Search My Yard!

Saturday, February 15, 2025

The Palms are out for some air ...

This is the warmest weather we've had this season, but it still starts off with some snow. 


Blue European fan palm (Chamaerops humilis)


Mule Palm


Cycas revoluta x panzhihuaensis


Fatsia Japonica




This amazing Pansy is called Tiger Eye Yellow. It is amazingly cold tolerant! We've had ridiculous cold and snow and here it is! 


 

Mid February Update!

 It's been a snowy and chilly month outside but my house is FILLED with blooms. You can see some of those blooms in my post from mid January, but here are some more! 


My hibiscus is close to a heater and to the growlight over my singapore twist Ti plant. The blooms have been incredible! 






My Bird of Paradise is fully open and living its best life! 


It's bathed in sunlight from the skylight


Bat flower looking nice too! (Tacca chantrieri)


Hi Bismarkia Palm


My orchids are so happy!




The Flamethrower Palm is looking good and after dropping every leaf so is my Hibiscus tilliaceus 

You can see the ponderosa lemon better here! 

California Sunset Plumeria didn't bloom outside this year but despite low light and low water, here it is!



My Philodendron Cortadum is blooming too! 




Old Man Palm, Begonia luxurians, and Musa Ae Ae are standouts here


Billbergia nutans, or Queen's-tears Bromeliad




Ficus Tineke


Monstera Thai Constellation



Variegated Centennial Kumquat


African Violet & another orchid!









Starting seeds

 That's the post!





Tuesday, January 28, 2025

How did my palms and subtropical plants do after the coldest week of winter?

We just got through a nasty cold spell. The southeastern states had it worse. Temperatures dropped to the single digits right to the gulf coast & Florida had their biggest snowfall on record. Some of the most iconic images from the bitter cold and historic storm came from New Orleans which saw one of the worst snow storms in the city's history. 

Here on Long Island, it was cold! We had our longest stretch of subfreezing temperatures in 7 years, 4 days in a row. Here's what my highs and lows looked like. 

Jan 19   40/24

Jan 20   25/15

Jan 21  20/10

Jan 22   21/12

Jan 23   30/12

Jan 24   33/18

Jan 25   32/19

Our biggest snow of the year, but not much! We got about 3" in my yard


Although we're still looking at a zone 8 winter, the duration of cold was very long lasting so I wrapped up and put lights on some of my plants and had the rest in the garage. 


These plants were covered with no lights or extra heating

Sabal minor before

Sabal minor after

Needle palm before


Needle Palm


Cast iron plant before 

Cast Iron Plant
Fatsia Japonica covered. Forgot to take an after pic, but it looks great! 


Frostproof Gardenia before


Frostproof Gardenia uncovered

Variegated Yucca Gloriosa. Yucca Silver Anniversary remained uncovered.

These plants received heat and covers. I used c9 christmas lights as a heat source! 


My cordyline australis was already severely damaged. If it makes it, it will probably sprout back from the base. Hopefully my Hedychium fiesta is good! It was coverd in lights but usually with perennials, mulch is preferred.

The cordyline has seen better days. Last year it sailed through our mild winter.




My windmill palm in the backyard is planted with Hedychium Daniel Weeks, Passiflora Incense, Colocasia Pink China, and a cast iron plant. 


I covered my front yard windmil palm with my Chuck Hayes Gardenia. This is the first winter for my Chuck Hayes. My Summer Snow Gardenia and Crown Jewel Gardenia at my parents house were completely unprotected by the way!

Chuck hayes looks good!

Overall the Trachycarpus looks good too!

Sabal Uresana looking okay!

This smaller windmill palm is looking ROUGH. It did last year too if I remember right. I used smaller christmas lights so it did not get a lot of heat.



And my garage plants are outside getting some sun. So far everything looks okay! The Citrus here are ... Owari Satsuma, Meyer Lemon, a Ponderosa from seed, calamondin, and Fukushu Kumquat. They're hard to see in this photo, but youc an see my Livistonia and my cycads doing well




Unfortunately I realized this week that my Musa Viente Cohol and Gran Nain Blood Banana hybrid I got from Miami last year has rotted. I'm hoping I can get them to sprout back. They went under grow lights today.