Beautiful!!! I see we love many of the same tropicals.

Your garden is really great! Hard to believe it is Memphis!! I see your passionate about your style and I really like that! Jenn

I like seeing what you have done in Memphis. I'm over here in Paris, and I intend to "push" the zone here. I brought a bunch of my tropicals with me when we moved from central Texas. I have a micro-climate here, about 100 feet from my front door I have a 20 acre lake. And there are evergreen trees all around---I think I can get away with planting most of my tropicals into the ground. Has anyone grown the Mexican Red Bird up here? It freezes back to the soil in Austin, but always comes back. I plan to plant one and keep one in a pot "just in case". I think I will do that with my candlestick plants, too. Anything else you think I should try?
Thanks for the adventure in your yard!
Linda Mieke

Delta Tropics Guy,

I love your backyard!

How many of the plants you posted in your pictures make it through the winter outside in Memphis? Do you dig some of them up and bring inside or greenhouse over the winter?

The vast majority of my plants sit outside all winter. All the bananas you see there sat in the ground all winter. I do keep at least one of everything in the garage, in case of a catastrophic winter. But other than that, it all stays outside. The Chinese fan palms and the couple of crotons are really the only things that can't sit totally exposed. The chinese fans get covered when it's going to drop below 25F, but the crotons and 1 or 2 other plants just get taken inside. Most everything you see in my yard is hardy here. I can't afford to have too much that isn't hardy because I really have no where to put anything except a few small things inside. Also, this winter I will not be digging up any of the bananas. I don't have the space in the garage any more to store any stalks.

Inner Memphis (and you probably too, since I see you register yourself as being in 8a like me) where I am is mild anyway, so the stalks are so big now that they don't completely freeze through. My low 2 years ago was 19F and this past winter at Christmas I hit 16F. I get my borderline tropicals (8b+) back without fail in the spring.

Anyways- glad you like the yard! :) Where abouts in Memphis are you, if I may ask? Just curious which area in general, not specifically.

DeltaTropicsGuy, Your yard is amazing. It has been a pleasure to watch it and your plants grow. Keep on gardening! Cheers.

Rick

DeltaTropicsGuy, I'm in Bartlett, so I may not really be in zone 8a (I'm probably in zone denial--grin)

Do you give any of the bananas you leave in the ground winter protection? And where did you get them? Next year I'm going to have to get a Musa Bordelon!

My butterfly ginger didn't come back as well this spring as usual; only about half the clump came back. However I usually mulch them with pine needles and failed to do so last fall.

I've got a clump of variegated shell ginger that I usually dig up. This fall I think I'll leave some in the ground as a test.

Ok, Delta...you forced me to buy a M. Bordelon! LOL! Our Rojo did not come back this year, so hopefully this one will get established enough to make it. I am also going to use a different protection method.

My surprise returns this year for our 7a garden was:

Gloriosa Lily (in full bloom right now)
Shell Ginger (Alpina)
Livistona Chinensis
Sago (the size you would find in a big box store)
Various Curcuma gingers(3 out of 4 came back)
about half of the colocasias, alocasias, and xanthasomas

It is a neat experience to see plants pushing it!

Rebecca

Fantastic :D I love Musa 'Bordelon' :D I have one currently flowering, so it will fruit soon. :)

Shell ginger is pretty hardy stuff. :) Mine comes back just fine. Livistona chinensis is a good palm. It's root hardy into zone 7 with lots of mulch, etc. Frond hardy to 8b-9a, so I cover mine up and it looks just fabulous all year.

Sagos are highly resilient. Mine are happy happy here in Memphis. As far as Colocasias, Alocasias, and Xanthosomas, I've never lost any here. They have all proven to be an extremely resilient group of tropicals.

Several questions:

1) How long does it take your more tender tropicals to come back to this size after winter? I guess what I'm asking is, are they all coming back from the ground level, or do some stay standing?

