My coldhardy tropical gardens...an experiment in the works!

I thought I would show everyone here my attempts at putting in some coldhardy tropical gardens-when I started to research this 3 months ago, I was amazed at what would survive in zone 7b. Almost everything in these pictures will stay in the ground over the winter-with some mulching in the late fall.

To give you an idea of what it looked like before I started-this is the back where I had perennial gardens that I hadn't been in for 2 yrs! You can see one of the palms that I had planted years before

here it is now

here is another section to the right of the last picture

here is the palm - a trachycarpus that was in the first picture. There is also a sabal minor in the second picture, but in the way back that was planted at the same time. I never did anything in the way of protection for either one, and its kind of amazing-we have had some rough winters, 20" of snow, solid ice for 4 days ect.

here is the last picture from this section of the yard. I should also say that the coleus and lantana I just planted in there to fill it out until these plants get bigger-they won't last thru the winter.

here is a smaller bed-if you look to the top right, you will see my first ginger bloom-its a hedychium orange! right below to the left is a psittacorum heliconia that I put in the ground and is growing very well. I will have to dig it up in the fall, but will split it up into a few different plants. The rojo banana also comes up

I hope you all can see all the different plants in these beds-I haven't figured out how to take a picture of the whole thing and at the same time show all thats in the bed. There is a hedychium ginger in the far back left, and that is a butia capitata palm in the center

this was the toughest bed to do because it is mostly in shade so I used fatsias, my selloum phildendrum-it will come back in the spring. I have some gingers in there as well, including 3 different kaempferia gingers (in front of the large rocks-still small), a sabal minor palm, a chamaerops humulis palm, and I put a clerodendren ugandense (its blooming) that I will either leave there and get cuttings to overwinter or take it out. this is one view of it

another view

What a great job you have done. I can't wait to see pics later in the season when everything is filled in.

here is another bed-this is a beautiful palm ( my favorite plant!) its a livistona chininsis . I don't know if it will survive this winter-it will be borderline, but this is the best microclimate in the yard and I will even wrap it if necessary so we'll see. A mild winter would be nice....lol there is var. shell ginger in there as well-I think it will be ok, time will tell-part of the fun of this experiment!

here is the last major bed I wish I could say everything that is in here, but I don't even remember!

this is my next section that I might do-I would like to take these crepe myrtles out and plant palms but not sure yet. They are pretty trees and I have taken out a lot of trees/shrubs to plant what I have. Everyone that comes here thinks that I have enough palms and to leave the trees! I don't think you can have enough palms!! :)

I have really enjoyed doing these tropicals, I love walking around them everyday, and I am even keeping on top of the weeding-by hand no less!
You should see the deck where I have all these smaller palms and tropicals in pots-thats a fun area too! I think I will be busy in the fall digging up the brugs ect!

thanks ardesia, I know, I can't wait to see it filled out too! I haven't enjoyed gardening like this for a while.

Tigerlily, you have done an amazing job! I can't wait for you to post pics at the end of the season for us to see how it filled out. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a mild winter so everything can get well established.
Barbara

you did a really nice job. I know how much work it is to clear out an overgrown bed too. I started on a few beds last year that had been overgrown with ferns. They're so hard to get out because they have all these runners. It took a good bit of the summer as it was a HUGE area and had overgrown way into the yard.

You have some really nice stuff in yours too! And a wonderful place to sit. I love your pathway.

Tigerlily, what a beautiful haven you've created there. In the first pic it looks like you have a flax.......the green & white strappy leaves, is it? If so, did it survive the winter? I fell in love with this plant and have it in the ground and am unsure about leaving it out.

Thank you Barbara...I would love it if you could aid in any way towards a mild winter!! lol

vcb1...I cheated a little in removing plants, I had a excavator come in and take out the stumps of the trees and shrubs, and the toughest to get out-large clumps of ornamental grasses. That claw swiped them out in one try! I sprayed a lot of roundup-does that not work with ferns? Sounds like it was an ongoing job! I had a limited amt of time to get this done because I start another annual crop in a week and I wanted to give the plants as much time as possible in the ground getting established before winter came.

