Psittacorums in the Tropical Garden

Psittacorum "Kathy" is an excellent cut flower and landscaping plant

Psittacorums are upright small heliconias indigenous to South America. They are popular cutflowers and selective breeding and hybridization has given us a wide range of colours, bract size and growth form. Psittacorums are often called parakeet flower or parrot flower because of their stunning tropical colours. They prefer a warmer climate but some like Petra will handle a sheltered position as far south as Coastal Sydney. They make perfect plant for mass planting or erosion control. To keep them looking their best it’s is recommended that they are whipper snipper or mowed down every few years and compost or manure added to the bed as they are very heavy feeders. They grow well in full sun, prefer freely draining soils with high organic matter and regular application of complete fertiliser every four to six weeks, particularly during the hot and humid months.

If you are in a tropical or subtropical garden and love having fresh cut flowers then psittacorums are perfect. They flower year round and can last for up to two weeks in a vase. They are not fussy, need little care and take up very little space but will continuously pump up flowers if they have adequate nutrition and water.

"Lillian" is one of my favorite pinks

I wish I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say “Heliconias will take over your garden” Like bamboo they suffer from a certain notoriety associated with ignorance and poor plant selection. Just like bamboo heliconias can be loosely divided into running or clumping varieties. Both are rhizomous plants that both send new shoots a long way off (running) or send new shoots up close and form a clump. Before planting either it is important to know which you are planting and whether they are suitable to your garden design.

Psittacorums are the running variety of heliconia that cop the most flack in the gardening world. Easy to propagate, quick to flower, eager to flower in pots and stunning flowers perfect for floral arrangements make the ideal plant in the right position and climate. They are generally readily available in nurseries in the tropics and subtropics and will quickly fill garden beds. However, the same things that make them such a quick fix can make them a nightmare in the long run. Because they like to run! Not happy to stay put psittacorums tend to need space to move; without a barrier to prevent the rhizomes from creeping, they will happily escape into your lawn and crowd out other plants. Psittacorums are not particularly cold hardy so in cooler areas this will not be so much of an issue but from Brisbane up you will need to seriously consider plant placement.

" Lady Di" is breathtakingly beautiful! A real garden standout.

 You can find the range of psittacorums we currently have in stock here. We will be adding to the range in spring

"Peter Bacon" is a stunning combination of pink and orange.

Mini Cordylines Best Landscaping Cordylines Part 2

Kaui Beauty Mini with Winter Color

Mini Cordylines

Mini cordylines are smaller, more compact cordylines that usually have dense foliage and an upright growth habit to less than 1 ½ meters. Because of their compact size they can be used as an edging plant, mass planted, are extremely useful in courtyard gardens and look great in pots.

Mini cordylines offer fantastic versatility in landscaping as well as colourful foliage for flower arrangements. They are generally very vigorous and robust and there is a great selection available for both full sun and part shade conditions. The advent of tissue culture and megawholesale nurseries has had a negative impact on varieties you will find in most retail nurseries and places like Bunnings. So many plants these days are propagated for “pot impact”, trends and temperate climates rather than longevity or long term desirability in a tropical or subtropical garden. Unfortunately that makes a large range of mini cordylines difficult to find for the home gardener.

At El Arish Tropical Exotics we grow a pretty good selection because we just love them! Below we’ve highlighted some of our favourites for landscaping.

You’ll find a surprisingly high number of mini cordylines that do well in full sun. Some of the toughest come from the compacta family.  Cordyline compacta is a dense tight plant with deep purple leaves that turn eggplant black in full sun. Cameroon is another mini from the compacta family that is equally as tough and vigorous. Cameroon is similar in size, shape and growth habit to compacta with more chocolate colouring and leaves edged in lime green. Both are also grown commercially as foliage for cutflower arrangements as they last for weeks in arrangements. In recent times other sports of compacta have come on the garden scene Moonlight has yellowish brown to a silvery plum leaves, while Gold Edge is similar to Cameroon with a thick bright yellow edge. Brand and Lime is another sport from Cameroon and has lime green leaves with coffee colour markings and is not quite as robust in growth as its mother plant. Chocolate Swirl has attractive variegation in leaf but prefers a little protection from afternoon sun.

Cameroon is a great all rounder with year round color.

