Tropical Gardens with Hardy Plants

I'm in zone 6 (avg. low 0 to -10F). I'm not sure of the variety of these plants, I bought my starter plants from a local lady who immigrated from Cambodia. She grows these in her yard and sells them off in the fall. I know that she cuts hers back, digs up the bulb and stores it in the garage, which is what I do, as well.

On 2009-09-30 06:13, Tiki Zen wrote:
I'm in zone 6 (avg. low 0 to -10F). I'm not sure of the variety of these plants, I bought my starter plants from a local lady who immigrated from Cambodia. She grows these in her yard and sells them off in the fall. I know that she cuts hers back, digs up the bulb and stores it in the garage, which is what I do, as well.

They are likely musa basjoo, and likely hardy.
leave one in the groud and cover with a 10-12 inch layer of mulch. Some also suggest covering with plastic. See if it doesn't come back next year.

Here in 6B to 7A, they are fine.

Sounds like a good suggestion. I have enough plants now that losing one isn't a big problem. I would need to do a fair bit of digging on the others to split off the pups even if I wasn't taking them in.

Just get fake tropical flowers! They will stay bloomed forever!

On 2009-10-06 11:04, TikiGabe661 wrote:
Just get fake tropical flowers! They will stay bloomed forever!

Agreed, but you can't have 'em in the backyard for very long before they start getting sun-faded.

When Micheals (or JoAnns, or Beverly's) had a sale on their nicer fake tropicals, I stocked up on some that I put out before parties. I found, though, if they're left out for more than a week, they get really faded.

True....I guess the best way to do it would be to just take em' out for the parties then store em' away until the next party.

On 2009-09-28 14:19, Tiki Zen wrote:
Second season of banana plants that started with four plants last summer. They've done well in Kentucky red clay soil, but soon a lot of digging will be at hand. If only I had a gigantic inflatable greenhouse . . .

NICE! How are they doing now that it's winter? We've got 5 banana plants that I'm worried about here in SoCal. It was recently 35 degrees one night & I'm thinking of moving the pots inside.

On 2009-12-23 11:00, MamboKing wrote:

NICE! How are they doing now that it's winter? We've got 5 banana plants that I'm worried about here in SoCal. It was recently 35 degrees one night & I'm thinking of moving the pots inside.

Mamboking, it would have to be a sustained low temp to damage the bananas enough for you to worry about moving them indoors. Usually it only hits the frost level just before sunup which is enough to burn some leaves but not the plant, even if they are in pots. Be sure that the plants are watered well before any pending cold snap and if you have them a sheet wrapped lightly over the plants help. I am inland more than you and this works well for me.

Thanks for the info! They are holding out so far!

We got crushed this year.
I'm hoping most of it comes back but we definitely lost about 15 palms.
My ti plants I grew from cuttings I brought back from Hawai'i look very beat down.
Lost all my night blooming jasmine - a huge stand.
I've got the largest "elephant ears" I've ever seen anywhere and they are done.
Wild gardenia - a wonderful specimen. Gone. Papayas - gone. My 20' avocado that was to start fruiting this year. Done. Lemons, limes - done. All plumerias and all crotons and all the bananas gone. I'm not sure if it will recover or not. Even the queen palms got burnt and they're hardy.

I did find out a few pretty hardy species of plants this year though and I can that queen palms can take it pretty cold. We got to 19 a few nights in a row. Pindo palms as well. Also my chinese fan palms did OK under the trees - the lady fingers did well. But mostly - it was a beat down.

I thought I lived in Florida but I was wrong.

On 2010-01-28 19:47, pablus wrote:

We got crushed this year.
I'm hoping most of it comes back but we definitely lost about 15 palms.
My ti plants I grew from cuttings I brought back from Hawai'i look very beat down.
Lost all my night blooming jasmine - a huge stand.
I've got the largest "elephant ears" I've ever seen anywhere and they are done.
Wild gardenia - a wonderful specimen. Gone. Papayas - gone. My 20' avocado that was to start fruiting this year. Done. Lemons, limes - done. All plumerias and all crotons and all the bananas gone. I'm not sure if it will recover or not. Even the queen palms got burnt and they're hardy.

I did find out a few pretty hardy species of plants this year though and I can that queen palms can take it pretty cold. We got to 19 a few nights in a row. Pindo palms as well. Also my chinese fan palms did OK under the trees - the lady fingers did well. But mostly - it was a beat down.

I thought I lived in Florida but I was wrong.

Arrrrr!!!

Pablus, any chance the cold knocked out any of the invasive non-native plants you guys are having trouble with?

