Looks great! Very tropical!

I agree, amazingly tropical! I love those Allamanda flowers -- they are a challenge, even in zone 9/10 California. Those far enough from the coast to get some heat and who also have major canopy overhead can grow them outdoors. In Hawaii, they will quickly spread and cover an acre of trees! Strange how a beautiful plant can be a delicate beauty in one place and a complete thug in another. You have a fine collection going, hope they remain healthy for you.

Thanks Springpatch!

Thanks catkim! The Allamanda's are growing like weeds right now in the hot humid summer weather (already climbing the tree next to it and it has put out about 3 feet of growth in the past 3 weeks), but I dont think it will be as vigourous once it goes outside after a winter indoors. Im going to have to find a warm sunny window for it and really hope for the best! If not, hopefully the local nursuries will sell this vine again, it's a beauty! I have seen it really take over an area in the tropics though, it must be nice to be able to consider such beautiful plants "weeds"!

-Alex

It is a bit funny about plants, weeds in one place and garden plants in another. Although, weeds often start off as garden plants.

What you're calling Cypress Vine is Ipomoea quamoclit and we call it Fern Leaf Morning Glory. It's a declared weed here and highly invasive. Same with the Mexican Petunia, Ruellia tuberosa. Another one that's hard to get rid of.

Very true tropicalbreezent! Half the plants I grow in my yard are considered weeds in the tropics (things like Bananas, cannas, elephant ears, and many others). Some of them have actually proven to be weedy for me too.

I also cant get rid of Mexican Petunias (no matter how much I try to dig them out!) but they are beautiful plants so I do keep them. If I knew they could survive NYC winter's so well I probably wouldnt have bought so many of them since they are growing fast and in places they shouldnt be! This winter was a mild one though, so I'm interested in seeing if they will survive an average winter, although Im going to guess mine will since the roots are probably very deeply established by now.

I can see why Ipomoea quamoclit is also considered weedy. I never even planted that one! A seed or 2 must have dropped into the pot at the nursury I got it from. But I wouldnt get rid of the vine since the flowers (although not all that interesting on their own) do attract lots of butterflies and hummingbirds!

Thanks for looking!
-Alex

I still want a time lapse of you hauling all those pots in in the fall! Nice job, Alex.

V

Thanks Wetsuiter. I will definitely have to do a post this fall about the plants going in this winter. Usually I spend an entire weekend bringing them in and that usually takes care of about 70% of them. This year is going to be harder than ever to get them inside!
-Alex

you put them in a garage or basement? some of those look pretty large, you must have a huge area for them for winter

Hey Alex

How is your Saba doing(maybe I missed it?)any luck?

Lindenska, I dont have a big space for them, just lots of smaller ones! A few do go in the garage (very few), most go in the kitchen (have some skylights there) and living room and dining room that isn't used too often, but this year I am dedicating another room to the plants so I should have a little bit more space to work with!
Hey Jim! The Saba is doing really good. It's growing normally now after starting off the year with unusally long leaves, followed by unusually short leaves. It has 3 pups now, the tallest one is about 4 feet tall, pretty great growth considering that pup didnt exist before this spring.
Here's one of the pics of it from above in case you missed it. The Saba is to the left.

Everything looks nice and healthy!

- US_Marine

Great pics, amazing to see how much some plants grow when you look back. Its strange to see some plants flourish and others just limp along. My upright EE's are still not growing, are yours in ground or potted. I guess your musa velutina didn't make it?

Thanks US Marine!

Thanks Chadec! Everything really has grown a lot, especially within the last 2 months. It's always a really interesting comparison from April to August!
2 of my Upright elephant ears are in the ground, 2 are in pots. The 2 in the ground grow MUCH faster and taller than the ones in pots, but the ones in the pots still put out a good amount of growth. The one in the pool plant pic was outside since April, and damaged by a light frost, but it never skipped a beat. All of the leaves it has now are newly grown from this year.
Next year I'd like to find the space to put all of them in the ground, they definitely love being in the ground with lots of water and some fertilizer. I hope yours grow faster for you soon!
Unfortunately the velutina didnt survive the winter. I was a little disappointed, but it was a young plant so I think that had a lot to do with it.
-Alex

Incredible array of plants. Most impressive!

Thanks Jacklord for the compliment!
-Alex

Alex

My Saba has put out about 10 leaves,maybe averaging one every few.

The lack of rain is the problem-we did get 1.74" Sunday but
the humidity is already dropping back to the 20s(%)so we are dry again...already.

The TD is coming and they are saying maybe 3" +.

a true master gardener!

Jim, My saba is only on it's 6th leaf now, counting the leaves it made indoors, it's on it's 8th. The bananas have grown slower this year than usual, hopefully next year they will grow fast again. My Ice Cream banana is growing too slowly, it's being shaded by the cannas (now 12 feet tall) and elephant ear (now over 6 feet tall). Hopefully it grows at least 3 more leaves this summer and Im hoping for 4 or 5 more leaves from the Saba before frost!
Issac should give you a lot of needed rain! We ended up with about 4 inches this month, not bad but the tropicals definitely respond better to more rain than that as long as it's warm out!

Thanks Eric! I wish I was a master! Plants have minds of their own. One year they might grow great, the next year they might not grow at all. My bananas have been slow this year and my Bougainvillea is usually covered in blooms by now, but it doesnt have a single one at the moment! But I have had a lot of luck with my cannas, and elephant ears this year, I'm always learning, but even if I do the same thing year after year and the weather is similar, the plants still respond differently!
Thanks for looking!
-Alex

I am seriously considering leaving my Saba in over winter...possibly with some extra "heat"-I think if
this one could get a foothold the growth would be remarkable.

I like that in our forecast for Sat/Sun it says "Tropical Storm Isaac,(-;

I agree, I think Sabas really thrive when their roots are well established since my Saba pups grow extremely fast, but the mother only grew fast it's first year in the ground (it had no root damage that year). If you do overwinter it, I would definitely be really interested in seeing how it does! I have a lot to overwinter this year and not a lot of time to do it one fall comes so I might wait until next year. When I overwinter it, I think I will cut it back to about 2 feet of psudeostem and protect it with a garbage bin in a similar way that I protect my other marginals.

-Alex

This has to be one of if not the best display!! Dont know if I saw a cococunut in there? Definitly would fit in nice! So many varietes to look at ! I can see your southern windows being filled to the brim with all these! Good luck and thank you for posting all these pictures, really are fantastic!

Thanks a lot delreytropical! I appreciate the compliments!
I have 2 coconut palms, only half of the tall variety one is visible in the adondila pic, but the dwarf malayan is shown completely to the left in that pic. They are pretty easy to take care of as long as you have a warm window to put them by!

I will probably make an update this weekend since the yard has definitely grown a bit in the past 2-3 weeks!

Thanks for looking!
-Alex