Tropical Gardening in New York City!: What a Difference 2 weeks make (and a comparison to this time last year!)

Sunday, August 14, 2016

What a Difference 2 weeks make (and a comparison to this time last year!)

This weekend was the hottest in a long time in my yard. While the air temperature "only" maxed out at 97F (which is pretty typical for the hottest August days in NYC), the dew point temperatures have been brutal. For those of you who aren't too familiar with dew points, I'm going to put my meteorology degree to use and explain it very briefly.

Slight Tangent:

The dew point temperature is a way of measuring how much moisture is in the air. Cold air is denser than warm air so there is less room for water in colder air than there is in warmer air. That's why it doesn't feel muggy even when it's wet outside in the winter - the air can only hold so much water when it is cold outside. When dew points are above 70F, it's means it's very humid -- because if the air temperature were to drop to 70F, the water vapor would begin to fall out (as dew) simply because it couldn't hold any more water. Any object below 70F would fog up.

The past 4 days have had dew points in the 80s in my yard! That's about as high as it gets in the US. The windows around the house are dripping wet every morning and my plants are growing right before my eyes.

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Ok back to the plants! Basically to summarize, it's been very hot and very humid and my plants are very happy. So I figured I'd try and compare some photos from earlier this month (and from August 2015) to now and see what's improving and what's not!

2 weeks ago

Now - the banana canna grew the most and the basjoo is growing modestly. Nothing too impressive in this planter bed this year but still some more time left for good growth!

Last year - the front yard definitely looked a bit nicer last year with the ensete, but I don't have to dig much up this year so this new look is lower maintenance! And I think that the front yard holds its on this year!

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Watch the way the castor beans shoot up. The cannas also got huge. All of these tower over me now. Remember I didn't even plant these castor beans!

2 weeks ago

Now - (slightly different angle).

Last year - the cannas are MUCH bigger this year!

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Look at how the Mekong Giant Bananas and banana canna filled out in just 2 weeks time. The Mekong Giant, which died to the ground and did not sprout until nearly June looks bigger and better than last year at this time!

less than 2 weeks ago