Japanese Lily Tricyrtis hirta - Orchid Like Perennials
Japanese Toad Lily orchid like
Sometimes, the best way to build your zone 7 (or lower) tropical garden is to find temperate perennials that mimmick tropical garden favorites. One of these is the the Orchid with their exotic beauty. However, if you live in a temperate zone Orchids are obviously not an option and growing them indoors is very difficult. That being said, don’t despair because there are options!
Enter the Japanese Toad lily (Tricyrtis hirta). The Japanese Toad can make an excellent Orchid imposter. They have the same upright growth habit (can get up to 3′ tall) and produce lovely orchid like spotted flowers. Best of all, these Orchid imposters can be grown in most of the US. In fact, they can be grown down to zone 5. Unlike orchids, Japanese Toad Lilies are extremely easy to grow without any special care or staking. Ironically, warm tropical like zones like South Florida are unable to grow these because they require winter dormancy.
Japanese toad lily bloom
Planting and growing these is extremely easy. Pick a part to full shade spot with decently draining soil plant and watch them take off. An organic humus or maneur top dressing seems to give them a bit of a boost. You will need to practice some sort of pest control on these because something likes to munch on the leaves. I haven’t caught the culprit in the act so I don’t know what it is. I just used a systemic pesticide on mine. Im not an “organic” gardener so I don’t know what those folks use for their pest control. The only drawback to the Japanese Toad Lily is that they are very late bloomers (fall) but since the lightly spotted foliage and vertical growth habit is quite attractive (very similar to orchids in structure) I don’t don’t think this is a big deal. Anyhow, if you like orchids, the Japanese Toad Lily is a very nice substitute. Due to their late blooming habits (which appear to make these unpopular), you will probably not find these at your local Home Depot/Lowes or nursery (here an amusing article describing this - Better Toad Lily than Never). The good news is that there are excellent online sources for these. I got mine from Direct Gardening this spring and they are growing quite nicely. You will receive bulbs but they start growing quite rapidly. Mine are already about 1′ tall in about a months time (the picture above is one of them).