Want to add excitement to your yard? Go bananas!
By Donna Evans
Buffalo is going bananas. Garden-deprived for almost nine months of the year and desperate for reminders of the sunny south, we’ve taken to planting bananas, pineapple, ginger, and other tropical plants in our yards. According to two local garden centers, hot weather plants aren’t necessarily out of place in cool-climate gardens.
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To keep your musa basjoo going, cut it down to about twenty-four to thirty inches, he says, and then mulch liberally. “The main stem dies down but the roots will survive,” Leyonmark explains.
Other bananas include Abyssian and red leaved banana, which have large, paddle-shaped leaves that definitely bring a tropical look to your garden, according to Tom Ulbrich, president of Ulbrich’s Garden Center in Alden. “Another plant that has really caught on in the Buffalo market is the Lantana tree, often seen as a topiary three to four feet high,” Ulbrich notes. “They come in many colors, tolerate heat and drought, and their sweet nectar attracts butterflies.”
And there are many more tropical plants that will add color and interest to your landscape. “For example, the musa zebrina is a banana plant with burgundy stripes, and it’s also very durable,” Leyonmark says. “We also sell ginger plants. There’s one called red emperor that adapts very well to shade, and in Western New York we do have true shade gardening.”
Until recently, it was nearly impossible to find some of the tropical plants in Buffalo nurseries, but now they are recognizing the demand for tropical foliage. “Many people use them knowing they will only last one season; others bring them inside for the winter and grow them as house plants,” says Ulbrich.
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Even old reliable tropical houseplants are finding a place outside. “Dieffenbachia and philodendrons, for example, can be planted in a container and be outdoors for the summer, then be moved indoors for the winter,” Leyonmark says. A wide variety of attractive containers is available locally, and to Leyonmark, that’s a big part of incorporating tropicals into your yard.
“I like to start with a funky, cool container that will look good both in the garden and in my house,” he says. “Then I pair it with a funky, cool tropical plant that will adapt well indoors.” Some of those tropicals include pineapple (euconomis), ginko biloba, and the citrus family: lemons and oranges.
“Ginko biloba has very pretty blue-green leaves,” Leyonmark says, “And that’s what you’re looking for: colors and textures that you wouldn’t ordinarily see in Buffalo.” Leyonmark explains that he has the perfect protected space for tropicals—a cellar stairs to the outdoors. That’s where he puts his smaller trees for the winter. It’s below grade and out of the wind.
There are other plants called “temperennials” which may survive in Buffalo’s Zone 7 if you put them in a protected spot in your yard. “Agapanthus is a bulb that blooms with blue flowers and has beautiful leaves,” Leyonmark says. “I do bring those into my garage for the winter.”
Ulbrich points out that there are also a lot of non-tropical but still unusual plants for container gardening, which he sees as the hot trend. “It used to be topiary plants were considered unusual,” he says, “and although they are still used, they’re old news for today’s gardener who is looking for something new and different.” Some of the plants Ulbrich incorporates into container gardens:
• Scaevola is a trailing plant that has lavender/blue flowers all season. This needs full sun to part shade and is great for hanging baskets.
• Licorice plant is another trailing plant that has silver-grey foliage with a faint licorice scent when the leaves are crushed.
• Perilla or “shiso” is an upright, colorful plant that is sometimes mistaken for coleus. This does well in full sun and might be difficult to find.
• Sweet potato vine has gorgeous foliage that can be deep-cut or heart-shaped and varies from dark purple to light green. It is fairly aggressive and can be used for a full-carpet effect in sun to partial shade.
• Heuchera’s different varieties come with leaves in endless colors. It’s a great plant for filling in shady spots.
• Calibrachoa or “million bells” has an endless stream of small petunia-like flowers, comes in many colors, and likes full sun.
• Osteospermum is often simply called a daisy and comes in yellow and pastel orange colors. It grows about a foot tall and has two-inch flowers, which demand full sun.
• Nemesia continually blooms with snapdragon-like flowers and grows to about ten inches high in full sun.
“And finally, there are ornamental grasses,” Ulbrich said. “They may not seem new, but there are endless varieties in different sizes, colors, and seed heads that can also be used in containers in addition to filling in as ground cover.”
So, fellow gardeners, you don’t really have to go bananas—but it is time to get over the topiaries and go for something really exotic!
Donna Evans is a freelance writer and public relations professional who knows just enough about gardening to be dangerous.
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