This is a tour in pictures of Myrtle Glen in January. So far we did not have to deal with arctic freezes, just a couple of cold snaps with lows at 30F. Not cold enough to kill, but cold enough to nip at the tropical plants and make them look ugly.
Here’s the meditation area, the different ginger varieties are hibernating
The water garden still looks green, but requires some work, the Umbrella plant needs to be re-potted and the Shell Ginger clump will need some tackling so not to take over the entire area. You can see at the right of the picture is one of the makeshift green houses done with heavy duty plastic sheeting and heated with a space heater when needed.
Looking through the empty arch, I cut back the vines that covered it during summer. Clean up of the Streetside bed is still on my to-do list
Here is the back area of the water garden. I am happy with the mild winter, the Victorian Brake fern is looking pretty. This one took a hard hit during last year’s mean winter, while the Japanese Nest Fern doesn’t mind the cold at all.
The overgrown vines will be chopped back, but after the danger of frost. The little Ackee tree is doing well, but froze to the ground last year. This year we are prepared, hubby created a tent made of plastic and pvc pipes, and adding a heat lamp will keep it safe.
The Dombeya wallichii is high on my list of tropical favorites. The leaves are a bit frost bitten, but we could enjoy the wonderful flowers, huge pink balls smelling like sugar cookies. I feel sad that I will have to trim this bush back but it would grow way too large for our little yard.
The Lotus is hibernating in its lotus bowl, but the Cannas are doing good and the single banana trunk you see on this picture I just planted not too long ago. Protected by the other large plants it is doing ok.
Not so my Kumquat tree, I don’t know what the problem is, it just looks sick. The Mexican Sunflower Tree seedlings I left since they give some protection to a milkweed plant I don’t want to lose. And the little coleus plant to my surprise still looks pretty so it can stay of course.
The street side bed in the background still needs some clean up.
Another makeshift green house in the background, this one is the hoop house over my bromeliad collection.
Not much going on in the Sausage bed, this Kumquat is looking even worse than the one in the picture above. I am thinking of giving up on citrus, I just kill them all /sigh/
And here you see the result of my chopping frenzy. Poor Duchesse De Brabant, I hope she will forgive me.
Keep walking the garden path and you see the Florida bed, named because of its shape. I cleaned this one up already, the Mexican Tarragon and Toad Lily are cut back, and I am just waiting for the salvias do finish blooming then I’ll cut them back as well.
Cleaned up and ready for ferns and bromeliads, this bed was well hidden under an overgrown white Powderpuff bush. We trimmed the lower branches I am planning to shape it into a small tree.
At the other side by the house is this passion vine, this one will need some serious trimming so not to take over our house and the neighbor’s home as well.
That’s it for now, I will show the front yard pictures in a future post.