Kevin,
Wikipedia notes on the "Hardy Palms" page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H... 'There are also a plethora of mature T. fortunei growing unprotected in downtown Washington D.C. and surrounding areas. Most notably 15' tall tree in front of the National Air and Space Museum, since 2001.' One nursery near me has had a 7-8' specimen for 4 yrs. or more. Heavily wrapped in winter of course.

I am looking for a chat group ( or whatever your call the groups) for Tropicals grown in containers as houseplants. My greenhouse has become a storage area for my deck container plants since I closed my business and at 87 I have retired from propagating and selling, so now I want to relax and enjoy my tropicals in my living quarters.

You all seem to be from the Florida area and other zones where you can discuss your outside plants and gardens. Here in NJ I do not have that luxury and would like to share thoughts with those like me who love their tropical plants but do not live in the tropics. Can anyone tell me where to go? ( other than what you may be thinking )

How wonderful that you can relax and enjoy your plants now. I think lot of folks who chat on the Tropicals forum keep their plants indoors during the cold months. I bet if you asked over there you would get plenty of responses.
http://garden.org/forums/view/...

I'm no stranger to you, Jacquie, but I imagine I can represent those who are not S. CA or FL growers. I don't have the cold or the snow y'all get in NJ, but we sure do get a lot colder than the sub-tropical areas of the US. This morning was 29F, and three out of the next four mornings will be in the mid-20's. Thus, like you, all my tropical plants must be grown in pots and moved in and out depending on the season. It is a given that growing tropicals here in NE Mississippi presents challenges. At the same time, dealing with those challenges gives me insight on recommending houseplants (the vast majority are tropical plants) and care of those houseplants to those living in temperate areas, areas that make up 95% of America.

I hope you truly enjoy your "retirement" and thoroughly enjoy growing tropical plants now and in the future. I think you will find it so fulfilling that you can pick and choose plants that interest you and now have the time to care for them. Regardless of growing conditions, tropical plants can be successfully grown anywhere/anytime. Their needs in FL, MN, NJ, or OR is the same and usually those needs are not that complicated.

@drdawg, we meet again. I could have ask you the same questions but you already know my situation and have been very helpful. I had hoped to get some new ideas (not that you are not full of them) that I could handle with my new way of life.
You know orchids, jasmine, bougainvillea, mandevilla, camellias and african gardenias are all I have left now since my problem in July with scale. Those plants were not in the greenhouse when it all happened fortunately they were outside and in my living quarters. Now that all is cleaned and sprayed and scrubbed they are back in the greenhouse for the winter. I was hoping to get some new ideas of some others I could keep in the house since my Schlumbergera are not happy since they are not in the greenhouse for some reason. For some reason this year they dropped their segments like a tree would drop leaves. In all my years of propagating them I have never seen it happen like this. Nothing has changed but the weather. I love the fragrant tropicals. I grew gardenias for many years. Especially the Aimee and did well with them but I am not sure I want to go back to them again. I also need to stick with the smaller varieties since my house is not that big and I am not able to lift the big ones anymore. Just running this by you if you have time to think about it when you are watering. See you later.
@ardesia it was sweet of you to give me the link. I will check it out again. They all seem to be growers in the Southern states and converse about their garden plants. Unfortunately, I AINT down there with you all. I love NC and SC and if I were younger I would come back to Wrightsville Beach NC. I spend many good times there as a young bride and I do miss the Outer Banks. Of course Charleston is one of my favorite cities in your state. I am a northern old gal with a southern heart.

Jacquie, as you probably have been able to tell, I know a good bit about what I grow but not so much about other tropical plants. In the category of "know little", that would include everything you have listed with the exception of orchids. When it gets closer to spring, check out my website and jot down anything that you find interest in. We can then discuss those plants to narrow the selection process.

I love gardenia but for some reason I find that they can be insect magnets and very finicky. I know there are dwarf varieties and perhaps they would do well growing inside. I really don't know what an African gardenia is though. I have never tried to grow a gardenia as a houseplant. I bet there are lots of ATP subscribers that have done so with success.

Will do doc.

Hello JB, I grow some tropicals indoors in containers. I maybe in California but my location is severely challenged by our very long, dry and hot conditions when it comes. Then during winter we get the cold rain and cold inversion, so pretty much outdoors I have mostly succulents and other drought tolerant plants. But once conditions are better I get to bring out the orchids into my growcamp, still got to protect them from extreme heat here. During winter, I have to hide indoors some succulents and orchids to protect them from the cold.

Some tropicals I have indoors in containers that survive very well:
Hoya shooting star, Clivia, Dracaenas, Zamiaculcas zamiifolia, Chlorophytum comosum, Ficus maclelandii Alii, Phalaenopsis orchids, Carnivorous plants like PInguiculas and Nepenthes, Amaryllis, Spathiphyllum. My Oncidium orchids bloom indoors during winter. My Phal orchids however always stay indoors here. My Hoya kerrii variegata hides indoors from late fall to early Spring, once temps are stable I can bring it out but in the shadiest side of my garden. I also have noid Schlumbergera hybrids, always grown indoors and right now in bloom. I also have Sanseveiras indoors - the typical sword types, and then two other ones, Sanseveira francisii and Sanseveira cylindrica patula.

JB, I'd sure like a few tips on how to keep a gardenia alive. I've tried twice and killed them both times. They smell so good, I'ld love to try again, but don't want to spend the $$.

I'm with you Anna. I've seen beautiful, large shrubs of gardenia around old houses here, and had one at my other house. I dressed it with compost and peat moss combined at least twice a year and kept it going. But it was fussy.

They're hard to start and don't do particularly well here in-ground because of the sandy, alkaline soil. But I've even killed one in a pot after I had babied it and grown it nicely for a year!