Pablus, I am in the same boat....Over the last few years I have invested much time and money to my back yard with what I thought were cold tolerant tropicals...Bismarkia Palm, Washintonia palm, queen palm, chinese fans, and caranry islands...I am up n of you in Ocala and my stuff is crushed as well....clip the dead off and hope that it comes back.

Yeah, don't count them all out yet!

Many hardy sub-tropicals mimic deciduous plants in colder (though not freezing) climates, dying back (to the ground) and then re-emerging when the days become longer, sunnier, and warmer. We lose out Mint, Taro (Elephant Ear), Banana, Ginger and Heliconia pretty much every winter, but since it's well established, it all returns every Spring.

As far as citrus goes, they actually can stand quite a bit of cooler weather with little harm, if you take a few precautions. The thing that is a killer for citrus is icy wind and having dew freeze on their leaves. We prune the citrus here at "Lund Manor Estate Farms" to a smaller, bush-like shape and then are able to protect them by building a "cold frame" with bamboo poles (harvested from our Vivax) and plastic sheeting. Eventhough NorCal has gotten down to freezing several nights this winter, we've been able to keep the wind and freezing dew off the key limes and they've kept their blooms. :)

Did I miss Monstera Deliciosa ? Monstera's are Tiki and Movie favorites. They grow indoors and out in moderate to tropical very nicely.

Not that I've seen so far. We've got this vine that they sell at nurseries around here that absolutely has taken over my yard. I didn't plant it - it seeds itself - it grows from root shoots - it won't be stopped. It's a little yellow trumpet vine that is the most insidious thing ever. Nothing stops it short of ripping it out of the ground and that man's work for days at my house. It seems fine... of course.

Yeah, I looked around today and we lost a lot more than I originally thought. Some of them are for sure dead. I've been growing this stuff for a decade or more and can't believe what I'm seeing.

But the bamboo is good. And the yuccas. So I don't have to start from scratch.

It seems fine... of course

So much for the silver lining to your cloud. We get a cold snap every 10 years or so, kills all the young ficus trees

On 2010-01-29 11:44, pablus wrote:
We've got this vine that they sell at nurseries around here that absolutely has taken over my yard. I didn't plant it - it seeds itself - it grows from root shoots - it won't be stopped. It's a little yellow trumpet vine that is the most insidious thing ever. Nothing stops it short of ripping it out of the ground and that man's work for days at my house.

I feel the same way about the Oxalis that is contantly trying to overtake my fern mound.... GGGRRRRR!!

photo is from http://pirateneo1.blogspot.com website

I have a little different problem. We live in the desert and the RAIN killed 6 eucalyptus trees. The ground behind the trees is higher and very salty, our recent SoCal rains washed all that salt into my trees, I don't think they'll make it except the big one on the end. Three of the trees were ones I planted a month ago to replace trees killed by last year's rain :(

Yikes... I first posted on this thread almost 5 years ago.

I've limit my tropical experiments to taro, 'awa, banana, kalamansi, and ginger that I winter indoors, but periodically check out the following sites for Zone 7 inspiration:

http://www.panamajohn.com/ (Use IE; not Firefox friendly)

http://bocajoe.smugmug.com/Tropical-Plants-in-a-Non

Thought you all might dig the sites.

Hey thanks for the links. It gives me hope that I can actually have that tropical paradise in my own yard.

On 2010-02-08 17:23, ainokea wrote:

http://bocajoe.smugmug.com/Tropical-Plants-in-a-Non

Thought you all might dig the sites.

Flowering Plumeria in Virginia?!

The pictures are wonderful. I want the blog that goes with them, detailing how they do it!!

Oh man I can smell that plumeria from here. SWEEEEEEEET.
I see some of you have lost a few beloved trees and plants. Here's a suggestion, may or may not work depending on the circumstances but try planting a canopy, trees that will protect undergrowth from the frost. It might take quite a few years to develop but it's worth a try. In the meantime you're helping Planet Earth. One tree planted by every family will reduce 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide annually from the atmosphere. So plant 2 or 3 or 10 for the families that can't. I think I have over 30 trees, front and back combined. Also plant trees that won't cause root problems with your foundation or concrete/sidewalks. (Research) One of my faves is Podocarpus Gracilior an evergreen, very few root problems if watered deep when young. Plant onward bruthas and sistahs.

Flowering Plumeria in Virginia?!

The pictures are wonderful. I want the blog that goes with them, detailing how they do it!!

You may want to browse or even join the DC Tropics group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dctropics/ - Friendly folks and they respond well to questions. You can probably pick the brains of the gardener who grows those plumerias.

