By Adrian Higgins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; H01
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.
Elephant EarsThis is a catchall phrase for the large, heart-shaped leaf plants (alocasias and colocasias) from the Asian tropics. Many varieties have been developed in recent years, including versions with dark, almost black, leaf surfaces and white venation. These include the African mask plant ( Alocasia amazonica ) and the varieties Black Velvet, Black Stem and Frydek. The variety Lutea has yellow stems. The clumps of leaves vary in size from just 12 inches to several feet, and the leaves can extend as much as 30 inches or more.
You can grow them indoors in winter or cut them back after frost, when their tubers are lifted and stored indoors. They grow well in rich, moist but well-drained soil and are good in containers. They perform best in light shade, but make a good plant for a shadier part of the garden in containers free of root competition.
BananasOnce, a banana plant growing outdoors was a neighborhood event. Today, many varieties and hybrids have been developed for ornamental use. The plants can be grown as annuals outdoors, and will attain nine feet or more in one season. Dwarf varieties growing to four feet have been developed for container use, including Dwarf Cavendish and a related species, Musella lasiocarpa .
The hardiest is the Japanese banana, sometimes called Basjoo. It grows to 15 feet and its roots are winter-hardy in the mid-Atlantic region. This is one of two available at Home Depot this spring (Mangum also is supplying the Abyssinian red banana, with its maroon stems and leaf coloration, which will need digging if you want it to survive the winter).
One-gallon plants sell for $9.99, three-gallon versions for $19.99. The former soon catch up with the latter in size once the weather warms. They require frequent watering and feeding for vigorous growth. Banana "trees" (actually giant tender perennials) don't need staking, though they should be sheltered from high winds, which will tear the leaves. They make good accents in borders but need other big and leafy plants around them to look natural. These varieties have been developed for their leaf ornament rather than flower and fruit.
CannasMangum is supplying Home Depot with original and gold versions of the canna lily named Tropicanna and developed for its striking orange- and red-striped purple foliage. It grows to four feet in containers, taller in garden beds, and, like the banana, responds to watering and feeding.
The tropical craze also has sustained interest in more traditional patio container plantings such as caladiums and coleus. Caladiums remain a showy foliage plant for dark shade. Mangum and his growers also have cranked up production of cloned coleus.
Additional sources: Local garden centers and, on the Internet, at Brent & Becky's Bulbs,http://www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/; Plant Delights,http://www.plantdelights.com/; and Glasshouse Works,http://www.glasshouseworks.com/.