My neighbor had a big one in his front yard, and (he's not too bright) pruned it back almost to the ground because the leaves were starting to look chlorotic. He never fertilized it or gave it a top dressing like the former house owners had been. Now I'm sure it's going to die this year. Very sad because when it was in bloom I could smell the flowers from 30ft. away.

Perhaps you are babying them too much??? They are fairly care free shrubs here asking for little. I hardly ever remember to fertilize mine and they only thing I can think of is that they do prefer more light than the literature would lead you to believe. I had one in full blasting sun once and it bloomed so heavily the branches drooped down to the ground.

Thinking probably your river delta soil is a lot better for them than our sand with shells mixed in. But you're right, after the first try died when I planted it in the bright shade of my huge oak tree (competing all the while with the oak roots of course), I did baby the one in the pot. Probably to death.

I do have a couple more spots I'd like to try them, both fairly sunny in fall, winter and spring, and mostly shade in summer.

No exactly, my river is really an inlet, there is no fresh water around here. The very heavy, mucky soil is ancient marsh; sand, decayed matter and shells ground down to clay by thousands of years. Soil, if you can call it that, is pretty heavy on calcium and our phosphorus is off the charts. Phosphate mining was big business before the "late unpleasantness" sometimes called the civil war.

Kept it in the direct sun...........didn't like it much. LOL

AnnaZ said:JB, I'd sure like a few tips on how to keep a gardenia alive. I've tried twice and killed them both times. They smell so good, I'ld love to try again, but don't want to spend the $$.

I am sorry to be so tardy in coming back to this topic, but I have a sick dog and he is high maintenance just now. I will give you a quick thought about gardenias. I have grown and propagated them for years and the only one that really was the easiest was the Aimee and you seldom see them anymore because if you want them to grow into trees before you sell them they take time and attention until they get old enough to get a good price for them. I sold them as starters since I did not have the space to keep them until they got older. Gardenia Jasminoides "Aimee...is the name of the one I had good luck with. It has a lovely story and if you have time you can look it up. Sometimes called Aimee Yoshioka....they do seem to attract all sorts of pests and are not exactly low maintenance. I grew mine in big containers and when they were outside on the deck they were such a pleasure to have and worth all the effort to keep them healthy. If I were not so old I would try them again. As you can see, they are beautiful. The flowers get really big and the fragrance is outstanding.

Gardenia flowers are indeed fragrant and beautiful and the plant itself is gorgeous (when healthy). I have a single gardenia in the landscape and it is about 3 1/2' tall. I have to spay it with insecticidal soap 2-3x each year, keep it well-watered, and fertilize it 2x each year, with iron added. Without the additional iron, the leaves always turn yellow. I tried to dose it with Mg for that yellowing, but nothing but soluble iron seemed to work.

Many years ago an old timer (probably the same age I am now, LOL) told me to lay down a heavy layer of worm castings under my confederate rose and the gardenias. The scent or flavor of the castings is taken up into the plant and the white flies do not care for it so they steer clear. Not having any bait farms around I had to purchase pricey bags of the stuff but it was worth it because it did get rid of the pesky flies.

AT the house we owned here for 40 years, I planted 2 Gardenia bushes (spring of 1975) right after we moved in and those shrubs were awesome every year ... without any help from me. I think I threw some fertilizer on them twice in all the years we lived there and yet they bloomed profusely every year. One had large flowers and smaller leaves while the other had large leaves with smaller flowers. One I planted in a location where it got full direct all day while the other was on the side of the house where it received bright, dappled shade all day but no direct sun. The one in full sun would get thrips all over the flowers every year but the one in the shady location never had any insect issues whatsoever. I missed my gardenias so much when we moved, bought another one and planted it here where it died.

There's nothing like the fragrance of a gardenia bloom! When I was still working, every spring I'd take bags and bags of gardenia blooms to the ladies in the office ... we had the best smelling building out of the three in the complex! Our elderly neighbors who walked to the bus stop at the corner by our house every morning to go to church stopped one time and commented about the lovely fragrance coming from my yard. I picked a bloom and gave it to Mrs. S and told her to come over and pick flowers any time she wanted. At first she was a bit reluctant and finally I started filling plastic grocery bags and giving them to her when I'd see her. I kept telling her it was okay, she could come pick flowers anytime she wanted because I had plenty. A couple of years later she stopped me and said that another neighbor saw her picking gardenias from my bush one day and said "I don't think Linda would appreciate you going onto her property and taking her flowers." I made a point of telling the neighbor that it was fine, that I gave her permission to do it and if she (the police neighbor) would like a few gardenias that she was welcome to come pick them too! She said that she'd never do that, that she wouldn't want anyone coming in her yard and taking her flowers. I explained that I always planted flowers for the enjoyment of myself and everyone in the neighborhood and that while I would not appreciate someone yanking up and taking an entire plant, roots and all; I didn't mind people snipping or pinching flowers to enjoy because the plants would always produce more.

That's very kind of you, Lin. I wish you were my neighbor.

Aww, Deborah ... come on down! I've always planted flowers to be enjoyed by whoever views them! Now, don't get me wrong I wouldn't want so many folks taking flowers that there were none left for me but if a snipped bloom or two from plants in my garden help make someones day a little better ... well, all the better!

My sister and her family were visiting us many years ago when their daughter (who is now almost 47 years old) was about five or six at the time. We were outside when my niece walked over to one area of the yard and picked a flower. Her mother told her that she better not pick any more of Aunt Linda's flowers or that I'd give her a spanking! I laughed out loud and said "Flowers are for picking" and explained to my little niece that although it's okay to pick flowers in Aunt Linda's yard, she should never do it in other peoples yards without asking first.