November 24, 2010

 

Hi Chuck I could use your help with my Majesty Palm.

 

"I have one I bought from a Home Depot in the beginning of this past summer. I bought a huge pot (about 3 feet across) and have had it outside. I have not found a good fertilizer for it yet but I have watered it and would mist it from time to time and it has grown and done well. I live in NY and now it is too cold for it to be outdoors. My question to you is can I bring it indoors, do I continue to water it the same as outdoors in the summer. Should I fertilize indoors and with what type. Do I put it in direct sunlight or indirect. Please help, everyone has commented on it and I love to look at it but I want to save it. I now notice it is getting little brown spots on the leaves. What could that be. Please help. Thank You."

 

Jason

 

My Response:

 

The brown spots are from exposure to cold - this is a true tropical and temps under 50 degrees will affect it - just fertilize it with compost - I will be totally honest with you, Majesty Palms are very hard to keep indoors for the extended time that we need to - they will decline over the winter - you will probably need to replace it next summer - cat palms and pigmy date palms do really well indoors - I am also still learning when it comes to keeping them over the winter - I pretty much have it figured out how to keep them outdoors - you need to keep it very moist to wet - they grow along rivers and swamps in their native environment.

 

November 3, 2010

 

Hi Chuck,

 

I just happened on your site while searching to find the best way to store my colocasia illustris over the winter.So far I haven't hit upon a way that describes my situation.Last winter I only had 2 in small enough pots to keep growing in my greenhouse.

This spring I planted them into huge containers & with all the rain(I'm in iowa).you know they got huge. These , along with the common green EEs,made our garden just lovely.

 

I haven't had time yet to explore all your pictures & posts,but you can bet I will.

 

My basement will get too cold.,maybe 45.I have a hard time saving fancy cannas.I think they come through most of the winter OK until we get early spring rain that leaks into basement.I'm going to bring cannas up out of there soon as it starts to get wet down there.

 

I store my green EEs in a closet. Heck with the clothes.

 

So I have a lot of  bare  C.     illustris roots that I surely want to

save at least some of.,and am unsure quite how to proceed.

I'd rather not pot them & keep in the greenhouse as I have had a whitefly problem,plus other insects & these might be bug magnets.

 

If it isn't an imposition,I'd appreciate any advice.

 

Doris

 

My Response:

 

I really don't know - I don't have any experience with that kind of EE - the one thing that I do know is that you need to have a developed bulb in order to store them dormant. - I store mine in the pot, but that is with an established plant.

 

 

October 26, 2010

 

Hi Chuck,

 

I was surfing for others who grow tropicals in colder climates and found your site. I love the pot in pot method-great idea.  Have you ever tried Brugmansia?  They are very addictive and I manage quite well with them in a zone 3 garden.  Check out the beauties at www.brugmansia.us.  Thats where my addiction started!lol!!

Happy Gardening, and thanks for the peek into your tropics!

 

Joelle

 

My Response:

 

Thanks for the comments – I am still working on the site and I will be adding more information and features in the future.

 

 

September 15, 2010

 

Hi Chuck ,

 

I recently stumbled on to your website from a link on the tropicalesque gardening forum . There never seems to be much traffic on that forum but , you may be interested in checking out The Hardy Palms In Temperate Zones Board

http://members3.boardhost.com/MIDWESTPALMS/ or there is a guy from Wisconsin that occasionally posts on http://members3.boardhost.com/HardyPalm/ . He has many palms planted in his yard that he protects every winter  but , the one that may interest you the most is the guy from Utah that posts on the Gardenweb palm forum . He has a trachy in the ground that has 6 or more feet of trunk  . If you have already seen all of these sites then no worries ...

 

I enjoyed looking at your website and I totally get what you are trying to accomplish ...

 

This is a link to a posting with some pics of my yard ...

 

http://members3.boardhost.com/MIDWESTPALMS/msg/1284128202.html

 

Have a great day ,

 

Rick  (Pennsylvania palm , banana and tropical plant grower)

 

My Response:

 

I wish I could get bananas to grow that tall – Our summers that last few years have been really cold. – I’m still working on the site. I’ve tried Windmill Palms – it just seems like a lot of work and no results. The main theme of my site is the pot-in-pot method – I have seen a lot of people talking about using buried pots for tropicals – but not much about pot-in-pot – it’s a great time saver.

http://www.chuckzamzow.com/pot_in_pot_method.html

 

 

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E-mail your comments to: chuckzamzow@yahoo.com.

 

 

Updated November 24, 2010