Those enestes are amazing!!!!!! I bought one in october and It could bearely stand up. Now it is standing up as best as it can, but the leaves are reverting back to green and they arent growing very fast. It has been about 3 weeks since Ive seen a new leaf come up. lets say it looks a little pathetic. Bright side is it is one of the few plants not infested by bugs (I say about half have something eating it that has to be treated). Hopefully mine will pick up the pace during the summer. I still cant believe you live in a zone 4. I can understand beautiful plants outside, but inside too... wow, that takes a lot. Good thing you have high celings! That snow outside probably makes a good reflector of sunlight into your house too. Are you going to give them a head start inside, or chop them up in the spring so they can fit through the door easier? Good luck and keep up the great work! Hopefully one day mine will at least slightly resemble that!! :)

Wow, Sharon - you still have so much going on! I'm really impressed with that big pink Aster - Anneke - that's beautiful. It looks like everyone is having a nice display of fall colours. I was on a little road trip the other day and almost drove in the ditch because I was too busy looking at how the poplar trees were absolutely glowing yellow in the early morning sun. Around home the display isn't quite so nice & many of the trees are already bare. I've hardly taken any photos of my yard this year so I hustled out there the other day (it was such a nice day, anyway) and took some. This Aster novi-belgii Blue Boy was destined to be compost, but I must have left a piece of it behind. When I finally realized it was there, I decided to leave it be. This is the nicest this plant has ever bloomed for me, and now I don't know if it was the season or if it needs to start off with a small piece every year. These grow into very large clumps in no time. This one is also Aster novi-belgii, Winston Churchill. It's growing in way too much shade now that the willow has grown, but still stome blooms to enjoy I am, so far, crazy about Dianthus amurensis Amur Pink Fall colours in the back yard The Wooly Thyme is trying to cover the driveway bricks as well as the hens & chicks. No soil under there, no water, gets stepped on all the time. I keep intending to take cuttings and get this started in other areas of the yard. The various Hens & Chicks colour up this time of year. This is Jovibarba 'small rosette mix' started from seed. That's it for me - for the year, LOL.

Thanks Orchiddude! That palm is a solitaire palm. It's a great palm indoors and out! Tropicalbreezent got it right! Thanks Jim! Thanks jacklord. Im in SI, not as urban as most see NYC, but still not as much room as I would like to have! Thanks Bradleyo! Yeah, it gets to be a lot indoors, but luckily my family doesnt mind too much (well they mind, but they know how much it means to me!) and my dog is pretty good with not eating any plants (but she does love to get into the garbage). I will definitely post some indoor pics when the time comes! Thanks Island! Yup! I live in NYC! Some plants are in pots, some are in the ground. A few, like the palms in the ground, survive the winter with some protection (I just put some christmas lights and a garbage bin over them). Others like the elephant ears and bananas are easy to bring in and store for the winter. Some of the plants cant be dug up (like the coconut palm and tropical palms) so those are in pots and get put by a sunny window! The plumerias go dormant so they are pretty easy to keep indoors, but the large one might not fit indoors this year! The Passionvine, cannas, and ginger are hardy. The purple plants under the Elephant ears are called Purple Heart. They will be evergreen in your climate which is a huge plus! They look good up until temperatures get into the upper 20s, then they die back. They are hardy to zone 8 and up, but they come back for me since they are in a good microclimate. They are a little invasive, but easy to control and I think they are worth growing for sure! Thanks for looking everyone! -Alex

@ gardengal-we have had mega-problems with A. rubrum right here in normal, everyday E-Central WI. Our soils run towards the circumneutral and red maple sits and sulks forever here. I don't say these things just for the heck of it, or that other H word for that matter. I know Pennsylvania-like eastern WI-can have lots of limestone outcroppings and near-neutral soils. I wouldn't waste my time-under such conditions-with red maple. If OP happens to not be in such an area (limestone bedrock near the surface), then it might make sense. Freeman maples-including the naturally-derived legacy trees I see all over this area, have no such trouble. Redmaples, on the other hand, are well-established poor accumulators of iron and manganese in soils with a too-high pH, even where those two mineral elements are plentiful in the soil, which is exactly the case here. ETA: But you're right to rarely disagree with me! And yes, I am lol'ing.