Tigerlaff

Thanks! That's a hydrangea and a variegated hydrangea.

Bonus orange hibiscus going crazy:

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it was a bad day for the panican's

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A bad day for the panican's what? Forget a word?

You need to plant Thai Giant colocasia in those wet areas. Bananas too and maybe some swamp hibiscus.

Alright time for some cool updates.

First of the Bounty passionfruit are turning color and falling off the vine. I wish that these had hung on a little longer, but they will continue to ripen as long as the color has broken from green to purple. Will let them get wrinkled before eating.



Speaking of passionfruit, the Qinmi #9 is really starting to take off with the heat. Yellow passionfruit (Passiflora edulis flavicarpa) is more tropical than purple passionfruit (Passiflora edulis) and needs more hot weather. Really hope this lives up to the hype.



And in the coolest news of all, I have identified and located a new landscape palm hardy to zone 8 that is pinnate, trunking, and tolerates both full sun and full shade. This is Chamaedorea radicalis, a palm endemic to elevated oak forests in Tamaulipas, Mexico. These grow at altitude and tolerate much colder temperatures than similar looking palms of the region.





If you are familiar with palms in 9a you know that the only reliably hardy pinnate trunking palms are pretty much the pindo palm, mule palm, and maybe the Canary Island and Sylvester date palms depending on location. And even those (except the mule) have the arid "desert" palm look instead of a tropical look. Everything else is on borrowed time or has palmate fronds that don't look as tropical. Here's a photo of a more mature healthy one:



Radicalis is hardy to the teens and will not start taking damage until 20F. These particular ones came from a Pensacola grower. They experienced 18F a couple of years ago and suffered no damage even in pots. He had 13 inches of snow this past winter, also without effect.

You can put this palm anywhere. It takes more sun than any other palm in the Chamaedorea genus and also thrives in full shade. It even does great in containers. These things are bulletproof in zones 8-9 and I cannot for the life of me understand why they are not everywhere along the gulf coast. It's a huge miss by the southern nursery industry. The UK has known about them for years and makes great use of them.

I'll be putting 4 in the ground in shady spots and keeping one in a pot that I won't have to protect. The rest are going to family and friends.

ETA: potted one up. This looks damn good for something that will survive the teens.

You should get a kentia palm for inside your house. Mine are doing great. They love indoor climate.

My post tomorrow won't really apply to you. This is for our zone 8b-9b guys. Very cool and rare species that should be all over the gulf coast and isn't.

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I’m looking at scion wood for the winter and I see suggestions of shenandoah, Davis and sunflower for LA growing.

Would you agree with that?

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Yes. Let me repost the FB post from an experienced grower in Houston.



That's 9b so any of that should work great for us. Afternoon shade is a great idea too.

Sunflower, mango, Collins, Susquehanna, Shenandoah, prima 1216, and tropical treat are known to do well with hot weather.

My current list is as follows:

Sunflower
Mango
Susquehanna
Shenandoah
KSU Atwood
KSU Benson
Collins seedling
Avery Island wild seedling

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OpenlyGayDave

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This team fricking sucks. They can all go cry into their money.

Got the largest Musa Truly Tiny pup separated from the mother plant. Mother plant is very close to fruiting. This pup will be the next generation. I highly recommend Truly Tiny if you want to grow in a pot. They never get taller than 3-4 feet and can produce racks weighing 10lbs or more. You can keep the pups and produce indefinitely without all the freeze protection efforts needed for in ground trees.




My Silas Wood sapodilla is finally setting fruit. Got it as a small 3g tree 18 months ago. If you want early and prolific production from a dwarf sapodilla, Silas Wood is the one. Unfortunately I won't harvest any until next spring. Sapodillas take forever to ripen but eventually they become somewhat everbearing due to the constant flowering.

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My Arctic Frost Satsuma has really taken off. I planted it last June and it barely grew last year.

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First year it sleeps. Second year it creeps. Third year it leaps. Every single citrus I've ever planted in the ground did absolutely nothing the first season. That whole first year is just root establishment.

All the rest of that stuff looks great and healthy. I'm really excited to see how the Bell carambola performs.

It held and ripened 3 excellent fruit last year. But the tree is only about 25% larger than last year (after mandatory safety pruning) and trying to hold 20+. I'll just keep thinning each week until I see progress.