I love tropical plants because they are beautiful and unique! Here in Minnesota, it is common to grow tropical plants in pots and gardens as annuals.
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| Path through my tropical garden |
They are expensive to buy and it's hard to justify the cost of buying new plants every spring.
For several years I have grown canna lilies in my gardens during the summer...and every fall, I dig up the bulbs and overwinter them inside.
I used to have to cram the bulbs in throughout my perennial gardens, and there was never enough space for them. So two years ago I created a new garden area in my yard specifically for growing tropicals and annuals. I call it my "tropical garden".
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| My tropical garden |
As it turns out, I filled my new garden space up very quickly, and keep adding to it every summer.
My collection of tropical bulbs and tubers has expanded to include several types of tropical plants, not just canna lilies. Every year I add more bulbs to my collection. Buying bulbs is much cheaper than buying plants, and I can enjoy the same varieties year after year.
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| Getting all the tropical bulbs laid out and ready to plant |
I usually pull the bulbs out of the basement in April/May and pot them up in the peat they were packed in. This usually gives them a head start.
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| My tropical bulbs unpacked and temporarily potted up |
This weekend we finally had some decent weather and I got all my tropical bulbs planted.
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| Tropical garden at it's peak |
- Elephant ears
- Peacock orchid
- Canna lily 'Madame Butterfly'
- Peruvian Daffodil
- Calla lillies
- Caladium Illustris
- Gladiola mix
- Alocasia odora (EE)
- Canna lily mix
- Canna lily 'Bengal Tiger'
- Dahlia 'Le Baron'
- Canna Tropicana
- Calla Zantedeschia species
- Dahlia mix
Red Spider lily - Calla aethiopica
- Crinum light pink
- Voodoo lily
- Dahlia 'Rigoletto'
- Crocosmia orange
- Canna 'Indica'
- Watsonia
- Dahlia 'New Dimension'
- Gladiola 'Tiny Tot'
That takes a lot of love and dedication, to grow tropical plants! I love to grow dahlias and have to plant them in spring and dig them all up and store them for winter, takes a lot of time to do that and in spite of all the efforts, I keep losing some bulbs each year!
ReplyDeleteYes it is a lot of work, that's for sure! But for 3 solid months I get to pretend I live in the tropics! :-) I lose some every winter too, but I figure that's good because it makes room to buy a few new ones every summer. Plus it keeps the garden from getting too full.
ReplyDeleteAmy
I love this idea! My husband moved here from Hawaii and I have been wondering how I could make a little garden for him to remind him of home. Thank you for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteHi ...and she lived...
ReplyDeleteGlad you like my tropical garden. It's a lot of work, but worth the effort. Good luck creating one for your husband, I hope he'll love it. No matter what types of tropical plants you put in there, it will be beautiful!
Amy
Absolutely superb! I am so jealous of all your space. There's no snow in San Francisco, but our yards are a tiny fraction of yours.
ReplyDeleteThanks Derek! I know I'm lucky with a huge yard, but I would love to live somewhere warmer and be able to garden year round. It's a trade off though, I understand that! Thanks for visiting!
ReplyDeleteAmy