{"id":13059,"date":"2021-04-26T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=13059"},"modified":"2021-03-13T17:19:00","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T22:19:00","slug":"planting-a-tropical-look-in-your-temperate-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2021\/04\/26\/planting-a-tropical-look-in-your-temperate-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Planting A Tropical Look In Your Temperate Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This summer,\nwhether you garden in Florida or Michigan, you can enjoy the tropical look in\nyour garden with these 5 leafy plants, which are classified as \u201cfoliage\nannuals\u201d because they are hardy in zones 10-12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Canna ‘Bengal Tiger’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Caricature\nPlant<\/strong> (Graptophyllum pictum<\/em>) in its\nnatural tropical habitat grows 6-9 feet tall, typically 4-5 feet tall in zone 7.\nIt is renowned for its colorful variegated foliage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephant Ears<\/strong> (Alocasia\/Colocasia), aka taro, are tropical perennial herbs with huge green or purple, heart-shaped, prominent veined leaves (zones 7b-9). Best sited in moist, organically-rich soil and adjacent to pools, ponds, and other water features. Mulch and irrigate during dry periods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Caricature Plant<\/strong> ((Graptophyllum pictum<\/em>)
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hardy bananas<\/strong> (Musa basjoo<\/em>) are rated hardy to northerly zone 6 and tropical Abysinian banana<\/strong> (Musa ensete<\/em>) are winter hardy in USDA Zones 10-11. \u2018Maurelii\u2019 (red Abyssinian banana) is loved for its lush green foliage splashed with maroon-red tints and reddish leaf axils. Both grow 6-10 feet tall in temperate areas. Propagate by division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tapioca Plant<\/strong> (Manihot esculenta <\/em>‘Variegata’) is grown for its attractive palmately, 3-7 parted lobed, bright green foliage with variegated yellow midrib veins. Also called bitter cassava, this milky-sapped tropical shrub grows 6-10 feet high. Leaf lobes expand to 3-8 inches long. Small, apetalous, greenish-white flowers in short terminal panicles bloom through the summer season. (Zones 8-9). Propagate by stem cuttings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canna \u2013 <\/strong>many varieties including ‘Pretoria’ (aka \u2018Bengal Tiger\u2019) – 4-6 feet tall\nplant with bright orange flowers atop lush green \/ gold veined leaves;\n\u2018Australia\u2019 – huge deep red flowers atop long, burgundy-black stalks with lush chocolate\nbrown\/ silver banded foliage; \u2018Tropicanna\u2019 – tangerine flowers atop striped red, pink, yellow, gold,\nand green foliage. Shorter\nseed-produced canna varieties are also available. Deadhead old canna blooms to\nforce reblooming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Manihot esculenta <\/em>‘Variegata’ <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

General Care<\/strong>: Tropical plants are best grown in organic-rich, moist, well-drained soil in full to partial sun. Some plants tolerate part shade. Fertilize plants regularly during spring and summer. Canna bulbs are extremely\u00a0heavy nutrient feeders.<\/strong> Site plants to protect from strong winds which can severely tatter the large leafy foliage. No serious insect or disease problems if sited and properly cared for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tropical plants can be grown in the ground or in containers. They are overwintered indoors for winter dormancy @cool 40\u00b0F or grown inside a heated greenhouse. Vegetative divisions or cuttings may be started in the fall. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This summer, whether you garden in Florida or Michigan, you can enjoy the tropical look in your garden with these 5 leafy plants, which are classified as \u201cfoliage annuals\u201d because they are hardy in zones 10-12. Caricature Plant (Graptophyllum pictum) in its natural tropical habitat grows 6-9 feet tall, typically 4-5 feet tall in zone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[760,758,757,1319,749,752,753,1561,1398,759,1037,521,778,674,1550,800,665,774,853,551,202,843,1060,812,601,729,777,630,706,876,756,113,455,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13063,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13059\/revisions\/13063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}