If you are looking for fast growing with strong colour you can’t go past

Another mini developed in Tissue Culture with beautiful variegation is Amanda’s Blush. Base colour is dark red and leaves are edged and variegated with pink. This is a standout when massed planted in the garden. It prefers very good drainage and a well lit position with some protection from the hot sun. Some other great varieties with full juno leaves and great colour are Suzi’s Choice, a striking mini with deep pink flushes of pink on leaves and Kauai Beauty Mini, deep bronze/green leaves new growth flushes red in cooler months. Both are very strong landscaping plant and good consistent growers. Best colour is achieved in the cooler months.

Maliaalways has strong pink color in full sun

Many of the great mini cordylines available in Australia like so many other world class cordylines have been bred in Hawaii. Along with Kauai Beauty Mini some other excellent choices for tropical landscaping include Malia, Maui Silva, Hawaiian Girl, Miss Hawaii, Kalani Koa, Mini Mauna Kea Juno, Mini Mauna Kea Snow, Green Jade, Haole Top and HaoleBronze.

In between mini cordylines and what is considered standard size cordylines are a group that can go either way. 

Daintree Delight

While Tutu and Daintree Delight are still considered minis they are slightly larger than the average mini.  Vanuatu, Jamie Boy, Robin’s Red Breast, Vanuatu, Holiday Inn, Kaui Rose, Aussie Delite and a number of other cordylines that have a compact size in common. These in betweenies are perfect for smaller spaces or for dense plantings. They can help give the illusion of a space being larger than it is.

Remember a mini cordyline isn’t necessarily a small grower left to its own device. Generally it is preferable to prune the tops occasionally so they will achieve a bushy shape. The tops can be used as propagation material or can be used as foliage for flower arrangements. A grouping of mini tops can make a stunning table arrangement.

Firecracker is a strong grower and has beautiful color

Mini Cordylines are easy to grow in rich well drained soil. They will achieve best colour when fertilized regularly with seasol and mulched regularly. With a little TLC you can achieve year round colour and texture in your garden by landscaping with mini cordylines.

You’ll always find our “in stock” selection here.  We also offer a number of bulk buys for mini cordylines. You'll find all our cordyline bulk buys here. We hope you’ve learned a bit about minis!

Happy  Gardening!   

Ann

I Absolutely Love Suzi's Choice!

Buying Pandanus Amaryllifolius Online From El Arish Tropical Exotics

A little background info on Duan Pandan

Pandanus amaryllifolius is a low growing (under one meter) plant with long narrow blade like leaves and woody aerial roots. It can be grown as a marginal plant in dams and ponds, used as a bedding plant in tropical landscaping and be used to hold creek banks. However it is most widely cultivated for use in Asian cooking and basket making.
It has a nutty botanical fragrance and is most commonly used in rice dishes or tied in a bundle and cooked with food.

Some of its other uses include as a foliage plant in flower arrangements and the leaves also have a repellent effect on cockroaches. Placing a small bundle in drawers is a great natural deterrent to roaches.
It is also known by many local regional names. In Bangladesh it is called ketaki, it is pandan wangi in Indonesian, soon-mhway in Burmese, bai tooey in Thai, rampe in Sinhala, sleuk toi in Khmer, Daun Pandan in Nonya cooking lá dứa in Vietnamese and "Basmatiyaa tree" in Magahi and Bhojpuri (BIHAR,U.P.) due to its fragrance. It’s amazing it is used in so many cultures in cooking including Indonesian, Singaporean, Filipino, Malaysian, Thai, Bangladeshi, Vietnamese, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Khmer and Burmese foods, especially rice dishes and cakes. There are soooo many recipes for cooking with pandan leaves on the web. Here is a good place to start. 

Dragon Boat Festival Dumplings

You can purchase plants pandanus amaryllifolius from us here.

How to keep your Duan Pandan alive

Here in the Wet Tropics Pandanus amaryllifolius grows like a weed. Pandan loves our high rainfall, high humidity and year round warm temperatures. Unfortunately the majority of our customers have to work at recreating a Wet Tropical Microclimate in places like Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney. One obvious way is to grow your pandans in a hothouse where you can control humidity, temperature and moisture levels. Probably the most popular way of growing a few pandans for leaves is to keep them in pots. This way you can keep them in a moist part sun microclimate in your garden in the summer (it helps to mist them a few times daily) and then move them to a warm undercover area with bright light for winter, a brightly lit bathroom is perfect. In winter be careful not to overwater, once a week is usually good. If you overwater in winter the roots can rot. Remember they are tropical plants that need good humidity and warmth for active growth. They absolutely need to be protected from temps below 10 to survive. Having said that many people do successfully grow pandans in Sydney Melbourne and Adelaide.

