I have cannas in pots on my deck around my hot tub but keep the rest of my tropical plants in my greenhouse year'round.

I have a bed that's about 60% tropicals/temperennials/annuals to 40% perennials.

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The large-leafed plants in the center are Japanese fiber banana (Musa basjoo) which are returning perennials here. Also shown are Canna "Burning Ember" and Alocasia "Calidora" in the foreground. The purple-flowered plant at right rear is Eupatorium "Gateway". Additional tropicals used in this bed for '10 include a Chinese fan palm (which gets lugged into the basement in a couple of weeks), Duranta, variegated Hibiscus, Gloxinia "Evita" and a small horde of elephant ears (Colocasia hybrids).

It's fun to be able to shake things up and try new tropicals every year; all-perennial beds/borders tend to be more static.

I've also done the dahlias, cannas etc. I may go back to cannas at some point, I've also been using alocasias and colocasias the last few years. Yes they really do make a statement. This year for the first time I put one in the ground, it is over 5ft. and still sending up new leaves. I'm a little afraid of trying to dig it. Do you leave yours out until nipped by frost or bring them in before that? I've also been growing and wintering begonia boliviensis Bonfire the past 3 summers as well as lots of coleus. I take cuttings of some of the coleus and winter them as smaller plants.

I have successfully overwintered tropical hibuscus, Musa zebrina, 2 brugmansias and some tuberous begonias. But, I have had no luck with Dahlias and Cannas. I have lost quite a few of them over the past few years .. I have tried everything from storing them in my unheated garage in a box of peat moss to digging out canna rhizomes, wrapping them up in jute and storing in the garage .. They eitherget too dry or rot away.

This season I have a lot of beautiful dahlias, Cannas and some alocasias and colocasias (first time) that I would like to save. Any tips?

I've read on GW that I should be able to overwinter the following as little houseplants inside & this will be my first time to try with these: Patchouli (from Indonesia, for aroma therapy), coleus (growing new seeds from Park's right now, houseplants, then plant outside in spring), basil (stem cuttings are growing right now in a glass of water, new houseplants for winter, hope to get 10-12 stem cuttings to plant in ground in spring). Please share any tips/tricks you know. Thanks!

Eric - That bed is stunning. I've curious what your winter lows are like? I've thought about the banana many times, but the thought of something else to bring inside....you know how that is. That alocasia is very nifty too.

As far as overwintering the EE plants, it depends on which ones you're growing. Some go dormant and form hard tubers which can be stored cool and dry. Others need a bit more care. Again, it depends on the variety.

hosta... - Again it depends on which ones your talking about. The ones I store dry and dormant for winter can be cut down by frost before they are dug. Sometimes I dig them a bit early and just cut off all the leaves and then dry them out. It doesn't seem to make a difference.

Kevin

I've also come around full circle and have a couple cannas, dahlias and other tropicals each year. Most get chopped back and dumped into tubs to sit out the winter in a cool corner of the basement, a few hibernate on windowsills here and there, and a couple coleus and such try to hang on as cuttings in water. They look great this time of year as myself and the rest of the garden begin to give up.

I believe I'm slightly colder here than Eric, and I finally found a spot near the house where my fiber bananna also overwinters as a perennial without any winter protection. It's a very cool plant that makes quite a statement!

I'm on the fence this fall about saving the mandevilla, also I wish I knew what to do with a 6 ft tall clump of papyrus that I have never successfully overwintered.

eric, I'm wondering too about your alocasia Calidora, does it form a tuber? I like to stick with varieties that I can winter dry and dormant. Fewer pots to haul inside that way. Kevin, have you had a good success rate with those such as Illustris or Black Magic?

River, I take cuttings from my coleus, root them and grow them over winter, then take new cuttings in late March. I usually grow them under lights in my basement as up here in the frozen and often cloudy northland even keeping them in a
south window sometimes leads to spindly light hungry plants. I'm guessing that would not be a big problem for you. You might want to post on your state forum and see if you get any responses there. Otherwise, experiment and move them around as needed.