Yeah, thanks JT. That's good advice. I know you're a plant man too and feel my pain.

Almost all of my stuff is under a massive canopy of oaks, but it didn't matter this freeze as it has in the past ones. I hate all this global warming, it's killing my tropicals.

[ Edited by: pablus 2010-02-11 19:52 ]

Today I saw a field of Swiss Chard and it would make a beautiful faux tropical plant; big bright green glossy leaves and vibrant red stalks and veins. Add a couple of silk tropical flowers and you're set! I picked up some seed today and I'll see how it works.

(edit) DOH! I just used the search feature and found out I'm about 8 years late with that suggestion, it was already posted in this very thread :lol:

Clay, the oldest and most divine art media;
"And now, from the clay of the ground, the Lord God formed man" Genesis 2:7
Pirate Ship Tree House

[ Edited by: MadDogMike 2013-01-13 14:23 ]

This post will twist off in a slightly different direction and then I'll attempt to bring it back on track.
This first pic shows the tops of 3 queen palms all planted at the same time. They were all approx. of equal size 2 years ago. They are sorta the canopy in my current "jungle"area. I planted it 2 years ago right next to my outdoor stand alone tiki bar. The plan was that those sitting at the bar would have a "view" of bunch of tropical and semi-tropical plants.


The long broad leaf in the foreground is from an Amaryllis I stuck in the earth last Christmas after forcing the bulb to bloom. Surprise to me-It's doing well.

Worked okay til we built a new patio which is were we now hang out more often.
This is lookin towards the new patio-the new jungle will be directly left (north)
I cut the cactus (peruvian red apple) down to a foot every year or so. The Mexican weeping bamboo in the center will go into the new jungle area.

View from dining area in new patio towards new jungle area (unplanted). Was a bare cinder block wall before I erected the dog eared fence trimmed with 3" bamboo. This area was ideal for my tomato's (lottsa heat). The wood should make it a little cooler and it also affords us some privacy from the church parking lot on the other side.

new jungle area east to west followed by opposite view.

now to get back on track, these are some of the plant's that are going into the new jungle are.
Colacosia (will get very big in the ground), flamethrower palm, Fern "Court Jester",and Philodendron "Xanadu" (dwarf).

Australian sword fern and an arrowhead that I may not put in the ground. In certain places they tend to takeover.

Mexican weeping bamboo. !0-15' tall

Monstera, foreground

Green striped bamboo.12-15', clumper

Chamaedora (bamboo palm, 8-10'.

Australian tree fern. probably won't put into ground til I see how much shade I'll have come summer.

This Red banana was left outside unprotected during our recent california cold snap. It will probably recover with no ill effect.

This dwarf banana was also left outside unprotected. I have no doubt that it will fully recover.

A plumaria that surprisingly still has it's leaves although they're suffered some leaf burn.

The last two pix are some plants that may or may not be used.

The new area is ready for planting. I'm hopeful that I can get em in the ground this month and give em an early start so they'll burst forth in the spring and fill the area quickly. I also have a Bottle palm ( Hyophobe Lagenicaulis) that will be the focal point in this jungle garden-Google this palm,it's a real exotic looker. I'm a member of the Los Angeles International Fern Society so I'm gonna fill any bare areas with ferns of various kinds. I'm open to any suggestions and appreciate any and all tips and recommendations.
Cheers

[ Edited by: nui 'umi 'umi 2013-01-13 20:57 ]

Got my "jungle area" planted in January. Finally snagged a Giant timber bamboo and put it in the ground a couple of days ago, Had two episodes of Hail this morning. We'll see how things progress come spring.
Cheers
newly planted bamboo

other plants not liking the cold

Cheers

[ Edited by: nui 'umi 'umi 2013-02-08 13:30 ]

I feel you David (not in a creepy way,man!) this unusual cold snap, here in Cali
is wreaking havoc on my Cannas, Banana plants, plumaria's etc.

I usually have flowering Canna's all year round here & I am going to have to cut them low
for the first time ever.

Thank God Global Warming isn't real :P

Check the forecast for Boston, ATP! 2+ feet of snow, hurricane force winds, "Be prepared to stay in for 48 hours." This sucks! I'll be in The Mauna Kai Lounge experimenting, 'til further notice!

Not to diminish your impending Hella-Storm Big K, but I expect
Boston to have real weather, especially in the winter

But us Californians never get used to real weather here, because it happens so rarely :lol:
Stay safe & warm, my friend !