If at all possible avoid heavily chlorinated water or salty bore water when watering your pandan, rainwater is best as it doesn’t like chlorine or salt in the soil.

Pandanus amaryllifolius are not very fussy about the type of fertilizer you use but we do suggest fertilizing regularly in summer. Before your plants are sent to you we dip the leaves and roots in a seaweed solution that keeps it healthy for its trip and promotes growth.

It’s best not to let your plant become too pot bound, better to pot on to the next size pot up so it doesn’t dry out too quickly. Be careful about using too many leaves off of the plant. Plants need leaves for photosynthesis and to grow. If you like to use a lot of pandan leaves or can’t control yourself because you haven’t had the fresh stuff in so long it might be better to buy a pandan value pack. You can put 3 pandans in a 200mm pot for a stunning display that will give you ample leaves to harvest. I also think plants that like high humidity tend to help create their own little microclimate when grown in groups. 

The best time to repot pot a plant is summer, use a high quality well draining potting mix. A heavy mix will inhibit root growth and increase the likelihood of your plant rotting in winter.

Wholesale Pandanus Amaryllifolius

While the demand is there, it is very difficult for nurseries outside of a wet tropical climate to grow Pandanus amaryllifolius quickly enough to sell them at an affordable price point. We are currently wholesaling to a number of retail and online nurseries and have recently expanded our numbers of Pandanus amaryllifolius . If you are interested in purchasing wholesale plants please contact us. We can provide them as either potted plants ready to be on sold or as barerooted plants which are much cheaper to freight. 

Not as nice as fresh :(

Pandan cupcakes Yumm!

Incredible Edible Tropicals: A selection of tropical plants that are edible as well as ornamental

Many of the beautiful tropical plants that we grow in our gardens as ornamentals hail from far away exotic lands. In the areas where they are native, their beauty is often second to their value as a source of food and medicine. We’ve just grouped our edibles together on the website as Incredible Edible Tropicals. We will be expanding it in the spring to include other edible ornamentals for the garden. Please do check back to see what surprises we have in store for you.

In this article we will be covering some of the tropical edible plants already in our catalogue, the ways they are used in the areas they are native to and ways you might use them in your own kitchen.

The most beautiful and intriguing of our edible tropical plants has to be the torch ginger (Etlingera elatior). It is also known as Bunga Kantan, Kaalaa, Asam Cekala and Laksa Flower. While any of the torch gingers is edible our Edible Pink Torch Ginger is the variety cultivated commercially for cooking. In its home territory of Malaysia it is considered a key ingredient in many dishes including Penang Laksa. The shoots and young inflorescent are eaten raw and also cooked. In some areas the crushed fruits are mixed with water to make a shampoo. It imparts an exotic aroma and spicy floral fragrance to cooking. It can either be halved lengthwise and used in curries and stews or the bud can be finally sliced and used as a topping.

Pandanus amaryllifolius is a small clumping pandanus that is useful as an edging plant along creek banks or dams but is most widely known for it's culinary uses. It can be used as a wrapper for small parcels of food that are steamed or a few leaves can be added to rice to impart a nutty flavour. Currently Southern Cross University is conducting experiments on pandanus amaryllifolius to see if they can impart the unique flavour to rice varieties that can be grown in Australia. It's with great pride that we can say they sourced their pandanus at El Arish Tropical Exotics. If you are in cooler climate we suggest keeping your pandanus as a pot plant so that you can bring it in or place in a hot house during cooler weather. Pandanus amaryllifollius is a very tropical plant that likes heat and humidity and can grown out of the tropics with care. If you are keen on growing edible pandanus then further ifo can be found here

Turmeric is another easy to grow tropical plant that doubles as both an ornamental and an edible. Turmeric is a curcuma and related to Cape York Lily. In fact, some people call Cape York Lily native turmeric . It has peppery, warm and bitter flavor and a mild fragrance slightly reminiscent of orange and ginger. We stock both the yellow and orange form, they can be purchased separately or at a discounted price together in our turmeric pack. Turmeric is commonly used in Indian and Malaysian curries. It is used as a natural dye that produces a rich golden yellow on cotton. It is also reputed to have many health benefits some which you can find here: 
http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/20-health-benefits-of-turmeric.html

galangal

Galangal is a S.E. Asian ginger with a slightly different flavour to z.officiale. In the tropics it is a much larger robust plants that isn't deciduous and makes a great screening plant.The small orchid like flowers are held above the filiage in arge sprays during summer. Their lovely spicey perfume filling the air. It too can be used in curries and in wetter areas is a great alternative to z. officiale. If you are unsure how to make a curry paste from scratch check out Susan Kirk's blog : Green Curry Paste  Red Curry Paste     
Galangal is also cold hardy to below freezing and is the only Alpinia to flower on first year growth. 

