Re: Your indoor arboretums?
 

I built a sunroom addition on back of house late 04. It's really considered a enclosed porch because it has no heat or AC. I will attempt to post a pic here...the windows you see are facing east (yes, that's snow - taken early 07). There is 13 ft of window facing south (to right) & very large table there loaded w/ plants & 2 skylights above them. If I want heat in winter, I open the Fr doors to get house heat in from kitchen. Room is 16X18 - well insulated, & will be loaded with plants soon. There wil only be a walk space to back door.
Those are 2 IC nannas taken early 07. One is only smaller because it was in a smaller pot. They were planted inground these last 2 summers and stems (without leaves) are 6 - 7ft tall now. I built this JUST for my plants in winter.


Here shows south facing window, taken 2 winters ago. The plants are MUCH bigger now.



Showing Fr doors to kitchen

Re: Your indoor arboretums?
 

That'd be cool to see the plants from inside the house. I wish I could actually put mine around the house, just don't get enough light unfortunately.

Re: Your indoor arboretums?
 

With a possible freeze forecast for tonight, today I put aside my procrastination and burlap wrapped my large palms. I dug up my Siam Ruby and a pup of the Cavendish. It had no roots, so I dipped it in rooting hormone before planting in a pot of perlite and potting soil. I dug up most of my EE's and potted them. Then I started bringing pots inside. The EE's are in the basement for now as I was unable to get any more plastic runners to put over the carpets/floor. All my tropical hibiscus are inside now, as are all but one bougainvillea. I brought in my large Plumeria, and snapped a branch accidentally. I'll wait a few days and then put it in a pot. The only other potted plants still outside are my mandevillas, which are entangled in a metal planter. If they survive the night, they'll come in tomorrow. My back is killing me and my living room is jammed. Ain't this fun?

Re: Your indoor arboretums?
 

We decided with the threat of frost last night to move everything in as well. It was very borderline temp-wise (35F) this morning, but the bananas I left in the ground look OK. I did have some ice on the car, but plants looked fine. So now I wish I'd waited - oh well. At least now that saves me a lot of work one late afternoon and better safe than sorry. I'd be devastated if I lost some of my larger BOPs, and T-Palms.

It's naturally going to rebound back up into the 70's again the next few days, so I'm gonna leave the bananas in the ground until the absolute last day before a guaranteed frost - prob around the first week in November.

As usual the garage looks very tropical - will post some new photos. Everything is SO much bigger than last year, didn't know it until it was all back in. My insulation did the trick this year. 35F outside and it was 70F in the garage, so no heat needed this year. The two GH's also did good with their radiator inside - set to come on at 42F and to keep it above 38F. Right now I'm happy with the setup, but I'll see how I feel once the first power bill arrives.

Re: Your indoor arboretums?
 

This year so far is funnier than last - everything is so much larger, and the big bananas aren't even in yet. Another threat of frost tonight so I covered them with frost blankets. It's going to get too warm later this week to dig them up yet.

Right Side


Left Side - including a BOP with 7 blooms (prob will bloom in Dec again)


Up High


Almost too big for the garage - no clue what I'll do then (prob next year with the T-Palm). Bananas will go in front of these.


And the two portable GH's - where the DC's will go

Re: Your indoor arboretums?
 

OK so I finally brought my camera into work, here is what I have growing this winter.

Re: Your indoor arboretums?
 

Nice, my co-workers kid me about all the plants in my office with my one window. But if I had all THOSE windows you have - LOL, oh I'd really be moving stuff in.

Re: Your indoor arboretums?
 

Nice banana infromation there. This kind of information is going to help us a lot and the plants here are nicely grown and are going to give good results for sure. So keep going on and keep sharing.