Tropicals & Tender Perennials: If you were going to Hawaii, what plant would you bring back, 1 by keonikale

keonikale wrote:
Ti's were one of, if not the first, Hawaiian plant I started growing. Some I started from logs, and then others from cuttings. Only real problem with Ti's - you have to repot them almost yearly if they're growing strong, else their tap root will literally put them up out of the pot. My largest Ti has a tap root as big around as my arm at the base, it's huge.

Here's one of my largest ones about a year ago. Over the last summer I had to move it up to a 24" pot. It's already pushing itself up again out of that pot - so I'm not sure what I'm going to do this year.

I've always called my Ti's "Cordyline terminalis" and I only grow the natural green variety. Many folks like the red variety instead though.

Ti's do actually bloom, and they are quite pretty when they do so. All of mine bloomed last year, and the sheer number of (very tiny) flowers on the stalk surprised me.