Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

A banana with no bananas? Scarlet red flowers of Musa coccinea

Musa coccinea, Scarlet Banana

🔥 A banana with no bananas? Scarlet red flowers of Musa coccinea.

💃 Musa coccinea, Scarlet Banana, is a small tropical plant from China and Vietnam that grows like a banana but doesn’t bother with fruit you can eat. Instead, it puts out tall, upright spikes of red bracts with yellow flowers tucked inside - like a torch made of petals.
💃 Each stem flowers once and then fades, but new shoots keep popping up from the base, so the plant just keeps going. The leaves are classic banana style: big, dark green, and glossy.
💃 You’ll see the flowers in summer, and they last a long time - bright, strange, and impossible to ignore. The plant stays compact, does well in pots, and even the fruit (small and orange) adds a weird touch. It's one of those plants that doesn't try to fit in.

🛒 For fans of strange plants

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Devils Backbone, Jacobs Ladder - Pedilanthus tithymaloides

💪 Grows in neglect: tough plant for tough spots

🌿If you've got a dry, rough patch where nothing wants to grow, try Devil's Backbone, or Jacobs Ladder - Pedilanthus tithymaloides.
🌿This plant is seriously tough. It handles heat, drought, poor soil - no complaints.
🌿Its zig-zag stems look like they were folded by hand, and the little pink flowers are a nice surprise.
🌿Low maintenance, spreads well, and doesn’t mind being ignored.
🌿Great as a groundcover, border filler, or just doing its thing in a forgotten corner.

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Giant Bird's Nest Anthurium - Anthurium x hookeri

What is that Big Thing???

What is that big thing in the corner? It's the Giant Bird's Nest Anthurium minding its business and taking up way more than its fair share of space. This plant, Anthurium x hookeri, looks like it wandered in from the jungle and decided to stay.
The leaves are enormous - wrinkly, leathery, and can grow over 6 feet long! They feel kind of like cardboard and look like something out of a rainforest movie set.
Despite its size, it's easygoing. Doesn’t need much water, tolerates deep shade, and generally keeps to itself. Just give it room to stretch and maybe say hi once in a while.
If you like big, bold plants that know how to take up space without being fussy, Giant Bird's Nest Anthurium delivers!

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Tradescantia sillamontana - White Velvet, Cobweb Spiderwort

👚 A plant wearing a sweater

👕 Tradescantia sillamontana - White Velvet, Cobweb Spiderwort - is one of those plants that stops people in their tracks and makes them ask, "What is that fuzzy thing?" Here's why it's so cool:
👕 It looks like it's wearing a sweater! Its silvery-green leaves are covered in a soft, white fuzz that looks like cobwebbing - hence the nickname Cobweb Spiderwort. It's as if the plant dressed itself for a chilly morning
👕 It grows low and spreads nicely, forming a neat, dense mound about 10-12 inches tall and 18 inches wide, making it perfect for edging, containers, or spilling over walls.
👕 In summer and fall, it surprises you with vivid magenta-purple flowers tucked among the fuzzy foliage.
👕 Despite its delicate appearance, this plant is hardy to light freezes (zone 8) and thrives on neglect. Dry spells? No problem. It pairs beautifully with succulents. Sun or shade!
👕 Whether in a rock garden, pot, or tucked into a sunny nook, White Velvet brings texture, contrast, and plenty of personality. This little spiderwort is weird, wonderful, and surprisingly easy to grow.

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