TROPICAL GARDEN PROGRESS - COMPARISON BETWEEN SUMMER 2009 & SUMMER 2010

The garden is coming along nicely. I've finally forced myself to stop buying plants because even though they were small plants when I bought them, many of them are already getting huge and it's obvious that my small garden space has nearly reached full capacity. And on top of that, most of the plants are still fairly young and will grow twice their size or more in the near future. Here are some comparison photos between summer 2009 and summer 2010. I'm still blown away when I see the changes!

VIEW ONE (OLD)

VIEW ONE (NEW)
This shows the nice view we have from our kitchen. We got this 5-piece lounging set for only $250 at CVS (patio furniture at a drug store... who'da thought!) To the right, you can see the large tropical plants (bananas & alocasias) that create a lush tropical backdrop to the furniture. The older photo shows the row of tomato plants. This summer I still have 9 tomato plants but I moved them further to the left to make the garden appear more tropical, so they are not visible in this photo. Behind the chair in the middle, you can see the multi-tiered shelf with several plants and in the background you can see the various tropical plants (bananas, alocasias, colocasias and plumeria).

VIEW TWO (OLD)

VIEW TWO (NEW)
Here, you can see the drastically, stunning changes made to the left side of the garden. I moved the table that you can see in the first photo over to this wall and placed on it a variety of plants such as avocados, succulents, palms, etc. and I filled out the wall with passion fruit vines and the darker wall (to the right) has been filled out naturally by a pre-existing vine. On the ground are 2 dwarf banana plants and several smaller potted plants.

VIEW THREE (OLD)

VIEW THREE (NEW)
Here, you can see the monstrous overgrowth of vines and berry bushes. This side section is kind of out of control, but done intentionally so it will look less barren. Some of what you see on the left side wall is a bushy vine plant that filled out over the summer months but the greener leafy vegetation that you see is actually a pleasant looking vining weed that I transplanted here from another part of the yard. It's impressive to see how much it has grown.

VIEW FOUR (OLD)

VIEW FOUR (NEW)
These photos show the dramatic growth of the two small fern trees seen in the older photo. One of the ferns hasn't grown much, but growing next to and above it is the other fern which has exploded in size. It's been growing fast all four seasons. To the left of the fern trees, hanging on the wall is a large spider plant with dozens of hanging baby plants. This added an extra nice tropical touch. On the bench you can see blooming plumeria and several black stem alocasias and black magic colocasias. These will can triple in size so I will probably need to move them once they outgrow this spot.

VIEW FIVE (OLD)

VIEW FIVE (NEW)
In these photos you can see how this year I had less of an emphasis on vegetables and more on a tropical look. I actually had more tomato plants this year but only a few are visible in the new photo since they are surround on both sides with more tropical vegetation. On the multi-tiered shelf, you can see the various tropical plants, including a bamboo palm on top. In the middle of the photo you see the various banana, alocasia and colocasias. The exciting, and a bit daunting, aspect is the fact that all of these plants are going to grow a lot bigger so the garden is slowing overgrowing and will literally become a jungle. Stay tuned!!

GARDEN COMPARISON VIDEOS: JULY 2010 / MAY 2009

Check out the progress in the garden
in the past year. The top video is July 2010
and the bottom one is May 2009.
The new video is a bit long-winded
but I give some interesting
background on the plants. Enjoy!

NEW TROPICAL FRUIT TREES & PLANT INVENTORY

I recently bought a Surinam Cherry tree and 2 Strawberry Guava trees at the LA Arboretum fern & tropical plant sale. Like the rest of my fruit trees, these are very small starter plants so it will take a few years before they bear fruit. Hopefully we'll move to a house with a proper yard by then!!

The banana and alocasia plants are getting bigger.



I've finally finished buying plants this season (I think!).
Here is an inventory of the plants I've got now. The number
in brackets is the quantity that I have.

PALMS
Bamboo Palm - Chamaedorea Microspadix
Fishtail Palm – Caryota Mitis
Bella Palm (3)
Lady (Rhapis) Palm
Areca Palm (2)
Pigmy Date Palm
Sago Palm
California Fan Palm Trees (This grew wild in the garden)

BANANA

Dwarf Cavendish

Williams Hybrid

Red Abyssinian – Ensete Maurelii (2)

Mini Dwarf Cavendish (3)

ALOCASIA

Tigrina Superba

Sarian (2)

Borneo Giant

Portora

Portei (3)

Boa

Black Stem (3)

Gigantea

Gagaena California

COLOCASIA

Green Ruffles

Black Magic (2)

Esculenta (Edible Taro)

FERNS

Fern Tree - Cyathea Cooperi

Fern Tree - Dicksonia Antarctica

Kimberly Queen Fern

FRUIT TREES

Naval Orange

Meyer Lemon

Avocado (2)

