Sunroom Tropics

I've been interested in fragrant herb and spice plants since I was in college. Lately I've also collected some other tropicals such as palm, coffee, and banana trees. I want this blog to be a place to discuss growing tropical plants in a temperate environment. I have a sunroom built onto my house. With all the glass, I can't maintain tropical temperatures, but plant hardiness zone 10 has not been a problem.

These are the plants I have right now:

• Sweet Acacia (Acacia farnesiana) Easy to find on eBay and other online tropical nurseries.
• Allspice (Pimenta dioica) Uncommon on eBay and other online tropical nurseries.
• Banana (Musa "dwarf red Jamaican") Easy to find on eBay and other online tropical nurseries.
• Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis) Easy to find.
  
• Betel palm (Areca catechu) Uncommon.
• Betel pepper (Piper betel) Fairly easy to find. Often mislabeled as Piper nigrum.
• Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) I've had this for years and don't remember where I got it.
  
• Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanticum) Plants are hard to find, but available sporadically.
• Clove (Syzygium aromaticum) No plants available; I found seeds. I planted them in seed starting mix on the heat mat the evening they arrived. My germination rate is 6% so far. Cloves grow very slowly. The one that is farthest along is just now beginning to develop its first true leaves.
  
• Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) Available on eBay and online nurseries.
  
• Coconut (Cocos nucifera) Not readily available online. I found mine in the garden center at the Sevierville Wal-Mart!
• Coffee (Coffea ?) Available online and retail. The seeds are common, but despite several tries, I've never had any luck getting a single one to sprout. I don't know how to tell C. arabica from C. robusta. When I bought my plants (at Universal Studios in Florida) they were only labeled as "coffee". I also have seen coffee plants at Lowes.
  
• Kava-kava (Piper methysticum) Uncommon.
  
• Black Pepper (Piper nigrum) Hard to find. Piper betel is often mislabeled as this.
• Pineapple (Ananas comosus) Easy to find in any grocery store. Buy a fresh pineapple, eat the fruit, plant the green top....
  
• Pygmy Date Palm (Phoenix robelenii) Commonly available at retail; I bought mine at Lowes.

Wants:

• Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) After MUCH searching, I bought six expensive nutmeg seeds from Horizon Herbs in Williams, Oregon. I planted them in a Jiffy brand micro greenhouse on top of my thermostatically controlled heat mat set at 85 deg. F. None has yet sprouted. All got moldy--I sure hope this neem oil works....
  
• Tea (Camellia sinensis) Available on eBay and online nurseries. I haven't picked out which variety I want, else I'd have one of these.
• Cola nut (Cola acuminata/Cola nitida) Unavailable online within the USA. I've found one place in Hawaii that sells plants, but they no longer ship plants--"no exceptions". According to the price list, they do not offer the seeds for sale, worse, Cola seeds can take months to germinate. I don't know what kind of hassle it is to ship live plants from Hawaii, but I'm sure inspections and permits are involved.
  
• Citrus (Citrus species) These are not hard to find. I've grown both lemon and orange trees before and the blooms smell wonderful. Unfortunately, scale insects loved them, too.
  

None of these plants are for sale, but I would be happy to discuss where I found them.