ZONE 9 and FLORIDA GARDENING

[destinduck]

I like em too. Thank goodness I brought in a cutting off one. I wrapped all my plants real good outside but my gut says with it being even colder tommorrow all my tropicals will be toast . Suckfest. Stay warm yall. 27-28 degrees, feels like 18 with wind chill.at 11AM here.

 

[MinxFox]

All of my plants looked terrible today! The bamboo is about the only tropical or at least tropical looking plant that doesn't seem to be suffering. The cast irons are still looking nice too.

My dwarf shell ginger clump is looking terrible and it normally fairs very well. My mom had a small stag horn fern that we were going to bring in for the night last night, but when I went to take it down from the hook on the front porch three little birds flew out of it, and we didn't want to take away the birdies little home but the plant paid the price. Luckily there are a few green leaves in the center of it, but most of the pretty leaves are a dark brown/grey color. I don't think those leaves will make a comeback so I think they are dead. At least the center looks okay.

 

[flgardengirl]

We had one night of 20F and another in the mid 20's. I dug up and put everything in the greenhouses that I didn't want to freeze to the ground lol. I have a huge spiky blue tequila agave in a clay pot that no way I am gonna lift so I put two old comforters on it and it did okay. Ditto on a night blooming cactus plant. Tomorrow night is supposed to be 32F but at least most of my stuff is still in the gh so I won't have to move it again.
I started a whole bunch of tomato, eggplant, and pepper seeds indoors and a few flowering vines.

I am also planting some decorative banana seeds. So far I got musa pink veluntina- has pink flower and little pink velvety bananas (will be hardy down to zone 7b with mulching for protection during the winter), musa royal purple-purple flower and bananas(hardy to 7b), musa coccinea uranoscopus (red fllowering) (also 7b hardy), and a few other rarer types.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Zone 9b here. It's a very dry 9 though. I just found and finished reading this thread today and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I especially liked the pictures with so much green. Oddly enough, it was comforting to know that we all have our special issues with ants, no matter what side of the country we live.

 

[MinxFox]

I threw out some ryegrass seeds in my peafowl aviary. It is growing really well and I love it! The green grass is a nice change from all the brown plants.

The ryegrass is still growing. I hope the birds don't keep it too short. I would love to see it get fairly high. I didn't fertilize it at all since the birds are pretty good at fertilizing.

 

[flgardengirl]

Good idea with the ryegrass! I just bought some purple millet seed. The plants are supposed to get up to 5 ft. and have dark purple leaves. I have some different kinds of amaranthus seed somewhere too. Last year I had malabar spinach climbing the perimeter of the edible garden fence and the chickens and turkeys kept themselves occupied eating the leaves and berries and didn't try to get into the garden so much lol.

I think we are done with freezes now. I have been pulling everything out of the greenhouse and planning my ornamental beds for this growing season.

 

[flgardengirl]

How are everyone's plants doing in Florida? We have had a crazy wet cool spring. It is finally nice and all my gingers are coming back and lots of stuff blooming.

 

[MinxFox]

Oh man I forgot about this topic I need help!

Well my dwarf gingers normally withstand the winter, but they died back. They are coming back but are nothing near the beautiful clump that they were. My college had a lush patch of the same kind of gingers and theirs died back too. I really want to get shell gingers. My dwarf gingers are nice, but I am a fan of large tropical plants.

My bananas died back too and they had at least 3 years of height on them (although they still were not super tall). They are all coming back up. Does anyone have any good recommendations for getting bananas to get huge in just one growing season? I visited a peacock breeder last year and he had several bananas that were like trees they were so big and tall! I have no idea what kind of banana variety I have, maybe it is all in the variety.

