Hello everyone
 

I've been lurking around here for a bit. We have a three acre property on Vancouver Island in Canada (zone 7b or 7a) and we've been "tropicalizing" our property, putting in trails, ponds etc etc. I started with bamboo, then onto palms and now bananas.

We managed to keep two Musa Basjoos alive quite by accident over last winter (we piled on some wood mulch without doing any research but thought we should protect them and they rotted pretty badly but are springing back).

We now have some ensete ventricosas on the way and I stumbled across a Musa Velutina at a local department store nursery by accident today.

I hang out on other sites related to bamboo and palms and general gardening and it's funny how the people on those sites in many cases are all into the same "tropical" plants. Lot's of overlap there.


Cheers!

Re: Hello everyone
 

welcom on the forum! is vancouver island not in zone 8 ?;)

Re: Hello everyone
 

Welcome JohnC !!!!:2127:

Yep, all the reading and learning of these exotics can't help but make you a better grower of these plants!

Isnt the internet GREAtttttttttttt!:2559:

Re: Hello everyone
 

welcome!:2720:. glad to have you here. a famous painter once said, there are no such things as mistakes....just happy little accidents! and i agree. glad to hear your basjoos made it through the winter ok. congrats on your new finds!

Re: Hello everyone
 

JohnC, welcome to the forum. I am also intrested in palms and bamboo. :nanadrink:

Dean

Re: Hello everyone
 

Hi Dablo, Vancouver island is over 30 thousand square kilometers (12 thousand square miles) and 460 km (286m) long north to south with mountains as high as 2 thousand meters (7 thousand feet) high so there are zones ranging from 4a to 8a but the majority of the populace is in zone 7b.

Only one city is in zone 8a at the southernmost tip of the island.

The climate varies tremendously, some areas are almost mediterranean, some are more like arctic tundra in the mountains. Some are pretty dry, others get enormous amounts of rain almost year round.

Elevation more than anything else though decides what zone you are in since there are mountains all down the center of the island so if you live close to the ocean you get warmer conditions.

Re: Hello everyone
 

Welcome JohnC from a nice "bunch" of folks!