Tropicals up north

Checkout this garden in the pic below, just lovely

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tropesque/msg1117014320866.html?36

I have grown castor, bananas and others in the past in my yard

wow that gardenis stunning, how do you grow banana's do you bring them indoors over winter??
jen

We can grow castor here.
I had seeds this past season,but did not get them started.
I start them in the house in peat pots.
The ones I have are for Gibsonii, which has darker blue grey leaves.

I have castors every year in my garden.. I love them, hate cleaning them up in the fall though.. We have the giant ones and they were about 12 feet tall this year.. Hubby says they were taller but never measured.. The fence in this picture is 6 feet high.. I love these things..
jen

But what a beautiful feature in your garden.
Caroline

I love them dont get me wrong, couldn't go a season without them.. We have two corners like this every year.. My husband has this huge knife more like a sword and he hacks them down with that.. There solid on the bottom, the rest is hallow.. And getting the root out in the spring is really tough.. We wait till spring to take out the root cause the ground is softer. yesterday we bundled up all our castor beans, elephant ears and canna into 4 foot piles, wrapped them with twine and are waiting in the driveway for yard waste day.. They wont like us thats for sure lol.. we have a 4 foot wide by 3 feet high pile, with about 10 bundles..
I say if you havent grown them you really should give them a try..
jen

For those interested in growing the castors look into the zanzibariensis ( the tallest green castor ), and there is a dark purple rare ones I just purchased on ebay from onalee seeds ( ebay seller ) from Florida.

smurf428....what kind of cannas do you have and where do you by your elephant ears? The hardiest bananas for our cold region is the musa basjoos. You can leave them in the ground and just mulch it like crazy

I have the Zanzibariensis they are the tallest ones in my picture.. However i only got a few seeds from them cause they are last to seed and my growing season just isn't long enough.. I've been looking for the purple ones for 2 years now, have recieved them once each year to grow them and find out they are just simple the red ones.. I want the ones that the leaves are almost black as well as the seed pod.. I think i have given up on those though..

Canna's i have are
Musifolia(if you dont have this one GET IT!! its my fav) , flaccida, Erebus, Red Stripe, yellow indica, Amazon Butterfly, Ambassadour, Florence Vaughan, majella's, pearly shells, Polly Gay, Red King Humbert, tropical Rose, Tropical White, Tropicanna, and Wyoming.. I've ordered seeds that are on there way for Burgundy Blush, tuerckheimii, warscznickii, Intrigue, and Robert Kemp..

I got a pot or elephant ears (the normal ones you find every where) from my hubbies grandfather.. The rest i purchased from a wonderful DGer however i had to have them shipped to my friends in the states cause most wont ship to canada.. I found this spring alot of the black magic's at a few nurseries i went to so they are making there way out here now..
Elephant ears i have
Alocasia Stingray, Alocasia macrorrhizos Variegata, Alocasia odora, Colocasia esculenta Big Dipper, Colocasia esculenta Black Magic, Colocasia esculenta Black Runner, and the regular Colocasia esculenta..

Musa Sikkimensis is a new banana out its hardy to zone 7 but could go colder with mulch.. I have been reading its easier to grow from seed and easier to grow then basjoo over all.. i plan to order some seeds and give it a try this winter.. They can get up to 9 feet in 6 months so its worth a try.. I dont think i would trust mulch i would rather just bring the pot indoors in cold storage then risk looking my plant..

Some people say they just mulch there ears in zone 6 but man on man i would cry if they didn't come up.. Most of mine other then the regular ones are only there first year so they are still small, but in time they will be huge..

heres a pic of half my rock garden with ears and banana canna.. The big ears are the regular ones and the others black majic, black runner, and small green ones are big dipper..

just came across this one too Yunnan Banana Musa sp. "Yunnan" says its hardy to zone 5 if mulched...

Beautiful plants in your rock garden.
I have some canna seeds which I am going to try after Christmas.
I had one plant this last summer and it did well.
Now I am anxious to try growing them from seeds.

I love growing cannas from seed, in fact if they seed i would rather get the seeds then a root. I planted Ambassadours this year and got 2 plants with pink dotted centers and one that has a solid pink center.. I know you dont always get the same plant as the mother plant and for me thats what makes it so fun..

smurf428....any chance of getting some rhizome tubers of your cannas? I find the seeds take longer to grow and it's just quicker to throw the tuber in soil

Mick

mine are all first year theres 4 that were from last year but i gave all but one root of each away. I really dont have enough to trade this year.. next year if they spread better then they did this year then i will..

Mick
I may have extra tubers in the spring of my Canna's who are over wintering in my neighbors cold room. They would be Wyoming and Austrailia that I would have some to share if they over winter well.
I was looking for some of the Banana Canna's to start after seeing them here. Having some trouble finding a supplier for them and they sure weren't in the G houses this year.
Ann

Ann....that will be lovely if you can manage to spare some in the spring...look forward to it. I love Cannas

Cheers

Mick

Mick
No problem just remember to ask about march or so. I'm sorry I forget and I write it down and then I loose the paper. I think my marbles are rolling off all over the place once in a while so it will be easier if you can remember for me. LOL
Ann

banana cannas arn't one of the more common ones found, however i think they should be.. I can always find a few red ones with green leaves, tropicanna, wyoming, and cleo, but the rest nope... Theres alot of things i think should be sold over here and they aren't like more tropical plants.. the ones you can store over winter like canna and elephant ears you think would be easier to find.. I think those would sell faster then some of the things i see.. Even hardy hibiscus.. I never see them and if you do there up around $25, i would think those given that you can keep them all year in the ground would be sold every where.. I had to order them by mail to even get one.. Just funny to me that i could go almost every store that sells plants in the spring and get a tropical hibiscus for 15-20 bucks but no hardies?? weird..

Sorry my ranting is over now lol...

Smurf....where did you order the hardy hibiscus from? I know what you mean about hardy plants and I agree with you. It's not a rant at all, I just think the garden centers haven't been bothered to think of it like that. I can't find a rose of sharon here in Ottawa, am told the zone can't handle them? I moved from a zone 5b in the Toronto area and never had a problem with my rose of sharon staying outside.

I ordered mine from Veseys in canada, however i wouldn't recommend them.. I ordered a ostrich fern (dead), toad lillies (never came up), 2 Stuttgart canna (both nothing grew) and the Jazzberry jam Hibiscus (only one that grew).. I'm not an expert grower but i have cannas and toad lillies already so there should be no different in growing new ones. I cant complain about my hibiscus it did great, but since i spent $47 us for just 1 hibiscus plant i was a little pissed and wont ever shop there again...
My mom got me a luna rose said she found it at a nursery. this was my first ever hardy hib. Until then i never knew about them.. So once she got me it and i seen that hardy zone i started to look them up.. Well yep fell in love...
I've traded for some seeds, and now i have the jazzberry jam, luna rose, Carafe Grenache, texas star red (not sure if they will come back) and way to many Hibiscus laevis.. Next year i hope to have more..
jen

Other then canna's, ears and castors.. I have 2 brugs, they are now just finished there 3rd year with me. They get stored in my basement.. By spring they look so dead no leaves anywhere.. but put them outside and boom leaves start..

has anyone grown anything else thats topical or not hardy to your zone and had sucess.. What was the winter storing like..

Could one of you explain to me what "banana" cannas are and how they differ from?tropical cannas.
I am totally ignorant on which kinds there are out there?
Thanks, Caroline.

banana canna's or Canna 'Musifolia'
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/37145/
they are just another type of canna's they have bigger leaves that look like banana trees leaves thats where the banana names comes from.. they grow the same as other canna's..
there are hundreds of cannas different colors (white, pink, fushia, red, orange and yellow) and leaves from vairgated looks to solid (bluish green, green, burgandy purple, some look almost black)

Aah-----that spells another possible addiction.

This is not a tropical,but it originated in the Mediterranean.
Trachelium---I have one plant which I started from seed in August 2009.
It has been neglected and shoved around my house,but I repotted it and in a south window---
it is now flowering. I started more seedlings in September 2010.
The Stokes catalogue has four separate colours: Blue, purple, white and burgundy.

The plant (mine is a poor specimen as they are to grow to 30 inches.)

Oh CLS is you havent grown banana canna's before they are something else.. I havent been brave enough yet to try a banana tree, but the first year i had banana cannas everyone came over and thought they were a banana tree.. The wanted to know where i got them and how i got them so big, mush of been a fortune since they were upwards of 8 feet some would say.. The i tell them they are cannas and that they just get stored in the basement and plopped back out next spring, well lets just say the list of people that want them get bigger each year.. Oh course its first come since i can only share so much with family and friends or i wont have any of my own... I do start seeds every year too.. they seem to come back pretty true from the mother
jen

I will watch for them, or ask a garden centre to bring banana cannas in.

I have seeds for banana cannas if you want some D-mail me
jen