The Blue Cane Palm project (Dypsis Cabadae)

The backyard is mostly composed of plants that produce food, but in the front yard there's palms for their tropical aesthetic. Rather than plant an all too common Golden Cane Palm (Dypsis Lutescens), I've decided to go for something different. Related to the Golden Cane Palm, but not as often seen, is the Blue Cane Palm (Dypsis Cabadae). As you'd expect, it's canes are a blue colour. It clumps like the Golden Cane Palm, but grows taller and slower. It's also less dense. This one was planted today from a 250ml container.






 



Joe's also giving it a go in his backyard. On the left are a couple of smaller plants from a 140ml container. It's great living in sub-tropical Brisbane because you can grow so many varieties of tropical palms. If we get a storm this afternoon, it'll water them in nicely.

Chillies like it hot

Or chillis, chilies or chilis - depending on where you're from and how you're inclined to spell them. Whichever your preference, they like it hot and you probably do too if you're growing them.

I planted these seedlings in a mini-greenhouse (a small plastic hotbox with seed trays inside) back in late July. Pictured here with the lid off, you can see the seedlings are starting to come up. I wasn't sure if they were ever going to germinate and thought I might have to give up on them because I planted them when the nights were still cool. It seems chillies don't like to chill. Now that it's getting warmer, they're starting to take off.

Here are some seedlings that grew from seed last Autumn. They remained very small through Winter and didn't do much. With the warmer weather, they're getting larger.

These Jalapenos have been looking quite sad through Winter and have more or less been dormant. Now there's new growth and flowers.

And when there's flowers, the chillies aren't too far away.

Enter the Dragon

Dragonfruit are like a cross between a kiwi fruit and an alien melon. I hadn't tasted one before a friend at work brought some in to lunch from his backyard. Very very tasty and apparently very good for you. Also very expensive if you buy from the supermarket. Recently my work colleague was kind enough to give me some cuttings so I'm having a go at propagating them. When the cactus gets big, it produces exotic flowers.