2) Does anyone have an interest in a Tamarind seedling? I have 5 started- each has about 5 fronds at this time, and are about 5 inches tall. Apparently Tamarindus indica has a massive taproot on it such that keeping it in a pot will not work - they must go in the ground. Plus they are supposed to be z10. I'm sending two to the UT Trial Gardens (where I think they will live in the greenhouse), so I have two up for grabs. I'm going to experiment with one poor soul.

3) Do you think this would work? I'm thinking it should be possible to cover my new tropicals bed with a 4mil plastic sheet fastened over bent PVC pipe to create mini-greenhouse - this should provide a warmer climate for them over the winter, right? I'm hoping that doing that would mean I would not have to dig them all up. I have heard that if you can get many of them past a certain age, they don't die back. I will be planting the banana such that as they get older they will be able to be outside the winter house (they would get too tall, I believe.) Am I deluded? Is this impractical? Guidance would be good - my tropical bed is not planted yet so there's lots of room for altering the plan.

To answer your first question- it totally depends on the plant. Elephant ears, cannas, ginger, lantana, stuff like that die to the ground. Bananas keep their stalks and look like poles all winter. The palms are green all winter of course. The cordylines remain green as well. Hm what else.. The Hibiscus moscheutos all die to the ground. That is their habit. Now to answer the second part of that question- My cannas and ginger pop back up during the last week of February. The lantana is up by March, as with the elephant ears. Hibiscus shoots up in early April when the ground is much warmer. The bananas look fine by May.

To answer your 3rd question- Putting plastic over the beds is probably not a good idea. Soon as the sun hits it on even a mild day like 50F+, it will evaporate lots of water in the ground and cause it to be really steamy and yucky on the inside. That promotes rot. The best thing to do with tropicals that you want to keep is to Mulch the heck outta them. Or simply dig em up if your back will allow it. Most all of my stuff stays in the ground. Lot of it is just too big. Most of it is hardy in Memphis anyways.

Unless you actually have a full blown greenhouse, I wouldn't do the plastic plan. That's going to make things yucky inside.

well, I meant to arch it over the bed about 6 or so feet high, like a temporary greenhouse. I should have explained better.

Hey everybody:

I live in memphis, but have always considered this to be zone 7. I do have some Tropicals though. I have 4 Variegated
Bannanas, that I set out, but bring in every year. My Black
Magic E. Ears come back every year. I just love them. They
do really well with Cannas and give such a Tropical flair
to garden. Another really cool plant is Texas Bog Hibiscus.
mine is 7 feet tall now and coming into bloom. You will
get lots of looks with this one,because untilit is in bloom
it looks exactly like a Marijuana plant seriously.
I have had Fucsias this year , and they have done great.

Hi all. Haven't been on much lately, too busy in the garden. Now that it has rained for at least 5 days here I have more time inside.

Delta tropics Guy, enjoyed the pics of your beautiful garden. I didn't even realize there was a zone 8 in TN.
Anyway, good for you as I'm in the mountains and kinda pushing the zone 7 they say we're in.

Raney

Rizzir -- to give you someone else's experiences on growing some of this stuff outside, and how long it takes to get some size on it the following year:

I'm another inner-city Memphis dweller. I've planted a lot of lantana over the years, and while some of it has come back for me, some of it has not. I think it depends a lot on what variety it is -- some are more hardy than others.
Of course, it also depends on the micro-climates in your yard. 'New Gold' has come back well, and come up early, for me where I have it planted on a south-facing slope. Other than that, while I guess most of my varieties have eventually come back from the roots, a lot of them take so long to come up that I find it's more rewarding to plant new 4" plants. Otherwise i spend most of the spring looking at bare beds with tiny little lantana sprouts slowly pushing up.... it really does seem to depend on variety, though.

I have Hedychium coronarium in several spots, and in one warm spot in front of a south-facing wall, it came up quite early (as would be expected). In another cooler spot, though, it didn't come up until a couple weeks ago (early July).