Also my mom was really nice and went out and got me 3 bags of elephant ear bulbs. She got me Colocasia odora elephant ear bulbs and Colocasia esculenta elephant ear bulbs. I have always loved the looks of elephant ears and I have tried growing some, but this year I will dig up the bulbs after the summer. I don't know what the problem was with the past elephant ears I have had. I thought I was watering them enough, but they wouldn't grow much and they never got very big at all, although I was using plants that were already started. I figure starting from a bulb might be better? I put peafowl poop around the past elephant ears I had. I really hope the ones I planted do well. I planted tons of them and all in different areas so if anyone on here is an elephant ear person please help me!

For Christmas I was given a $50.00 gift card for Amazon, so I waited until today to use it to get plants off of Amazon. I checked the reviews before I bought the different things. I ended up getting:

6 Musa Sikkimensis (banana) seeds, a 4 in. Brugmansia Pink Peach Versicolor (Angel Trumpet), a started Shrimp Cocktail plant, and 250 coleus seeds (they are supposed to be a mix of colors, but the reviews said it is mainly all just the red and green colored ones).

It won't bother me much if the seeds don't do well or if the plants I get don't do well since I used a gift card. I just get plants locally so this will be a new experience for me.

The plants that are doing well after the winter are the Fatsias (WONDERFUL plants!!!), the clumping bamboo, gold dust plant, and the cast irons.

 

[flgardengirl]

Hi Minx! Gingers and bananas also die back here for me in the winter and come back spring or early summer (depending on the variety) Do you know the name of your dwarf gingers? I grow several different kinds of gingers.
Bananas do come in many varieties. Some get 40 ft tall (such as Mekong Giant) and some dwarfs about 2 ft (such as Truly Tiny and Little Prince) so yes variety really counts.
Try looking at this web site http://www.going-bananas.com/bananaplantdescriptions.htm It has a pretty good variety with descriptions just to show all the different kinds out there. Some are much more cold hardy than others.

The three things bananas love are sun, nitrogen, and water. Make sure your soil is well drained and give them lots of water. If it isn't well drained the corm can rot especially during the winter.
Same thing for most of the elephant ears although some colocasia will live in water when potted properly.

When you say you are putting peacock droppings on the plants...is this composted droppings? Some kinds of droppings like goat and rabbit can be put straight on plants without burning them. Most bird droppings generally need to be composted for awhile first. Here in FL my compost piles break down really fast especially in warm weather so can be ready in a few mos. Longer in winter.

Milorganite: (although very stinky) is also a favorite of tropicals. It has some iron in it as well and really greens stuff up. When I plant out my bananas, EE's, gingers, brugs, etc. I dig a deep hole and then backfill with some composted manure (can be any kind), a few scoops of milorganite, and dirt..Mix it well and then put in your plant and fill the rest of the way. I would say its mostly dirt with 1/3 of the other ingredients. Bananas also like potassium. There are specific banana fertilizers on the market but I usually use Miracle Grow, fish fertilizer, or whatever I have on hand.
Brugmansia, like bananas and EE's are heavy feeders. Mine will take all the fertilizer that I throw at them.

 

[MinxFox]

The peafowl poop I put on them is the poop that is under the roosts so some of it is fresh while some of it has been there for a bit. The soil here is sandy dirt so everything should drain well. Most of my plants are in varying locations so that I can see what location works best for a certain plant. I probably need to give my plants some special fertilizers.

I am not sure what kind of dwarf ginger I have. I bought it at a plant show and it was sold to me as a heliconia but I don't think that is what it is. Here is a photo of the plant last year:
The plant that I think is a dwarf ginger is the very bushy one in the back. Those are some of my bananas with it too as well as a sweet tea olive and a rice paper plant.


I am not sure what kind of banana I have. The two in the above photo were from a yard at a friend's business. The ones I have elsewhere were from a nearby person who has lots of bananas all over his backyard.

Edited to add a better photo:


Here is an example of what I hope to have someday. This photo was taken at a peacock breeder's place an hour away from me. They have tons of giant elephant ears which I think might be Thailand Giants.