eclayne said:FB is a real B Susan. Are you over wintering as dry tubers? The whole idea of super foliage color with ease of o/w is exiting.

Yes Evan I am over wintering as dry. I received as large bulbs two years ago and small bulbs last year. I left the large bulbs in the container and brought to the basement. When I put them out in June I added a couple of the small bulbs so it's hard to tell if the original bulbs came back after being over wintered in the container. Incidently I had the same growing success with the small bulbs as the large. Sometimes the biggest bulbs make a difference but not in this case for me.

Larger bulbs generally give you a faster start but also, in my experience, rot easier.

I've probably mentioned it before but we winter many of our EE's, Macro, Odora, etc bare root.
Just yank them out of the ground or pot and throw them on the GH floor.
These have stems about 3" across or so.
Once the roots dry out I trim them off, never wash them.
Come late winter, in about mid February, I'll plop them in a plastic bag and add some dirt.
Water lightly and stand back.
By late March they are ready to be potted up.

Ok Ric, now I have GH envy I tried potting up my bulbs in February one year and moved my dining room furniture to the basement. What a mess my dining room was and nothing really got a good start because it wasn't hot enough. Plants didn't really take off until the air and ground temps got really hot. Then it was like waking up to a jungle over night which was actually pretty awesome.

Boy, are we a crazy bunch!!!

Love it.

Nancy

Well you want to see crazy....I think this qualifies.
Off our bedroom window.
I don't think I have posted shots here.
Now in it's 3rd Winter and a GREAT success!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/r...

Here's one we build last year for a Friend up in Urbana, OH.
She has a Wholesale/Retail business.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/r...

I finally cut apart the almost-2 foot piece of alocasia stem I laid in a long planter a year ago for it to "make plants". I had 8 nice starts. Took a saw-type knife and cut it apart. I'm hoping to sell the starts in the spring; they should be nice looking by then. I have another one I should cut as it's getting tall and no leaves at the bottom. Looking kind of skanky. I hate to just pitch that "stem"; must be the gardener in me. But even I don't need 2 dozen alo's.

Ric what does it take to turn a screened porch into a GH for the winter then back to a screen porch for spring, summer and fall and is it expensive? I have one electrical outlet on the porch. Wonder if my dh would help me set this up, would be so much easier than hauling everything to the basement. (of course the ultimate would be to hit the lotto and change the screens to windows.)




Anna I would like to know more. What month did you do this? The stem just took root laying in a planter and you didn't really do anything else to it? Then you cut it apart and made separate plants out of it?

I did it a year ago. Yes, I just laid the stem lengthwise in one of those long, shallow planters. Put potting medium about halfway up on it. I put the side where there seemed to be the most "nubbies" under the soil. I could have divided them mid-summer if I would have wanted to, but I just left it. There was such a mass of roots when I cut them up yesterday; they were grown back and forth on the bottom of that planter. LOL Yes, I just cut the stem apart with a knife. Could use a bread knife (serrated) but like I said, I had one that I bought a long time ago that had a saw-type blade on the other side of the serrated part. Was advertised to be able to "cut frozen meat". Ya, right.........but it sure did saw through that stem without any trouble.

I realized I could grow more plants from those leafless stems a few years ago when I first cut one back. Threw the stem portion out on the compost pile (this was in May) because I had no use for it..........was gonna croak, right??? Mid-summer I went up to the g'house for something and when I walked by that piece of stem I gave it a kick to see if it was rotten..........it rolled over and the bottom was a mass of roots. Well, since it wanted to grow so bad, I put it in the long, shallow planter. The rest is history.

Love the story Anna. Is the leafless stem an Alocasia thing? I've not seen that on Colocasia.

Thanks Anna. Good point Evan, I chop off plenty of colocasia and alocasia stems to over winter...maybe should be throwing them into a window box.

Ok, perhaps I have not made myself "perfectly clear".............it is the "stalk", for lack of a better word, on the alo, that keeps growing and the leaves die off from the bottom up.............I just cut the stalk below where the last leaves were, stuck THAT portion back in the regular pot, and the long part of the main stalk/stem/whatever you want to call it, is what I laid lengthwise in the pot. I need to go back and look at my pix, I might have saved one of that from the summer. If I did save it, I'll post it.

You're in luck, I DID have one. But, I have to apologize, as I took it looking down on it, but I think you can see what I did.

Gotcha! Stem vs. petiole. Thanks.

That pot looks like it's going to split.

Nah, didn't split, but sure pushed it out to the side. LOL

We had a 3 season screened porch, paver floor and a fiberglass roof when we first started over wintering tropicals.
Here's a shot taken on January 16, 2005 of a Musa 'Bordelon' banana flowering and fruiting.
I checked the weather history and we had nights of single digits and highs around 20° that January.


Susan all it takes is some clear rolled plastic (construction grade) and a stapler.
It's also called plastic film or sheeting.
At least 6 Mil. We use 8 Mil.
Plastic the windows inside and out.
Double layer outside if you can.
You are looking at under 100 dollars.

Well a heater but an oil filled one will do nicely.
Does it have a south facing set of windows for sun?
Since you have knee walls I would insulate them too.
Does the room have a concrete floor?
You can put 1" rigid insulation down on the floor then cover that w/ plastic and some of those foam interlocking playroom tiles.

What you are looking for is a room that doesn't get under about 40°.
NOT a Hot or Tropical GH.

Our Roof GH was a simple Hoophouse for the first 3 years and it did fine.

Does anyone know of some good gardens, garden centers, and nurseries to visit in the Ft. Myers, FL area? Thanks so much for your help.

http://www.napleszoo.com/Plant...

Thanks Ric! How about some great places to buy tropicals and bulbs? Availability/selection is so limited in our area would love to see what we can get from Florida. Any sugestions for plant shopping near Ft Myers and even flea markets if that is a good place to get plants (will be driving them back).

Don't know much about that area but this looks promising.
I'm more a East Coaster.

http://www.bayshoregardencente...

Actually I'd be real sure to hit Kmart, Walmart, Lowe's, etc. too.
Finding EE's in Florida is like finding Cactus in Southern CA.... they are everywhere.
Be sure to bring back some Spanish Moss too.
It lends a very Tropical look to your yard.
Overwinters nicely too!

And just HOW do you overwinter Spanish Moss????