My side garden

love the palm

I have two more in the front, they are BIG.

How impressive the palm is!
Just stunning!

Thank you. This one is my smallest...around 13 years old. I have two more in the front that are about 20 years old....my mom planted them before I moved to Greece.

My God, this is your smallest? Even though it is so huge? Wow!! And you've got two bigger ones to boot? Fantastic! You have a clever mom.

This one I planted when my daughter was about a year old...the two in the front were planted by my mom. She has a large fan palm that last years seeds have taken,,,,,we've been pulling out thousands from all over, the wind has spread them...I've given some away as well.

Thousands? You make me envious (again!!). This kind of thing can happen only in Corfu and other (sub)tropical places. Brilliant!!

I didn't even know it could happen until last winter when I found a tiny palm growing on the side of the road...Well my mom considers them weeds now..so many. Should have taken a picture. I gave one of my customers one to take back to the UK. Found out they named it after me....that's so cute.

LOL; your mom thinks them as weeds! How sweet of them to have named it after you. I wonder how it is doing in the UK.

It's doing fine at the momentj, they have it next to the radiator! They are here on holiday again and I'm giving them a cutting of another of my plants to take back.

Brilliant place for the tropical plant! Your customers are lucky to get a new plant every time they visit you! Do they drive down to Greece (too far to drive, but some people do) or fly there? - No problem with customs/quarantine? Maybe it's okay within the EU. In the past, I put tubers, cuttings and/or seeds in plastic bags or containers (ziploc) and popped them in my suitcase, even though it's illegal (from Micronesia to Japan and from Japan to UK). Bad!

Oh, not all my customers get plants. They fly here....the way I see it, if companies can ship bare root plants and seeds then people can take them back with them in their suitcase. I've seen a lot of people walking arond with cuttings and collecting seeds from plants. I've even given my cousin who lives in London a bare root palm. She has hers outdoors, so far so good. Don't know what she's going to do for the winter. So you're not all that bad...I would do the same!!!

Good, I'm not the only "bad" one then. I brought lots of nice plants from a little island called Palau in the south pacific, but the only one that is still alive is heliconia. It has flowers similar to crab's claws or peacock's beaks (colour: orange and yellow). I was given a tuber (well, in fact, I begged an old man to give one to me) and it took six years to flower; it was exactly what he said it would take. The plant is in my parents' glass house now. It's grown too tall and big (around 2.5 meter tall, perhaps?) so my parents don't want to keep it any more~. Anyway it's always nice to grow something new.

Yes I like growing new plants as well and I love making new ones.....I have a bad habit of discarding plants when they don't look good or fit my mood. I'm not going to do that anymore, I'll just plant them in my back garden.

That's a good idea! You might find them lovely again down the road. But! Having said that, sometimes it's good to get rid of things you don't like, and plant something new instead! I'm thinking about binning two pyracantha we inherited because 1) I don't fancy them; 2) one hasn't done anything - no flowers/berries; 3) they are in the bad position - one is right next to palms, which is not good for the palms and the other is by my white peony, which might disturb my peony one day. In addition, they have nasty thorns :o) Happy gardening :D

Thorns...get rid of it. Might endanger white peony...get rid of it. My mom laughs everytime she sees something different around my side palm tree.....I've just planted four cyclamens and I'm after some heather too,,,will post pic soon. ;o)

Thank you for giving me the green light! I've been thinking about it for so long; to let it be or not to let it be. Now I'm confident about the idea! Cyclamens in Greece? I thought they would survive only in cold areas. Look forward to seeing your pics :D

Ah you're welcome. Cyclamens grow really well here....it does get cold in the winter. Not like England but it drops down to the teens. We've even had single numbers....not much but it does happen every now and again. Don't like it when it gets so cold.

That's a surprise, cyclamens grow well in Greece! I didn't know the temperature goes down below 10 in Greece. But not bad, if it won't happen every day :o)