This question goes out to BambooBen...or anyone else with experience in apple bananas.
We've been thinking about planting an apple banana tree. We are in Huntington Beach, CA. We've got a space that's about 4'x4' to put it. But we are worried about how invasive the roots are because it'd be near the house and a concrete slab. It would get direct sun for about 6 hours. We've been really successful at growing tropical plants(which is surprising cuz I don't have much of a green thumb). Trying to figure out how hard they are to grow, maintain and if its possible in our space.

Here's to hoping for bananas in my own yard! I'll have banana bread for everyone if it works out!
thanks for any help!
MaiTaiMe

On 2013-04-14 10:20, MaiTaiMe wrote:
This question goes out to BambooBen...or anyone else with experience in apple bananas.
We've been thinking about planting an apple banana tree. We are in Huntington Beach, CA. We've got a space that's about 4'x4' to put it. But we are worried about how invasive the roots are because it'd be near the house and a concrete slab. It would get direct sun for about 6 hours. We've been really successful at growing tropical plants(which is surprising cuz I don't have much of a green thumb). Trying to figure out how hard they are to grow, maintain and if its possible in our space.

Here's to hoping for bananas in my own yard! I'll have banana bread for everyone if it works out!
thanks for any help!
MaiTaiMe

Not to speak for Ben, But this does not sound like the best location for a Banana Plant
The base can get thick & they usually need a bit of water which can be problematic to the slab
they also need more light (12 hours a day is preferred)

also you will need plenty of clearance for the leaves of the plant which can get very large
and one last thing, Banana Plants attract Ants.

Mai tai me, I have several kinds of bananas growing in the backyard and bananas are real easy to take care of and maintain. Make sure you grow them next to a concrete wall or something like it, they like protection from the wind and they like warm places in order to grow. The roots are not invasive and your 4 by 4 space should be enough for the plant to grow. the amount of sun you have is fine the plant can grow up to 10 to 12 feet so maybe it can get even more sunlight as it grows. Make sure it gets plenty of water and fertilizer at first until the plant is established. It is a beautiful tropical plant and it is a perfect background for other plants or potted plants that you might want to put around it.. the only danger really is the strong winds that we get at times, make sure you are watching the plant and you might need to attach the plant by a rope to the wall or something so it doesn't brake. Hope this helps.

We have one of these Sapphire Skies Yucca plants and have now had it 2-3 years. It is doing great here in zone 5B (Mid Missouri)
It is a columnar yucca which forms a stalk as it grows and gets taller as opposed to other yuccas that stay the same height and do not form a stalk.

From the nursery tag: "Truly one of the most beautiful yuccas for the garden, and certainly the most cold hardy of the trunk forms. A short needled selection with striking baby-blue foliage that radiates out of the central stalk. In 10 years you can expect a 4-5' specimen. Dry Winter soils a must." This is the first year I have trimmed the brown lower needles and this revealed our trunk. It made the plant look much more impressive! The photo below is not our plant but shows what you can expect. I think we will have to find some more of these.

With a milder than average Winter here I have uncovered the banana stumps already and most are shooting up new stalks. Still had to cover them a couple of times due to low overnight temps but they are happy. I used to cut the stalks off at or near ground level when they died in the freezing fall temps but have learned that I do not have to do that and by leaving them 12-18 inches or so, they return better next Spring. If you thought you could not grow banana plants where you are, you should try this one.

I'm surprised no one brought up the book Palms Won't Grow Here and Other Myths. Great book on growing tropical plants in temperate gardens. With the advice in that book I've grown an Ice Cream banana to fruit, eaten a pineapple I grew myself, and sniffed plumeria on my deck. All of this in Pittsburgh. I'd post pictures, but I'm moving and don't have my plants right now.

Unusual Philodendrons work quite well for both Polynesian (tropical) and Modernist looks.

The upside is they can be overwintered (and even grown full time) quite easily indoors, and in many cases can get enormous for the jungle appearance.

I run a nursery in Brevard County, Florida that specializes in rare an unusual tropical plants, with a collector's emphasis on Philodendron.

I ship nationwide- every week there's something interesting for sale online:

http://www.ExoticaTropicals.com

some other plants we carry for those in warmer areas are Heliconia (Lobster Claws) Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees, Alocasia, Anthurium, Ginger etc etc

Cool Philodendrons make excellent Tiki Room additions..

[ Edited by: fatuhiva 2016-05-15 12:34 ]

Very cool! We just replaced our backyard fence and we can now grow our tropical garden.

