The Use Of Ti In The Landscape

ScotTi

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Ti makes a great accent plant when planted with other plants. Keeping with Hawaiian tradition for good luck I have planted it at my entrance to my home.
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Looking across the street a neighbor uses the Red Sister for color in the yard.
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Red Sister is the most common Ti used around here in landscapes.
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A nice welcome to the neighborhood entrance.Woot
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Great pictures Scott! Very few people in my area of California use ti plants as they are sold in the house plant section of the retail stores such as Lowes and Home Depot. I think a lot of people are unaware that they can be used outside and will survive winter. You do see ti used a little more in the Hispanic areas since many are familiar with it from the countries that their families immigrated from.
 
Ken, I will be adding to this thread as time allows me to do more drive by shots. These photos were taken in my neighborhood on a few streets that I went thru today. There is a house in a nearby neighborhood that has Ti along the front that are really tall. I just have to find (I forgot) what street it is on.
 
Great topic Scott - and as we will see, these plants are among some of the most versatile for use in the landscape.

This Ti is one of my favs, and exhibits a growth characteristic that makes it blend in with other foliage. I have never trimmed these Miss Andreas, and they stay low and "bush" much more readily than most of the others.
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Here is another of my favs - Willi's Gold - for contrast. You can see it just wants to get tall and skinny.
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And here is a way to use Tis that you can't do with other plants. This area is so thick with roots from these native Ohi'a trees that even a one gal hole is impossible to dig. In addition, this mound is almost solid rock. I just took what we call an O'O Bar (a digging bar with a point) and punched holes in the ground - then cut the tops off some of my larger Tis and just stuck them in the ground. Now a year later this area that was destined to be bland and unusable, sports some interest and color.
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And here is a way to use Tis that you can't do with other plants. This area is so thick with roots from these native Ohi'a trees that even a one gal hole is impossible to dig. In addition, this mound is almost solid rock. I just took what we call an O'O Bar (a digging bar with a point) and punched holes in the ground - then cut the tops off some of my larger Tis and just stuck them in the ground. Now a year later this area that was destined to be bland and unusable, sports some interest and color.
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What a great idea! I know that Kona has very little soil and that often you have to break up the volcanic rock with machines and then haul in soil. Using ti plants in this way saves a lot of money and beautifies areas that cannot be usually planted in.
 
Great topic Scott - and as we will see, these plants are among some of the most versatile for use in the landscape.

This Ti is one of my favs, and exhibits a growth characteristic that makes it blend in with other foliage. I have never trimmed these Miss Andreas, and they stay low and "bush" much more readily than most of the others.
View attachment 26488 View attachment 26489
Here is another of my favs - Willi's Gold - for contrast. You can see it just wants to get tall and skinny.
View attachment 26490
Miss Andrea is a great plant since it readily branches. Sports from it that arose at Novelty Green's Nursery in Hilo are Princess Leisha, Princess Kyla, and another Princess something which is not as good as these two. The cultivar Ruby also displays this branching tendency. These ti plants should be crossed with some of the larger colorful ones to impart the branching gene in the offspring.
 
Ken, I will be adding to this thread as time allows me to do more drive by shots. These photos were taken in my neighborhood on a few streets that I went thru today. There is a house in a nearby neighborhood that has Ti along the front that are really tall. I just have to find (I forgot) what street it is on.
I wish my neighborhood looked like that. More and more people are into xeroscaping and the use of cactus and succulents because of our water shortage. I have the only yard in my area that is lush and I pay the price when the water bill comes in.
 
Miss Andrea is a great plant since it readily branches. Sports from it that arose at Novelty Green's Nursery in Hilo are Princess Leisha, Princess Kyla, and another Princess something which is not as good as these two. The cultivar Ruby also displays this branching tendency. These ti plants should be crossed with some of the larger colorful ones to impart the branching gene in the offspring.
We buy a lot of stuff from Troy at Novelty Greens - he is the only nursery over here that propagates the unusual species. He sells a lot of his stuff at the Lowes over here - some very nice aroids, hibiscus cultivars, etc.

And I guess you know for whom Miss Andrea is named after?????
 