Bugme, the only phormium I see in the first picture is in the front-its a bronze, but there are other phormiums of different variaties scattered throughout. I just love phormiums, and at first I had a hard time finding them, but then all of a sudden they were all over the place. Believe it or not, I found that one at Smith and Hawkins!! on sale-1/2 price-that was a happy moment!! I am going to leave them all out-I would think that you could too. I am going to mulch them-though not sure if I should totally cover them?

Oh la la! Very nice!

Very nice job!
Good luck!
Is that Cattail I see in the toughest bed shot?

Ric

Thanks for the tour.
Its going to be great when it settles in. Nice use of Color and Texture too.
Neil

Ric, the only "spikey" plants that I can see in the picture that you might think was cattail is either the ginger-'Dr. Moy' or the sabal minor palm. I do have a tree fern that I just got today that is going in that bed, cyathea cooperi, an Australian tree fern. It will improve that bed a lot, I think. Its a little shaky in terms of surviving, but this is a bed that faces south and is right up against the house, so I think it will have a chance. I want to get a dickensonia australis for there.

Thanks Neil, it was fun laying it out-I hope it all lives...or 85%-I'd be happy with that!

What's that between the ginger and the Sabal?

Ric

LOL omg...did you get me or what!!!! I just spit my water on the keyboard. Why...that's Buddy. I should have know that that was not a question that you would have been asking, i.e. that you would not have mistaken another plant for a cattail. He does blend in well-I think you were the first to see him!

great job tigerlily! it's beautiful. you've used one of my favorites...illustrus. it looks good with everything. your bed with the rojo, canna, caladium and coleus is my favorite. i vote to keep the crepe myrtles....i love the mature trunks. i have an alley of them down my driveway. enjoy!! i know how much work you've put into it. BTW, i had to go back and look at the pictures to find Buddy/Waldo! LOL

Nice beds...keep records of the inventory of plants..do that for at least 3 years. what lives and what doesn't.Will be valuable info for future use. :-)

LOL!
We have 4 cats and have had as many as 8 at once.
I'm well accustomed to cat tails in the garden shots ;-)

Ric

I would leave the crepe myrtles and plant a few more palms. I love crepe myrtles they do have some very pretty flowers. I had two bushes and last year they did great. This year they were dead. At lease we thought they were. My hubby broke off all the dead limbs and trashed them. But to our surprise they have started coming up again. There must have been some live roots there somewhere. Won't see to much this year. They are only about 3 inches tall. But we are leaving them and maybe next year they will come around.

lol I'll trade my myrtles for yours 2pugdogs, they sound alot easier to get out of the ground! I can't plant the palms there w/out removing the trees-lack of sunlight and not much heighth in there. There is a trachycarpus princeps that I just learned about-not many of them available and very cold hardy, they come from a very remote valley in China and I just have to get my grubby little hands on one! I think that would be the place for them....

Ric, we had about 20-25 cats where I lived way up this valley in the jungle on Maui, they actually controlled their population all by themselves. I had one that just loved to go in the garden and eat the cherry tomatoes-of course they all loved the avocados-including the wild boars that were up there. They would devastate a vege garden in a night-they were huge-about 300 (?) lbs. They are a cross between the European razorbacks and the polynesian pig and they are mean. Sorry, I digress....

Eclipse-I am really going to take good notes. This started because I all of the sudden decided that if I couldn't go back to live in Hawaii then I would bring it here, but I have already talked with quite a few of my landscaper customers and they are very interested in incorporating tropicals into their installation plans for both commercial and residential jobs. They just don;t know what is hardy here and there is no place to buy them, so I think I just started a second business!