Have a few suggestions for this thread. I'm in zone 9, Sunset 14 (SFBay) and always loved the look of the coconut palm. Doesn't grow here but when planning our yard looked for more cold tolerant palms we could use here with a similar look. I'd highly recommend people in this general zone range checking out the cross between a Butia and a Queen (xButiagrus, commonly referred to as a mule palm, the seeds are sterile thus the nickname). It's more expensive than a Queen since it's generally hand-polinated, but young trunking palms do grow pretty fast once in the ground for a few years. The Northern California Palm Society in their Species section indicates it has tolerated 15F--our coldest has been 25F. Gorgeous canopy, quite a large spread so keep in mind when planting near structures. When mature the canopy provides some nice shade. Here's a few photos of two mature ones we have. I can post a photo of a younger one if requested. They love the summer heat of our inland valley BTW.

If you live in an inland hot area like us, we found that SunPatiens, a hybrid of impatiens (shade loving) does very well here. It's an annual for us unless we provide frost cloth protection during our colder winter days. We got an extra year or two from them that way before we decided to replace.

Sabal minors are a great choice for a 6ft range non-trunking fan palm. Also takes our heat and cold nicely.

I need some suggestions of what to plant around my Lagoon. The plants must be able to deal with direct sunlight. And these are old pics, btw, I have a bunch of aquatic plants in the actual pond now.

Thanks!!

"I need some suggestions of what to plant around my Lagoon."

That plant in your picture in the yellow pot, we had one of those and it was not doing so well so I told my wife to just plant it in the ground out of the pot and we would dig it up when it dies in the winter this was the start of summer.

Well that plant took off! it loved it.
Man we hated to kill that one, but it got so big we did not want to mess with bringing it inside for the winter (Ohio)

Madagascar Palms are great too, they grow kinda fast as well.
We take some plants that are in pots and plant the pot and all below ground as well.
So these are our house plants, then pop em out back to the house in the winter.

Madagascar Palm
https://www.google.com/search?q=madagascar+palm&sa=N&biw=1280&bih=633&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ved=0ahUKEwin4rPr8pbNAhVGpR4KHe8wArc4ChCwBAga

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2016-06-07 14:56 ]

Luckydesigns, aren't you in a Zone 10 area (no need for cold hardy ones if so)? You have a whole world of cool palms to choose from in that case. Since I'm in Zone 9, I kind of wear blinders on the more tropical southern cal palms and plants so not best person to reply for your area. I like your Robelinis palms along the yard wall and the tiki along the house wall.

You might want to check out the Palm Society of Southern California to learn more about palms and plants that grow in your area. They are very active. You have a lot of palm sources down that way too. I'll also mention that a lot of socal palm people post on PalmTalk.org. BTW for cold hardy palm people, PalmTalk has people in cold areas (ie Iowa, TN, NY, UK, Japan etc) posting in a Cold Hardy section. We've learned a lot about palms from the local palm societies and forums like PalmTalk.

Palm Society of Southern Calif -- http://palmssc.org
Palm Society of Northern California -- http://www.palmsnc.org/index.htm
PalmTalk palm forum -- http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/

Oh, right on. Thanks for the suggestion. And the plant in the pot is no longer there. That was my attempt at 'dressing up' the pond for a photo. Haha...
Do you guys have a recommendation of a palm that stays small? I don't want some giant tree dwarfing the pond in a couple of years.

The Madagascar Palm does not grow that fast.
Here is ours after ten years in a pot. 4 foot tall?

The vine in the pots is potato vine.
It is a good hanging creeping vine.

Cool, thanks!

On 2016-06-07 17:56, Polly_Nesia wrote:
Luckydesigns, aren't you in a Zone 10 area (no need for cold hardy ones if so)? You have a whole world of cool palms to choose from in that case. Since I'm in Zone 9, I kind of wear blinders on the more tropical southern cal palms and plants so not best person to reply for your area. I like your Robelinis palms along the yard wall and the tiki along the house wall.

You might want to check out the Palm Society of Southern California to learn more about palms and plants that grow in your area. They are very active. You have a lot of palm sources down that way too. I'll also mention that a lot of socal palm people post on PalmTalk.org. BTW for cold hardy palm people, PalmTalk has people in cold areas (ie Iowa, TN, NY, UK, Japan etc) posting in a Cold Hardy section. We've learned a lot about palms from the local palm societies and forums like PalmTalk.

Palm Society of Southern Calif -- http://palmssc.org
Palm Society of Northern California -- http://www.palmsnc.org/index.htm
PalmTalk palm forum -- http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/

Those are helpful references, Poly Nesia
I am also interested in small scale palms but know jack about plants and have clay type soil, I have been advised is not ideal for palms. Still, there are obviously gazillions of palms growing in Southern California. And then, there is the drought that we are dealing with. Guess it's time to start researching.