I love summer on the temperate East Coast, but I admit: Even when the mercury soars in Massachusetts, I sometimes wish it had been only a little more tropical. Luckily, plants using bold, bawdy foliage aren’t exclusive to warmer climes. Listed below are just five cold-hardy plants certain to bring sultry heat to any temperate garden.
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1 tropical-looking hardy plant I am psyched to try out this year is ‘Mekong Giant’ banana (Musa intinerans var. xishuangbannaensis ‘Mekong Giant’). It’s reportedly hardy from zone all the way to zone 11. It’s rumored increase to 15 feet tall at a zone 6 season. In warmer zones? Up to 40 feet.
The key for this remarkable banana’s success: It hales from some of the chilliest sections of China. Grow ‘Mekong Giant’ in full sun to part shade, average to moist soil. Mulch well in autumn in colder zones for good step and allow it to space — clumps grow 4 to 8 ft wide.
1 genus I think of most when it comes to hardy plants that look tropical is Aralia, also called spikenard. Some aralias are woody, similar to this variegated Japanese aralia (Aralia elata‘Silver Umbrellas’, zones 4 to 9), and grow into palmlike tiny trees using symmetrical topknots of foliage on slender, spiny, 6- to 12-foot stems. Summer brings clouds of white blossoms, followed by purple berries that birds go gaga for. Shrubby aralias can be tough to find and might be expensive, but in sun to part shade and average garden soil, they’re a cinch to grow. Eliminate any green suckers that appear at the bottom of variegated varieties.
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If your wallet can’t really take care of the shrubby aralias, here is a newcomer to the scene I am betting we’ll be seeing more of at nurseries anyplace, and in a kinder price point: ‘Sun King’ Japanese spikenard (Aralia cordata‘Sun King’, zones 3 to 9). This one is a blowzy, bodacious hunk of amazing chartreuse foliage that is 3 to 4 feet tall and wide (occasionally more with moisture) and dies to the ground every year. The royally cool foliage of’Sun King’ may bleach in sunlight, so give it some shade in the hottest aspect of the day for the best color.
Chartreuse appears to be among my favourite foliage colours, and while we are at it, I couldn’t leave out everyone’s favourite, Tiger Eyes staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina‘Bailtiger’, zones 4 to 8). This shrub’s parent is native to the eastern half of North America, and such as the woody aralias, it sports symmetrical, palmlike crowns of leaves atop shrubby stems. With sun, its leaves are electric yellow. I like them better in color, in which they glow in chartreuse.
As if its in-season color weren’t sufficient, Tiger Eyes has showstopping red-orange autumn foliage too. Like most staghorn sumacs, it is going to spread somewhat by runners, even though this number is more restrained.
But what about smaller things? There are dozens of cold-hardy perennials that will bring the tropics to your garden. One I am finally trying this year is agave eryngium (Eryngium agavifolium, zones 5 to 9). As with other eryngiums, it’s easy to grow in sun and well-drained soil (key to its survival in cold zones), and it is drought resistant once established. Its actual allure, however, comes from those glossy, serrated swords that give it a tropical flare. Agave eryngium forms rosettes as many as two feet tall and broad, but in late summer, it warms 4-foot-tall spears of quietly elegant, teasellike blossoms. It’s adored by bees and other beneficial insects.
Photo by Valérie75 through Wikimedia Commons
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