March Yard Work!

 

The weather is warming up and I am busy in the garden again. It feels amazing! I added 4 raised garden beds to my front yard and will install drip irrigation. The tomatoes and eggplant are sprouting in the basement, but the broccoli rabe, cauliflower, cilantro, and kale are happy in the garden! 

My Pansies survived the winter in tiny 4" pots. I never brought them in from the cold. Really impressed

I got a monkey puzzle tree! The root system on this was kind of sad but I added root hormone and am hoping for the best

My flax lily did great in the garage this winter. The queen palm spent the coldest weeks of the year in the house and the rest of the time in and out of the garage

The citrus and bismarkia

The Mule palm is looking great after a winter in the garage

At my parent's house I planted this nice container of primrose and camellia

This camellia is Mrs Bertha!

An update on my Joey Palm Johannesteijsmannia altifrons

 I wouldn't consider. this magnificent palm to be a good candidate for a houseplant in NY, but it's proved me wrong! It spends the winter indoors and is quite happy! 

This is an incredibly slow growing palm with no trunk, but undivided fronds that can eventually reach 20 feet tall. It's something to marvel at in the tropics and a pretty cool plant in my dining room here in New York! 

Wide view of my licuala & Musa Ae Ae

Plumeria California Sunset has been a stunning bloomer!

 

Staten Island Winter Update

 My Windmill Palms were planted 16 years ago in my parent's yard and it's time to uncover them! 

These trachycarpus look great! And maybe I'll try to grow some seeds. I got very lucky that one of my palms is female and the other is male! 

My sabal minor was totally unprotected so nothing to unwrap here. It looks great! This has been in the ground since 2010.

My Evergreen Dogwood (Cornus capitata) is thriving! There's a little damage to the leaves, but it's definitely more cold tolerant than it's zone 8 rating. They grow so fast too! 

Inside the house my plumeria divine smells incredible!

These hibiscus have been blooming all winter & I love their smaller growing habit & beautiful leaves

The garage plants are outside! Including the banana shrub (Magnolia figo) and Variegated Star Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides 'Variegatum')

And the hellebores are late to the game, but they're managing! 

Things are looking ROUGH!

Our coldest night of the year was 10F. It was a zone 8 winter (barely), but I had dead plants left and right. The problem was the duration of cold! 

The temperature dropped into the teens:

        December: 2 nights

        January: 7 nights

        February: 5 nights

I covered my front yard palm for pretty much every old night. It was my most covered palm for sure, but it honestly looks worse than any other others. There's some green left but it's pretty horrible. My Chuck hayes gardenia looks like it made out better (but we'll have to wait until spring to know for sure). 

My backyard trachycarpus actually was unprotect during our first cold spell when temperatures dropped to 12F in December. It was protected less often then the windmill palm in the front yard, but appears to be fairing better. I guess genetics play a role. The backyard palm also gets full winter shade.

Needle palm was covered with a tarp to protect from snow and ice because it also receives no sunlight during the winter. It is looking damaged but probably not terribly. I guess we will see! 

The gardenia really surprised me. Frostproof just had a plastic bin over it and it looks good. The cast iron plants and fatsia all look good too. It seems like broadleaf evergreens in general faired better than the palms this winter.

I left my backyard windmill palm uncovered during our coldest nights of the year back in December 

My Chamaerops humilis 'cerifera' is DYING

 I'm really disappointed that my Chamaerops humilis 'cerifera' has not handled this winter well. I honestly don't recall having it out in any extreme cold. It probbaly saw a string of nights near 20F, but wasn't exposed to anymore cold than my variegated Cordyline australis (Torbay Dazzler) and that plant is rated as an 8b. 

In the past, the Blue European Fan Palm has been a really reliable palm for me. I had a small one for many years, some years unprotected. It would die back but always recover. 

We'll see how this one does. I have it inside against a sunny window & poured hydrogen peroxide down the crown. At least the fronds look okay. 

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!