Greenhouse Jungle!

First of all I had to jet wash the greenhouses this weekend as they are below 'Silver Birch' trees, this is what this one looked like before.........



and I only just remembered to take a pic of it washed after I had started to bubblewrap it!!!!



at the end of each year I label and roll up each piece and then store it in the shed until it is needed again



I then use the ladders and the fiddly little green things to attach it to the inside of the greenhouse. On the roof I use extenders, well thats what I call them, they hold the bubble wrap away from the glass by about an inch, I find this helps stop condensation, which is a killer for some of my banana/ensetes as they have to be kept more or less dry over winter!



here we are all done, with some of the plants back in. You can see the heaters are in place, I have 3 in this greenhouse two fan and one tube. In the small greenhouse I have one tube and one fan heater. All for the love of tropical plants!!



One of the Ensetes is lying down to drain out all the water, I will have to keep doing this untill the soil is dry, as any water stored in the stem is a killer, when it freezes, which hopefully it won't!



I showed you the other day the bananas I had to dig up, on the patio, first you have to cut off all the leaves....





which I think is sad as the leaves are beautiful, they didn't all go to waste as my neighbour is a primary school teacher and apparently their year 3 is studying the jungle so she took a couple of the leaves in for them to see and feel!



amazingly these plants only have very small root balls considering the size the plants get!



I have them sitting upside down



draining out some of the water, fortunately they are not too heavy!



this is one of the 'Xanthosoma' that also had to be dug up, great colour!



Greenhouse beginning to fill up now!



In the pots on the left are my Egg Yams, lopped off as I wouldn't have room for everything and there leaves!!!





Looks quite colourful in here now, I wonder where I'm going to put my brugmansias????????????

Just have to show you this.........

My very first ginger flower..........



isn't it beautiful......



would you like to see some more I've taken a million pics in case it doesn;t happen again!!!!!



Say goodbye to this



as its time to dig up and pop in the green house. I have to still move this



and this



and this



and this to fit in



In the greenhouse I have already chopped some back



I need to chop these back



then as you can see they are full of water I have to drain this out, otherwise it freezes and kills the tender bananas.



I have never over wintered so many before, I wonder how many will be dead before next year???



This banana at the bottom has gone balistic this year, I think it is because of all the rain we have had, but he seems quite happy at the mo. no need to cut him back just yet.

I do love the markings and colours of this Ensete Leaf



and to finish with, my favourite coloured flower

In, Out, In, Out!!

Spent the day yesterday driving round the country! We left at 0700 to travel too Warwick Uni to take T on an open day! Which was very good, its currently her favourite. We then went over to Worcester Uni to visit K as she had left a few things behind, which she needed. We then came back home quite tired out after 2000!

Anyway today was a lovely day, hubby said he would help me sort out the greenhouse as I wanted to relay the slabs again, giving me a bit more space, (hopefully)



We have made a path around the central area to allow me to bring in some bigger plants!



I have had to dig up and pot some of my more tender bananas



The only worrying thing is, I'm not sure I have enough room????? I still have 3 large Ensetes, plus another 3 smaller ones plus my brugmansias??? Mmmmmmmmm!



Just look at that face. They love being out in the garden with us!



Meanwhile Jake has found K's 'moon chair' in her bedroom. We have a cage now, a big one, the plan is to introduce the cats to one another whilst keeping Jake safe in the cage! The only problem is, my two are never in at a set time and I can't keep Jake in a cage all day! This is turning out to be more difficult than I expected. I have even shut him in K's room and left the room he sleeps in open, in the hope that mine will come in sometime and have a sniff around, mine have yet to come in whilst he's not in the room!!!

We measured K's sunflower its 10ft 11/2inches



Love the colour of this one!



Right off to pop Jake back into his room!!!

Still in the Greenhouse!

We had sunshine and showers today,



the showers where pretty heavy but not really heavy enough to refill my water butts. Because it was raining so heavily when I got up and I wanted to check that all the gutters where lined up to fill the butts and sort out the ones that weren't, I jumped into some joggers and just put a coat on over my nightie and charged off down the garden, good job all the neighbours leave early for work!
Anyway once that was sorted and I was suitably attired, I fixed the automatic opener on the second roof vent and generally just pottered around.

My Aeonium is still doing well, it seems to thrive on neglect, but it has lost alot of its leaves/petals so maybe needs re-potting or feeding.



I love the way the leaves go pink at this time of year!

I potted up two of its babies



This is my Ensete ventricosum Montbeliardii



with Tango sussing out the best place to be..........
he found it.............



on my chair in the sunshine!!!