Visiting The Tropics, Inc. in Los Angeles
As a lover of plants, it's always such a treat for me to visit a well-stocked botanical gallery that deals in exotic and unusual varieties.
Last week, during my brief trip to Los Angeles, I stopped at The Tropics, Inc., a leader in the rare specimen plant and tree industry. Founded in 1972, The Tropics carries thousands of tropical plants, trees, orchids, and decorative accessories - all housed in a 20,000 square foot showroom. The owner, Ryan Hroziencik, and his team offer plants for both residential and corporate use, real estate staging, and television and film projects. I admired all of the many unusual cultivars, containers, and outdoor garden ornaments.
Enjoy these photos.
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- Here’s Ryan, owner and president of The Tropics, Inc. Los Angeles, in front of the original sign. Now in its 49th year, Ryan’s father, Ronald J. Hroziencik, started the business selling junk at a swap meet with his college roommate. Occasionally, they would have plants to sell, and customers loved them. And now, it’s a successful establishment with a large inventory of unique and beautiful specimens.
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- This is a specimen black olive tree. Black olive trees reach heights ranging from 20 to 80 feet, and develop strong, sturdy trunks covered by a thick, dense gray, deeply fissured bark. The tree canopy is also dense and tight, with most branching spreading outward and horizontally.
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- This specimen black olive tree is in an aged vintage wooden planter.
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- This is a well-branched Zamia bonsai underplanted with Abromeitiella mounds in a low iron ceramic bowl. Zamia is a large genus of cycads from tropical America with one species being native to southern USA. All the species produce leafy crowns of foliage that resemble palms or ferns and most branch heavily with age to produce attractive clumps.
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- This is a specimen Zamia in an aged hewn stone planter.
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- And here is a large Abromeitiella mound, also in a stone planter. Abromeitiella plants are mat-forming succulents with spined leaves arranged in numerous rosettes. They grow slowly and sometimes form cushion-shaped colonies. In their natural environment, they almost never get water, and have developed the capacity to absorb water from the humidity in the air.
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- Ryan has a variety of planters for sale – in all different sizes, forms, and materials. Here is an assortment of vintage vessels inside the showroom.
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- This is a vintage Willy Guhl planter. Willy Guhl was a pioneering Swiss furniture designer and one of the first industrial designers in Switzerland. He designed a wide range of objects and furnishings, from chairs to door handles, church pews, and vases. He is probably best known for his chairs, especially the Loop Chair. In 1951, the Swiss company Eternit commissioned Guhl—along with his students at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich—to create a line of attractive and durable planters for use indoors or out. These planters were made using concrete.
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- And of course, I always spot the faux bois planters.
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- This is Aloidendron dichotomum, formerly Aloe dichotoma, the quiver tree or kokerboom – a tall, branching species of succulent plant, indigenous to Southern Africa, specifically in the Northern Cape region of South Africa, and parts of Southern Namibia. It is planted in a low iron ceramic bowl.
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- There was something to see in every corner. Here is a sculptural Ficus palmeri with roots growing over a dead tree stump with more Abromeitiella mounds planted at the base. Ficus palmeri has large, dark green leaves that are ovate to cordate in shape and alternate in arrangement. The plant has fuzzy leaves, petioles, and branchlets, and smooth, sometimes scaly bark that is yellowish in color.
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- This is an aged Ficus macrocarpus bonsai with aerial roots and Abromeitiella mounds.
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- This is a Blue Nolina in a low iron ceramic bowl. This specimen resembles the yucca species, developing a 10 to 12-foot trunk and a large rosette of foliage. It is one of the larger plants found in the Nolina genus.
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- And here is a large curved draco. Dracaena draco, the Canary Islands dragon tree or drago, is a subtropical tree in the genus Dracaena, native to the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Madeira, western Morocco, and is thought to be introduced in the Azores. It is the natural symbol of the island of Tenerife, together with the blue chaffinch bird.
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- Outside is this massive eight-ton draco. These trees can live for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, these trees are threatened in the wild in the Canary Islands.
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- Ryan has one room dedicated to growing moss. Here is one wall of the “moss room.”
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- And here is another view of three walls of the “moss room.”
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- And here’s a staghorn. I am a big fan of staghorn ferns, Platycerium, and have many in my own collection at my Bedford, New York farm.
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- Here is a large Furcraea macdougallii, or MacDougall’s Century Plant. It is a large rosette forming succulent that has six-foot long dark-green stiffly-upright leaves with regularly-spaced hooked teeth growing at the top of an unbranched trunk that can be eight-feet tall or more. In its natural habitat, it can grow to more than 20 feet and is considered the tallest of the Agave relatives.
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- Here is an “ancient” and very large Encephalartos tree. Encephalartos woodii, Wood’s cycad, is a rare cycad in the genus Encephalartos, and is endemic to the oNgoye Forest of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It is one of the rarest plants in the world.
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- And here is a giant Elephant Foot Tree, also known as the ponytail palm, as I call mine. It is a member of the agave family and is native to southeastern Mexico. In its native habitat it grows as a 30 foot tall tree and looks like an oddly branched palm. What makes ponytail palm stand out is its distended base which can reach four feet across.
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- This is a specimen Pachira. It usually has two or three inter-woven trunks and dark green leaves that resemble a hand with five fingers.
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- And here is Ryan’s “desk” surrounded by a Pachira stump, vintage foundry planters, a black olive tree, a teak tree stump, with coral sponge clam shells on his desktop and a wall of moss as a backdrop. What a lovely place to visit and learn about these exotic and rare specimens. If you’re ever in the West Hollywood area of Los Angeles, I encourage you to visit The Tropics, Inc.
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