It looks beautiful! And like a LOT of work!

Hi
I've been redoing a bed between two palm clumps but is in VERY dense shade so moving most of my tropical ferns calatheas there . I'm keeping everything in pots though lol
Already run into a problem as the main shade is a tree that went deciduous after flowering lol Both the elephant and crocodile ferns got some burn Love those pots lol gary

Beautiful! I love the transformation!

I love the looks of it and can't wait to see it as it fills in. Makes me wish I lived just a hour further south so I could do this sort of thing. But the winters in my neck of the woods would kill off all those bananas. Or at least take them to the ground.

It also makes me a little envious of people who have shade in their yards.

I like the end result, keep up the good job!

Silvia

Thanks for the kind words Ness and Silvia

Gary, I didn't show it in the video, but I've got this beautiful location on the side of the house that gets a ton of shade from an oak. I'm growing shell ginger, spathiphyllum, medinilla, leopard plant, and a few others over there. I can't fathom the damage to the plants if that oak came down or was bare this time of year. You're right though, pots can be an absolute lifesaver when conditions change.

Tru, Lot of work, but well worth it. Hard to believe I used to be so ignorant about gardening. I think if you can learn to grow tropicals in Florida sand, you can accomplish almost anything in a garden. Biased, I know, but so many little factors need to be accounted for here, and I think those factors help make all of us better gardeners in the long run.

Leekle, The semi-micro climates around here drive me nuts. It's really amazing what 10-50 miles can do to our growing environments. I didn't quite know what to think of this yard. The sunniest parts of the tropical bed were nearly uninhabitable before. Everything was bleached and drained of life. Couldn't even get weeds. Underneath the two oaks, grass (or weeds) only really grew toward the end of summer when there was enough rain and light breaking through the canopy. I've mostly adapted to the yard's strengths and weaknesses.

My biggest contention with the yard will always be the highway right behind it. While the winds probably help keep the yard a little warmer in the winter and a touch cooler in Summer, moisture seems to just get sucked right out of the soil, be it full sun or full shade. I've probably laid down 60 bags of leaves I've managed to come across so far. Here's hoping for 60 more! =)

Hey everyone, it's been about a month since my last photos, so I figured it was time for an update on my Tropical Bed. Click photos for larger versions.

There's so many comparison photos I'd love to show, but I figured I'd just post recent pics now, and post a link to an open image gallery later with all the before and afters.

All the Musa basjoo have (at least) doubled in size since planting them. Currently, each and every one of them have between 4 and 8 pups. There's probably close to 60 banana plants in the bed now, up from the original 13.

Blue Hawaii(an) Colocasia

One of my Illustris Colocasia, over 5' now

4 Alocasia Portora in this bed. They've nearly tripled in height since March, fast approaching 6 feet.

Some of the red Canna have topped out at 7'6".

May 24th

Compared to April 5th

You hear people say bananas, canna and elephant ears can grow like weeds, but I'm astounded every day by how quickly and widely everything has grown. It's been 2 months since I planted everything, and it's denser and lusher than anything I've ever done over the last year.

I'm expecting at least another 4' of growth on the basjoos. When they start overtaking the canna, the bed should start approaching the kind of image I had in my head when I first planted everything.

Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Mike

This post was edited by Foreverlad on Fri, May 24, 13 at 16:14