Calathea lutea is a hardy, large growing calathea with large oblong waxy backed leaves. In Panama it is used to wrap and steam tamales. But can be used to wrap, steam or bake like banana leaves are used. They also make attractive plate or platter liners.

The last plant on my little list of edible tropical is Costus barbatus ( syn C. Cosmosus). Many of the costus flowers are edible but this one is a favorite at our house. The small orange flowers impart a crunchy refreshing slightly ginger flavour to salads. If you have small foraging children this is a definite winner.

There is nothing as satisfying as growing your own food. The beautiful plants listed in our Edible Tropicals section will be be aesthetically pleasing as well as pointing you to the path of self sufficiency!

Happy Gardening!! Ann & Scott

ps I will do another Cyclone Yasi update but just wanted to get a few different articles out before I bore everyone to death :)

Heliconia Care Growing Heliconias

In the garden nothing screams tropical like heliconias. There huge banana like leaves and striking inflorescence stop admirers in their tracks.

Heliconias are endemic to Mexico, Central/South America and the Caribbean. There is also another small group found in the Old World Tropics from Samoa to Indonesia. The old world heliconias have green bracts and are pollinated at night by bats in contrast to the colourful new world varieties that are pollinated primarily by hummingbirds. Heliconias grow in a surprising range of habitat from cool mountainous areas, to seasonally dry to the Amazon basin where some like H.standleyeii and H.marginata grow in water.

All of the Eastern coast of Queensland, northern stretches of New South Wales and the more humid parts of the Northern Territory are perfect for growing heliconias. With proper species selection and a good microclimate it is possible to grow heliconias in more marginal areas like Sydney.

Heliconias produce an underground rhizome root system. A rhizome is a section of root that will grow and eventually develop into a heliconia plant. Rhizomes can vary in weight and size depending on the variety and age of the plant.

The best time to purshase heliconias is generally in the spring if your night time temps drop below 16 degrees. This will give your rhizome time to develop and be planted out and establish before winter. You can purchase later in the season if you have a hothouse and are an experienced heliconia grower.

In general heliconias prefer full to part sun, high humidity, rich well drained soil containing lots of organic matter and generous amounts of water. Heliconias are heavy feeders and thrive with regular applications of fertilizer. There are exceptions to this and you’ll find individual cultural requirements on the heliconia plant profile pages of our online plant store. Heliconias generally will stop active growth under 16 degrees, at this time it is easy for them to rot if overwatered.

Plant your heliconia as soon as possible after receiving. We wrap our rhizomes in shredded newspaper soaked in a seaweed solution. This helps increase plant vigour. You can either pot up your plant in a free draining premium potting mix or plant directly into the ground. Either way only plant to the soil line on the rhizome, never plant too deep. Water with a weak seaweed solution whenever the top of the soil is dry to the touch. Soon the small eyes on the sides of the rhizome will develop into erect shoots that are composed of a soft stem enclosed in overlapping leaf sheaths. Each of these shoots will eventually produce a single inflorescence. The inflorescence is made up of colourful bracts that protect the small flowers. You can leave the inflorescence on the plant as often they will last for months. When they die it is a good idea to cut them back. This will increase air flow, promote new shoots and keep your plants tidy looking. Alternatively you can cut when between 3 and 5 bracts are out and enjoy in an arrangement.



