By popular demand

Hi Trish, Will you be moderating?

I'm here but bashful.

Jim

Glad you're here!

Mr. Jim. You will get over it. We all want to know what you got to say! and we love pictures too...

very cool! hi folks!
Rj

Hi Randy, bet you have some gorgeous plants blooming now with the heat and the rain.

I usually post over on the orchid forum but I am a Master Gardener and am interested in all kinds of tropicals. For example, I have just received a couple of dasylirions and will try to grow that desert plant in wet and dry Florida. I am also building a collection of cycads and have 27 (at last count) varieties of palms on the property. I also am into tropical fruit and am munching on cattley guavas as I type this.

Jim

Welcome, Jim!!

Something tells me you are going to fit right in here!

Hooray!!! Love my tropicals... big on the plumerias, but have many others as well

Also a Master Gardener, but zone pushers and (strangely) organic gardeners are kind of looked down on by our Extension. I'm such a rebel (not).

I love to hear about everyone growing tropicals in places where they are actually more suited.

Thank you, I'm looking forward to see everyone's tropicals

I guess I'm a zone pusher also. I grew up on the Coast of MS and always try to grow some of the plants I remember from there. Also a MG, but not active anymore. I have plumerias, musas, hibiscus, citrus, and more....but all have to be sheltered in winter. We have very few freezes, but they're usually accompanied by rain and sleet. I had quite a few palms, but last winter was... the last... for the last of them....!
Jim...our garden club is hosting Dr. Larry Noblick, Palm Biologist, from the Montgomery Botanical Garden in October. Are you familiar with him? He's coming to speak about native palms, and to make a couple of trips to collect Sabal minor seeds while he's here.

Paul- that seems to be very common among many extensions. Can't figure out why.

Our extension is worried that subtropicals are inconsistent with the sustainability message they're trying supposedly trying to convey (though we have very different ideas about what sustainability means). I think they just don't know what to do with organic gardeners, since more than 50% of what they do is dealing with pesticides and fertilizers for the agricultural community. There are no known reliable organic measures for raising marketable apples and cherries in our area, for instance.

Sandi, sorry to hear about your palms. I know you weren't talking to me, but Larry Noblick would be great to see. My brother lives in Austin...

Paul, he'll be here the 27th of October, and probably through the weekend. If you'd really like to see and hear him speak, you're more than welcome. We open our mtgs to everyone. If you have a brother in town, then you already have a good reason to come to Austin! (Are you familiar with Airfare Watchdog and Travelzoo? They always have good fares). I can let you know the date of his presentation when it gets a little closer. Maybe by the end of Oct, we can breathe cool air again.

And thanks about the palms...guess I pushed the zone a little too far!

I had a lot of palms when I lived one zone warmer, but I lost my favorites when I moved here. Still have fan palms and even a fish tail kicking around, plus the obligatory variegated Raphis (I'm a sucker for variegation), but nothing that lives outside year round. A new cat last year did in quite a few of my plants before we convinced her to only use the litter box, so I even lost my 10 year old C. tuerckheimii.

All flights are expensive from here, since the Delta merger removed half our connections and most local competition. And my wife grows weary of my many excuses to travel, with plant events on the side...

Sorry, Sandi, but I don't know Dr. Noblick. It does sound like a great talk.

As for zone pushing, I think we all do it to some extent. I have a mango tree, some bananas, lychee, a bottle palm and a Licuala grandis palm. All belong in Miami but I go to great lengths to protect them along with about 130 orchids. We have had a couple of cold winters and it can become a real chore. I keep the bottle palm in half of a whisky barrel and I built a platform with wheels to roll it out of harms way.

Jim

I thought I would show off today's picture of my dwarf poinciana.

Jim

Beautiful...Love the bright colors...Fireworks!!!