Miss Andrea is a great plant since it readily branches. Sports from it that arose at Novelty Green's Nursery in Hilo are Princess Leisha, Princess Kyla, and another Princess something which is not as good as these two. The cultivar Ruby also displays this branching tendency. These ti plants should be crossed with some of the larger colorful ones to impart the branching gene in the offspring.
I thought I have read somewhere that Electra was also a sport from Miss Andrea. I would love to work with seed from the ones mentioned, but I have yet to have them flower.
 
We buy a lot of stuff from Troy at Novelty Greens - he is the only nursery over here that propagates the unusual species. He sells a lot of his stuff at the Lowes over here - some very nice aroids, hibiscus cultivars, etc.

And I guess you know for whom Miss Andrea is named after?????
I used to buy a lot of plants on e-bay from Troy. His wife ran it, but Troy didn't keep it going after they split. That was a big loss for the mainlanders looking for unusual things. He had some great plants. I visited his nursery a couple of years ago.

I believe Miss Andrea was named by Jeff Searle when he brought a cane of it back from Southeast Asia. He gave some of it to a tissue culture lab in Florida for propagation and it has spread around our country from there. Did I get it right?
 
I thought I have read somewhere that Electra was also a sport from Miss Andrea. I would love to work with seed from the ones mentioned, but I have yet to have them flower.
Yes, you're right. I think Princess Kyla, which sported from Miss Andrea at Novelty Green's Nursery in Hilo, was renamed to Electra after it was tissue cultured.
 
I used to buy a lot of plants on e-bay from Troy. His wife ran it, but Troy didn't keep it going after they split. That was a big loss for the mainlanders looking for unusual things. He had some great plants. I visited his nursery a couple of years ago.

I believe Miss Andrea was named by Jeff Searle when he brought a cane of it back from Southeast Asia. He gave some of it to a tissue culture lab in Florida for propagation and it has spread around our country from there. Did I get it right?
You're telling me more than I knew. I thought the lady helping him last time I was there was his wife. At any rate, the place is a thriving nursery at the moment.
 
And here is another sport from Miss Andrea, Princess Lesha
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And here is another sport from Miss Andrea, Princess LeshaView attachment 26542
Great pictures Scott. I wish I could remember the name of the other Princess sport from Miss Andrea. Another ti that has the branching habit is Papaeete. I saw this one at Fred Stone's in Hilo. It also has an ability to sport quite frequently. In his grouping of Papaeete, he had a lot of color variation sports and also sports that ranged from miniature types to large leaf ones.
 
I used to buy a lot of plants on e-bay from Troy. His wife ran it, but Troy didn't keep it going after they split. That was a big loss for the mainlanders looking for unusual things. He had some great plants. I visited his nursery a couple of years ago.

I believe Miss Andrea was named by Jeff Searle when he brought a cane of it back from Southeast Asia. He gave some of it to a tissue culture lab in Florida for propagation and it has spread around our country from there. Did I get it right?
Forgot about the Miss Andrea - you are partially correct, almost :) Andrea is Jeff's wife, and another grower named it after her. I don't know the history of the plant though.
 
Ken, Do you know if the one that is around under the name Octane is a rename of Princess Lesha?
 
Ken, Do you know if the one that is around under the name Octane is a rename of Princess Lesha?
I haven't seen Octane sold out here as yet, so I can't help you with this one. If Princess Leisha is tissue cultured it would make sense that they would change the name if they had changed it for Princess Kyla. Does Octane have that same multi-branching trait?
 
I haven't seen Octane sold out here as yet, so I can't help you with this one. If Princess Leisha is tissue cultured it would make sense that they would change the name if they had changed it for Princess Kyla. Does Octane have that same multi-branching trait?
Ken, I do not grow the Octane myself, but have seen a few photos and it looks like Princess Leisha to me. I have yet to have my P.Leisha or Eltra do the multi-branching. They both have been slow growers that I had grown in pots. They were planted in ground early this year and I hope to see better growth results.
 
Here is a plant that was gifted to me as Princess Kyla that looks very much like P. Leisha. The leaf is not as wide as P. Leisha and seem to be a little longer.
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