Wherever you go in the tropics, at least in my limited experience, eastern hemisphere, western hemisphere, whatever, some part of Jurassic Park was filmed there. I love all plants, but must admit that I had always though of the Ti Plant, Cordyline terminalis, as too much; cheap, gaudy, tasteless. No one's right all the time. Snobbishness is probably not a good impetus to accurate judgement. Anyway, along the Road to Hana, a spectacular drive along the coast of Maui, is a wonderful garden, called presumptuously?, The Garden of Eden, where part of Jurassic Park was filmed. I'm sure. Damn, I'm doing it again. Cordylines everywhere. Beautiful plants everywhere, interspersed with views down forested valleys to the Ocean. I changed my mind about Ti Plants. They work in this garden.
At some point after this experience, I availed myself of a nice 10" 10 $ pot from Home Depot. It (now a 14" pot) lives in a bathroom window in the winter and outside in the summer. Every year I break off a few of the taller shoots and stick them back into the pot where they root almost immediately. It adds to the tropical ambiance of the back deck surrounded by gingers, passifloras, and Gordon the giant Ponytail Palm. Its easy, functional, and I have grown quite fond of it.
Something goes on with the foliage of these plants as the plant ages. Leaves on the young plants are usually flat with a dull surface. As the stems age, the leaves get larger, glossier, and darker with more interesting variegation and recurved edged. I haven't seen reference to this anywhere but I haven't spent too much time looking. If you do look a little online you will learn that there are dozens of cultivars with different forms of variegation. While most of these are available in more tropical areas, I have seen the odd block of unusual plants in Garden Centers locally.
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