List your favorite tropical fakers!

[Paul Ont]

As per Jesses request, I am beginning a thread on tropical fakers... These are the plants that are rated as hardy to your USDA zone (i.e. the average extreme minimum for the closest reliable weather station for the past 20 years), not Canadian growing zone.

Here are the rules, you can only post plants that are rated to your zone, OR which have proven completely hardy for the past, say, 5 years. Bonus points will be assigned on a random basis.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Rhododendron, especially the bigger leafed sorts. Examples include R. brachycarpum ssp. tigerstedtii (z 3?) and hybrids (z. 3-5). There are reports of some really interesting plants of R. BVT x R. fortunei which are mimics of F. elastica, though I have only seen pictures.

Azaleas- Also Rhodos, and not really tropical, but they do put on quite a show.

Magnolias- Any, especially the big leaf types: M. macrophylla, M. tripetala (z. 3/4?), M. triloba, M. ashei... I guess I can also list a few hybrid Southern magnolias: M. grandiflora x M. sieboldii and M. acuminata, both rated to zone 5, but I've not tried them.

Hostas- ONLY the big leaf types.

Bamboos- Some are borderline hardy in zone 5a, but are generally top-killed or look ratty in spring. P. aureosulcata, P. nuda, P. bissetti, and a few Fargesia.

Miscanthus gigantus (floridus). Huge and imposing. Probably hardy to zone 4, but I have lost plants in the past.

What are some of your favorites?

[SimonKingston]

These four are hardy in Kingston.....Mahonia bealei, Aralia spinosa & elata, and Kalopanax pictus.

The Mahonia will do best if you keep the winter sun off it. It hasn't even shrugged at -27ºC in the past.

[Paul Ont]

Simon- The Mahonia (I'll have to double check the species I.D., but I believe they are aquilifolium) beside my office (York U) are looking pretty beat up despite the lows only dropping to -20C up there (we've had -18C downtown)... I'm anxious to get back to Kingston to see how the -30C (-31C at my place!) has affected the plants. It's one thing to get 2 of those breakouts, but 2 in one year.. Man, I picked the wrong year to plant a So. mag!

[TerdalFarm]

[quote="Paul Ont"]Man, I picked the wrong year to plant a So. mag![/quote]

Paul,
southern magnolia down here got that cold and are all going to survive (mature ones) with less leaf damage than I expected.
I hope to plant one this spring, after seeing how well established specimens did (esp. vs other BLEs).

Simon, welcome!

--Erik

[SimonKingston]

In my experience, M. aquifolium subjected to full winter sun here will have near 100% browning of leaves by spring. Move the same plant to an eastern, northern, or otherwise shaded location and only slight or no browning occurs. In M. bealei, the impact of winter sun is similar to M. aquifolium but with fewer overall leaves and almost none located on the interior of the shrub, the visual impact of damaged leaves is greater. As for temperature tolerance, Kingston has not reached the threshold yet where I can differentiate between the two species though this winter's lows might be close.

Thanks for the welcome!

[lucky1]

Hi Simon! welcome aboard PN.

Hope you've got some of your plant pics to share with us.

Barb