Ashley, I like that bed too, its the oldest one so it looks the best. I wish you could see the ginger growing in there-that was exciting...my first bloom! I am also partial to the livistona palm bed

What is a trachycarpus princeps? Would it be hardy to zone 6? I am for all the tropicals that are hardy for my zone, and I would like to get my hands on them. So if you find one please let me know where and how much.

Linda

tigerlily you have done extremely well! It does look SO tropical. I am doing a similar thing on a smaller scale, but incorporating a few other plants into the bed. It took me a long time to get it done, you must have worked very hard on that one!

I have a small Trachycarpus princeps, assuming it is correctly named. It was only discovered a few years ago, with much effort to go back for seeds, the Chinese authorities can be difficult to deal with. Some have been selling another similar form in place of it, but mine did come from a serious grower/seller. The backs of the leaves are silvery white, and the leaf form is very rounded. they are supposed to show the white backs even when young, but perhaps young means when they resemble palm leaves. Mine was bought in autumn 2004 as a seedling and is still quite small with no proper leaves yet.

This site has all the rare palm seeds, correctly named, at the moment they don't have the seed, they add them as they become available, I think December they may be in. There is a pic on the link. if you go to home page there is an archive link of around 1,000 varieties.

http://rarepalmseed.com/

Site on hardy palms

http://members.cox.net/lholmes/

T princeps growing on a cliff face

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/palms/Trachycarpus/princeps.html

A little reading

http://www.palms.org/principes/1995/princeps.htm

There is a place advertising seedlings, but it's taking forever to load so I'll put the address

www.centralfloridafarms.com

Some good info on Trachycarpus species

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2490

2pugdogs, there are a few palms that i would try in your area-the needle palm rhapidophylum hystrix,sabal minor, trachycarpus fortunei -or any variety of trachycarpus (chinese windmill palm)-those 3 are probably the hardiest. Wallaby has a great link on hardy palms that will give you good info. I have gotten my palms from all over-locally and online nurseries and even Ebay. Google "cold hardy palm nurseries" and see what there is- if they are fairly small you may have to grow them out for a year or two before putting them in the ground. Even these palms can be susceptible to the cold when they are really small. I have gotten some of the larger ones at Home Depot for a lot less money. If you have questions-just ask me and maybe I can help you out with info.

Wallaby-thanks for the links-I had read the article but had not seen the pictures of them in the cliffs-thats amazing...what tenacious roots they must have! Yes I had seen that website for the seedling. I am going to call them and ask them if they will have more. Where did you get yours? Are you a member of the European Palm Society? I ahve been meaning to join, myself.
What are you putting in your gardens? You are warmer than me!!! You lucky dog you!!

tigerlily, I've never joined the E Palm Society, I have bought quite a lot of palm seed from the above rarepalmseeds, some from ebay. There is an enthusiast here that runs a co-operative for other growers with spare plants, not bad prices really as they take a year to get established and be saleable as a seedling. I haven't bought from him but may do sometime. There's a lot more on offer than the last time I looked, he also sold seed but I got mine elsewhere. The site is growing, he has some good information on it too on seeds.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.ison2/page12.html#Anchor1

The person I got T. princeps from was called grasstrees, he had a web site and sold all sorts of palms, tree ferns, seeds and spore as well. He was selling on ebay, but disappeared altogether, I think he was getting old and perhaps something happened.

I have a Trachycarpus fortuneii in the ground, grown from a seedling, it's in PF. Also grown from seed T wagnerianus. Washingtonia filifera which are quite big now and have got through in a cold greenhouse, a very long cold winter to -9C, a little scorched on some leaves but not real damage.

Palm seedlings, not all hardy, Chambeyronia macrocarpa, Washingtonia robusta, Trachycarpus martianus Khasia Hills form, Rhapis multifida, Livistona chinensis, Hyophorbe lagenicaulis, Pritchardia hillebrandii, Livistona muelleri, some others I'm waiting on for germination!