Tropical Guava - Psidium Guajava

Strawberry Guava – Cattley (2)

Surinam Cherry

MISC TROPICAL PLANTS

Aloe Vera (2 varieties)

Coffee Arabica

Dieffenbachia (3)

Dracaena - Janet Craig (3)

Dracaena – Lemon Lime

Dracaena - Tricolor (2)

Gardenia

Mandevilla

Monstera Deliciosa

Passionfruit

Philodendron – Split Leaf (3)

Plumerai (5)

Pothos

Schefflera – Dwarf (2)

Snake Plant

Spider Plant (4)

Stargazers

Ti Plants – Cordyline (11)

VEGETABLES / FRUIT / HERBS

Tomato – Grape (8)

Swiss Chard (3)

Raspberry (2)

Blackberry – Thornless (2)

Basil

Oregano

Rosemary

TROPICAL PLANTS, TREES AND TINY BEASTS

I recently bought these baby tropicals: Alocasias, Colocasias,
a guava tree in the front row, far left and in the back row,
far left is a Monstera Deliciosa, this blog's namesake
(see it in the photo next to me at the top of the blog)

I also recently bought this black bamboo on eBay but it arrived
a bit dry and despite giving it lots of water, is not looking
too good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The two trees
are fishtail palm and bamboo palm which I bought at
the Huntington Library Spring plant sale.

I grew these avocado trees from pits. It took a surprisingly
long time for them to sprout. (3 months +). I have several
more pits in water which are starting to sprout. Never mind
that I don't have room for trees in my small yard but I'll
worry about that when they start getting big.

I got some mantis egg cases at the Natural History Museum
annual Bug Fair. They are supposed to hatch when the
temperature is cooler, like in the '50s, but the adorable
baby beasts started creeping out during a warm late
afternoon recently. The war on pests has begun!

NEW FRUIT, VEGGIES AND FERN FRONDS

The strawberry plants have been reproducing a lot since last year
so there are several new plants and quite a few delicious berries already.

The raspberry bushes are already producing very sweet berries too.

Grape tomatoes, swiss chard, lettuce, etc.

The first tomatoes of the season.

New fern tree fronds.

ALOCASIAS AND COLOCASIAS (ELEPHANT EARS)

I had planned to spend this weekend in the garden but ended up staying indoors being sick all weekend. Blast! But so it isn't a total loss, I figured I'd do a new entry, with some pics of some of my favorite new plants. Alocasias and Colocasias are two type of plants also known as Elephant Ears because these plants have some of the largest leafs in existence. The photo above shows the plants that I recently got, all babies or teenagers. The photos below show what some of these plants will look like when they're full grown. All of them will grow over 4 feet tall and some will be over 10 feet. (Did I mention that I have a fairly small apartment garden??)

CHEAP CITRUS TREES AND GRAPE VINES!

I found these baby lemon and naval orange trees and Concord grape vines on sale at Lowes. The vines are normally $7 and the trees are $20 but they were all on sale for only $1 each!! Even though I really don't have room for these in my small garden, this deal was simply too good to pass up. Vincent couldn't agree more.

GETTING READY FOR SUMMER

We just bought this fantastic lounging set at CVS of all places. Evening cocktail hours have officially begun. As soon as I've got some larger plants I'll be putting them around the set to give it a nice lush feel.

GARDEN MONSTERS BLOG HAS BEGUN AND A BABY MONSTER HAS ARRIVED.

Finally! I've been meaning to get this blog started but everything menial has gotten in the way (work/sleep/eating). Where to start? Hmm, that's a tough one. I've been working like mad in my little apartment garden, preparing everything for the oncoming summer. My goal is to create a tropical oasis and it's off to a good start (I think!). I attempted this last summer but failed miserably. Long story (bad soil / overestimated plant growth / underestimated the power of Pasadena 100 plus degree summer days / etc. etc.). Anyway, I started this year, in March, just as the winter chill ended, so the garden's off to a good start.

Two types of plants I've recently become obsessed with are Alocasia and Colocasias, also known as Elephant Ears because of their massive size. They are some of the largest leaf plants and grow insanely fast (sometimes from 4 inches to over 10 feet in less than a year!!). I've bought several of these plants as babies recently but have been searching for an elusive one called Alocasia Tigrina. The best way to describe this plant is something that looks like is was made as a prop for a dinosaur movie. The leaves are long and narrow and are dark green with semi-transparent parts that give the leaf a lizard-like 2-tone flesh appearance. The stalks are long and narrow with tiger-like stripes. This Alocasia seems to be quite rare because after several weeks of searching, I couldn't find any sellers who grew this until I stumbled upon a grower in Florida who had them. I ordered a young one last week and it just arrived. It's a gorgous plant, a 27.5 inch tall baby that can grow over 6 feet tall and is rumored to grow as much as 12 feet. The photo above shows me holding this beauty. I'm in heaven!