tropicals for zone 7b?

Okay all of you wonderful people out there.....I am quickly falling in love with tropicals. I am a newbie and am wondering what tropicals can survuve my zone 7b winters. I have 4 or 5 varieties of cannas and a banana tree that a neighbor gave to me and I have not had to dig and store them for winter,,,just cut them down and mulch very heavily till spring.

can you all tell me what would survive.....i want would love to have a lush tropical look in my back yard.. how about elephant ears?
I went to Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia over the weekend and they had one called Storm Warning grwing ...beautiful!!! I have been unable to find any good info on them.

Any ideas?

I just learned yesterday how to use the plantfiles because I never knew the latin names a friend told me to clink on plantfiles and a screen popped up that said click here to seach for plants and click on that it takes you to another screen and then above the search button was generalized plants and if you click on that you can type in the common name . . . like elephant ear and hit search it should bring up your search.

I just did that for elephant ears and the 1st one didn't state the zones but the 2nd one brougt up Hoste Abigua Elephant Ear will grow from zone 3A to 8B so that one should work for you.

I live in 8B so what's good down here may not work for you but if you check the zones you should be ok.

I have alot of tropicals that aren't hardy here. I just leave them in pots and bring them in every year. It's getting to where there is no room for the people in my house for all the plants.

Jeri

There are many tropicals that will survive in zone 7b. Check out tigerlily123's thread here: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/630077/
A good resource is Plant Delights Nursery (http://plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/) as hardy tropicals are one of their specialties.
Many colocasias and alocasias will survive a zone 7b winter with some protection (mulch and decent drainage) but they will be slow to return in the spring. Hedychiums (gingers) are a lot more reliable. Bananas will do better if you build a "leaf cage" around the trunks to keep them from freezing.

You can grow around 50 gingers 10 bananas 50 colocasias 5 alocasias 2 tetrapanx 10000 of cannas and probably around 200 different oddities cactus trees palms aquatics and so on. This is just off the top of my head. Tony Avent at Plant delight has a pretty good collection of hardy tropicals. I am zone 6b Louisville KY we have been testing tropicals here at our nursery for over 20 years it is amazing what can survive.

I'm in zone 8b and I know a little Canadian nursery with a good tropical selection: www.tropic.ca

Maybe MichaelSC will chime in here. He lives in your area and has an impressive collection of palms and other tropicals.
Also, if you ever get to Augusta, check out the campus of the Catholic High School (there is only one in town) they are also growing many Zone 10 palms.

Thanks all for giving me some great starting points and information.
Hope everyone has a good day!!

-Tia

I hope Toney has the big EEs when I go Sept the 8th I can hardly wait.

Lavina

thanks again for the great information everyone...those links to the websites are GREAT!!! I have been looking and drooling!!

-Tia

Hey Tia --

If you want to give ginger a whirl, let me know. I have a couple I could share with you for postage and they'd be great to experiment with in your zone. They're Hedychiums and tougher and more cold hardy than some others, and look lush and tropical. I'd be more than happy to send you some to see what works.

Chris - THGA

Here's a list of good Palm trees for you:

Trachycarpus fortunei (either the Bulgaria or Greensboro forms)
Trachycarpus takil
Rhapidophyllum hystrix
Sabal minor (any form)
Sabal palmetto (Bald Head Island or Mount Holly, NC forms)
Jubea chilensis
Phoenix theophrastii
Chamaerops humilis
Sabal 'Birmingham'

Other plants you could try are:

Cordyline australis
Musa acuminata 'Rajapuri'
Musa basjoo
Musa sikkimensis
Musa velutina
Musella lasiocarpa

You can also grow just about any kind of tree Yucca in zone 7b as well.

Just about any kind of canna will survive in 7b as well (my uncle in Walhalla, SC, which is z 7b has several large clumps of cannas that he leaves outside year-round).

good morning :-)

thank you for your generous offer, chris. i would love to get my feet wet with some Hedychiums...do you think it is too late to plant it out in my zone? best to put in a pot and bring indoors till spring? hmmmmmm. i will send you a dmail. one more question, just curious to what your screen name means?

Hikaro,
thanks for the list. I am going to sit down and pull each one up one by one. I need to learn who's who and what's what so to speak. I went to that plant delights website and it is REALLY cool. Other than some roses my backyard is pretty much a blank slate so I am thinking a few palms would be nice and i love this elephant ear i saw at plant delights called Alocasia macrorhizos or Alocasia macrorrhiza. love, love , love.

ok, i am off to work. (yawn) everyone have a good day!

Hi Tia --

I'm going to defer to the experts on whether it's too late for you to plant outside or not. I'll send some big chunky rhizomes so they'll have a good fighting chance ;-) If you do opt to plant them outside now, you can keep us all posted as to how much mulch, how cold, etc.

THGA is The Happiest Girl Alive, my Mail Art name and a vestige of my earliest internet days . . . gosh, was it really that long ago? How time flies when you're having fun . . .

Stay tuned for Dmail!