Agaveville

A few more from a day or so ago. King palm blooming. Aloe "Moonglow" is in its own little world as it outblooms everything. Aloe cameronii bloom is still underwhelming. Small red bloomstalk. Maybe post that when its more open. The Aloe itself in summer is the show.
All the winds have worn on some plants not in photos. A. barbarea actually had a few leaves torn off. Wigandia had no damage..but anything with leafs that big isn't at its very best..later it will look great again.

This has been the warmest winter in memory. I don’t think it’s hit freezing yet where I’m at , nor is it predicted to in the next 2 weeks. I would say global warming but of course that supposedly can affect temperatures in both directions. Just a warm winter so far. Seeing your yard tempts me to take a chance again on Aloes. I have 2 Aloe Ferox that damage but always recover nicely, and a few others.

Try some of the larger hardy clumpers too. Go down the list here on A-ville of Aloes known to survive teens or at least low 20's.
I started out planting things I saw growing in soucal. All the books and experts told me on many sites said my plants would never last! But 15 years later..there's a Pachypodium that almost as tall as me. That's the one I was told would never last five years. Mango? Need I go on about the near hate I got for that?..lol.

Stan your yard is looking good. Those are Musa Orinoco banana plants if I’m not mistaken.

I bought the banana plant at the Hayward Flea Market about 4 years ago now. They told me it was Ice Cream,but the fruit never turn the distinctive blue of Ice Cream. Some have looked at the photo's and thought Nam Wa. This is the second ever fruiting. Last time (2 years ago) I think I picked them too early and also had cut the banana heart off since I was told it takes energy out of the plant. This year,I'm not picking or pruning anything until I see them start to yellow. No fooling around.

Hmm. Well hard to tell from pics but I have a ton of different types of banana plants. The real deal Musa ice cream and Namwah for one. With your p-stems being that yellow first thought looked like Orinoco. Soil conditions will do that. Namwah has very dark p-stems and also very thick. Yes ice cream has blueish fruits and looks almost identical to namwah and people confuse them all the time. What do the fruits taste like? Sometimes that’s a give away all though everyone has different interpretations.

A few more

A few more....

Y’all have some impressive yards! Meangreens yard is especially inspiring and at a rental! I have carried some of my plants all over the state with me. I have plumerias, aloes and agaves that went from Houston to Corpus Christi, from Corpus to San Antonio, then Back to Corpus. It’s hard to leave a valuable plant behind not know if the new owner will take care of it. I usually won’t drive by previous houses becuase I get either mad or just depressed at what they have done to the plants I couldn’t take. Anyway here are a few shots of my front yard this evening, the back is too messy and needs mowing. Lol.

Oh man,you can grow ANYTHING in Corpus Christi..kind of ironic considering the name.
Nice collection Rusty.

Thanks, although mine doesn’t compare to the previous posters. The long growing season is half the reason I like living here, the other is my job. I would replace the grass with crushed granite if my wife would go for it. I need more space for agaves! I’m slowly adding things and encroaching into the “lawn” space. The front will look better when the plumerias go back out around the end of February. It was really wet and cold for several weeks a while back and I was worried about root rot so I pulled them up and put them in the garage. Lots of cuttings potted in one of the greenhouses. I have 48 of them if you count the cuttings I’m rooting. Love the smell of them, not the most macho plant to grow, but they grow like weeds here and it’s one of the few plants that I can reliably sell for a good price. Will attach some pics of a few I have.

Nice, that’s a nice variety, makes things interesting. I plan on having a tropical area in our next yard.

Oh man,you can grow ANYTHING in Corpus Christi..kind of ironic considering the name.
Nice collection Rusty.

Haha maybe that’s why things grow so well here! Body of Christ compost, good for the soil and the soul! If that were the case, I don’t think Euphorbia Milli “crown of thorns” would grow so well here.

Corpus Christi might be a 9b..but I know that plenty of tropicals grow there I can't. Dypsis lutescens becomes a tall clump. Royal palms. Rubber trees and Ficus lyrata get huge.Delonix. Although the occasional freeze hits..I bet those are longer and longer between happening.
Plumeria for me is a hard grow. It takes until late June for them to bloom in a good year. Right now I have a four year old Plumeria obtusa thats getting a bit of size..never even budded so far. Foliage is great most of the year but it too can get whacked way back by a single 32f. Celadine has done best. Its larger for a potted Plumeria. Especially around here. Its much like the last one in your photos in bloom and foliage and size. It has a bigger trunk since I started that one Celadine back in 1998.
Post some more of the stuff around town too!

Yes the closer to the water you are the better chance of keeping those tropical plants alive. I have only been close to freezing once in 6 years. That was in December 2017 and we got 7” of snow! Was mostly gone by 9 am the the next day. I have pictures of my plumerias covered in snow. It was so brief I didn’t have hardly any damage, some of the smaller ones took longer to come out of dormancy was about the worst of it. The trick to getting lots of blooms on a plumeria is full sun and sprinkle a scoop of Scott’s Blooming plant fertilizer around the base every 2-3 weeks. Your right about the tropical plants like rubber tree, my in-laws had one that was taller than their two story house! I wish they still lived there, I had a never ending supply of cuttings, Im not going to pay $15 dollars they want for the scrawny 1’ tall ones at Lowe’s. I have seen delonix and dypsis lutescens, but didn’t know what they what they were called. I have seen some massive fiscus lyraras, or fiddle leaf fig trees as well. I will try to photograph some when I see them.

Another but closer banana pic.

Nice bananas! So another look around the premises has turned up one pretty badly damaged plant from my one 26°F night -- Euphorbia milii. Some portion of it may have died down to the ground, but there is still some left, and it will bounce back quickly in a few weeks once it warms. I also noticed my Palo Blanco tree has completely defoliated, but that isn't much of a surprise.

Whew,26f is brisk. Good to hear it wasnt too bad on the plants.
This orchid has been outdoors over 2 years now. Its more of the "That grows here?" type plant. One of Cattleya hybrids. Today we made to at least 66f..my car thermo said 68f.

Bradford pears at the local Walgreens. With Canary Island Pines and various palms. BTW,The city planted in a median some blue flame Agave. Many and planted very close together. Right now its like a lush Pineapple tops look. Photo's of that soon.

Aloe Mooonglow and Botanist. Too cute to resist.

Cute kid

I didn't think it was possible for a Saguaro to grow in Houston. The Arizona Organ pipe has great color. Not many dark green/white spined cactus..mostly just ones at home decoration stores in silk or whatever.
They seem to have taken all that transplanting very well.

Thanks,she turned 1 a few days ago. You learn young to avoid spines around here.

The Arizona organ pipe are the two duller green cactus in the background. The one in the front was labeled Baja organ pipe, which would be stenecereus stellatus, but I have those as well and they are slightly different. In the mean time I just call it “Baja organ pipe”. Actually most cactus do well in this climate, and don’t seem to be mind the rain as long as they are elevated enough. In fact I have a smaller saguaro that had its roots sit in standing water from Hurricane Harvey, and was unaffected.

Nice pics all around.

The Baja Organ pipe looks like Stenocereus griseus.