Kostas

Hello all!

I am Konstantinos Giannopoulos and live in Melissia,Greece. I have a garden in Pyrgos(300km away but in a great climate!) where its warm and rainny for most of the year but still there are 2 months below 13C mean temprature and another below 14C mean and 3 dry summer months. The record low of the area is -3,6C but that can only happen a single night every 20years. The rest of the years it can only get to a little above 0C or -1C to -2C at most. I am a big palm,cycad and fern fan and my garden is mostly planted with that but i like all tropical plants,be it dicot trees,bananas,aroids,bamboos,heliconia,orchids,bromeliads and will hopefully me incorporating them all in this and my future main house garden(when i buy it........). My Pyrgos garden is still very new,only 1,5years old but i think its coming along well. Lots of work remaining but its all about time for the plants to grow now. Many new plantings are to be done,including a single Musa species in addition to my newly planted Ensete ventricosum. That last one is what got me into growing bananas. A friend of mine gave me 2 of these wonderfull plants that he grew from seed to make some space for more plants as these damaged a lot by the high winds he is frequently getting. A few days after getting them home,waiting to be transported to Pyrgos,i couldnt believe their growth rate! In just a week they became beautyfull and the extra sun they were getting under my care brought out amazing midrib and edge colors! So i decided i want to grow a big Musa too just for the joy of fast growth and the beautyfull tropical feeling they give when their leafs droop or when viewing them from below. Their seeded but sweet fruits may also be a bonus.
Anyway,after growing my first Musa from seed,i am sure i will not confine myself there...I have 2 good sized yards in Pyrgos where i may cultivate another or 2 Musa species for their bananas where i wont mind how they look in winter. In my Pyrgos garden i want the species i will grow to keep its leafs yearround except for the worst years and of course to be getting mature fruits most of the years,even if just for the seeds.

Other interests of mine are diving,tropical fish keeping(mainly of the Loricariidae family of Catfishes(Siluriformes)),growing palms and cycads from seed and surfing(windsurf although i would love to try true surfing too!)

I am sure i will enjoy being here a lot and i really like the cheerfull atmospere of this forum!

Aloha from Greece!

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