A gardener’s ‘cigar’

The Cuban Cigar plant is a tropical beauty that is easy to plant and maintain, writes Elaine Yim

THE traditional cigar is for smoking. Creative chefs can make chocolate cigars that can be eaten. For those of us with green fingers, we have a smokea free cigar in the form of cigar plant. The stunning Cuban Cigar or Mexican Cigar Plant comes with exotic foliage and cigar-like inflorescences that do not pollute the environment. In fact, it helps reduce our carbon footprint! Easy to plant and maintain, it is well-suited for the shady and low-light areas of our garden.

The leaves of this plant are large but they look good even under windy conditions and won’t tear up like those of the banana trees or ginger plants.

Interestingly, their leaves display a natural rhythmic movement called nyctinasty in response to light and darkness. When grown in your garden, you will observe that the leaves are spread out horizontally in the morning, fold to a vertical position by noon, then spread out again in the evening, and revert to vertical position at night. THE PLANT

Calathea lutea is an herbaceous perennial native to Tropical America from Mexico and the Caribbean Islands to Brazil. They grow naturally along the riverbanks of Central America and the Amazon basin in South America.

The plant can grow up to 3m tall, forming clumps and spreading by means of underground stems called rhizomes.

The leaves are the most attractive feature of C. lutea. The broad leaf blades are about a metre long and 45cm wide, and shaped like boat-paddles. The upper side is green while the underside is waxy and silvery white.

Just like banana leaves, they also have prominent midribs and parallel venation. The leaves are used to wrap food in some Latin American countries. The leaf stalks are long and slender, and yellowish-green in colour.

C. lutea flowers freely the whole year round in the tropics. The flower spike is a metre tall, with upright inflorescence that resemble a cigar. It is actually made up of several thick, waxy reddish-brown to chocolate-coloured bracts which are stacked on top of one another. The true flowers that emerge from the bracts are quite tiny and inconspicuous. The golden yellow flowers provide a striking contrast to the reddish-brown bracts.

HOW TO GROW

Grow it in the ground where it will establish quickly and spread into dense clumps. Use it as an accent plant, informal hedge or border plant to decorate your garden, poolside, deck or patio. It is the hallmark of tropical gardens.

It can be grown in the outdoors or indoor courtyards in large containers or planter boxes. The flower spikes can be used as cut flowers for decoration.

THE STEPS

Propagate from rhizomes or division of clumps. Flowering should start in 12 months’ time.

Partial/full shade to filtered light. Well-established plants can acclimatise to full sun but foliage will not be as radiant.

Moist soil which is welldraining and not soggy.

It requires lots of water hence you need to water regularly, with occasional misting/spraying of the whole plant (including foliage) on hot, dry days.

Apply a balanced compound fertiliser once a fortnight.

Generally free of pest and diseases. May be occasionally attacked by leaf eaters or leaf-cutter insects.