Hardy tropical

[PaPalmTrees]

one of my favorite cold hardy tropical plant is cast iron plant it can grow in zone 6 what is your favorite tropical looking plant?

[PaPalmTrees]

cast iron plant

[ChicagoPalma]

Nice

[PaPalmTrees]

aucuba japonica

[PaPalmTrees]

ty

[PaPalmTrees]

feel free to share your favorite hardy tropical plants

[Allen]

Here are my zone 6-8 tropicals I have in my yard.  In zone 6A just cover with 1 foot mound of wood mulch and plant a little deeper.   All Listed below will come back every year in zones 6 and up with mulch.  Mulch 6" or more wood mulch in zone 6B-7A

Colocasia (elephant Ear)

Pineapple lily

Colocasia fallax

Calla Lilly (Giant shown)

Canna indica red (Giant shown)

Canna red hubert

Musa basjoo

Canna (Dwarf size)

Canna

Canna tropicanna

Musa basjoo

hardy orchids

Hardy hibiscus (The hardiest looking tropical you can get - some hardy to zone 5)

Bamboo Canna and Colocasia

Pineapple lily

Bamboo (potted)

Christmas ferns stay green year round.  Survived -1F in a planter and still green for me

Edited February 20, 2023 by Allen

[PaPalmTrees]

u r my favorite youtube

[PaPalmTrees]

ok ty

[PaPalmTrees]

Here are some of my favorite tropical plant some of them are Hardy

[Merlyn]

I hadn't seen aucuba japonica before, that's a neat plant!  Is it leaf hardy into the mid 20s?  And...will it grow dense foliage in AM sun/PM shade?  I have been looking for something moderate sized but dense for the West side of my yard.  Viburnum hedges work okay, but they go very sparse under 6' tall after you let them grow up to 12' or so...  I kind of need something that stays dense and doesn't naturally grow much more than 8-10' tall.

[PaPalmTrees]

 aucuba japonica it's leave hardy  about 0℉ degrees You wanna grow on your north side of your house or the east 

 

Edited February 20, 2023 by PaPalmTree

[BigFrond]

Nice!  I like that pineapple lily and hibiscus.  Cannas look very lush and tempting but they spread like mint.

[realarch]

Allen, incredibly nice, well tended garden. Good plant selection and placement.

Tim

[ChicagoPalma]

I wonder how Allen just keeps them coming back every year, it would be hard to do that hear in Chicago, especially with the cold winters, unless I mulch about like one foot of the ground but of course I’m not mulching the ground by a foot.

[Allen]

2 hours ago, ChicagoPalma said:

I wonder how Allen just keeps them coming back every year, it would be hard to do that hear in Chicago, especially with the cold winters, unless I mulch about like one foot of the ground but of course I’m not mulching the ground by a foot.

You can grow hardy hibiscus and Christmas ferns.  The Other stuff planted right next to the house in a raised bed and planted deeper than normal and mulched might do it.  You put a pile of mulch like a mound.  My canna and calla lily are already coming back this year after the 25 year low -1F and 88 hours under freezing.

Edited February 22, 2023 by Allen

[PaPalmTrees]

my Canna are coming back in zone 6b after zero degrees

[ChicagoPalma]

Nice, and thanks for the advice Allen.

[abigailrshaw41]

On 2/20/2023 at 9:31 PM, Allen said:

Here are my zone 6-8 tropicals I have in my yard.  In zone 6A just cover with 1 foot mound of wood mulch and plant a little deeper.   All Listed below will come back every year in zones 6 and up with mulch.  Mulch 6" or more wood mulch in zone 6B-7A

Colocasia (elephant Ear)

Pineapple lily

Colocasia fallax

Calla Lilly (Giant shown)

Canna indica red (Giant shown)

Canna red hubert

Musa basjoo

Canna (Dwarf size)

Canna

Canna tropicanna

Musa basjoo

hardy orchids

Hardy hibiscus (The hardiest looking tropical you can get - some hardy to zone 5)

Bamboo Canna and Colocasia

Pineapple lily

Bamboo (potted)

Christmas ferns stay green year round.  Survived -1F in a planter and still green for me

Wow! What a great garden you have! That is a great collection of tropicals you have. Mulching is a great way to keep your yard looking great while saving you some money. Mulching will help to keep your yard cool, and it also helps keep moisture in your soil. Mulching will also help to keep your yard looking great while also keeping your plants healthy. Mulch is very important to protect your plants in winter, so I put wood mulch and I will do this every year. I keep the mulch about 6 inches from the trunk of the elephant ear, as the elephant ear roots are not very far into the ground and they grow up out the top and the sides of the soil. So, I mulch my tropical plants to help them survive the winters.

[metalfan]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one with a huge bed full of Colocasia fallax

[Merlyn]

Any idea on the defoliation temperature for Colocasia Fallax?  It looks like a good ground cover option, but I get 2 or 3 frosts around 25-32F each year.  I have some kind of Arrowhead Vine that's been in the front bed since before I bought the house, and it burns off every frost and regrows in the spring.  I've left it alone because it chokes out the other weeds, but it would be nice to have a hardier and interesting replacement.

[Allen]

1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

Any idea on the defoliation temperature for Colocasia Fallax?  It looks like a good ground cover option, but I get 2 or 3 frosts around 25-32F each year.  I have some kind of Arrowhead Vine that's been in the front bed since before I bought the house, and it burns off every frost and regrows in the spring.  I've left it alone because it chokes out the other weeds, but it would be nice to have a hardier and interesting replacement.

Hard frost 25-28ish will kill foliage to ground,  under canopy light frost won't phase foliage.   Pretty much like other Colocasia.  I checked on mine after our -1F lows and it's still alive in ground.  

[metalfan]

Some die back here at 22/23 like we had in the Christmas freeze this year. But those temps have become rare here. Last winter we had only 2 nights that cold, 25/25 it was unfazed.

My bed is in the open, no canopy. I never cover any of my outdoor plants. This bed of colocasia survived the 2010 Deep Freeze we had here where it was 19-22F every night for at least 10 nights straight. Until this Christmas when we had an almost similar event (that only lasted 4-5 days not 10) we have not had that sort of winter weather here at all.