Talk of the town

3.2.2011 Tuesday

It rained a little this morning which was great not only for the watering of the plants but also because it gave the terrace a much needed bath. Once every few months I might want to rinse it down. I'll need to figure out a time that won't wash away the downstairs neighbors terrace as all of the drainage spouts off of mine empty directly onto thier terrace.

I see bougainvillas around, some growing wild, that are covered with foliage and brackets- splendid sprays. Mine are not there yet, maybe it's an issue of not having grown into the pot enough yet. Neither of the big plants have been in the new pots for over 6 months yet. Maybe as the root ball fills the pots completely, they'll start putting out a little more.

PHOE'S Cloe is a real trooper. It takes 4 or so hours of sun and seems happy as a clam. I have it on the outside dining table, see pic., with another rhizome I can't ID. I will have to move them with a strong wind, as I've mentioned.

Let's see, plants other than begonias.. the jasmine is filling in on the handrails. Regular light Miracle Grow feedings should give them a good leg up. I'm looking forward to the railing being fully covered. I've got creeping fig in a few places around the terrace. There is one that has begun to climb from the orange pot. That's a good pot as it's going to stay where it is for a while. I have another pot under the Gardenia, in it's own pot, that has begun to climb as well. There is a variegated in with the Cavendish banana, an interesting combo.

I gave the the duranta, the larger one, a HARD pruning, and it's begun to sprout back. I tend to overdue the pruning. I think I cut the back to the point of what most people would call 'renovation'.

The gardenia has buds all over it, interesting they are smaller than we've gotten in the past, but it is more floriferous this year. I wonder if the Plant Tone is working it's magic. When the blooming cools down on this, I will cut this back fairly hard to. I'd like to shape and size it some. I hope the pruning I did on the orange was done correctly. Some of the branches were higher than I wanted and I wanted a fuller body, so I trimmed the top back to a fairly even line. It looks like the leaf ball might be too high on the trunk, looking a little top heavy. I'll put a pic in. Hopefully it will fill out. I'm sure it will in a year or two. Time fills anything in.

I'm going to have to work on the new large that was going to be dedicated to 'Caribean King'. I'm not sure if there should only be one begonia in the pot.