Manure is good--I use tons!
For tropical foliage, do you already have Canna, Colocassia, Caladium?
I'm going to try Papaya this year.
I use sweet potatoes for foliage ground cover.
Hibiscus coccinea is fun. Until it flowers, it looks like Cannabis; the flowers when they come are terrific.
I start a lot of foliage plants from seed, like Celosia and basil. Heck, even potatoes from the grocery store are fine and cheap tropical foliage plants. Have fun!

Start the Papayas NOW. You can germinate tons of them and you should. They are tough to get to reasonable size without tropics or a greenhouse. They hate to be transplanted or repotted. I brought in the few survivors and the last of them, a 10 incher, croaked after a I moved it for a few hours so that I could use my saw.

Forecast low of 31 for tonight so I hauled most potted palms back inside. Put old bedsheets over the PDP and Bizzie as they were too heavy to lift. Buckets over emerging Musa. Surely this is the last time--forecast highs in the 90s this weekend 😀

Forecast low of 31 for tonight so I hauled most potted palms back inside. Put old bedsheets over the PDP and Bizzie as they were too heavy to lift. Buckets over emerging Musa. Surely this is the last time--forecast highs in the 90s this weekend 😀

I want some 90s. Still have yet to hit 60 here.

Not sure why you need to cover a Bizzy at 31F,
probably a good idea to play it safe ehh?

28F here last night,not cold enough to bother the Bananas
I planted 😯 over the weekend-they are not growing anyway 😀

-actually some are starting to pop from the top,I needed to
get them out of the basement as a few were beginning to rot.

Cold didn't bother the Basjoos either and they are starting to pop some
shoots out and a few of the trunks look like they will grow as well.
May get flowers out of them this year if they do!

87F here over the weekend,maybe in the 80s again this weekend 😯

Always a little scary getting so warm so soon as this is usually accompanied
by severe weather. 😕

We've got minus 6 C last night after a heavy snowfall. My friends at the altitude 1300 meters above sea level experienced two nights under the temperature minus 10 C. Hope after that there would no been temperature below zero (C) until the end of October.

I brought some potted trachies out this week, been rainy and cloudy, it's supposed to be 27-33F tonight, i'm leaving them out. Doesn't look colder than that in the future.

Jim I've been wondering about my bananas, i've got about 6 that need to come out of the basement too, don't want them to rot, you think they can handle a little freeze if we get another one. Not expecting 90s here 'til July.

Paul

Paul, I know they're Trachies but going from a warm house to outdoors with 27-31F low won't do them any favors.

Barb

Ok Barb - I just brought them all in. My palms would like to thank you! My back does not. 😆
Just my luck- temps could really drop lower. Thanks for the advice.
Thanks
Paul

Why should your back feel better than mine? 😆 😆 😆 😆

Some will say I'm overly-cautious, but better safe than sorry.

You're welcome Trachies! :geek:

All my stuff is back indoors, what a nuisance this back and forth with the weather.
I may leave them in until May...
Barb

I saw my doc. today about lower back pain. Seriously. I never see docs--it has been years
(oh, wait--this isn't the "this hobby is killing me thread" 😆 )
The more tender palms are back inside. Good thing--this morning was forecast for 34 F and turned out to be 30 F (-1 C) at the two nearest gov't wx stations. (FTR, my weather sticker is tied to an unreliable personal wx station.)
Bizzie: she has been out for weeks and is too heavy to move in on a whim. She has seen temps to about -3 C and will lose the two oldest leaves to cold damage, leaving her just the spear and last leaf of Summer 2010. So, the sheet last night. Nest spring she too will stay inside to April 15.
Anyway, they will all go out for the season Wednesday. 😀

Tim

Mid 70s for Wisconsin coming?????
Looks like you will more than pop 60F this weekend-cheers!

CT

Bananas can handle freezes in the fall so why not spring? 😀

I planted my Black Thai,Orinoco(?)Rajapuri Brugs(yesterday) and Abyssinian last weekend...
the weather responded with 87F on Sunday and 28F Tuesday morning.

They are all fine,the Brugs I actually moved(because I forgot to)to the the
porch at 2am,they surprised me by being untouched.

Nothing below freezing in the 15 day forecast...which puts us pretty far out into
April at this point.

Minor freezes SHOULD be it from here on out and that won't hurt anything
but leaves,which the Nanas are not sporting yet.........

you do need to control soil moisture if the ground temps are not well above 50F
that is the big concern planting early.

Jim -

Saturday: A slight chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 68. East wind around 10 mph becoming south. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 60.

I'm tempted to stick my bananas in the ground this weekend. Basjoo, orinoco, and ensete maurelii. What do you think?

I will not stick my siam ruby in yet, though.

They are begging to get let out of the basement at this point!!

I think your soil temps are probably to cold right now,
they could probably sit in the ground and be fine butif the ground is still wet...
(can't imagine with all the snow and rain you have had that it's not..)
they could very easily rot.

Not that I could stop you from planting 😀

What about getting them outside to get used to the sun and wind for now????

All that said,as of yesterday all of my Bananas,Cannas,Brugs etc,are in-
part of the reason for this is,1.)no freezing weather at all in the 15 day forecast
2.)60s-70s lately(87F last weekend)-3.) Possibly 80F over the weekend again.
4.)Soil temps have hit the low 60s now 😀

Bananas will not really move(in spring)until the ground temps are near 60F or better...
same with air temps.
I am hoping the 80F weather over the weekend will break some of the Bananas lose,
another reason they are planted already is,some of them were rotting in the basement,
now that it's warmer outside I am hoping they will start moving faster than the rot! 😯

BTW

Some of the Basjoos are starting to grow out,even from the stumps that were cut down...
it would be cool if they grew and perhaps bloomed this year!

Arundo donax (giant reed grass)is moving ow too and has some nice sprouts coming up!