Thanks, Kevin.

I'm thinking of trying dave in nova's method of overwintering Colocasia (storing them cool in a bucket of water - see this thread). I have 7 or 8 Colocasia/Alocasia that otherwise need to be cut back, potted and kept under lights in the basement, and there's only so much room down there.

My previous clump of Musa basjoo survived for about four years elsewhere in that bed (its demise probably related to gradually being shaded out by a neighbor shrub). I'm technically in zone 5b but it really seems to be 6a, since the average winter low since I've lived here has been about -7F (last winter it hit -19F but there've been a couple winters where it never dropped below the low single digits). Given good mulch I should be OK with M. basjoo again (some people grow it in zone 5 and reportedly even further north). Figs also overwinter here without protection, but mine haven't fruited yet.

The two times I've overwintered Alocasia "Calidora" indoors it's been semidormant in a large pot, so I don't know about what sort of tuber it may have. I'm sort of on the fence about saving it again, since it was supposed to be a larger, more flamboyant plant than it's turned out to be here (this year for instance it's all of 3 feet tall and maybe 2 1/2 feet in diameter).

mccube, cannas are a cinch since i learned to just :cut them down, dig up the tubers,shake them off, throw them into a bucket or paper bag, as is, and overwinter in our warm cellar (60-70 degrees). never lose them now. i also have many planted in pots- which i put in glazed water urns, and i store these pots as they are, in the same cellar.(we have no garage and unheated attic is too far and steep a climb).glazed pots of clematis i keep on screen porch. other tropicals i grow are colocasia, alocasia, abutilon, passion flowers, brugmansia,waterlilies and the variegated bush whose name i can never remember(see below).

the brugs go into same warm cellar.same w/ waterlilies, in water; passion flowers go into conservatory,but i usually overwater and lose them.celandine do fine in conservatory w/ exception of mealy bug sometimes.abutilons also grow on in conservatory, often subject to white fly and aphids by spring. phormiums i also have killed in the conservatory; anyone have success overwintering them?

and i need to learn how to store the rest(any help with this bush, guys?i killed it right away last year.):
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thanks much for your help,
mindy

Here is a link that might be useful: some tropicals photos from yesterday

hosta... - After years of trying various methods, this is what works for me under my conditions.

Yes, I overwinter Illustis each year. I have an entire floor to my house I don't use or heat during the winter, but it has great south windows and that's where she goes.

Illustis seems to be one of those that really wants to keep growing through the winter, so I place it in one of the south windows in the cold part of my house. As long as the temps are 60 or above, I keep watering it. Once the temps start dipping down into the 50's or lower, the key seems to be to keep it as dry as possible. Cold and wet just don't work for these plants over a period of many months.

I'm usually OK until mid January or so, but then the temps in my cold room are consistently in the low 40's or even the high 30's. At that point, I keep a close eye on this plant and if it looks like rot is setting in I dump the pot out and salvage any viable roots or rhizomes. These plants are very easy to grow from root cuttings. I simply lay a bunch of them in an aluminum loaf pan filled with moist potting soil, cover it with plastic wrap and put in a warm place. Usually within a few weeks new plants start poking up. If I haven't kept the mother plant too wet, it usually survives and starts growing again when the temps warm up - like mid March - and I don't have to go through the above process.

As an alternative if you don't have the the indoor space to overwinter large pots, take root cutting now or simply cut off some the rhizomes growing from the base of the plant. You could start a whole bunch of these now and just treat them like houseplants over the winter. They may look like crap during the dull days of winter, but the goal is to simply keep them alive until spring arrives.

eric - That cool, wet treatment looks interesting, but that guy lives in zone 8. What's his definition of cool?

