Hi Everybody,
I'm skatayama from NJ. I have an overwhelming compulsion to grow plants out of their zones. Any other Yankee tropical plant lovers paying attention out there?
skatayama

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I didn't do it...

Hey Skat, I completely understand cause I can't help myself either. My latest is some bamboo that I am told won't live here in mid Missouri. So it will live in the house during winter. Got a Banana tree with the poor leaves smashing up against the ceiling(12 '). What can be done for someone like us,huh? If things weren't bad enough, I keep getting more from friends too.It's an addiction I guess. Do you have a red dwarf banana? It's one of my favorites...ooops....didn't mean to get you wanting one.hahahaha............Michael

hi skatayama
what you can do is that, you have to see where the origin of the plant you want to grow, from the origin (place usually grown) you can Know the weather, and type of soil, and the water needs of the desired plant. what is your part, is to try to provide these conditions to the plant you want to grow.
like for example during winter you should move the plant to warm or heated place, or make a small glasshouse, or a small greenhouse in you garden to protect all your plants (that are planted out of their zons).

i hope this might help you.

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bob

I got the compulsion too. My latest is growing Heliconias outside in my zone 9 climate. So far so good.

I like growing plants that aren't supposed to grow in my zone too. Of course, since I'm in zone 2, that includes a lot of plants that aren't really tropical. Zone 3 plants need babying if I'm going to grow them outdoors here. All of my tropical plants grow indoors. Sometimes I take them outside in the summer, but even then I need to be careful. I managed to chill a pineapple plant last July by having it outdoors. (We had an unusually cool summer in 2004, with frost in August).

Yeah, last summer was on the cool side here too. Well, relatively speaking. It got into the eighties but never really got hot and consequently the tomatoes (that's solanums to anyone who is insisting on remaining tropical) did diddlysquat.

But giving a pineapple a cold...well that's plant cruelty! What else are you summering outside, if you don't mind me asking?

skatayama, the squirrel catcher

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I didn't do it...

I also put my sugarcane and cotton outside last summer. (I know cotton isn't exactly tropical, but as I live in zone 2 it might as well be) The cotton did extremely well and the sugarcane did about the same as in the house. I kept my coffee and mango indoors though as they weren't doing great to start with. I haven't decided yet whether my dwarf banana and dwarf citrus trees will be spending this coming summer indoors or partially outdoors.

I'm picking up what you're puttin' down,...... my pelargoniums, New Zealand flax, daturas and papyruses all do double duty as patio plants and house plants. About this time of year they're all crowded into the brightly lit parts of my Bozeman, MT home.

~Cathy

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Cathy

I love growing things that aren't naturally in my area. right now i have 7 pineapples, i think 12 bananas (lost count), 3 lemon trees, 2 avacado trees, and then just the normal house plants. for some reason my wife wants me to "hurry and build the greenhouse!" go figure. Couldn't have anything to do with having plants in every corner of the house could it? i usually put most of the plants out during the summer, and bring them in just before frost in the fall. They seem to be doing quite well for a zone 5. well.... thats my 3 cents(feeling generous so i added an extra cent)

yeah,...... i'd love greenhouse, but i live in an appartment,.... so no luck . maybe someday. anyway,..... i have lots of healthy and vigorous begoninas and daturas but i'd really love a banana, esp. one with colored or partially colored leaves, i don't really care about fruit. has anyone in a similar climate had any good experiences?

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Cathy

I'm likely in a colder climate than you, does that count? My tropicals all live indoors. I've had very good experience with sugarcane and my dwarf citrus and dwarf banana plants are doing well. Pineapple also did well until I accidentally chilled it last summer. Mango and coffee started out well but both got sick

I'm in Bozeman MT, so all my plants live inside too. generally speaking, my Datura's kinda look poopie durring the winter (defoliate and all that), and my Papayrus gets a little crusty, but everybody perks up during the growing season. Where are you at in Canada? and which banana is in your picture (under the "Plant Pictures" thread)?

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Cathy

I'm in Saskatchewan. I guess that makes us neighbors It is a dwarf banana, but I'm not sure exactly what kind.

Hello all. I am in Ohio (Zone 5) and am beginning to get my thumb green with tropicals where they aren't supposed to go. My wife thinks I'm obsessed and might have a mental condition since I want to grow tropicals in Ohio. She says that those things don't grow here, to this I respond, "Wanna bet?" The question is not whether something will grow here, the question is what will I do with it come winter? I am encouraged to see others in even colder climates sharing my obsession. Why can't I sip a Pina Colada under a banana plant, next to some bamboo, smelling a hibiscus in my own backyard? The money I may spend on plants is certainly cheaper than a trip to the Bahamas. I just need to find a way to keep costs down by saving plants and propagating more.

Hello all! I am a "zone bender" too, I am in zone 5 MI and tropical are a must for me. I currently have 2 Brugmansia growing in front of my house along with 12 hibicus plants, many Alocasia and a brand new Banana plant of uncertian type. I had a hibbie tree last year but I let it sit out in winter and lost it along with my patio peach. I am treating my brugs like an annual because of a way that I found to overwinter them which will allow me to have twice as many next year as I have this year. Anyway, just wanted to say hello!!