What Makes Havana Cigars a Great Screening Plant for Mission Beach
Author: Ann Cains Date Posted:29 May 2026
We Havana Cigars from 200 mil pots to advanced plants 2 metres tall ready to go! We have 2 metre tall Havana Cigars ready to go!
TROPICAL GARDENING · WET TROPICS · MISSION BEACH
Havana Cigars: The Toughest, Most Useful Screening Plant in the Wet Tropics
There's a plant that looks like it belongs in a five-star resort garden, thrives on pure neglect, and has more uses than almost anything else in the wet tropics garden. Meet Calathea lutea — the Havana Cigar.
If you've been looking for a large-scale screening plant that can handle the heat, the rain, the wind, and the humidity of Mission Beach without complaint, look no further. Calathea lutea, commonly known as the Havana Cigar, is one of the hardiest, most striking, and most versatile plants you can put in a wet tropics garden — and it's been hiding in plain sight.
This is not a delicate foliage plant. This is a big, bold, architectural workhorse that will grow to 3–4 metres, form impenetrable clumps, and look magnificent doing it.
Hardiness
Built tough for the wet tropics
Calathea lutea laughs at conditions that would stress most ornamental plants. It thrives in full sun or dappled shade, handles periods of waterlogging that would rot other species, and bounces back from cyclonic winds that shred softer plants to pieces. In the wet tropics, that resilience is everything.
Unlike many large-leafed tropicals that burn in full sun or collapse in poor soils, the Havana Cigar is remarkably unfussy about position. It will grow in the tough spots — the boggy corner, the exposed boundary, the full-sun fence line where nothing else wants to go. Established clumps need no irrigation, no special feeding, and virtually no maintenance. It simply grows.
For Mission Beach gardeners dealing with sandy coastal soils, heavy clay, or the punishing heat of an exposed northern aspect, this is the plant that delivers when others fail.
"If you want a screening plant that genuinely thrives on neglect in the wet tropics, the Havana Cigar is your answer."
The Leaves
Stunning powdery silver undersides
The Havana Cigar's leaves are extraordinary. Each one is enormous — up to a metre long — and a rich, deep green on top. But flip one over and you're confronted with something genuinely beautiful: a dense, chalky silver-white powder coating on the underside that catches the light and shimmers in the breeze.
In a garden context, this creates a remarkable visual effect. As the large leaves move in the wind, they alternately show their deep green tops and their luminous silver undersides, giving the planting a dynamic, almost shimmering quality that no other screening plant can match.
The leaves are also exceptionally practical. Large, clean, and food-safe, they have long been used in tropical cultures for wrapping and serving food — and they bring exactly that same elegant utility to the contemporary entertaining garden.
The Flowers
An unusual and striking cut flower
Most people plant Calathea lutea for its foliage and screening value — and then are delighted when the flowers arrive. The blooms emerge on stout stems directly from the base of the plant: tight, waxy, cigar-shaped buds in deep chocolate brown, with small yellow flowers that emerge from between the bracts.
They are unlike almost anything else you'll find in a tropical garden, and that's precisely what makes them so valuable as cut flowers. Arranged in a vase — alone or with bold tropical foliage — they bring a sculptural, earthy elegance to any interior. They're long-lasting, dramatic without being fussy, and utterly distinctive.
If you run a holiday rental, a B&B, or simply love to have fresh flowers in the house, a clump of Havana Cigars gives you a reliable supply of unusual blooms throughout the warmer months with zero effort.
"The chocolate-brown cigar flowers are one of the most distinctive cut flowers in the tropical garden — and they're free, in abundance, every season."
In the Kitchen & Garden
The perfect leaf for dinner party entertaining
Here's where the Havana Cigar moves from great garden plant to genuine lifestyle asset. The large, clean, waxy leaves are perfect for lining serving platters, cheese boards, and dinner plates — giving any table setting an instant tropical, resort-style feel that no linen or crockery can replicate.
Simply cut a few leaves, wipe them clean, and lay them across your serving boards before piling on antipasto, fresh seafood, tropical fruits, or charcuterie. The deep green with that silvery sheen is strikingly beautiful against food, and the large size means you can cover an entire platter with a single leaf.
It's the kind of casual-luxe entertaining detail that guests always comment on — and it's growing in your garden for free. At Mission Beach, where the indoor-outdoor lifestyle and tropical aesthetic are everything, this is a plant that genuinely earns its place on multiple levels.
Screening & Structure
A world-class screening plant
As a screening plant, Calathea lutea is hard to beat in the wet tropics. It forms dense, self-supporting clumps that fill out rapidly and create a solid visual and physical barrier without the need for fencing or structures. The large leaves at multiple heights mean there are no gaps, no bare legs, and no see-through moments.
It works beautifully along boundaries, around pools, as a backdrop to smaller plantings, or massed along a driveway for a bold tropical statement. Combine it with palms overhead and gingers at its feet for a fully layered, resort-quality tropical screen that is as low-maintenance as it is beautiful.
AVAILABLE NOW · EL ARISH TROPICAL EXOTICS
Get yours from El Arish Tropical Exotics
We stock Calathea lutea in a range of sizes, from small starter pots perfect for planting in numbers along a boundary, to large established clumps ready to make an immediate statement. Every plant is grown right here at El Arish — already proven in your climate before it reaches your garden.
Visit us by appointment at El Arish, Mission Beach · elarishtropicalexotics.com · 07 4068 5058
The Verdict
Why every wet tropics garden needs a Havana Cigar
Calathea lutea is one of those rare plants that genuinely does it all. It's tough enough for the most challenging spots in the wet tropics garden, beautiful enough for a five-star resort, useful enough to cut flowers and leaves from all year round, and low-maintenance enough to thrive without any special attention once established.
If you're planting a boundary screen, creating a tropical backdrop, or simply want a plant that earns its keep in every possible way at Mission Beach — the Havana Cigar is your plant. Come and see our range at El Arish Tropical Exotics. You won't be disappointed.