Tropicals Grow With Little Care : Bird of paradise, elephant ears, ginger flourished in ‘20s, ‘30s California gardens.

For years I have been waiting for a revival of tropical plantings. In the 1920s, 1930s and 1950s, tropical plants were in great vogue in Southern California. People planted gingers and philodendrons, palms and hibiscus, tree ferns and elephant ears, not to mention giant bird of paradise and bananas. Many of these are still with us, gracing older homes, but very few are being planted today.

Perhaps a new book by Gordon Courtright will do the trick. Simply called “Tropicals” (Timber Press: $35.95), it is full of photos and brief descriptions of plants that have a tropical feel, if not tropical origins.

Courtright’s other books (“Trees and Shrubs for Temperate Climates” is one) are most useful for jogging the memory when one is trying to think of a good plant for a certain spot, but this one might inspire greater flights of fancy for no landscape is more fanciful than a tropical one.

Most of these plants are also quite practical and despite their rain forest look, get by on very little water or care. Just look at how many have survived in gardens that have been all but abandoned.