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Garden, Plants

HOW TO GET THE LOOK OF THE TROPICS IN THE NORTH

September 20, 2016

There’s no getting around it: At this time of year, the garden is starting to look tired. Foliage is tattered and sun faded, flowers are flopping, everything looks a bit haggard. But one plant is just now coming into its own, the ever tropical-looking Castor bean. 

This plant will surely catch your key from across the garden.
Before I go any further, this is one plant I feel requires a warning. There are a lot of poisonous plants out there that I wouldn’t bother with a warning on, but this one is a biggie. All parts of the plant and especially the seed are poisonous (this is where ricin comes from, after all). Don’t eat any of it let anyone or anything eat it. My dog has never shown an interest in eating plants and he’s never outside unattended, so I feel comfortable growing this, but you may not be.
OK, preamble done. Castor bean (Ricinus communis) ticks all my tropical plant boxes. It has huge palmate leaves in the most lovely shade of purple or green (I’ve only grown purple varieties), and crazy pokey-looking red flowers. 
The flowers are unlike any others.
They can get very large, so I’ve grown smaller varieties: ‘Impala’ last year and ‘Gibsonii’ this year, and both have topped out in the 5- to 6-foot range. I start them from seeds in spring and like all beans they are very easy to get going. When I plant them out in early June, when it’s plenty warm (they will flat out sulk on chilly nights) and they are about a foot tall and then I mostly forget they exist until all of a sudden one day in mid- to late-August, there they are, standing proud a few feet tall. From there, their growth rate is unbelievable, reaching for the sky and developing a main stem (trunk?) that is about 1.5 inches in diameter, even on the smaller varieties.
They are also pretty good about not needing staking. I suspect the secret is a good amount of water, which we’ve had plenty of from Mother Nature. I keep meaning to cut a few leaves to take inside to see if they hold their shape once cut, but I haven’t gotten around to it and I suspect they won’t. 
At a house I was at recently, a huge variety of Castor bean occupies a corner of the vegetable garden, which, now that I think about it is a little ironic.
I was at a house with beautiful professional landscaping a couple weekends ago for a party and noticed that their gardener used tall Castor beans in lots of spots, including a tricky, tiny corner of soil near the driveway and at the entrance to the vegetable garden.
I’m always torn about where to plant Castor beans, because they want sun and heat, if you can give them that, but they would look great in a far corner of the garden where their big leaves beckon and invite visitors for a closer look. Still it’s a fantastic annual (here, anyway) that offers a look that’s hard to get.
Have you grown Castor beans?

castor bean
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
4 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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Comments

  1. Lisa Greenbow says: September 20, 2016 at 11:05 pm

    I have grown castor beans. It was a long time ago. I had more sun then. They are a striking plant. I can imagine seeing a castor bean with a banana tree for a really tropical look. They have a banana tree that survives here in zone6. My neighbor has one that has lived at least three years.

    Reply
  2. Karen says: September 21, 2016 at 6:03 pm

    Don't they reseed like crazy? I thought I heard that.

    Reply
  3. Ms. Wis./Each Little World says: September 21, 2016 at 8:07 pm

    Even the smaller varieties are too big for my garden but I love their look.

    Reply
  4. Stephen Andrew says: September 23, 2016 at 2:55 pm

    I have a giant aqua pot and I might try one in that next year. It could kind of look like a Japanese maple on steroids. I was reading about giant leaf rhubarb and am thinking I might try that. I remember a few years ago in Martha Stewart someone spray painted the leaves of the rhubarb silver and left them like that for a few weeks before the cut them off and threw them away. I always kinda liked that idea. Can't imagine it's good for anything in its surrounding though.

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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I had a rather unpleasant realization last night w I had a rather unpleasant realization last night when I remembered that I’d not yet ordered tomato seeds. And I’m not going to rectify that until I dig into my seed stash, because I don’t go through tomato seeds quickly so there are definitely some lurking down there. 

I never used to grow tomatoes from seed because there are great varieties to be had in garden centers (including many heirloom varieties). But it’s almost non-negotiable for me now that I’m a convert to dwarf tomatoes. If you’re not familiar with the #dwarftomatoproject championed by @nctomatoman and others, these are heirloom varieties that are crossed with dwarf varieties to create plant that produces all the flavor and interest of an heirloom in a short (usually less than 4 feet) plant. 

They are particularly great in my tall raised beds. Of course I leave room to try new non-dwarf varieties every year (I loved Sun Dipper from @panamseed last year and I’ll grow it again).

Last year was a good tomato year and the photo shows some of the varieties I harvested in one day. I hope this summer will be equally good for the tomato harvest. 

One of my favorite questions to ask gardeners is: What is your favorite tomato variety to grow? So have at it in the comments because inquiring minds want to know!
And this is why I leave my winter containers assem And this is why I leave my winter containers assembled until at least March. A dusting of snow gives them a whole new look (even if it’s shades of gray). Also, I think I love my Limelight hydrangea even more in winter. Fabulous winter interest!
I’m going to look for opportunities to add more I’m going to look for opportunities to add more ferns to my garden this year. They are such interesting plants and often real problem solvers, bringing texture and color to places that many plants aren’t interested in. Athyrium niponicum (Japanese painted fern) ‘Crested Surf’ grows well for me in part shade (even pushing a bit into part sun) and looks great next to Persicaria ‘Golden Arrow’.
Birds chirping, glorious fresh (i.e. not nibbled o Birds chirping, glorious fresh (i.e. not nibbled on) foliage, and texture galore. I can’t wait to have moments like this again. The star, by the way is Hakonechloa ‘All Gold’ which looks so good with the bold foliage of Ligularia dentata ‘Desdemona’ next to it. 

With the new path, this area will be getting a small revamp. It’s the next spot I’ll be focusing my planning on.
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