New Growth

I am so happy to see all of the new growth in the yard. I have already mentioned the winter jasmine, which I have a photo of now. I can't wait for all of the buds to open since they are so prolific! Now I can report that my orange jasmine is also full of buds. I will have the sweetest smelling yard within the week.

I went through the entire yard spotting new growth everywhere - the gingers are sending up shoots, the cannas, heliconias - everything is popping up and through. I was really worried about the plumeria because I cut it back this past fall for the very first time, and I didn't know if I did it correctly, if I had damaged it, or if it would continue to grow. I was so happy to see all of these sprouts coming out. They gave me immediate relief from worry about the rest of my plumerias. I am looking for space to plant all of the plumeria cuttings I have. I planted them in October, but they quickly started to fail, so I dug them up and put them away in the dark for the winter. Now that I see the growth on my established plants, I can see that it is time for the cuttings to go into the ground.

This is my newest addition to the yard. I won a pink brugmansia in the raffle at one of the last meetings. I planted it and it is nearly double in size already. I was hoping to get a yellow trumpet to go with the pink, white and apricot ones I have already, but I am very happy with a pink one. As soon as the white and apricot get big enough, I will be taking cuttings to give back to the club. I still have a few potted plants that need to go into the ground, and I will be planting everything by the weekend. The weather has been great, 80 degrees today, so I am sure I can start things off in the warm soil.

I already have dug up a bunch of pots full of cannas for this week's meeting. I chose the tropicanna praetoria to share. They are the varigated leafed variety with bright orange flowers. I have 2 varieties of tropicannas, although I don't know the name of the other variety. It looks the same, with varigated leaves, but it is a dwarf version and it has yellow flowers. I'm sure someone will be happy to get them. More to come - Bryan