respond well to being covered with burlap or an old bedsheet, and leave a 100 watt lamp going underneath to keep it above freezing.

You are correct about pruning back the dried and brown leaves. The hired help should be doing that for me and I'll have to query them about why they've let it go.

As for putting sheets or burlap around them in winter, that's something that can't be done as our appearances here needs to be free of such clutter at all times. It's bad enough that the mature shade trees have wreaked havoc by depriving the shorter landscape plants of sunlight. That's precisely why I am getting involved in gardening. To upgrade to plants that will be tolerant of the shade and replace the older ragged ones that have seen their time.

It takes time to rejuvinate such a big property, but I'm working on it.

Here's another pic of the two legacy plants ...

{{gwi:563561}}

The one on the right is over 6 feet tall. I can only guess how tall the Strelitzia Nickolai will get when they mature. I tried to split some of these off to spread them to other areas of the property, but they don't seem as easy to work with as Canna or Banana. The rhizomes aren't obvious.

Neither of these is Stelitzia nicholai, they are both S. reginae. As to dividing them, you have to dig rather deep to get all the roots, probably at least 30 inches deep, and don't try to divide them into too small of pieces, they resent cutting the roots that much. As to frost protection, perhaps you misunderstood the concept. You do this overnight, and remove it in the morning, and repeat as necessary during cold spells. It looks like your Strelitzia are located in the best possible location, against a wall and underneath an overhang.

I can't quite understand the concept of being a gardener who loves to start things from seed, but is unwilling to do their own pruning to keep the yard looking good. Gardeners are usually somewhat reluctant to take these sorts of projects on, as they are only being compensated to do the mow and blow routine, as the monthly charge is usually pretty low to expect extra services.

You got that right!

But this is a big property with a lot of exterior ground. I can't go out and prune everything all the time, nor can I go out and set up and take down burlap or sheets. I have to rely on the plants being tolerant and my hired help being diligent or at least, responsive to my prods.

You could walk around this place and see something different around every corner, if it's set up right. And even now, that's partially true. But I'd like to make it more true. There's enough ground here to allow for a homogenous overall effect with accents of variance interpersed to make things ever, interesting. My frontage is Cycads, Cutleaf Philodendrons, Canna, Australian Tree Ferns and Mediterranean Fan Palms. At the other end, are Thuja and Trailing Lantana, Photina. In the photo, which is about midway, are Bird of Paradise, Azalea and now some roses and box plants. Around the corner are Crepe Myrtles. In another spot, tall decidious trees.

It's a big landscape and it can have an overall homogeneity, while sporting variance. It's a wonderful project to tickle that variance out of what currently exists and re-flourish this landscape. I've got Medjool Date Palms, Bougainvillea and Clivia growing on the patio, waiting to go into the ground. I just today put in Iris and Tulips in one location. Although they will initially be sparse, they should soon thicken in the area where they have been placed and tease out some wonderful ground color below those Crepe Myrtles.

It just takes time and this is my first year making moves to bring about this variety.

I may walk down and snip those brown leaves. I did in fact invest in a pair of cutters for such purposes. But I also want to see these plants fill back out after last January's freeze.

Sounds like an interesting long range project, but I suspect you are also not being very pragmatic then about starting so many tender subtropicals in a climate like Bakersfield, and expecting that you won't have to baby them through bad winters. If it is really true that you don't have time to protect the tender things, then I would suggest moving on from growing the tender stuff, unless it is only root hardy tropicals like Cannas, Hedychiums and the like. You've mentioned alot of really tender tropicals that you are starting indoors from seed, and maybe you should research a little more about the plants you want to grow before you plant them out, or accomodate yourself to realizing that you want to grow the tender stuff, and will need to protect them in winter.

I'm going the opposite way - I'm tired of the extra water I have to give mine and occasionally brushing against the oozing flower and how bad the flowers look when they fade. I'm considering taking them out my next project, if we ever get enough rain to soften up the soil around them.

BTW Bearstate, try img src=" " width="600" for those giant pics.

