New Plants from Florida!

Everytime I visit Florida I try to bring some fun plants back & this might be my biggest haul I've ever carried on a plane! 

Going Bananas

I purchased three new banana plants from an incredible local banana plant grower. The Musa Thai Black was field dug and is already large & showing some gorgeous dark coloration. I'm also trying Musa Sumatrana X Gran Nain, and what I thought was Musa Velutina.... but could be Musa Viente Cohol. We'll have to see.

Here they are when I picked them up...

Unfortunately the Musa Sumatrana X Gran Nain banana had damage so I decided it would be healthier to cut it off right from the bottom of the damage. It's already growing back. 

Mounts Botanical Garden - Palm & Cycad Sale

I had a blast talking with the palm tree hobbyist at this sale! They showed me pictures of their gardens that truly had me drooling. Unfortunately, a lot of vendors couldnt make it to the sale because of the weather, but I still managed to bring home some cool plants like Chamadorea ernestii angusta & Dypsis maroantsetra. 

Dypsis maroantsetra develops red new fronds. I'm so excited for that! 

Tropical Plants outside ... IN MARCH!

March is usually cold, cloudy and generally miserable here on Long Island ... but we got a VERY nice reprieve this week. Temperatures soared into the 70s for 2 days straight in my garden & we had a string of 60s too. So I took out the tropical plants for some fresh air and sunshine! 

Queen Palm, Singapore Twist, and Camellia

Lady palm, Sasanqua camellia (it's been blooming on and off all winter), and to the left, a variegated kumquat.

A closeup! 

I'm playing around with some color combinations and really like the way the variegated ti plant looks  with the chinese fan palm

 

To the far right you see a poinsetta is still filled with color! 

Flamethrower palm living its best life with the Staghorn Fern and Ti Plant

I repotted my Orange and Yellow Bird of Paradise. It took me over a half hour to pry the roots off and unfortunately I did damage a few of the roots.

A very exciting purchase - a Monstera Thai Consellation! 

Bismarkia Palm looking good!

Mid March Fun in the garden!

 We were blessed with 2 days in the 70s this week here on Long Island and my garden was LOVING it. Here are some photos.

My pansies re-seeded themselves on the lawn. This happened one other time when I lived in Florida so it was a fun reminder of the time I had down there! 

Happy Cordylines and trachycarpus!

All the windmill palms sailed through the winter.

Trachycarpus in containers

Sabal Uresana had no issues surviving the winter with a trash can and a few lights on cold nights

You can see the special blue tinge that makes this sabal such a lovely one. Unfortunately it's frustratingly slow!

Windmill Palm in the front yard

Yucca "Silver Anniversary" and Yucca Gloriosa

Rosemary survived the winter in a container and even had a few blooms. Very cool!

The Needle plam got beat up by the snow and wind, but was unfazed by cold and unprotected.

Sabal minor was buried in an icy pile of snow. Every frond was crushed but all things considered it looks great!

Southern Star Jasmine looking FLAWLESS! This was the second winter for it.

The oleander has had better days. And this is with protection. Some varieties are more cold tolerant than others, but this one is definitely the latter.

My smallest Windmill Palm. Also looking great

Happy Hellebores

Thanks for looking!

A few photos from Planting Fields in Oyster Bay yesterday

 It was the warmest day since October - our first one in the 70s in nearly 20 weeks! The high temperature in my garden was a balmy 76F and today is in the 70s too. Everything is coming into bloom. Here are a few photos. 

First some deer

Gorgeous hellebores

Korean rhododendron Rhododendron mucronulatum

The most exciting find was their giant Edegworthia. Considered a zone 7 plant, this is close to the farthest north that you'll find them looking really good in the eastern US. The smell is INCREDIBLE

Early March 2024 update from my parent's garden

Winter barely started and it's already coming to a close. Our low temperature this year was 16F. It's one of the mildest on record.

Windmill palms sailed through this winter. Underneath is my Florida Anise. I planted the windmill palms as seedlings in March 2009. Happy 15th birthday!

My European Fan Palms (Chamaerops humilis) are doing fantastic in containers. They've produced viable seed and overwinter in the garage on nights below 20F (which only happened 3 times this year!)

Camellia Spring Promise is blooming beautifully this year much earlier than ever

Hellebore are such a wonderful gift. They have been blooming since February. I got this from Trader Joes. It stays outside in a container all year.

The windmill palm at the bottom step was a rescue from a local nursery. It looks fantastic after spending most of the winter outdoors (inside below 20F). The Magnolia figo (Banana shrub) has such large buds! 

Indoors things are coming to life too! Here's my Pretty Princess Plumeria I bought in 2010! 

Adondila and ti plants are ready for another summer outside!

The bottle palm is hanging in too!

Parsley survived the winter too!

So did the Kale. No protection whatsoever.

Longleaf pine looking flawless this year. Last year the needles were very yellow. 

The crocus are so happy.

Speaking of the bottle palm, I'm definitely a bit worried about the damage to the trunk. This could be the beginning of the end.

A happy tillandsia on my largest plumeria.