Fast Growing Plants for a Tropical Look

[hpp4me]

If you wanted a tropical look FAST what would you plant? Bamboo, obviously, but what else?

[Royall]

Bananas

Royall

What goes around comes around!

[JWFITZ]

Right, bamboo isn't that fast--like 3 to 5 years.

Hard to beat halyconias, bananas, or hibiscus.

[Carey]

Ti plants are pretty fast growing & very much a tradition here
Palms, Hapuu ferns,
flowering shrubs like hibiscus, plumeria, gardenia, bouganvilla
plants inc. coleus (many different varieties), impatients

you may also want some food plants like banana, papaya, orange, lemon, lilikoi (passionfruit vine), breadfruit

Care with bamboo... some are very invasive

[Hotzcatz]

For fast tropical, the bananas, cannas, gingers and heliconia will fill in areas quickly. Also lilikoi vines will cover a trellis quickly. The gingers and heliconia are somewhat invasive however, so you may want to plant them in areas where they can't escape and cover over everything.

The quickest way is to start with mature plants. Find a grower who will give you a deal on larger plants so you can get a head start on lush growth. The larger plants cost more, though, as well as they are more labor intensive to transplant.

Dracena and sugar cane also grow quickly although they are more spiky looking than lush. Monstera grows pretty quickly and it can either be a low mounding bush or grow up a tree.

If you want a lot of ti plants, bring a truck and we can fill it with cuttings from my back yard. It seems the more that gets cut, the faster it grows. There are also heliconia cuttings, bouganvilla and all sorts of other green growies we can toss in the truck.

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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[hpp4me]

Thanks for the suggestiions and offers of cuttings!

[missydog1]

In lowland areas, bamboo is pretty fast.
I planted some Black and Sacred Bali that in two years was a big mature clump. The first season bamboo doesn't look like much, but the second it has real presence.

Some other suggestions tacked on to the excellent ones you've gotten:

Hapu'u or the faster grower Australian tree fern
Triangle palm, white bird of paradise, traveler palm, areca palms
smaller - a row of purple spider lilies
red and pink ginger
Indonesian wax ginger
Tahitian gardenia
Cinnamon gardenia
Caribbean copper tree (euphorbia cotonifolia)

small - caladiums and calatheas, anthuriums, epiphytic orchids

vine- clerodendrum glorybower
pagoda plant, the orange-flowered clerodendrum

epiphyte - medinillas, pink and orange

mussaenda's, they are showstoppers.

Not sure how well the large heliconias will do around 3rd Ave. They like water. So does torch ginger, which is quite a showstopper, if you can control it.

Not necessarily tropical looking but a great tree here -
I planted a paklan tree in Hilo that I got for maybe $59. Not a cheap tree. I think it was five gallons, and maybe five feet tall. I am so pleased with that tree. 2-3 years later it is a real shade tree that looks mature. It's probably 15-20 feet in height.

The best thing, other than the intoxicating fragrance, is the tree has been pest free. It is right next to two Hong Kong orchids that are suffering from rose beetle attack, and completely healthy.

Paklan is Michelia champaca also known as Joy Perfume Tree. It's a magnolia family member.
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You can find any of these online by googling them, and on google using the image search you can see them.