Winter 2011./2012.

This winter is all but not cold, at least for now. Temperatures are like those we have in spring and plants are loving it, especially those native to warmer climate. Chances that in February snow will cover everything are very high but nevertheless I am very pleased that we are having sunny and warm days. Although all of the plants are inside the house some of them are in heated and some in unheated places. Those that are more sensitive to cold and temperature changes have their permanent place in the heated parts of the house. 

Since winter is almost at its end I decided to sow some bamboo seeds (Bambusa arundinacea, Fargesia fungosa, Fargesia papyrifera). If I had known that winter will be so warm I would have planted more bamboos much earlier.

Moso bamboo. Decision made today was to move all moso bamboo from heated part of the house into the unheated part. It is something like a greenhouse attached to the house. There plants never freeze because temperatures don`t go below freezing point. Since moso can withstand up to -23°C (-9°F) it should be just fine in there. The only problem can be aggressive sunlight that appears sometimes during the winter. Some of them already have sunburns on their leafs but nothing to drastic that would require from me to put them back in the house. Smaller ones and weak ones are left in the house.

Eichhornia crassipes is very difficult to overwinter. I had few plants 5 years ago and they all died during the winter. These ones I have now are still holding on but it is uncertain how many and if any of them will survive. On first photo is a plastic container that was full of plants when cold weather started and sun became scarce. Today the number of plants that are unaffected with rotting and dieing off is reduced to one or two. One plant that has smaller plants attached to itself is holding on good and I think that is the key for their survival during the winter months; keep these smaller satelite plants connected to the main plant. Photo two shows that plant and photo three shows one that is kept in another plastic container.

Coffea arabica advanced last year very much. I have it for almost 5 years and it didn't move much until that year. During spring, summer and autumn it had its place outside in a garden. Partially I gave up on it thinking that it will not survive but it survived. It was placed in a semi shaded place, near small pond and it seams it liked the place. Even now it is developing new leafs. It is funny how they grow best when you give up on them :).

Platycerium ridley and Platycerium coronarium. There is not much to say about them. For now they are surviving. Whn there is sunlight they are taken close to the window (not on direct light) to eat. They are growing in a glass pot with glass cover (transparent) so that humidity and heat are always present. Plants are very small and delicate, and many of them died during first few weeks. These ones are growing bigger and bigger but there is always a chance that something goes wrong and they die. When adding water I gently mist them. Once I added liquid fertilizer in bottle used for misting (extremely small amount of fertilizer added) and it seems they liked it.

Aloe Barbadensis M. and Ananas comosus are holding on :). Aloe vera is about 3 years old and has produced one small plant in 2010., and pineapple also about 3 years old but it doesn`t grow as much. Pineapple was planted by taking green leaf crown from the top of the store bought pineapple fruit and planting it in water until it developed roots.

Pistia stratiotes are holding remarkably well this winter. I have chosen only the biggest plants from my lake to overwinter in the house. It took only few of them to fill the plastic container so at one point I was afraid that I haven`t taken enough plants. They usually hold on well during the winter and then at the end, very close to spring, they start rapid decay. Mold and rotting takes over and many plants die off (there is some rotting but much less than usually). This winter that scenario didn`t happen yet because of the warm weather and more sun. These big plants are producing small plants like crazy.

Momordica cochinchinensis (gac fruit) is not very fond of strong sun, especially since they are growing in the pots and soil can become dry very quickly. But, even if the soil is moist gac fruit still doesn`t like strong sun :( and leafs on one plant often look lifeless. It might be because the plants are still young (few months old now) or they don`t like daily changes in temperature. Leafs are usually looking well in the morning and in the evening. Temperatures don`t go below 0°C so the plants should be just fine until spring when I will plant them in my garden or somewhere in the backyard. The growth however has stopped and there is no production of new leafs nor branches.

Fargesia papyrifera - Dendrocalamus latiflorus - Fargesia fungosa. All of these bamboos are surviving for now. There is no much growth on fargensias but dendrocalamus is growing amazingly fast. They are kept in the heated part of the house since I only have few of them and I didn`t wanted to take any chances on their survival. With them I am playing a safe game :).

New bamboos planted today will hopefully germinate in a week or two. I planted approximately 150 seeds in that small box (Fargesia papyrifera (30 - Fargesia fungosa (65) - Bambusa arundinacea (60)) and prepared plastic box where I will keep them month or two after they germinate. I also prepared soil for the them and now the only thing that remains is to wait and see how many of them will germinate and grow into a beautiful bamboos. :) They are kept in a kitchen where it is very warm. Why I used aluminum foil I will explain soon in a Moso bamboo diary because it is related to the experience I had with those bamboos. 

Friend of mine, knowing that I like to plant stuff, especially unusual plants, gave me two lychees (Litchi chinensis). Naturally, I planted them and in only one week seeds germinated. They are also in the kitchen where it is warm but I didn`t expect them to germinate so fast. Well, this plant will open another diary on this blog. Since it is tropical plant I will have to find the way to keep it small so that it can overwinter in the house (if plants survive).
And, there is another plant I must not leave out; Canna indica. It is the one I decided to have in the house during the winter...well, this is how it looks for now. It started to grow after that one old leaf died of and now it is developing new stem :). 

18.02.2012.

Winter came in the end, and it is still here :). There were days when temperature went down to -20°C (-4°F) and snow was falling constantly for more than 48 hours. We are still well under the snow but temperatures are going up. Sunny days are rare now. It didn`t came the way i was hoping it will; sun during the entire winter and now snow nor low temperatures.

Winter took my good friend Vafi. She was playing in the snow 4 days ago when a car literally crushed her body.

  

Here are few snowy photos :):