Silverhill Seeds, hardiness

Floral Artistry/John Ingram floralartistry2000@yahoo.com
Sat, 07 Feb 2004 09:29:07 PST
Jim, et. al.,
I have had some really lucky placements for "tropical"
plants at my uncle's house in OH, z5. I have had the
following callas over winter for several years;

Mango
Flame
Green Goddess
aetiopica
and unlabeled yellow (same size as Flame)

Also, they are in various locations. Most are in
really heavy clay soils that really drain rather
slowly. But I also have them in the rose bed which has
years of mulch that has decomposed to the consistancy
of peat and it always stay wet any time of the year. 
I know that ground temps have been rather minimal the
last few years so that might have a lot to do with it.

But, I also have had Sabal minor and Rhapidophyllum
(needle palms) all over winter with minor leaf damage.
So, I think my location is a little more protected
that it would appear to be. It is a wide open field
mostly. 
Another observation, I know that I have said this in
the past but I'll repeat for new members, Acidantheras
survive. The main corms turns to mush but the small
side corms don't. They are too small to flower and
once they get some size, poof. Mush. All I ever get
out of them is a field of grass-like leaves that the
thrips love. 
I also have 5 agapanthus that have made it throuh 2
winters. We shall see this year as well. Tony Avent
knows of a grower in MI that has a population of 100+
growing for 6 years in the open ground. This is very
encouraging. My source for them was a garden here in
So CA that wanted them removed. So I shipped them to
OH and put them in the mounded beds and the rose
(peat-like) bed. All that I left there are still there
as of last fall. 

John


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