Red Yucca Plants

April 23, 2015Leave a comment

Last year I bought a Red Yucca plant to add to my Tropical garden. After the plant blooms, it creates pods on the end of the stalks that produce seeds. I kept these seeds to try an grow my own Yucca plants this year. I collected probably 200-300 seeds from one plant.

I stored them in an envelope and this year planted 6 of them. I planted them on April 22nd, probably a little late in the year but I kinda forgot all about them. here are pictures of my plant last year, the seeds I collected, and how I planted them this year.

To start my seeds, I scrapped the shell a bit then planted them in a combination of Peat and compost soil mix. The Peat keeps the soil light for the seedlings to grow. Im hoping this works.

First off, my plant last year. Shown on the far left side of picture with tall spikes of red flowers

Red Yucca Plant 2014

This is my seed collection that I stored in an envelope last year

Red Yucca seeds

This is how I prepped them for planting. Is it the correct way…not sure but I read that this should work. I scrapped a bit of the outer shell off to promote germination

Red Yucca seed preperation

Red Yucca seed preparation

Planted in a mix of Peat and Compost soil for germination

Red Yucca seed planters

Now we just wait and see what happens

Canna lily April 21st

April 21, 2015Leave a comment

Here are my cannas from seed. A lot of the seeds haven’t germinated yet but I was able to get quick a few plants growing.

Tropical check- canna lilies and elephant ears

April 11, 2015Leave a comment

I managed to climb through my packed garage to gather all my canna tubersand elephant ears I dug up last year. I wrapped them in burlap after drying them in the sun.

I didn’t open them yet because both need heat and warm soil before planting but this is how I stored them. I have 7 buckets of tubers to go through and split for planting.

Tropical check-banana plants

April 11, 2015April 11, 2015Leave a comment

Well, it’s finally sunny after a long weeks of bla and the temps are good so off to the garage I went to check on my banana plants I over wintered from last year. I stressed all winter over them, wondering if they made the brutal winter.

After researching how to overwinter bananas I found that it was done either by cutting back all leaves to bottom and wrapped with burlap or not cutting back and wrapping it. Both seem to have success so I chose the later.

My 13′ plant I left in the planter and cut down leaves to about 3′.

My smaller banana plants were in the garden so I dug them up, and wrapped them.

When I check inside the burlap today I found that it was pretty rotted from all the water the banana stems hold. The inside of the stems are honeycomb like and store water in them. I invision those stems freezing over and over again they had so match water…

With that being said, I will cut my bananas down in the future then store.

I cut them back today so maybe they will grow? We shall see.

This is what the inside looks like after I cut it back…. boo

Canna Lily Seeds April 8th

April 8, 2015Leave a comment

My Cannas are really starting to come up. Some much slower than others but I went from 4 to about 14 I think. Its going to be interesting to see what kind of Cannas actually grow because from what I read, you may not get the same variety Canna Plant as the seed came from. FYI – my seeds are from Tropicanna Gold Cannas. They looked like this

Tropicanna Gold Canna Lily

So here are my Cannas now, one week after previous pics were posted

Grow Canna from seed April 8

Grow Canna from seed April 8- still waiting

Canna Lily showing personality

March 31, 2015Leave a comment

Canna Lily growing

Canna Lily Close up

As I told you before, I planted 41 of these Canna Seeds. Out of the first batch I planted, 4 have sprouted and are growing quick fast. I would have to say about 1/8″- 1/4″ per day. They are actually lookin’ like something.

The ones I planted in the seed starter are sprouting quicker than the ones I planted in regular top soil. So lesson learned there.

More Canna Lily Seeds!

March 29, 2015Leave a comment

More Canna Lily seeds

ok, so I know I must be crazy. I had all these seeds left after planted 25 seeds already. I felt bad and I couldn’t just through them out so…. And I was so excited to see them actually sprouting I went out this morning and bought more peat pots and seed started and planted an additional 16 seeds. Now I have 41 Canna Lily seeds started in my house. Here they are

Canna Lily Seed Sprouts 2015

March 29, 2015Leave a comment

Canna Seed Sprouts

I woke up thins morning to find my Cannas are sprouting. Only 3 right now but I am hoping they all sprout. What I’m going to do with them all if they do, I have no idea.

Here are pics of them as of today March 29

My Tropical Garden-2015

March 26, 2015April 8, 2015Leave a comment

So here I go again! Now that the snow is gone and the weather is trying to break, its time for me to start thinking about my tropical garden for this year. Shortly I will be venturing into the garage where I’ve stored my Banana Plants and Elephant Ears to see how the faired. I hope they made it. I will keep you posted. I forgot to add that I dug up my Cannas and have tubers galore! I will need to split them into individual plants. (Hopefully they made it through the harsh winter we had). If they did, I will have Cannas everywhere. I love them so I’m ok with that. If all went as planned, I may have to sell some tubers or plants so Ill keep you posted in that.

I started my cannas from seeds I collected last year. The seeds have a hard shell and need to be clipped on one end and soaked until you see the white root. I do this by taking a seed with needle nose pliers and rubbing on sand paper until I see white exposed. Here are pics of what I’ve done so far and I posted a video I found to accomplish this. This allows the growing process to start. If not the seeds could take up to 12 months to cracked through that hard shell. Not worth it… I think I went overboard, like I always do, and planted way to many. I can give some to my neighbors and friends if this works.

My Tropical Garden-2014

March 25, 2015March 26, 2015Leave a comment

Growing Tropical Plants- 2014

I’ve been so interested in growing tropical flowers in Zone 7 that I’ve learned a thing or two about a thing or two!

After a lot of research, I’ve discovered that it is possible to grow these wonderful and beautiful plants, like Bananas, Canna, Elephant Ears, and other tropicals in my zone. I knew it would be hard work but I’m learning more and more as I went.

Last year was the first year I planted these exotics and I did it! My yard looked like it was a product of Key West. My Banana Plant grew to 12′ and the leaves on the Elephant Ears were just unbelievably huge! The Cannas were so colorful and about 4″ tall…gorgeous. I actually saved the seeds from these and started them for this seasons garden. See the progress here.

I was so sad to see the season come to an end. It was heart breaking…. but I discovered how to store my tropical, Overwintering is its official name, and plant again the next year. Well… I have everything stored in my garage wrapped in burlap. Of course, this past winter was the worst in like 20 years so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my bulbs and tubers made it. If not, well I’ve learned a hard lesson. STORE IN A WARMER PLACE! I will not be discouraged though. Live and Learn, right?

Here are some pictures of my yard, before and after. There is more that I do not have pictures of. Once everything started to grow, I just sat back in awe and relaxed like I was, well, on a tropical island somewhere. It was awesome!!