Tropical plants to compliment bananas -- FAST growers

[wxman]

Here is what I have going in my tropical garden this summer -

Musa basjoo (4)
Musa orinoco (4)
Ensete maurelii (3)
Siam ruby (1)
Caladium (6)

Does anyone have any advice for other tropical plants that I can add that grow FAST and are nice and leafy?

Here is a wide angle of my yard. I enlarged the circle bed (middle left) into an oval towards the house. I also created another circle bed the size of the one you see in the photo to the right of the maple tree (just right of the red swing).



I want people to look at my yard this summer and have their jaw drop. Colorful things would be awesome too.

Thanks for any help!

[Paul Ont]

If you can find the 'Zanzibarensis' form of Castor bean, the thing grows like a weed (it is a weed in the subtropics!) to a massive height. Maybe if you can find a Thai Giant, Jim etc. had some very impressive plants of this last summer!

You can't go wrong with Canna musifolia either. Also some of the variegated canna have a nice look to them. Oh, and some people also like gingers, personally I don't really like them, but they are fast.

[TerdalFarm]

I do like gingers, but have not been able to overwinter them in the ground so I dug and bring them in.
Canna do great and overwinter with heavy mulch; they are already coming up. I'll do more of them this year.
My new tropical will be papaya, for the foliage.

[Cameron_z6a_N.S.]

Try Zingiber mioga, it's one of the hardiest!