Kevin

Dave says he's in zone 7a and his garage is cool but above freezing. Mine usually is 40 or above so conditions are probably not too dissimilar. I might experiment with a few Colocasia this way at first.

Mindy's plant (variegated Breynia disticha nana (snowflake bush), it looks like) is one I used to grow outdoors in southeast Texas. It's frost tender and I don't remember how long or successfully I kept it indoors. Good light and humidity would be important. It makes a nice show in a partly sunny border.

I'm still trying to find the best way to keep Brugmansias over the winter. With cool (about 40F) and dark treatment there's typically dieback and I've lost some plants that way. Keeping them warm and at the ends of fluorescent light stands works but I get tired of spraying to keep the whitefly population under some semblance of control. I'm thinking of cutting them back by one-third or so, removing all foliage and keeping them near light and on the dry side this winter.

Eric

I've had really good luck with keeping the Brugs cold, dark and only a little water - about 1 cup per month. I cut them back drastically in the fall - mainly so I can get into the basement. They drop all their leaves of course, but always rebound in the spring. I think my basement temps are similar to yours - maybe colder.

Kevin

Kevin, I managed to keep Illustris going for 3 or 4 years in a south window, but would run into trouble when the kids would visit and turn on the fireplace, drying out the air more than the regular heat. I tried it in the basement under lights one year and nearly lost it and after that summer just let it go. Haven't grown that one since. I've found Xanthosoma Lime Zinger fairly easy to winter in my root cellar, though last year the mother bulb rotted but the pups survived.

Thanks for your help, hostaholic. I'm optimistic about growing coleus as a winter houseplant!

I too had been able several colocasia alive by sticking in the unheated garage by the window. They go dormant anyway but last winter it was the coldest it had been in a long time. It felt like a Nebraska winter,so everything froze which meant I lost them all. Even lost some of my cannas and calla lily bulbs that had been stored in boxes. The crinums survived only because I had put them in one of those mini green house in my house. So this year, I thought I would put the mini green house in the garage and see if that will work. I have a tea cup, mojito, and tea cup plus Alocasia Frydek which I really don't want to lose. I plan on growing plants from seed so I need the room inside. So if it gets too cold, then I can put it all in the basement.

I do pretty much what hostaholic does in regard to keeping coleus going over the winter. I have cuttings from the dozen or so varieties I want to save rooting in pots in flats under plastic hoods right now, to go under fluorescent lights for the winter. As the resulting plants start to get too big or leggy, I take more cuttings and toss the mother plants. The last sets of cuttings are taken by early April and I can custom propagate the ones I want for bedding en masse.

Be forewarned, some varieties are more vigorous than others indoors. "Sedona" and "Alabama Sunset" are two of my favorites

Love, love, love me some elephant ears!! They are a *must-have* every year for me. I have been able to overwinter the tubers in past years, but not consistently. Eh, that's okay - I enjoy them so much I don't balk at having to purchase every year :0)

This is one of my favorite combos, I repeat every year "Black Beauty" with an underplanting of impatiens. If I can't find the "Black Beauty", "Illustris" works well with this piece of pottery, too

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Plain 'ol no-name green elephant ears - love 'em!

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mxk3, nice pics. What is the grass in the background of the first pic?

Also, sounds as though quite a few of us plant them in containers. Does anyone else have problems with the wind blowing them over? Even in 22" ceramic containers I've had the wind take them over. And they are in my most sheltered areas. Whiskey barrel planters have managed to stay upright.

mxk - Nice!

And you just reminded me to take some cuttings from my Strobilanthes dyerianus. That's another plant which is just so cool to have around. (the second pic - the purple and silver leafed plant)

Kevin

mxk3, nice way to display your "Black Beauty" - getting it up off the ground allows for display of those reddish stems. Looks like a good way to show off this variety as well (haven't grown it yet).

I bought Colocasia "Coffee Cups" on sale today - one more to overwinter indoors.