Link to potting up heliconias

Happy Gardening! Ann

An Introduction to Brugmansias in Australia

Alarmingly large amounts of Australian gardeners have been infected with an addiction that has afflicted their European and American counterparts for decades. Pop into Dave’s Garden’s Aussie Forum or the defunct Ozgarden and you’ll see what I mean. Young, old, tropical, subtropical, temperate, no one is spared from the seductive highly addictive Angel’s Trumpet. For some it is their alluring scent wafting thru the evening to dawn. For others it’s the explosion of breathtaking blooms that occur often in successive waves. Either way they are left wandering in their gardens mumbling “I’ve gotta have room for just one more, just one more…”

Angel Trumpets have a long history in Australian gardens dating back to colonial times. But in more recent years Australian collectors have been importing seed in from overseas where brugs breeding is more evolved than in Oz. Brugmansia are not true to seed but instead inherit traits from their parents and grandparents. In a batch of 100 seedlings there may be only one exceptional plant. Currently in Australia there is a rainbow assortment of beautiful single flowering brugmansias and a few exquisite doubles have popped up within the last year.

Brugmansia cultivars have an international register; it’s always a good idea to see if the plant you are buying is registered and not a seedling. We only see registered brugmansia and trial them in our garden first.

Brugmansias are hardy fast growing plants once established. They grow in almost all parts of Australia with the exception of extreme arid desert and regions that have long frosty winters.

You can find our ever expanding range of brugmansias in our online plant store.

When purchasing a plant from us you will generally receive a plant in a 4inch spacer saver pot that has been cut back for transport. We recommend that when you receive your plant you water it with a weak seaweed solution. This will help ease stress and promote new leaf bud formation. You can either transplant your plant into the ground or into a larger pot. Potting mix should be a premium free draining mix.

For more information on Angel Trumpets we suggest you look at the Brugmansia Growers International website.

Heliconias For Brisbane

I've just added a section on our website called "Heliconias for Brisbane" It is specifically meant for Brisbane growers that are either new to growing heliconias or have less than perfect conditions for heliconias. In a previous article we discussed conditions that heliconias like, in this article I'd like to expand on that a bit for Brisbane gardeners.

Most people are aware that the majority of heliconias are from Central and South America. However, the range of climates they come from can greatly vary. Some like the Caribaeas are from mountainous areas with great drainage and cool nights.These varieties grow well in Northern NSW but find summer heat in Brisbane hard to handle. Others like Sexy Pink are from the Amazon Basin, with constant high humidity and little temperature variation between summer and winter. These varieties may love the humidity but won't tolerate Brisbane's Westerly Winds or sharp temperature drops in winter.
At best Brisbane represents the extremes of the heliconia world. It can be tough on the cooler climate heliconias in summer (too hot) and tough in the warm climate heliconias in winter (too cold) and strong Westerlies can sometimes seal the coffin so to speak.


So how does someone in Brisbane know which heliconias will grow SUCCESSFULLY ?Lush, thriving plants producing lots of flowers, not sulking sadly making your garden look like crap.
The first step is a realistic assessment of your garden. If you can create a protected microclimate it'll help with Westerlies, if your soil is poor or filled with builder's rubble you can bring in quality top soil or add copious amounts of organic matter to correct it. Heavy layers of mulch and a drip irrigation system are the most waterwise way of delivering moisture to your plants. You may not be able to "fix" every problem you have, but a good microclimate will increase the number of varieties you can grow successfully. Lets face it! No heliconia's natural habitat is a small bed filled with builder's rubble on a hot concrete path on the way to the BBQ. But lots of heliconias will grow well in Brisbane even in less than perfect conditions.

If you are looking for smaller heliconias Tropifleur and Guadalope are two gorgeous psitt crosses that do well in Brisbane. Tropifleur is particularly renowned in the heliconia world for it's ability to deal with strong wind. Guadalope has a slightly runny habit but the striking flowers make it well worth growing.
If you are looking for gorgeous pendulous heliconias suitable for Brisbane look no further than H.pendula "Waxy Red" and Rostrata (needs a bit of shade for foliage to look it's best). Rauliniana is another semi pendulous variety that does well in Brisbane.
Any of the Caribaea crosses will do well in Brisbane as does Hot Rio Nites. In addition Yellow Dancer, Papsiana, Maya Blood, Chocolate Dancer, Lingulata Fan, Claw 1&2 are all easy growers in Brisbane.
The Orthotricas will grow in most areas in Brisbane and are certainly well worth growing; but maybe tough to grow in some areas. Given optimal conditions there are many other heliconias that will grow in Brisbane. But I suggest you get your feet wet these varieties if you haven't grown heliconias before.
All these plants are available in the Heliconias For Brisbane section of our online plant store.
If you have any information about growing heliconias in Brisbane please leave a comment. The more information we share the better!
Happy Gardening!!! Ann