Showing posts with label Xanthosoma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xanthosoma. Show all posts

Monday, October 20, 2008

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????????????

Monday, May 19, 2008

Who Turned the Heat Off?

The temp this morning when I got up was a chilly 3.1C. Not good for my tropical plants at all! Totally unexpected so I may have lost a couple, so tonight it will look like it has snowed as I bathe my garden in fleece as similar temps are expected again tonight!



This was taken at 9am when the temp inside the house was colder than outside and that was with the front fire lit!!!!

My back went again on Friday, and I was being a good girl, I have been so good you can see my sparkling halo! I am so desperate to get back out in the garden, I am doing as I'm told, all exercises etc. etc. I had planned to put my name down for an allotment, I think that will have to go way down the list now!! In fact gardening may have to be a hobby I'm not able to do :o(



My first ornamental poppy bloom, they are so cheerful, always makes me smile!

In the greenhouse I took this pic



Its Xanthosoma,an 'Egg Yam' amazing colour, a bluey green, with drops of dew/condensation.
These are getting huge now!



I get all excited when I go down each morning to see if a new leaf is about to unfurl!



This is another Xanthosoma



a totally different colour, look at the burgundy stems and the way this leaf unfurls



This is an Alocasia (I think?)



I lost the label. They are all so different.

and finally Alocasia Illustrus



amazing! I don't think I could give up gardening, just have to find a new way to do it!