Bearstate -- if you want some more, come and dig up some of mine! They are probably 30 years old; one is in shade and kind of stretched, like yours. The other is in sun and takes up a LOT of space in my small garden. They bloom reliably with no care other than a semi-annual cleanup, and being so established, demand very little water. They are okay, but there are more unusual plants I would rather have in the space.

Same goes for my Strelitzia nicolai. Kind of wish I hadn't planted it, it is such a monster, but it does cast some much-needed shade.

I have kind of a high-density thing going here (one BOP is under the bougainvillea on the left, the other is behind the Ensete ventricosum):
{{gwi:563562}}

I think I need a chainsaw and a backhoe to keep these tamed!

Bahia,

I fully realize that I have to care for the 1st year seedlings and maybe further, overwintering indoors, etc. And I do that. I do have a lot of Canna planted here abouts. I find them very reliable and the gardeners will cut them down as winter inevitably browns them out. I have a sense for what will survive already. I drive about town and see what other folks are growing and to be sure, there are some landscapes here in BKF where folks have some very dense tropicals that don't seem to need a lot of attention.

I have for example, seen Blue Jacaranda survive last January's hard freeze, just up the street from me. But yes, I have a few experiments, my Senna Alata, Tabebuia and the Delonix Regia seed I have. These may not be survivors outdoors. But I can always keep them indoors and restrict their growth.

Dicot,

Obviously, I have not had to water the BOPs pictured and they do well. We have sprinkler systems installed here that wet things down a couple hours before day break and as I've pointed out, plenty of shade.

Catkim,

Thanks for the offer. I see that even with the richness of your backyard jungle, you've still gone ahead and planted a Banana. That guy will push up new pups every year and you'll soon have a stand. Your area is much more restricted that what I have here. I have enormous bare patches that are like holes in the greenery. These existed when I got here and were created by tearing out overly mature desert daisies and other plants that had seen their days and were suffering from being overshaded by the mature trees. So I have plenty of room to fit in some thick growing trops like BOPs. I have planted at least 3 Strelitzia Nickolai to supplement those 2 reginae, but in different parts of the property. I've also got some Banana plants overwintering in front of my patio doors at the moment.

As far as the gardeners go, yes they have concerns about being able to rake leaves and so I work things out with them. They have leaf blowers. I've already stumbled once by planting California Poppies and they in return ceased to put in grass killer in the medians, because that would kill the poppies. The Poppies had to be sacrificed. But they were just seeds, no more than $10.00 worth. So I live and learn. There are some things that I can't do without creating problems. But after a year of trying, I am learning and have learned.

Bahia sugs that Canna be left on the agenda because of their root hardiness, but I can see the time coming when Canna will be a problem because of their tenacious spreading behavior. Even those Tulips and Iris I just planted are going to spread. I hope the Cyclamen I just put in do likewise. I'll have to manage the spreading when the time comes, but for now, they are a cheap way to fill in holes and provide color under shade. But yes, it's clear now that the Canna, like the BOPs, suffer browning leaves and need some maintenance. So, it's onward we go. It's about time to lop them off; I'd say ... next month. In the mean time, the autumn leaf fall and increasing cloudiness and Tule fog makes this inevitable browning part of the general palette of Autumn retreat. I can say however, that overall, the plants here are once again advancing and not in decline from age and lack of sunlight. So my goals are starting to be met.

There is a difference between using tropicals in the landscape and using box plants, of course. Tropicals are a bit more amorphous in their presentation, while things like box plants, photinas and such, are regulated into squares and balls, concise geometries. Except for well pruned and shaped plants like azaleas, they rarely flower either. It may be a matter of taste, but I'm not preferential toward such easily maintained, but boring geometric parking of plants. The look of Catkim's garden is much more appealling. I think this can be managed without any more extra work than it takes to use a gas powered pruner on box type plants.

What I especially hate though, are those Hackberry Trees which I had once had thought were Pepper Trees. But unfortunately, I'll have to live with that messiness every Fall.