In the new 'tropical' bed, I have a lot of seed grown plants I started about 5 years ago, some less, Eriobotrya japonica, Paulownia tomentosa, Ficus carica, Abutilon vitifolium, Ensete ventricosum, Musa sikkimensis, Hibiscus syriacus, hibiscus Galaxy Hybrids, Lilium philippinense, Lilium Bellingham hybrid and L Dizzy, some decorative dahlias le Baron, Vancouver, Snoho Diana, a few left over speices dahlias, Salvias Black and Blue, Blue Enigma, microphylla v microphylla, gesneriifolia, A few hardy fuchsia, Penstemon ovata, hirsutus v pygmaeus, some others. Rodgersia pinnata Elegans, Dianella tasmanica, Rose Alpine Sunset, Odyssey, Jacqueline du Pre. A few Hemerocallis, Phormiums Alison Blackman, Maori Sunrise, one other can't remember the name. Yucca filamentosa and Echinops batannicus from seed.

I could have missed a couple, oh yes, Pseudowintera colorata, Rhododendron macabeanum, Photinia Red Robin, Acer negundo Flamingo, seed grown Leptospermum nitidum. Veratrum nigrum (invasive?). Tinantia pringlei AIM 77.

Gee that's a lot isn't it! I do wonder how they will cope when bigger, but for now they just have to learn to get along! I have oodles of things in pots too, another bed is in order! Cannas, Colocasia, Hippeastrum San Antonio, lots of bamboos, Brugmansias, Agapanthus, the list goes on!

we need to get together here!!!! lol have any of these gone thru a winter outside? What about the ensete? is that in the ground? Everywhere I have read about them, they all said hardy to zone 9, but then yesterday, I came across a website (or online nursery will have to go find it) that said they were growing them in 8 and that they were hardy to 7. That kind of threw me, and I almost planted mine today-but I love the way they look and I think I will keep it in a pot on the deck where I see it more. There was another ensete they said was hardy to 7. I love the phormiums and you have several online nurseries that sell a great selection, but I haven't figured out the ordering and converting of the money..lol. Have yours gone thru the winter? I worry about the moisture here in the winter for them as well as the cold, but I have at least 7 in the ground. I can't grow the washingtonias here for that reason-too wet in the winter and they are a desert palm

Speaking of bamboos, there is one that I really want-its bambusa multiplex 'Alphonse Kerr'-have you tried that? I know I am pushing the zone on it-but just a little I think! lol

They have all been growing first in the cold greenhouse, then outside in pots. That is the plants in the bed and the Trach fortuneii. The ensete I brought in the house (spare bedroom!) for winter, it need to go in the ground to get real growth, then you need a fork lift truck to dig it and a warehouse to store it! I am going to risk it, look at the read ups on

www.jungleseeds.co.uk

he has some Ensete Maurelli in the ground and lots of other things, they have been growing tropicals for many years. You can build a wire cage around and stuff with straw, someone a little south of here does that and has a plantation!

The Musa sikkimensis I had 2 lots in the same batch germinate slightly apart, in July and late Sept 04. I left 2 of the first bigger ones out, one in a garage with a south window, one in the cold greenhouse, only in a largish deep clematis type pot. The garage one lost half the stem and has been slower to take off than the other one which lost all the stem to the stub, but has made a good new growth with a pup too, both in the ground now. The ensete has established, none have been in the ground for long, it is fattening up.

you should talk to bwilliams, he will tell you these things can be grown with a deep woodchip mulch, they regrow from the corm.

I have collected a few bamboos, Phyllostachys aureosulcata spectabilis, Semiarundinaria yashadake Kimmei, Sasa veitchii, Phyll. vivax aureocaulis, Phyll. bambusoides Castilloni, Hibanobambusa tranquillans Shiroshima. There are a few more I would like, but for the moment treading water! They all live outside in pots, some still small.