Don't have Coffee Cups but it looks cool. Kevin agree on the strobilanthus. I haven't grown it for the last 3 years but I think it'll have to go back on my grow list for next summer.

My garden club visited the Indianapolis Museum of Art garden in mid-July and I saw Euphorbia cotiniflora for the first time in real life. I'd seen pictures in Fine Gardening of it in potted combinations and yearned for it.

At the museum it was growing in very large ceramic pots on a terrace and had the look of small trees. The plants were several years old and had barky trunks. Of course they have to be hauled in every winter. In the green house there were quite a few smaller plants, but still of a good size. They were this years cuttings and had soft stems. They were being sold at sale prices because I expect they were back=up plants and there wouldn't be room to winter all of them. I was able to purchase two good sized plants for under $7.

Now, two months later, they are beautiful. I planted them in matching large plastic pots with rocks in the bottom to weigh them down and put asparagus fern around their bases. They are not a matched pair! One has two main stems branching just above ground level, one 40" tall
the other 30"; the second is shaped like a miniature fruit
tree or dogwood with many branches, 24" tall in 12" tall pots. They have brightened up on my south facing porch with morning sun and have grown new, very red leaves at their tips. Both are blooming freely with tiny white, yellow centered flowers. They now have hardened stems.

Has anyone wintered Euphorbia Cotiniflora? I have a light
bright office with East and West windows 68-70+ temp. and a basement corner with a nailed shut south facing windowed
door and temps in the low 50s generally but quite a bit lower if we have below zero weather outside. I don't know
which is a better choice.

I have wintered both Phorium and Cordyline in my cellar place but I have also killed them there by forgetting to water or not bringing an electric heater when the temp dipped.

I plan to try cannas for the first time next year. I am drawn to the most expensive varieties.

Chris

Eric

Colocasia 'Coffee Cup' is probably my favorite of the ones I grow. This is one that seems pretty easy to overwinter in the cold conditions I described above and I rarely have any problems with winter rot. By winters end the leaves may look pretty crappy, but the plant always rebounds quickly once the temps warm up. I sell a lot of these on Craig's List each year, so I want to save all the plant I have. I just don't look forward to lugging this big pot of plants up 3 flights of stairs to its winter home.

Kevin

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Just found this site. Not a huge selection of EE plants, but the prices look good compared to what others charge for some of these plants.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: Shadow Scapes

Hostaholic - the grass to the left (in front of the hydrangea) is Chasmanthium, the grass to the right in the pic is dwarf zebra grass (dwarf being a relative term, here, obviously...), I think the cultivar is "Porcupine" but can't remember for certain.

Kevin, I'm not really someone who is attracted to tropicals except in tropical climates, where I love them. I love Palm Trees! I guess I really like Banana Trees too. Otherwise, I have a traditional/country style that extends to the garden too, liking picket fences and brick walls, and boxwood like you might see at Williamsburg and English cottage gardens. Sometimes with a contemporary twist to them, but tropicals often look out of sync for me in that context.

I have tried Dahlias, which don't look tropical to me. I've had a tropical Hibiscus that is a houseplant that spends the summer outdoors. I tried a Brug, because someone sent me seeds and I just wanted to try it. Last year, I saw a tiny seedling of 'Black Beauty' Alocasia for $2. so on an impulse I brought it home. It is fascinating to watch something grow so fast...lol. But I really didn't enjoy it. So, I've tried to warm up to tropicals a little but it's just wasted on me I guess. I'm just as happy though, because I started cutting back on plants that I overwinter and anything of size that I have to wrestle with. I've cut back on the number of large pots I'm willing to work with. This year, is the second year I've been working on that and I have to say, I don't miss it at all and it has been a pleasure and a relief to have a much easier Fall Clean up. I only have maybe one more plant outside that needs to get ready to come in. I also had a 'Miss Muffet' Caladlium that I enjoyed in a large container with begonia and fuchsia but I'm not going to try to overwinter that after reading how many people have difficulty doing that. So I basically have one standard tropical Hibiscus and the rest are just houseplants that come in and nothing to store.

