I have long-term relationships with most of my plants. They're Minnesota-hardy perennials, and I love that I can rely on them to come back, year after year, no matter how much I take them for granted.
But that doesn't mean that I'm immune to the charms of exotic strangers. Those sultry tropicals, with their dramatic foliage and extravagant price tags, always manage to turn my head at the garden center.
And usually I'll succumb, even though I know it's impractical. I'll buy three or five big, fat showy tropicals, and use them to add some pizzazz to my containers.
For the last few seasons, my summer-fling plant has been black elephant ear. I love its huge, velvety leaves, with a neon lime spot in the middle.
But this year, I couldn't find any black elephant ear at the right time, so I found a substitute. (Love the one you're with, I guess.) I picked up three Canna Tropicanna Black plants. At $14.99 apiece, they weren't cheap. But, man, do they have container charisma!
Their leaves, of deepest aubergine with a slightly glossy finish, open like a giant banana peel around a dramatically tall, slender stem. At the top, a cluster of brilliant orange-red blooms eventually burst forth, one by one.
Every day, I can't wait to get home from work to see what my canna are up to. I know I'll have to say goodbye come fall. Or will I? Maybe this will be the plant that inspires me to learn how to winter tropicals. (I tried keeping two ponytail ferns as houseplants one winter, but they never quite recovered.)
Do you have a favorite summer-fling plant? And what tropicals have you tried wintering?
