Hi, I was wondering if I could pick all of your brains for suggestions for tropicals for San Francisco gardens. We have mild rainy winters (upper 30's some nights to 60's on warm days) and cool summers (60's to the ((rarely)) 80's during the day, it can get down to the lower 50's at night).
I'm a profesional gardener, and have the opportunity to use plants in a variety of microclimates. We are zone 10a, Sunset Zone 17. Water is not an issue, as all of my gardens have drip irrigation, and humidity is not terribly low, as we receive a lot of moisture from the nearby Pacific. Heat accumulation seems to be the main problem with many tropicals for us.
I've used most of the standards- Cannas are quite happy here, many hedychium, a few bananas, bird of paradise are passable. Also lemons, bouganvillea, some palms.
I'd appreciate advice from any of you with experience in similar conditions, particularly regarding aroids. We can fudge many of the textures found in tropical plantings, but the large leaved aroids are noticably missing, and nothing else really compares.
Thanks, Mark
Tropicals for Low Heat Summer San Francisco
You would have a hard time growing some colocasias and alocasias a few I am sure would do well but most would not. You should look into high altittude aroids many philodendrons and anthuriums from ecuador would do well. If given the right situation. These are some of the most interesting plants in the world. Usually known for having velvet leaves hairs on the stems and not to mention huge leaves. You should look into them if you like really odd plants.
Mark
Go to the Botanical Garden there in SF. They have an extensive array of tropicals that will survive outside. Plan on spending more than an hour or two.
Jeri
I'm with Jeri--the botanical garden is a great source of inspiration (and they have plant sales the 2nd Sat of the month most of the year, so you can get some of their stuff yourself. UC Berkeley also has a nice botanical garden, so I'd look there too--they are slightly warmer than you but probably not enough to make a difference on what you can grow. They had their fall plant sale this weekend so you missed it, but they do have some plants for sale almost all the time by the gift shop. You should also check some local nurseries--one of my favorites is Berkeley Horticultural Nursery, they have a great selection of tropicals (and if it's a plant that requires inland heat to do well, they mark the plant that way so you know not to buy it), plus they label almost everything with Sunset climate zones which will help you too. And there's a nice nursery in the City--used to be called Guerrero St. Gardens but they changed their name this year and I can't remember the new name--I think they had some tropical stuff and whatever they sell should do just fine for you. Sorry--I know this is more about places to look for stuff vs actual plant recommendations, but I live in the East Bay and get a lot more sun and higher summer temps than you do, so I'm not sure if we could grow the same things (not to mention, most of my tropicals are stuff from Florida that don't always do well here anyway but I have fun trying!)
Forgot to mention--I don't think I've seen you on the CA gardening forum--you might try posting your question there too.
Thanks, Brian, I'll look into the ecuadorian plants. I have a colocasia 'Pink China' that I got from a Kentucky grower recently (you all probably wouldn't know him) that I'm going to try, also Alocasia 'William's Hybrid', and of all things, a Helliconia from the highlands of Mexico called 'Fire and Ice' that is supposed to be very tolerant of lower temps. The one I bought had been in the nursery (here in SF) for over a year, and looked quite good.
Ecrane, I know those nurseries well. The new Guerrero st Gardens is now Flora Grubb Nursery, and they do have a great selection of tropicals, as does Berkeley Hort. If you haven't been to this one, Hortica, between 19th and 20th on Castro is a stellar small nursery which always has an amazing selection of tropicals. The owner, David, is quite the plantsman.
Thanks, guys!
Ooh...didn't know about Hortica, will have to put that on my list!
Mark,
You may already have them in your gardening palette, but tree ferns do very well in and around San Francisco, and are wonderful contributions to the tropical garden. Many cycads, too, do well in our climate. If you really want the big, bold leaf look, consider Gunnera: if you've got the room for it, it's a showstopper (check out the mature specimens at the Strybing Arboretum and the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden). Two noteworthy tropical demonstration gardens would be the Palmetum (sponsored by the Northern California branch of the Palm Society) at Lake Merritt in Oakland, and the planted entryway to Golden Gate Palms in Point Richmond: both give a wonderful sense of the tropical possibilities in the marine-influenced zones of the Bay Area.