Spring update! Lots of pics!

12 years ago

Hello! We had a very mild/warm winter here in Southern California, with very little rain, although it did pour last night, and we got a lot of rain from one single storm about a month or so ago. Other than that it's been sunny and warm with temps in the high 60s to high 70s. Anyway, plants are happy now that longer days have arrived. Here's an update on how things are doing, some plants have gotten bigger and fuller, others have changed color and some are flowering. It's my own little tropical paradise in L.A. Enjoy!

Front patio with Pigmy Date, which has grown tremendously, two cat palms that, and lots of bromeliads. In this pic Vriesea Imperialis, Neoregelia Carolinae, Vriesea Kiwi, Pigmy Date and Rhoeo Tricolor. You can also see I just planted Ligustrum as a privacy hedge. My other hedge died and now I have to start from scratch. Hopefully the Ligustrum will grow fast and full.

One of the two Cat Palms

Cat Palm flowering

Cat Palm and Pigmy with Vriesea Imperialis, Neoregelia Carolinae and Vriesea Kiwi

Front Patio Ti Plant Red Sister and Cat palms

Vriesea Kiwi flowering

3 more Bromeliads - Two Neoregelias and an Aechmea Comata Makoyana (Center)

Upstairs Patio

Bougainvillea in full bloom and Agave Attenuata

Rooftop Deck

This picture was taken last year around June, King Palm, Aechmea Blanchetiana and Philodendron Xanadu. The plants on the other corner have all been replaced.

Closer shot of the Xanadu, Aechmea and the small Ti plant I grew from logs that I cut myself while in Maui in 2012

As you can see, the King Palm has grown lots in a year, the Ti plant is enormous, and the Aechmea is a lot larger with a more yellowish color and a pup.

Closer shot of the Ti, it's really grown a lot and it's very healthy

More of the Rooftop - this is a 3 year old Areca and it's doing great. There is another large Ti plant behind it that I also grew from a cutting. The two Agave and the Umbrella tree have been replaced with a Croton and two Bromeliads

Croton and Bromeliads Neoregelia Red Sensation

Ti plant behind Areca

These two pictures are of Ti Plants I grew from cuttings I brought back from Kauai in 2013. They were just sticks, like the rest and now they are growing fast!

Here is when I first planted them, at this point they had already been rooted in water and had some growth on them

Variegated Ti

Red Sister Ti

Thanks for looking! :)

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Comments (6)

shenue
12 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Lovely, lovely, lovely!!!
kygarden99
12 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Your garden is amazing!! It looks great! Do more updates in the future!
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theseventhlegend
12 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
I'm accustomed to seeing the Pygmy Date in 3+ groupings that your single trunk looks a lot like a mini Sylvestris. Nice piece of paradise you have there.
bananafan
12 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Very beautiful garden! I'm impressed with the result of your container gardening--all of them do so well and especially your Bougainvillea. What did you do to get it to be so prolific and blooming so profusely for you in the pot? What do you feed it with?

Your Pigmy palm looks stunning too with one straight stem. Mine is kind of bent and it's always sending out new growth from its base.

Ligustrum is a good hedge to have. It thrives on neglect and doesn't shed leaves which is good. It takes mine about 2-3 years to establish themselves, then they just took off. If I wasn't watching them, they would quickly turn into a tree. We removed a Linguistrum tree when we bought the home and it was standing at 20 ft tall. If you keep them in trim, they should stay smaller as bushes. They're also very invasive. I try to clip off the new blooms early. Next year, I should start trimming before the Spring trigger growth and flower production.

Thank you for sharing pictures of your tropical paradise. Do post when you have more to share. Great job with your container gardening!
chachacharlie
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
bananafan - the bougainvillea kinda thrives on neglect, too. It takes lots of direct sun, 6+ hours. It does go thru periods of flowering and not flowering, but it's pretty colorful most of the time. It is important, in my experience, not to overwater them. However, when in terracota pots, like mine, they do like some moisture in the soil. It I let it go too dry it drops almost all of the bracts. I've covered the top layer of soil with lava rocks and that seems to keep moisture in the soil at a perfect balance between waterings.

Thank you all for the nice compliments. As the summer approaches I'll update you all on more new plants/plant growth.
Peace.
tropicalzone7
12 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Great pics! Looking very very nice and tropical in your yard. I can't even find a single leaf of frond that doesn't look perfect. Those ti plants leafed out really fast. My oldest ti plant gets mealy bugs indoors every winter and is usually completely defoliated by spring (this year it has 2 leaves haha), but it leafs out really nicely by summer time. I don't know if any other Cordys recover from defoliation as well as they do.
Thanks for sharing!
-Alex