I’m writing this sitting next to the largest begonia I have ever
seen, almost the same size as an Endless Summer hydrangea, which is growing in
almost pure sand about as far from the Caribbean Ocean as I could hurl a flip
flop. It’s a mind blower. Not to mention the variegated philodendron that's
climbing up the palm tree next to it, or the collection of sansavarias that's
growing weed like along the driveway that snakes up to our rental house in
Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. By our pool we have hibiscus hedges as well as
variegated gingers, banana trees, and elephant ears – all plants I love to use
when designing summer pots for Hampton pool sides – but unlike my pots,
that tend to be disposable, these babies here are all planted in the ground.
We tend to think of tropical plants as annuals or as houseplants, but the
palm trees we put in baskets, strategically placed on either side of sofas in
living rooms that need a little greenery to give the room life, here are
planted alongside our deck as a wonderful wake up call to the true nature of
all these beauties.
You wouldn't think a plant from the tropics would do well in a
house, but most of these plants are thriving in a low light (jungle floor)
environment, so your dining room corner where they only get indirect light but
it never gets below 50 degrees is actually perfect for them. Here in Costa Rica
it's like your home has been turned inside out and everything has been fed
steroids.
Everyone should spend some time in the Jungle. I promise, that if
you are a plant nerd like me and you’re heading to the beach down a winding
dirt path through the jungle and you come upon a field of spathiphyllum (Peace
Lilies) like I did, you too will let out a yelping OMG as loud as I did, and
will almost cause your husband to drive the rental car into the drainage ditch
that’s been following you towards the sea. I haven’t see as many anthurium as I
thought I would, but we’re planning a trip on an upcoming (predicted) rainy day
to go searching for them. (I have the best husband!!)
Bromeliads stuck in the dirt next to pizza joint, the grocery store
and the fish shop made me laugh as did the tillandias casually sprouting from
the branches of citrus fruit trees and telephone wires. Trees wear a variety of
pothos with same elan as some woman sport gold jewelry, clustered, and snaking
around their entire bodies.
Although I will confess to being totally enthralled by both the
solitary sloth and the company of spider monkeys that dangle from the trees as
we enjoy our morning coffees, the Monstera (like philodendrons but with sharply
incised leaves that's look like Swiss Cheese – thus the common name Cheese
Plant) that both were using to transverse the canopy were fairly impressive as
well. I went off on a haphazard hike trying to find the Howler monkeys we could
hear (but not see) from the pool, and although totally not successful on my
monkey search I did discover a couple of pileas, and a few baby tibouchinas
that I desperately wanted to bring home with me. The pileas are fabulous houseplants,
but tibouchinas aren’t. They are however one of my go to plants for summer
color and to pet their fuzzy leaves in February is a total joy.
I tried to get a photo of a Birds nest fern that was taller than my
husband by at least a couple of feet but the light was bad. At Marders we sell
them in 6 inch pots and stick them in bathrooms.
The difference was revelatory. There were Peperomia like green guys
everywhere I looked as well as deffenbachias (Dumb Cane) just casually hanging
out. There are rumors of poinsettias trees that are 40’ tall in these parts,
but I haven’t spotted one yet. We sell Dracaena Maginata in a variety of sizes
in the shop, but nothing came close to the enormous ones we saw just growing
along the route we took to our rental in Costa Rica. Ficus elasticita
(Rubber Plants) casually spring up like dandelions, but with much bigger
leaves.
Bill Smith and Dennis Schrader the two brilliant minds behind the
Landcraft Tropical Nursery on the North Fork have a home on the Pacific side of
the continent where they have made an apparently brilliant garden. Dennis
is the author of Hot Plants for Cool Climates: Gardening with Tropical Plants
in Temperate Zones and is one the man to see about bringing tropical into your
home and garden both as summer only plants as well as ones that can hang out in
your house and I’m dying to visit his home. If it wasn’t a 5 hour trip (one way)from
where I now sit typing I’d be poolside at his villa ASAP. Oh and if you've
never taken a trip to his North Fork nursery you must try and get there when
it’s on the Garden Conservatory tour. It’s a wholesale nursery so you can't
just drop in, but the garden amazing, and definitely worth the visit.
I wish I had Dennis with me right now so we could geek out on plants
together, and I’m sorry I. missed the Horticultural Alliance of the Hamptons
(HAH) trip there this Past Christmas. I’ve seen what I consider annuals growing
in the wild before, a huge lantana in Mexico that was growing larger than my
largest viburnums at home and which is actually considered a pesty weed in it’s
home town, but Acosta Rica is revelatory. Yesterday at lunch I sat catty
corner to a self sown clump of Ptilotus exaltatus ‘Joey’, a plant I tend to be
quite fond of as it has fuzzy, soft pinkish lavender flower spikes, that I love
to pet when it’s slow at the nursery. The patch at lunchtime was growing
from the base of a telephone pole that was jammed next to a broken down wall in
a sort of Costa Rican hell-strip where the only water it’s getting is whatever
has come from the sky. Browallia americana is a native here as are two begonias
and the variety of butterfly weed, Asclepius curassavica, that I sometimes use
as a cutting flower at home – they last forever in a vase. We grow calathea for
its foliage as house plants, here it's a roadside plant that flowers
fabulously. The Wandering Jew we know from hospital waiting rooms? Here it's a
ground over. And the Crotons, wow, don’t even get me started on the Crotons.
I'm planning a trip to the Finca la Isla Botanic Garden, a
farm that's commercially growing fresh fruit and organic chocolate, just to see
the iridescent Jade Vine in all it’s electric turquoise beauty in it’s natural
state. I’m in love with the one that's growing in the Bronx Botanic Garden’s Conservatory,
the color is off the hook, but to see it growing in the wild, that's certainly
worth leaving the spider monkeys behind. Plus they also sell plants and we all
know I'm a sucker for a plant shop.
Paige Patterson knows she can't bring any plants home with her but
wonders, will anyone notice the baby spider monkey in her pocket.
