The Latest Hot Thing

Tropicals Go Prime Time at the Big Box

Taro plant from Ball Horticultural Co.

The month of May sees Washington shift from cool and dry to hot and steamy. Happily, the gardener's trade-off for life in the sauna is tropical plants.

Once thought of as just another fad, the interest in cannas and other heat-loving big plants has coincided with the rise in container gardening and the enthusiasm for decorating the patio or deck. This translates as a perfect storm for tropicals, and this spring serious hobbyists and casual gardeners alike will find lots of varieties of elephant ears, bananas, caladiums and other foliage plants that permit anyone with a few pots and a little imagination to create mini-jungles in every setting from the tightest apartment balcony to the swankiest poolside patio. (And perhaps not so mini; some of the banana varieties will reach 12 feet by August.)

Gary Mangum of Bell Nursery in Burtonsville is adding to the mix large indoor plants that you might find in malls and office buildings as well as the familiar greenery of home. The houseplants of the 1970s didn't fade away after all; they're just joining the 21st-century pool party.

"We are trying to bring this whole tropical component to the marketplace in a way it hasn't been available before," Mangum said.

"We are seeing a shift toward people who view their outside space as places to be decorated," said Jeff Gibson of Ball Horticultural Co., which supplies seeds and young plants to commercial growers like Mangum. "They're taking their inside outside, and what's commonly associated with interior decorating are tropical plants and houseplants," he said.

As consumer demand has grown, breeders have turned to using tissue culture, a cloning method, to produce large quantities of uniform, disease-free plants.

Last summer, Ball Horticultural's new display garden at its headquarters in West Chicago, Ill., was awash in tropicals waiting for mass propagation for the consumer market, including 45 varieties of elephant ears and 15 banana varieties.

"What we have seen in the last couple of years is more and more commercial growers that sell to retailers getting asked for this kind of plant material," Gibson said.

For several years, Mangum has been supplying bedding annuals and perennials to 65 Home Depot stores in the region. This year he has expanded his supply to 88 stores, moving into the Philadelphia market, and has added in a big way the tropicals and houseplants. The risk is his; he isn't paid until the plants sell. But he is confident that these large exotics are ready for prime time, and in the past month the shipments have been selling well, he said.

Last year, he provided about 2,500 elephant ears; this year, the number is 49,000 in three varieties: a dark-leafed big taro named Black Magic; a black-and-green version named Colocasia illustris ; and another six-footer with black stems, named Fontanesii.

Mangum's ranges of greenhouses off Old Columbia Pike contain thousands of various plants he calls patio tropicals, including Bismarck, Alexander and Kentia palms that sell for between $199 and $499. His more conventional houseplants include a bird of paradise ($69.99 in a 14-inch pot), a four-foot bromeliad ($39.99) and a split-leaf philodendron ($19.99).

Although hobby gardeners will dig and store the tender plants come winter, Mangum thinks most people will let them die, even the pricey palms. (The red banana, however, will return from its roots even if left outside). "I think most people will treat them as annuals," he said.