Don't be sorry!!...I, for one, LOVE all your pictures!!

How do you wrap your bananas each year??...Just curious...This will be my first year havine Basjoos in the grown.

knotz

Thanks knotz!
Actually the basjoos arent in the ground yet. I bought them in mid July so I figured I would let them establish better before putting them in the ground. Next spring I am putting them in the ground though and I do have a plan to protect them (which is the same thing I use for all my palms each winter). I put some x mas lights around them followed by a frost cloth and then a plastic garbage bin to retain heat and keep moisture out. It wont work when the palms get tall, but it will always work on the basjoos because all I have to do is cut the stalk back enough to fit in the protection (which is about 4 feet tall). Once it becomes a larger clump, I dont think I will protect them anymore, but if you have a decent sized basjoo and can keep it dry in the winter, I dont think your basjoo will have a problem surviving your zone 8 winters at all!
Good luck and thanks again for looking!
-Alex

Thanks Alex!!...I'll try the plastic garbage can...My bananas will fit just fine under those.

Think I'll do that with the palms too :)

I may not always comment, but I do look at all your pictures and "learn" from them.

knotz

Very nice pics:)Your coconut palms look very happy and healthy as well! Good luck!

Awesome Pics. Everything is growing great!!! Where do you keep the potted plants in the winter???

those pix look awesome Alex.I too am experimenting with my oleander in the ground and trying to figure out how to protect them.Any suggestions?

Thanks a lot for commenting everyone!

Knotz, Im glad that I could help! Definitely post if your successful with all your palms and your banana!

Us marine, I really cant wait until the coconut palms get a little older! The fronds are finally splitting so next year it should hopefully start looking more mature soon! Its been a fast grower for me so far and hopefully it wont have the scale problem that it had last winter indoors! It was almost a gonner!

Chicago palm, I keep all of the plants inside the house during the winter. There is one room that isnt used much and gets a lot of light so a lot of them might be going in there. All of the semi-hardy plants are going in the unheated garage where they wont see freezing temps, but they wont see any warmth, or too much light either. The rest goes into pretty much any bright corner where they look decent.

Ncpalm, I think Im going to end up protecting the oleander the same way I protect the palms: x-mas lights, a frost cloth over that, and then a plastic garbage bin. Eventually as it gets bigger Im going to have to change up the protection a little bit but it should work well for this winter, and maybe next winter too. If you have a broken and old plastic garbage bin than this method is really great because then your making use of it and you dont have to go buy a new one!
But when the Oleander gets a little older, I plan on either pruning it down to a smaller size to fit in a small structure, or wrapping it up and then adding some x-mas lights and a frost cloth with something (such as plastic) to keep moisture from going in. And I would mulch around the roots as well. But I havent used that method yet so Im not sure if it would work, just an idea for when it gets a little older!

Thanks for looking everyone!
-Alex

HI TZ,

Wifey and I went hiking this weekend and I was surprised that the Delaware Water Gap was so dry still, even after they had some rain a couple weeks ago.

As always, your pics and plants are healthy and well done. I like that deep color oleander. They are not cold hardy enough for the NYC metro area I find.

Looking good as usual! I do love the passion flower too, though I have not really "grown" any of those as they grow wild here and are literally all over the place. Some people even consider them to be weeds because they grow so prolifically each year and can climb up very high.

Looking good Alex

Glad to see your Boug didn't end up Bog!

I think the Butias need more winter root protection
/ establishment time than some other palms,
I think both of ours will take off next year!

Garden looks great.(-:

Greg, Thanks! And the oleander definitely isnt hardy to our area so its really just a little experiment that will hopefully work if I give it enough protection.
Novaplantguy, Ive never seen passion vines growing wild here but they are suppose to be native to the area. People do complain that they are very weedy but I figure that if its native it cant take over too much, but just incase, I might have to put some type of barrier around it in the ground.
Jim, I really hope that the pindo takes off. I think its just slow to establish so hopefully our pindos will be growing like banana plants next year! Im so happy that the boug decided to bloom that I think I'm going to get some more for next year!

And there is an animal eating all my plants! The stonecrop plant you see in the picture is gone and I have a small majesty palm that is eaten all the way to the growing bud! Any suggestions on what animal this might be? My guess is a raccoon. Im going to spray all my vulnerable plants with some neem oil. I hope that keeps it from eating my plants because its the end of the summer and the plants wont be growing that much more before winter.

Thanks for looking everyone!
Good luck!
-Alex

Hi Alex,

Love all of the beautiful pics...especially the Passion flower!!!

I remember one time that I had some animal eating some of my flowers, this was years ago but I used this spray that had cayanne pepper in it and whatever it was stopped. The name of the spray escapes me but maybe somone can tell you the correct name or you can ask someone at the nursery. It seems that I sprayed around the plant instead of on the plant itself...hope this helps!!!

Great pics of all of your plants and trees. Great growth on everything!!!

Laura in VB

Thanks a lot laura for the comment and for the help with the animal problem! I think I might have to ask around some nurseries here or do some looking up on the internet to see if I can find the name of the spray you are talking about. It sounds really useful!
So far the animal has eaten
-about 2 philodendron leaves
-all the fronds on my majesty palm
-about 3/4 of the stone crop
-a good amount of some weedy plants (I wasnt too upset about that!)
And it has damaged a few other plants. Hopefully it goes away on its own, but it has a pretty good food source in my yard, so I dont think that will be happening!
Thanks for looking everyone!
-Alex

Hey Alex,Everything looks great.I like the Hibiscus flowers,very tropical looking.I like the European fan also.I've got two green ones and three blue ones.Does yours grow as slow as mine?Especially the blue ones.Do you have to protect yours in winter?Why I ask is because this will be the first winter in the ground for mine.Looks like all your plants put on some good growth this summer.Don't worry about your pindo,it takes them three years to get established and growing good on there own.Mine did the same thing until the fourth summer in the ground,then it took off like crazy and I didn't even fertilize it.

You can always make that spray yourself

Thanks butiaman! My European fan palm grows pretty slow. The green one that you see in the pic did put out pretty decent growth, but the blue one has to be the SLOWEST palm I have ever grown! The blue one is only a seedling so its going to be a while before I get good growth on it, but I think these palms are just slow growers! It hasnt survived a winter yet (first year in the ground), so I guess we will both be finding out how cold tolerant these palms really are when spring comes! I will definitely be protecting it just like all my other palms since its still a small size. Im not expecting any problems with it, but Im sure it will be growing very slow next spring! Im glad that the pindo palm will finally start to grow soon! I see pictures of these palms 2 times the size they originally were in the beginning of the growing season so I would love to see that happen to mine soon!

Jim, I was starting to think about that! I sprayed the plants with neem oil but apparently it wasnt enough since it did come back to eat the rest of the stonecrop leaving absolutely NOTHING except for some stems poking out of the soil. Good news is that it did leave my little majesty palm alone, but I think thats because there's so little left. Im going to see if it eats anything tomorrow and if it does, its time to make some spray!

-Alex