Jim,
lots of great stuff as usual from you.
Where to start.
The Butia at the end looks super. Should grow all Summer. I am used to my little Butia (avatar) needing all summer just to grow back what it lost in winter.
As for Gunnera, I love those. They grow well in Portland, Oregon, where I grew up. I don't plan to try one here in OK where we get such hot, dry winds all Summer. Iowa will be an interesting experiment. Good luck.
Musa basjoo: yours look like mine. I.e., dead to the round despite winter protection. Oh well. As you say, soil temps will be back up there soon. They are still <50oF here, but with overnight lows >50oF by the end of the week we should be starting them going. --Erik

Holy cow, Jim, that Butia looks great.
Glad the giant reed grass and fortunei are showing green.

Nice stuff you're planting...sugar cane and gunnera? You'll have to re-route traffic on the road past your place! 8)

Soil temps have ramped up nicely. The nanas won't be long to shoot up.

Everything looks good!
Barb

PS--forgot to say those tree ferns are lovely!

Oh ya, my musa basjoo that overwintered INDOORS looks awful, but is sending some green up:

good job 😀

Looking good Jim!! Glad to hear your temps are rising!!

My fortunei is growing up!

Jim- Looks good! The basjoo will be pushing up really soon! That butia looks awesome. I'm jealous of your Agaves, I wonder if I could overwinter some if I bothered to cover them? hmmm... I had an A. americana in the palm hut this winter, but it cooked when the hut hit -15C or so. Funny that the needle and minor both look untroubled!

I've tried Gunnera (Canadians, you can get it from Hortico in Hamilton for cheap) but I think it's perished this winter. When I removed the leaves last week the ground was completely frozen. Not good. I'll try again! If you get one be sure to give it lots of food and excess moisture!

Jim,
Those basjoos are going to be huge this year, pretty soon they'll be rocketing into high gear! Those ferns did grow very nicely for you, mine most definitely need more humidity. I'm putting it in the new green house today if the rain slows down just a little, it's really humid in there and hot so they should love it.

Thanks for all of those links there are some interesting things like the Itinerans, sugar cane, and the Thailand Giant. I always wanted one but never had a good
spot since they get so huge. There's always giant pots right 😆

The cacti you got will really be great once they start to flower in a few weeks. The high 70's low 80's in your forecast should really help you out 😀 😀 😀
It's about time you get some nice heat your way, I take it when your done!

No washy picture? Everything looks great time for those spear pulled palms to wake up.

Bill

Thanks for the advice on Gunnera Paul.
I have a spot picked out where it will get morning/mid-day sun,
only on this side is the soil rich enough and not cluster f'ed with tree roots
I have learned some things by mulching other plants,so I think I can get Gunnera through-
I will also add a rope light and remote sensor so I can bump temps if they drop below 35.
I think Gunners is a little tough to get through childhood 😆 but once it gets going it should really move.

The bananas are already pushing up over an inch and it's not even been very warm yet but....
with 70-82(f) this week they should rocket and be breaking out of their g-house covers just as out "last"
frost/freeze date passes. 🙂

The Butia was a big surprise 😮

Everything should do better this year as I have chainsawed 2 HUGE branches off the Maple
in the front yard,opening up 3-4 more hours of sunlight/which is all morning light 8)

Bill
The cactus will probably bloom later this year-last year I left the cover on longer
and they received a lot of heat which had them blooming a month(?)early.
I will check that this year and see what the diff is.
Not much to see on the Washy but it should get going this week/as you said 70-low 80s will pop that sucker into gear
along with everything else! Probably be 150 in the Washy enclosure! 😈

I am guessing if I really nurse the ferns they could have 3-4' leaves by this fall!
That is why I posted some of these pics now.

Erik-the Gunnera is from a grower in Oregon,they will be planted in the same area that produced
42" leaves on the Castors!

Lots of stuff to fit in,I really love these Thai black banana plants(see link)
they are capable of growing 20' the Itinerans to 40' 😯 😀

Should be fun-thanks for your comments everybody!

I'll look forward to Gunnera photos from you. They are breath-taking plants. No, I will not try one here!
I am interested in trying sugar cane. Are any varieties especially hardy?
--Erik

Erik

The lady I got this one from said you can mulch it and it will come back-

I grew this 2 summers ago,it got like 8' tall,it's the grassy plant behind the Castor bean plants-

<a href=" " target="_blank"><img src=" " border="0" alt="S.W.side of house(castor beans)"></a>

Looking good Jim! My trachy's are about in the same shape as yours, burnt leaves, no spear pull, and the bases are still green, so hope that mine and yours will both pull through. Interesting that you posted pics of your arundo donax, because I just bought a 25g pot of this stuff today (posted a pic on the 'other plants of interest" forum) The clump that mine came from gets around 15f tall every year, so looking forward to watching that stuff grow like crazy!

Me too Eric
I think the first year they establish their root systems,mine grew about 4'

This year I am guessing maybe 8-10' if they don't get to shaded by other stuff-
I have cut back a big Maple in the front yard which should open up 3-4hrs more sunshine!

One interesting thing about this plant is it can be grown in a water feature or be kept very
dry,quite a range,like most weeds 😉

Looking good Jim. Nice to see your updates.

John

As I write this at 10pm I cant' believe it is almost 80(f) still!
This is like a July night when the temp stays around 80 for the low,the difference is that the humidity is only 38% and was down(humidity) in the mid 20s.
After a high of 89 today a lot of things are jumping into gear,the warmer temps in the basement were causing the Cannas to sprout.
I have really taken advantage of the warm spring this year.
I have never had banana plants in the ground in March before,even the beginning of April is early.
Everything is off to a flying start this spring!

I have planted almost everything I wanted too and will finish tomorrow-for now!
So far I have planted-
Abyssinian(1)
Rowe red bananas(4)
Siam ruby(4)
T.ferns(5)3 D.antarctica-2 D.squarossa
W.filifera(1)
Bismarckia nobilis(1)
Thai black (bananas)2
Itinerans(bananas)2
Dahlias(20?)
Moon flowers(20)
Cannas(Cleopatra,Picasso,Stuttgart,Musifolia)20ish
Colocasia Thai giant!(1)
Orinoco(banana)(3)
12 cactus plants( flowering barrels) 2 pads(Opuntia)
G.manicata(2)
Tetrapanex(steroidal giant)2
4 o'clocks(100s of seeds(-:
Brugmansia......

O.K.enough already,there is still alot to plant/do and I don't know where I am going to fit some of my favorites like the Elephant ears and Castor beans!

I will take some pics tomorrow.
The yard will be insane this year-what am I doing!
Spring fever has hit really hard and I am VERY sick!(-: