Happy New Year...Ti for Thee

Downloaded some photos of groups of Ti I have planted...if anyone (DAVE?) has any names for them....I would love to know them....

This first is Pink Diamond (I am using the name I know it by if I have it...many have tons of names....)

New Guinea Black (I am saving seeds from these to grow out...maybe do some crosses if it will ever stop raining!)

I don't know this one...LOVE the pink petioles!

This one is either Tsunami or Earthquake...not sure...really wierd!

Red Rooster Tail

This is a mini...very sweet and colorful and will take a lot of sun....

I 'think' this is Hawaiian Feather...not sure.

Took photos to remind me what the groups will look like after I prune them and they grow back...they badly need it!!! And I need the color in more places....

This is a mini...very dark foliage. Menehune?

Not sure about the name of this one...VERY broad leaves...lower ones are almost black.

Beautiful Ti's - they have become a favorite of mine in the past year. I have a small selection. I think the last one you posted maybe Black Magic?
I have a couple of minis too. Love them!!

There are SO many possibilities with Ti!!! I love combining them and making nice contrasting 'arrangements'.... Bob likes to plant them out in straight rows like soldiers at attention....funny how the right brain/left brain thing works......

When I cut some of them back (the really common ones) I strip all the leaves off and use them as mulch... The leaves make GREAT mulch.... The good ones I make more of. Hope to get some new ones with crosses....

Oh good suggestion about the mulch.

I love cordylines! Australian growers do quite a bit of breeding over here as well. Have you checked out the new International Cordyline Society website? It has a great photo gallery of cultivars. http://www.cordyline.org/
This one is New Guinea Fan. It grows in an unusual fan shape. I've got a tray of seedlings growing, it'll be interesting to see if they all retain the fan shape. Ann

That is quite stunning!!

Thanks Dutchlady! Here's the front of my house. A bit over the top but I love the color especially in the rainforest where it's so overwhelmingly green.

How wonderfully lush looking that is!! The color is wonderful in those surroundings.
I had to look up where you were though...

I like to mass them. So cheap and easy to do.

Don't worry most Australians would have to look it up too :). El Arish is a tiny WW1 settlement town sandwiched between two World Heritage areas (Australian Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef)

OOOOO I love that fan!!!! Gorgeous.

Will check out their website...thanks.

So...you are up north of Cairns? We live in similar places!!!!

Say...I have an old bed of Ti that has been neglected for a while...I need to 'goose' it as it lacks a lot of nutrition and I need to cut many of them back...but there's a fair bit of moss on the stems. Should I cut them, wipe off the moss and then fertilize....or just leave the moss there? What would you do. Lots of rain lately!!!

Carol

Happy New Year; Hau'oli Makakiki Hou!

Here is my 'bronze baby' dwarf ti

Another dwarf Ti. I put the measuring tape there to show the length of the leaves.

I don't know what this one is called but I love its stripey foliage.

Really nice minis...I love the dark ones...Hetty. Maybe we can trade in the spring???

Dave...you have any thoughts on taking off the moss?

OMGodess...I see sun!!!

Carol

Carol, I'm actually about two hours south of Cairns. It's similar to the Daintree bur we have the dubious honor of being the wettest area in Australia, more rain than Cairns or the Daintree. I'm no great expert but I'd probably fertilize first, wait a bit and then cut back. More vigor means quicker shooting and less chance of the ends rotting or dying back. Not sure about the moss issue.
Dutchlady love your minis.
Metrosideros, is that a cordyline endemic to Hawaii? We've got a similar one here.
Ann

Happy to trade anytime, Carol!!

Love the Ti's! Mine are camped out in the makeshift greenhouse. A couple around the corner have some in their front yard, and even after the snow they seem to be doing fine! ?????!

Happy New Year; Hau'oli Makakiki Hou to everyone also!

Great pics, Carol! Love 'em!

Jeanne

Pogo. - I just fertilized.

The green ti was used by the Hawaiians for everything from food to clothing. It was the root the bad boys on Pitcairn used to brew the moonshine (I think it is called O'okole hau). Not sure of that spelling but it is very graphic....

I know Cairns, and I know up to Port Townsend (?) from Brisbane. Nice country. Didn't know it was so wet!

All right you guys! You have my attention! Ha! ha! As if I weren't hooked on enough plants! Going tropical in the Oklahoma backyard. Yes. I know. Impossible you say? Well I am giving it the Okie try! Ha! ha. Now. Tell me. What is a cordyline and what is a Ti? I think those pictures are beautiful and looks like something I must have! So. Educate me. Please!

Cordyline fruticosa is the bot. name. 'Ti' is, I think, Hawaiian. The original is the solid green big leafed thing Dave posted...the others in my post are crosses. None of the colored ones come true to seed....and the seedlings produce some really interesting variations.... There is a species called Cordyline australis...which is different - will post pictures of some of those too...they aren't as varied. I believe they are a very primitive genus - related to the Dracaena. They will take a light freeze and come back...but slowly.... All of them thrive in the sun except some of the leaves with white and or yellow which prefer shade/bright indirect light. At last count, friends of mine had over 400 different leaf shapes/colors/growth patterns etc. They are SO trouble free and really easy to start from a piece of the cane..... You could have one specific plant and it might have 3-6 (or more) names, depending on the family you get it from, what youy call the one you found growing by the side of the road, what someone calls it in a book...NOTHING is standardized by the names. For instance, this one is called
Shubertii
Hawaiian Flag
Turkey Tail

And probably other names too. This one has a thick cane and the leaves are HUGE...it is a BIG Ti...while other are quite small and lots inbetween....

The pictures you posted are BEAUTIFUL! I have a couple of dracaenas as houseplants. One was my mothers I inherited when she died. Its leaves are solid green. I believe this one is a very common houseplant. The other I received from someone. Has two stalks. The leaves are green with white stripes. Can't figure out why it gets brown spots on the leaves though.
Can you tell me how I would begin to shop for plants like those you posted?

Carol, Townsville is only 2 1/2 hrs south of us but is in a rain shadow so alot less rain. Heres a little something that I cut and pasted about our climate:
CLIMATE A feature of the wet tropics of north-east Queensland is a high rainfall that is concentrated within a four-month period. Compared with tropical rainforests elsewhere in the world, the wetter parts of the north-east Queensland region lie at the 'wet' to 'extreme wet' end of the hydrological spectrum. Widespread overland run-off, even on steep slopes, is a common phenomenon that is uncharacteristic of other wet tropical rainforests in the world. It results from the high rainfall intensity combined with saturated soil profiles. Mean annual rainfall ranges from 4000mm near the coast to 1200mm at the western extremity, over 60% of which falls in summer (December-March). It is much higher on the mountain ranges with, for example, 9140mm recorded on the summit of Mt Bellenden Ker for the period 1972-1979 (Walsh, 1980; Bonnell et al., 1983). Mean daily temperatures range from a maximum of 31°C to a minimum of 23°C on the coast, and are about 5°C lower in winter. The tablelands and uplands are cooler, with mean daily temperatures ranging from a maximum of 28°C to a minimum of 17°C in summer and from 22°C to 9°C in winter. Coastal humidity averages 78% in summer but often reaches into the high nineties (DASETT, 1987).

Needless to say, when the sun comes out here I feel like a vampire mole!!! Ann

bubba1 - as Carol said, you can start these pretty easily from a piece of the cane. They sell them in Hawaii in the souvenir shops.
I suggest you post a 'wanted' in the trade forum for starters!!

bubba...In the spring, I would be happy to send you some 'starters'...your job will be to learn how they grow. The brown spots could be due to chemicals in your water... Ti do NOT tolerate flouride...it will sink them very quickly. The best to do is to let your water sit out and airing before using it...let the chemicals flash off.

Remind me in the Spring...

Carol

Ironically, Walmart carries them here in North Central Texas. About 36" and very healthy.
Rather ordinary type but it is a start.

My walmart isn't that sophisticated. The only time of year it has plants is in spring.

Kind of an oxymoron...."sophisticated Walmart".

Moran is right. Ha! ha! ha! I don't even go there unless I must. I was so surprised to discover they carried plant lights! Now. If they just carried the light fixture to put it in! Ha! ha!

This week was a first visit to Wallyworld in a very, very longtime. Went with DD to pick up 1/2 lights. Happened that the lights and the tropicals were in the same area.

OK...You Ti folks.....a friend of mine gave me some Ti Plant seeds. How do you plant these ? Do they require any special attention? Preparation?
Thanks so much..and Thanks Bubba1 for pointing me over here....I had posted this on the Propagation forum some time ago!!