HAITUS IS OVER - IT'S TIME FOR SPRING CLEANING

It's been over 5 months since my last entry. I'm a slacker! Well, in my defense, the tropical gardening season ended not too long after my last entry and many of the plants went dormant so there really wasn't much activity going on in the tropical gardening front. And it's still the dead of winter, ("California-style", which means that you need both sweaters and t-shirts in your wardrobe) so most of the tropical plants in my garden are still snoozing. They started to go into dormancy when the night temperatures dipped into the 40s. But there's no better time than late January to start preparing the garden for springtime. I put many of the dormant plants and babies into smaller pots and brought them indoors for some pre-Spring warm weather on our kitchen windowsill. I also received a few plants as birthday gifts and they are already feeling right at home in the garden. And I just ordered some more plants: 2 papaya trees, 2 types of banana plants and a night blooming jasmine (I grew up with one of these in my parent's back yard and will never forget the incredibly fragrant smell at night when the flowers opened.)

 

I cleared out the dead tangle of tomato plants here and this spot has become the temporary home for these 3 potted avocado trees and a guava tree (on the right). I'll probably put more tomato plants and a few other veggies in this spot again but will have them in the front and plan to put larger tropical plants like banana, alocacias and papaya trees in the back.

As you can see in this photo, the table isn't fairing to well. It's pressed wood and rain has caused it to warp. Won't be long before it collapses so I'm trying to figure out whether I should try to reinforce it, which is probably a bad idea since the pressed wood will probably eventually dissolve, or replace it with some other type of stand.

Here's a new vine plant I got recently as a birthday gift (thanks, Brad and Jolene!). It's quite stunning as a hanging plant with its long vines. It hasn't looked too happy the past week though and appears bone dry even though I've been watering it regularly. I'm guessing that either it doesn't like the cold weather or else the soil isn't holding the water very well. I added some fresh soil and gave it plenty of water so finger's crossed!

Here's another birthday present I got, courtesy of Dwayne and Jennie. It's a beatuiful and bizarre looking air plant that needs no soil or direct watering but only an occasional misting.