My Phormiums get through no trouble, we do have longer cold and not as much heat as you might have, with some things you could overwinter better because the heat ripens them and toughens them up, I lost a couple of things this year that I've had for a few years, the winter never ended. Phormiums don't mind moisture as long as they are well drained, I have sandy soil but they are tough.

A long shot of the bed

Tigerlily, LOL! and I thought the woods behind my house was starting to look like Florida! Of course, you got a lot more palms and such like that can grow where you live than I do.... BTW, have you considered adding Cordyline australis to your mix? I've been doing some research, and apperantly they are reliably root hardy in Zone 5b! (according to 2Lazy2P alpine research gardens in Colorado Springs), and I noticed two in containers with full NW exposure that almost made it through a typical winter where I lived (they stayed green, even when temps dropped into the single digits, and they look like they died when it went below 0), so I'm giving them a try myself (I think they look pretty.... sort of like a cross between a grass, a yucca and a palm).

Also, have you tried any Jubeas or the Silver form of the Chamaerhops humilis.... I heard that it may even be hardy in my area.....

Also, after reading David Francko's book, I'm half tempted to try some of the hardier varieties of S. palmetto.... For now, I'll be sticking with my 3-gallon neelde palms, and my 1-gallon S. minor 'Mc Curtain's and T. takils.....

It will be interesting to compare notes next spring (anything that I have that makes it here aughtta be bullet-proof down where you live).

Wallaby...loved the picture of your garden...isn't it hard waiting for everything to grow out??? lol I saw the fig in your picture-wait til that baby grows up!! Mine is huge-probably 15-20' wide and 15' high. Why aren't you putting those sikkimensis in the ground? I think they will do fine.
I just went to Plants Delight yesterday and guess what I found??? A Tracycarpus princeps!!! The real one with the silver backs-I saw seedlings of these and another Trachycarpus (from Marty and Toby-the same that blew the takil variety) that were supposed to be priceps-only theirs did not have the silver backs and it was very obvious! It doesn't speak well for their reputation. Anyway, looking at these two side by side, I would say that you do have the princeps-its a beautiful palm-very different than the other trachys.

I also got a bunch of other interesting plants and I think I have no choice but to take at least some of the crepe mrytles down-maybe leave one, and all those horrible barberrys and youpon hollies down, down, down lol. Today I have a friend coming with a chainsaw! Got to get these plants in the ground before cold weather comes!! I feel like a person possessed!!!

Hikaro-they had a few more of the princeps if you call and ask them, I think they will sell you one. We happened to be talking to Tony and I asked him about it and he said we could have one each-he wasn't selling them to the public. I know you want one!!! lol

fogot to show this picture of the undersides of the leaves this is the Trachycarpus princeps-does this look like yours Wallaby?

tigerlily, how big is your T. princeps? Could you post us a pic? I still don't know if mine is a real one, I would expect it to be as the seller was a serious grower, it still has to get proper leaves I think, I'm not sure if they show the white backs at the baby stage, but it is a while since I got it (at least 1.5 years) and it's slow to bulk. They are supposed to from an early age. I'll take a pic later, the backs are green.

If it happens not to be correct, I may get one from the guy with the seedlings, hopefully they are correct, seed is expensive but may be worth it. The T. martianus khasia Hills form is a nice one.

http://www.rarepalmseeds.com/pix/TraMarKha.shtml

I am worried about many of the plants I have put in and the size they can get, I have them too close I know for the size they can get, but while they are growing I can fill in and move things later if need be, then I have to find more space!

I have put the two Musa sikks that I left in the greenhouse/shed in the ground, they will stay there. No room for the rest, another bed is due.

I would love to visit Plant Delights, but couldn't trust myself, so many interesting plants. We do have Crug Farm Plants here who will be doing mail order soon,but haven't yet managed to get set up, probably too busy. They are plant hunters with Dan Hinkley.

This is the M sikk that lost all the stem and has a pup.

That was quick! No, mine's not that big, I wonder if someone could tell me at what stage it develops the white?