G'day from Brisbane, australia

[Puremagick3]

G'day guys. I am here to help with advise on hardy tropicals that will grow in uk. I live in a tropical climate and specialize in tropical plants from palms to orchids etc. Any questions fill free to ask.

[grub]

Welcome aboard Puremagik3 , so ummm... what tropical things do you grow that take at least -9C every winter?

[outatime1978]

g'day back mate any hardiness knowledge is always welcome here!!


welcome aboard!

[GoggleboxUK]

Welcome to the forum Pure, it will be interesting to hear your views.

[Renae]

Welcome.. and Yay another ozzie.. Where in Queensland

I have family in Mermaid waters & Brisbane..

[Puremagick3]

Thanks for the welcome guys.

Ok for exotic plants

Palms: jelly palm or wine palm can take down to -12c
Queen palm can take to -9.6c
Alexandra palm can take to -3.3c
Foxtail palm -3.6c
Bangalow palm -6.6c
Australian cabbage palm -6.6c
Skyduster palm -6.6c
Most European palms will be fine like mediterranean fan palm, canary date palm, dwarf date palm.

Other plants off the top of my head would be
Cabbage tree, canna, spider plant, Australian native Ginger, dwarf or Hawaiian umbrella tree, umbrella tree,

Think that should give u an idea for now. Have a research on them. Most will suit most uk locations.

[Puremagick3]

I live brissy. Yeah thought I would join this site to give advise as I grow tropicals as a hobby.

[redsquirrel]

hi Pm3 good to see you on board. is your summer finished now?

[Simba]

Welcome to HTUK...

You'll find that UK exotic gardeners will have tried, and tried, and tried again with relatively hardy palms.

The difficult balance that we have here, is that our winters are getting more severe, and lasting longer.
Many UK regions had -12 to -20, and that isn't just an overnight cold snap.

These temps endure for weeks or months.
Combine that with icy cold rain and damp, and it's already a fragile footing.

But then our summers are often barely more than warm, and winter damaged exotics dont get much of a recovery, before winter starts again...

[redsquirrel]

one plant id like to try this year is a foxtail (Wodyetia bifurcata), so different looking.feel free to show us pics of yours

[Puremagick3]

Yeah would be hard to keep ur tropicals alive. I am fortunate here to have long hot humid summers (ave 22c at night, 31c during day) which last from Approx end of sept til beginning of April. With a warm autumn and spring (15c - 27c) which spring is aug and beginning sept and autumn is mid April to may. Winter is short and mild with nights around 10c and days around 22c which is June and July. We normally have a relative cold two weeks around end of June and beginning of July where it can get to 4 or 5c at night and 15c during day but this happens only one or two days a year the other days are a little warmer at around 19 or 20c which is cold to us.

Redsquirel if u can grow a foxy palm. Do it. They are my favorite. I have one. Beautiful young plant in my back yard I grow from seed. I will have to post pics when I get a chance cos ur enjoy them.

Simba yeah ur not wrong ur weather is screwed sometimes but with some hard work u'd be surprised what u can achieve with a little patience. I have friends in the state of Tasmania who grow many diff tropicals. There climate is similar to southern uk.

Oh and to clarify our seasons we don't really have the traditional seasons in queensland we have more of a hot humid wet season and warm dry season. http://www.weatherzone.com.au this site is our best weather site if u wish to look at different climates in Australia. Unlike most big countries we have every climate except polar. We have temperate, warm temperate, sub tropical, tropical, equatorial, arid, semi arid Mediterranean, oceanic, alpin etc etc. I live in the southern reach of the tropical climate which our weather services call mild tropical.

[redsquirrel]

that will explain why you can grow whatyou can. some folk here in uk have found they cant even grow a trachycarpus.
i do have one woody seedling i recently bought from a guy but not sure if it took the transplant too well.trying to establish one from seed is probably my best option. be good to see your plants when you find time, its great seeing different corners of the world on here. local landscapes would be welcome too

[Simba]

Simba yeah ur not wrong ur weather is screwed sometimes but with some hard work u'd be surprised what u can achieve with a little patience. I have friends in the state of Tasmania who grow many diff tropicals. There climate is similar to southern uk.

Actually,YOU might be quite surprised by some of the stuff that WE are already growing here.
When you begin to absorb yourself into the forums you'll get a better idea of our successes...

PS - I am expecting to take delivery of an Aussie Macrozamia Communis, later today with any luck...

[Puremagick3]

Simba - the reason I found this site was through a link to do with a bangalow palm which was on this forum (bangalow is eastern Australia native) I was heaps surprised that they would grow over there. They are one of the less hardy palm but there it was I the ground in uk. Mind u it did get bad damage in ur winter. But it's interesting to see that if people put a little hard work in to something ur get great results. And even tho we have the perfect climate for tropicals there are other factors that can challenge ur garden the main things being severe drought, floods, and tropical cyclones (hurricanes) also hail we can get hail the size of a cricket ball that's destroys plants. They can look like you've taken a whipper snipper to them.

Redsqurriel - I should be able to get u some pics later this evening my time currently 7:53pm. I am replying on here via iPhone so can't upload pics from here which sucks. Although garden looking a little rough ATM my hose broke an we haven't had a decent rainfall in weeks. So things look a little sad in some areas. Although all my Main tropicals r Fine cos they are fairly drought tolerant and considering this summer we have had over 1000mm of rain so there is moisture if roots r deep enough. Alot of my shallow rooted plants like spider plants and (believe it or not) cacti are wilting. Along with my bedding plants like gazania, geranium, look crappe haha.

[Puremagick3]

Also redsqurriel the palms I own are:

Carpentaria palm;
Queen palm
Bangalow palm
Golden cane palm
Foxtail palm
Dwarf Coconut palm
Tall coconut palm
Majestic palm
Flame thrower palm
Cuban royal palm
Redneck palm
Triangle palm
Alexandra palm
Bottle palm
Bamboo palm
Parlor palm (over here it's an outside plant)


Soon to buy:
Lipstick palm
Tiger palm
Christmas palm
Hurricane palm
Spindle palm
Foxy lady palm

Currently growing from seed:
Queen
Golden cane
Coconut
Canary date
Dwarf canary date
Foxtail
Alexandra (Alex)

So pretty busy palm wise

Plus my other tropical include orchids, Ginger, heliconia, banana, ponytail palm (not really a palm), canna, pineapple, giant bird of paradise (not actually a tropical plant buy looks like one haha), paw paw (papaya), umbrella tree etc etc. Plus have some colder climate plants including lavender, English oak, English holly, elder, cordalyn (can never spell), mandarin tree, lime tree, which against all odds do well in a climate they aren't meant to do well in especially the English oak and holly.