Love watching your slideshows! My Casor bean only got to 13ft last year, not quite as big as yours. I'm thinking about building an arbor about the size of yours and would like to know what you have growing on yours.

Thx. I hope to get a 20' castor this year. The difficult part seems to be keeping them supported/staked so we'll see...Maybe a 20' banana also. That is wisteria on the arbor. It grows fast. Very fast...Plan on lots of pruning...It actually has a few blooms on it right now...

Last years...

Here is a link that might be useful: 2006 Garden Timeline

I love the slideshow. How about showing us the inside of that lovely garden, maybe from the back door or deck.
Linda

Here's on from last year

Here is a link that might be useful: deck pic

Daryl-

My castors are slow to take off. People are saying i'm crazy suggesting they get 10ft plus. Maybe not enough water or are they still growing that taproot. We've had decent rains and i have very sand soil. I fertilized for the first time recently and am now going to start water them more often.

June 14th
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July 9
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Don't laugh at the volcanoes, i figured if they work for warming up watermelon seedlings, they would do the same for castor beans...wrong :)

Perhaps you could add some pumpkin seeds to your hills...lol. Sorry couldn't resist...Try some next year without the hill & compare. My tallest ones are now at 8'. If yours are in full sun they should start to take off now. Looks like you are getting some bigger leaves. The japanese beetles are snacking on some of mine this year...If you were in the area I would give you some of my magic seeds...Good luck

Seeds i got were from Gurneys. I did get started late, so thats my only excuse. I'll water them good every 2 days or so and hope for 8ft plants. I read they'll grow until the cold kills them. That puts me possibly into Oct, so 3 months still.

One of the Basjoo's is nearing 4 ft, but the other has gotten hammered by stupid rabbits thinking they are tasty (they took out 2 of the largest leaves about a month ago and it stalled after that). I've got 10 Sikkmensis pups grown from seed, so next year watch out.

Daryl-

My Castors have seen to put on some new growth lately. I'm going to give them another talk today and see what that does. I think they have something against me.

It looks like your seasons are a week ahead of ours in the slideshow I noticed your tree leafing out on may 3rd. I would love to live in a place where spring comes about 2-3 weeks earlier. What date do they give you to safely plant out in the spring - here it is may 24

My Basjoo is 6ft tall and my castors got riped out almost a month ago. I need different seeds or something.

Sorry to hear about your castor beans. At this point, I have a couple of dozen basjoos. My tallest is 12 feet. Tallest cavendish is only 6 feet. I have a few dozen castor beans and their heighth varies depending on when I planted them. The tallest ones are 15 feet. We had quite a problem with japanese beetles just a short time ago. I had to reluctantly spray everything often just to keep up...I think the combination of the bugs chowing on the leaves, all the chemicals and the Death Valley like temps/lack of rain here have stunted the growth on the taller plants(should be closer to 20'). My EE's are pushing 7 feet. There's still time...I will have thousands of seeds this year. I might look into Ebay...I will have some free cavendishes in late September & EE's for local pick-up only!