Hippeastrum reticulatum striatifolium is quite a mouthful, but it's also a very descriptive name. Reticulatum refers to the net-like veining in the flowers while striatifolium refers to the white stripe down the center of each leaf, both are features readily observed in the photograph. This beauty is not planted in the garden, it's potted in a decorative container and spends most of the year on the porch, except during winter when it's in the house.
Curcuma is a genus in Zingiberaceae family with about 80 species native to Asia. The rhizomes of Curcuma longa are ground to make turmeric, an orange-yellow powder used as a spice in curries. Other species are cultivated for their showy flowers and bold foliage, but they also have aromatic rhizomes, leaves, and stems even though they're not cultivated for turmeric production. The two best performers in the garden so far I grow mostly for their foliage.
Curcuma rubescens has bright red petioles supporting its large green leaves. In bright light, with sufficient moisture, even the leaves will produce red pigments, although never as dark as the petioles. It's known to have showy spring flowers too, but my plants have been reluctant to bloom so far. If they bloom someday that will be great, but even without I am happy.
Curcuma rubescens petioles
'Emperor' is an attractive selection of Curcuma petiolata with excellent variegated foliage, green with a variable creamy margin. It also produces summer flowers, but they're subtle when compared with many Curcuma flowers. They're also mostly hidden by the foliage so they don't really contribute to the overall garden scene, but it's worth your while to part the foliage and take a peek if you enjoy unusual flowers.
Curcuma petiolata 'Emperor' flower
Curcuma petiolata 'Emperor' foliage
Both of these plants are very slow to emerge in the spring, often not showing above ground until late May, causing the gardener to wonder if the cold weather from the previous winter has killed them. However, once they start to grow they do so very rapidly, reaching full height in just a few weeks.
We have pink bananas today! Not only are these bananas pink, they're also cute and fuzzy, too bad they're really seedy and not edible.
Musa velutina fruits
They belong to Musa velutina, a small banana that grows about 7 feet (2m) tall and is winter hardy here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Its large leaves give the garden a tropical look from late spring until frost, with additional interest provided by the pink flowers in late summer, followed by the attractive, and unusual, pink fruits. I got my first plants a few years ago from my buddy Bodhisagan, the owner of this blog, and this year I had enough to share with another friend.
Musa velutina
Musa velutina inflorescence
Two favorite Crinums are blooming in the garden now, both are hybrids that have one New World parent, either the Southeastern United States native, Crinum americanum , or its South American counterpart, Crinum erubescens. Both of these species have very fragrant, spidery, white flowers with dark pink filaments. They also thrive on moist soils, as do their hybrids.
Crinum 'Summer Nocturne' is Thad Howard's cross of Crinum erubescens with Crinum moorei. It has large, wide open, sweetly fragrant, white flowers with pink tips. Its tall, purple scapes contrast nicely with its lush, green foliage.
Crinum 'Summer Nocturne'
Crinum 'Royal White' is the first of the ×digweedii hybrids (Crinum americanum × Crinum scabrum) to bloom in the garden, although a walk around the garden today revealed that others are getting ready. Like 'Summer Nocturne', 'Royal White' also has sweetly fragrant, wide open, white flowers, but instead of pink tips it has pink stripes.
Crinum 'Royal White'
Xanthosoma, along with Colocasia, Alocasia, and other genera with large leaves in the Arum (Araceae) family, are commonly called Elephant's Ear. Xanthosoma is a New World genus with about 50 species, all native to Central and South America. Their large leaves make them attractive ornamentals and some species are also cultivated for food, mostly for their tubers, but the young, unfurled leaves are also eaten.
Xanthosoma mafaffa 'Lime Zinger' has a great name because its huge leaves are a shade of chartreuse that's sometimes called Day-Glo yellow. It's a slow grower during the spring, but grows rapidly once hot, humid, summer weather arrives. From a tuber about the size of a baseball, set out after the last spring frost, it can easily grow 6 feet tall and 6 feet wide by the end of the summer if provided with moist, rich soil and partial sun. In the past I've dug mine for winter storage, not a difficult task despite the plant's huge size, but I have enough tubers now to store some and also leave some out for testing.
Close-up of Xanthosoma mafaffa 'Lime Zinger' foliage 
Xanthosoma mafaffa 'Lime Zinger'
If 'Lime Zinger' has you reaching for your sunglasses then Xanthosoma violaceum will have you removing them. That's because its leaves are a cool blue-green with purple margins. Its petioles are also purple and on a healthy specimen there's often a purple overlay on the upper leaf surfaces. I haven't been growing this one for long so I'm not sure if it will mature as large as 'Lime Zinger', but I sure hope so.
Xanthosoma violaceum
Close-up of Xanthosoma violaceum petiole
Crinum 'Jubilee', a hybrid of Crinum loddigesianum made by Luther Bundrandt, bloomed in the garden at the end of July. It's a beauty with very large, wide open, sweetly fragrant, blush pink flowers. Another plus is the foliage, which is compact, tidy, and broad with a satiny finish, so even out of bloom it's an attractive plant. All of this adds up to a great Crinum which I rank right up there with my other favorites, 'Mrs. James Hendry' and 'Improved Peachblow'
