Yuccas, Palms and Bananas in Michigan?

[Munch517]

I've been reading up on some of the hardier yuccas and palms that can survive my 5b/6a winters, does anyone here have any experience with this? Specifically, I'm looking for advice on these or similar alternatives:

Adams Needle (I understand this shouldn't need any protection?)
Soapweed Yucca (Also no protection?)
Yucca Rostrata
Needle Palm
Musa Basjoo
Windmill Palms (out of my budget for now but I've seen people keeping them alive in the Detroit area and I was wondering if anyone here has any experience)

I'd also like to hear of any other interesting tropical or tropical-looking plants than can be overwintered in Michigan with minimal to moderate effort.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

We had yuccas in Oregon. Pretty and fragrant flowers. They can spread and also get leggy and ugly if you let them go. If you ever want to dig them up, make sure you get every little bit of the tubers, because all it takes it a little chip and they grow again. Have also had Musa Basjoo hardy bananas with varying success. In Oregon they did fantastic, Though they die back in winter. The leaves are great for cooking - wrapping stuff, not eating them. Tried where we are now, but they didn't survive - though there's a house about 2 miles from us with a huge mature clump, but it's about 200ft lower and closer to the river. You can grow them in large pots or half barrels so you can move them in in winter. That's how we did it at first in Oregon. The red varieties are not as hardy by 5, maybe 10 degrees F in spite of what they say. They are easy to grow and propagate from new shoots. It's a bulb - actually a corm, like a huge crocus - so it is shallow rooted.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

BTW, sounds like you are trying to create a tropical look. That was my plan too, but I gave up and built a Jamaican bar instead! Now we get our dose of tropical with cocktails, Red Stripe, jerk and other Jamaican foods while we sit under the shade of the thatched roof - also good with microbrews, wine, (tons of wineries round here), barbeque and good company. Our idea of gardening is low maintenance, so not a lot of annuals, raised beds for the edibles and mainly perennials. We prefer to look at it rather than slave over it and be able to take off in the RV a week or so at a time in the summer. Fortunately we have irrigation water (which just came on again this week), so the entire yard is irrigated with sprinklers and a drip system on a timer. Still seems like a lot of work at times though.

 

[Munch517]

BTW, sounds like you are trying to create a tropical look. That was my plan too, but I gave up and built a Jamaican bar instead! Now we get our dose of tropical with cocktails, Red Stripe, jerk and other Jamaican foods while we sit under the shade of the thatched roof - also good with microbrews, wine, (tons of wineries round here), barbeque and good company. Our idea of gardening is low maintenance, so not a lot of annuals, raised beds for the edibles and mainly perennials. We prefer to look at it rather than slave over it and be able to take off in the RV a week or so at a time in the summer. Fortunately we have irrigation water (which just came on again this week), so the entire yard is irrigated with sprinklers and a drip system on a timer. Still seems like a lot of work at times though.

Yeah, I'm mostly just doing raised bed vegetables and herbs myself. This year I'm adding a good sized pollinator garden and a shade garden, both of which will be mostly perennials hardy to my zone or below, so those ornamentals will at least be relatively low maintenance. However, I find myself being tempted to make stuff survive here that shouldn't so I'm planning to do a sort of arid/Mediterranean garden in my sunniest front yard corner and a wetter semi-tropical garden in the other corner, I'm not afraid of digging it all out and going a different direction in a few years but I feel like I have to try.

 

[cntrlwagdnr]

Yeah, I'm mostly just doing raised bed vegetables and herbs myself. This year I'm adding a good sized pollinator garden and a shade garden, both of which will be mostly perennials hardy to my zone or below, so those ornamentals will at least be relatively low maintenance. However, I find myself being tempted to make stuff survive here that shouldn't so I'm planning to do a sort of arid/Mediterranean garden in my sunniest front yard corner and a wetter semi-tropical garden in the other corner, I'm not afraid of digging it all out and going a different direction in a few years but I feel like I have to try.

Cool. Good luck with your projects. Sounds like fun - and a lot of work. Our yard - front and back - are mostly to look at and enjoy with a little effort as possible, though that's questionable at times. We do have something or other blooming almost all year. We tore out our original 3 raised beds and tossed a tiered planter and some large tubs in favor of 4 new much taller metal raised beds for our edibles a couple of weeks ago. No more bending down - we are not getting any younger. Rearranged and added to the crushed rock in the process. It was hard work, but looks great now. No bark dust here, it won't be there next week, we get high winds at times. High dessert shrub stepp in SE WA. We do have some fruit - miniature kiwis, red currant, black currant, gooseberry. Been experimenting with passion flower. The caerulea is well established and hopefully the two different maypops will flower and fruit this year. It's nice to have things that are pretty and edible.