Can someone ID this lovely plant?

Hello. I've been lurking in DG for perhaps a month and can't begin to tell you how much I've learned just from reading all the wonderful garden wisdom being shared on these forums.Now i'm hoping for help indentifying the attached plant spotted at Lowe's yesterday. It was nestled at the base of an 8' queen palm and offered as a package deal.. I didn't want the tree but was wowed by the small plant's beauty.
I asked the clerk to identify the plant ... she diligently read the tag, then turned to me and said, "It's a Tropical Tree." -- I'm serious, that's what she said. We then called the Manager (?) -- he couldn't name the specific cultivar, but ernestly told me it was in the calendula family. It was all I could do to kep from ROTFLOL.
I hope someone here can help.

stromanthe tricolor.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/27902/

It has bugged me a lot that lately they sell things tagged as 'tropical plant' or 'tropical tree'. What utter nonsense!!
That stromanthe is lovely; it will not like the sun too much though or the leaves will scorch.

This message was edited Apr 16, 2007 9:02 PM

Yeah, HD sells Coco Palms as "Tropical Foliage." No kidding.
And they sell them in Southern California, where they have almost no chance of surviving winters here.
The one exception is of course the famous Newport Beach coco.

Beautiful plant though, that stromanthe.

Makes one of the best houseplants out there, especially if you keep the growth restricted just a little with pot size. Amazing foilage & easy to care for. I love mine.

For me, too delicate to be an outdoor plant. Bought it 3 times, killed it 3 times. Such a beautiful plant. I have another stromanthe, green on top and burgundy underside. That one is tough as nails, growing each year and surviving our (albeit) mild winters.

Vosser I left this one outside last year in a pot and it survived. Didn't look to good at first but came back to original size in no time.

maybe that's what I should do. Keep it in a pot. mine was inground.

vossner to be honest the winter last year was nothing here in La. This year I put them in a shelter w/o heat and they still look a little ratty but better than the year before. This year we got down to 25 for 3 nights in Nov.

I had mine in the ground last year, a tiny little thing, it did fine. I thought for sure I would lose it to the big freeze we had, but it didn't skip a beat.

I have mine tucked near some bushes (in a pot)-filtered sun(through the trees). It has been in the pot for about 4 years now. In the winter it looks like it dies, but really it just kinda goes to sleep, come springtime, it has babies and comes back beautifully. Unless I'm confusing it with something else.