My Colocasias take their time about coming up. I have Black Magic and Illustris, and it was June this year before they came up at all. Illustris sat there for a couple weeks, then took off and started growing pretty well, but Black Magic stayed about 4" tall for literally a month. Finally in the second week of July it started to get some size on it, and it's growing in really nicely by now, but until then you wouldn't even notice it if you weren't looking for it. I know 2 other gardeners in the area who had exactly the same experience this year. I can understand why some people buy new plants in April every year at the local nurseries and plant sales -- they just don't want to wait that long for last year's plants to come up.

A local friend a little north of Memphis tried leaving an Alocasia macrorrhiza outside this past winter. It started coming up at the very end of May/first of June, actually a week before any of her Colocasias. Her Colocasia Illustris came up in June, followed by her Black Magic -- but only 1 out of her 4 Black Magic plants made it (her yard prob gets 5-10 degrees cooler than mine).

I luckily have access to some greenhouse space, so I take most of my stuff inside (alpinia, porterweed, shrimp plants, odontonema, jasmines, xanthosoma, acalypha, tabernaemontana, bananas, palms, etc.). Even though a lot of it may eventually come up from the roots, it just takes so long in some cases... This fall I'm planning to leave a few more test plants out, just to see for myself how they do.

So, if you happen to have the micro-climate that'll support this stuff, lucky you! South-facing walls seem to work well... Otherwise, it can be a long, bare spring waiting for the ground to warm up enough for the semi-tropicals to start growing again. Of course, if you plan it right and mix in the right perennials and shrubs, you might not notice! :) (wow, didn't mean to make this quite so long!)

I'm in lakeland, TN and I'm new to this forum! I have enjoyed reading all the stories about palms in TN. Just put in a pool and I want everything around it Tropical. I was born and raised in Tampa, Fla, and I love tropical plants. Does anyone know where to get nice palms locally? I've ordered mine from the internet.

Hi I am in Lakeland also, have you tried Dabney's on Hack's Cross or Tree's by Touliatos on Brooks Rd? They are both a good drive so you may want to call or email before going but if you are looking for an adventure both are good places to go meander. I don't grow any palms but I do grow brugmansia's and I am new to plumeria. I just got back from the Tampa area and went to Exotic Plumerias in Seffner and got 2 new plumies while I was there.

Mary

To be honest, I get most of my plants at cheaper places like Home Depot. Just look for healthier stocks. Dabneys, Touliatos, Stringers, Dan West etc can all be on the very expensive side. You'll be surprised what you can get at the Lowes/HomeDepot type places. I even bought a Coconut palm at Walmart a couple years ago. They get random shipments of odd tropicals from time to time.

Hello from the Eastern Highlands of far east Middle Tennessee
EXIT 300 - lol.
Im so proud of the zone pushers in far west Tennessee , especially Memphis region. For many years I had to listen to bull crap from backyard garden experts from other on line garden forums that trashed W.TN. and Memphis' mild winter climate. from Ga, Al, NC it came , how much warmer they were than Memphis and how Tennessee had no z8. Well my local weather channel monitors Memphis constantly and after about 4 years of watching every day , its a rare day in you know where when Memphis is cooler (day or night - summer of winter) than in Birmingham-Atlanta- NC , etc.
Memphis is truly the garden center of Tennessee and I thank all of you for pushing the envelope and making us other Tennesseans proud. I know its a vast urban city and the usual goes with it but there are awesome parts , especially in your gardens. Keep up the good work W.Tennessee. The Memphis bashing seems to have vanished , I assume bevause the proof is in the pudding , Thanks DTG for a look in your gardens.
Rob No Tn Plateau aka Mountain_Grown

There is a wonderful nursery located in Shelby Forest called bayless. it has been around for a long times. There prices beat the hell of most others. I have bought ferns there for 4.00 that would be twice that anywhere else. Flats of bedding plants 10.00 where they are 12.99 at Home depot etc. They have a really nice selection, and are very knowledgable.