Garden Practices
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
As we continue our series on how to overwinter tropicals, we have discussed plants with bulb, rhizome, tuber, fleshy root including Musa, Canna, Alocasia, Colocasia, Xanthosoma, Hedychium, and Alpinia.
Purple flower of Tibouchina. photo credit: R. Manduca
The next types of plants are those which you will not cut back, but will still allow to lose their leaves and go dormant. These include such plants as Tibouchina, Brugmansia, Euphorbia cotinifolia, Plumeria, and Melianthus major. If they are growing in a container on your patio and the container is of a reasonable size, you may want to keep it in this container for the…
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Monday, November 15th, 2010
To continue our discuss of overwintering tropicals from last week, we will focus on the treatment for Canna, Alocasia, Colocasia, Xanthosoma, Hedychium, Alpinia is similar to that of bananas, but even easier. The elephant ears are fleshy tubers, while the Canna, Alpinia and Hedychium are rhizomes. They all can take a slightly harder frost. This comes in handy if you cannot harvest them immediately from the garden. I often do not have the time to get into the garden at the first frost to take care of all my garden chores. Several frosts will often kill off the tops of these plants…
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Tuesday, November 9th, 2010
As fall approaches many gardeners start to make preparations for the end of the garden season. As much as we wish the season would go on forever we know that an inevitable killing frost looms around the corner.
Cosby Courtyard showcased tropical containers this September. photo credit: D. Mattis
In recent years tender perennials and tropicals have been popularized by public gardens such as Chanticleer, the Scott Arboretum, and the Morris Arboretum. It is not uncommon now to see bananas, cannas, elephant ears, gingers, bromeliads, and other tropical plants used freely in home gardens.
While these plants provide a unique look there is…
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