If I were in love with tropicals it would be a different story I think. We all have something we just LOVE and will go to more trouble for. So I consider myself lucky that my favorite plants aren't making more work for me. [g] I can certainly see why someone would go to the trouble of overwintering tropicals if they really enjoy them.

euphorbia cotinifolia- i have overwintered in my house conservatory in south window.just don't overwater them like i did last time. they will likely lose their leaves but new ones will resprout.
best,
mindy

I grew some alternantheras in containers this year that did extremely well. That's about it for tropicals this year for me.

I forgot to mention a couple favorites for tropical/subtropical planting - including dwarf crepe myrtles (reliably hardy and very floriferous here). The ones in the following photo are in their third year from seed ("Little Chief" mix). In mild winters up to a couple feet of woody growth will survive, in cold winters they die back to the ground, but recover rapidly with the onset of warm weather and flower between late July and the end of September. Also pictured here are Hibiscus acetosella (tall purple-leafed plant a little to the left of center, Colocasias (including the variegated "Mojito"), chartreuse jewels of Opar and a new large-flowered red wax begonia, appropriately known as "Big".

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I'm hoping to see more suggestions for tropical bedding. Next year is the 10th anniversary of our planting, and I need some new hot selections to go along with the old favorites.

This is from last year. I need to take pictures of what this garden looks like this year.
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I'd love to add more tropicals, especially EEs, but this is a garden I made for the Historic Society and I have no budget.

mao

eric_oh,

I have 3 crepe myrtles two (white and one that looks like the one in the picture) regulars ones that have yet to die back to the ground even in our harshest winter. The third which is a pink dwarf called Bayou Marie. I'm trying to find a red dwarf one to complete the grouping.

Very nice, mao.

I have had limited success with standard-sized crepe myrtles here (good vegetative growth, not a lot of flowers). mor1, are there particular varieties you recommend?

I do not use the tropicals in my gardens I use them on the porch so that I have a very tropical feeling when I sit out there.

I love having the tropicals around the patio and I get so many compliments and people ask me to help them get the look on their decks and patio.
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Eric oh,

I'll be honest with you, I haven't a clue. I bought the first one because it was discount rack and it was in bad shape. I didn't know if it was going to make it. It took awhile before I got my first white bloom. I've been trying to find out the name because white is really rare around here. The second one I got was also discount rack save but it didn't come with a tag. This one is kind of fuschia with a wonderful scent. Its petty common around here so I should be able to find out the name. The last one I got is from a group I jokingly refer to as the New Orleans minis. There is Bayou Marie, Bourbon Street and Baton Rouge. I think there is more in this group but not sure. So I got Bayou Marie because it has the most beautiful pink flowers, which slightly darken when the temp drops. Anyway, I have yet to find a real red dwarf. They say they are red but its more of a dark pink.

My secret is once the leaves have drop then don't prune them. I wait until I see new buds on the old wood in the late spring before I cut away any dead limbs. Last winter was one the coldest in over ten years. Most of the thick branches made it. I also mulch in the fall. All three are rated for zone 7 are suppose to die back to the ground but somehow they didn't get the message.

I wish some school in the midwest would do a crape myrtle study to see which ones are hardy to zone 5 or possibly lower.

Marquest: *Where* did you get those pots!?! They're fabulous! :0)

Thank you mxk, I am a pot head. I pick up odd pots where ever I go. The black pots came from my local nursery. When I saw them I ran home and told my family I found my birthday present. The blue ones came from Big Lots. I have pots I picked up in Mexico when I was on vacation. I left cloths in the hotel so I could fit the pots in my suitcase.

I am a nut for odd pots. LOL

I took a pic of them in the store posted on the fridge so my family would not forget
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