What is your kind of exotic gardening?

[Essex Ross]

There is a vast range of people into exotic plants and who use them in different ways and whom have different aims in mind. There are plant collectors, designers and theme designers.

Lets define these three:

Collectors: Mainly there aim is to collect a certain species/family of plants.

Designers: Use a range of plants which look good and suit the need of the garden.

Theme Designers: Same as the designers except they choose plants from certain environments and/or parts of the world to create a theme. e.g. a Mediterranean theme would have olive, oleander, lavender etc.

Now I believe personally most people have elements of all three of these categories.

In my case personally, as I'm living with relatives the gardening decisions aren't generally mine to make, but we do have some trachys and bamboo, amongst the roses and hardy common shrubs. I do however have my cacti greenhouse and some exotic houseplants (so all hope is not lost)

The bottom line is this I'm just giving my point of view, I don't want anyone to take offence or bite my head off (like has happened in the past)

[grub]

I figure I'm a theme gardener now Ross, been through the collector phase (at least I think I have but still yearn for just one more Nana )

[Essex Ross]

I figure I'm a theme gardener now Ross, been through the collector phase (at least I think I have but still yearn for just one more Nana )

I know how you feel grub, with me its cacti

[grub]

Thing is Ross, I don't think you ever get out of it; it's just a case of you have less room so you take less care. I lost all the available Sikkimensis and parent Nanas last winter simply because I had nowhere to put them so they had to take their chances . Scary thing for me is, I know I'll replace them when I see them at the right price .

[Essex Ross]

I lost all the available Sikkimensis and parent Nanas last winter simply because I had nowhere to put them so they had to take their chances . Scary thing for me is, I know I'll replace them when I see them at the right price

Its the desire to have the sikkimensis (as a collector) but also to add it back to the theme of the garden (jungly), so we still have both categories at play here.

For me personally if I could design the garden my way, I would have an arid garden, with mainly cacti and a few succulents, sadly most of what I grow in the greenhouse isn't reliably hardy.

[Trudytropics]

Ross interesting question. I'd have to say I'm a designer, my garden is small and options are limited, so I have to be really restrained, which believe me I find very tough. I'm fortunate in that I can spend the money I want, sadly though don't have room for every thing I like. I don't think I have enough passion for one particular plant species, but I admire those on here who do, some members have astonishing collections but I know that would never be my aim.

I guess we all have our own ideas of whats right and whats not, but we all share a passion for the exotics

[Tom2006]

I would put myself half between designer and theme. I'm trying to get as lush and exotic as I can but its certainly a work in progress.

[Conifers]

I'm the collector type, but . . .

In my case personally, as I'm living with relatives the gardening decisions aren't generally mine to make,

Ditto!

[GoggleboxUK]

Of those three I'm definitely a theme designer.

My garden is inspired by the jungle levels on the game Tomb Raider and is mainly filled with Japanese or Himalayan planting.

I do love palms and have collected a large number but this is mainly to let me experiment with hardiness and have some that will survive in this Northern climate.

I'm a designer in most aspects of my life so there's definitely a little of all 3 about me but when I start building a ruined temple styled greenhouse I have to own up to being predominantly theme orientated.

Incidently, before I got into exotics, my previous theme was 'Wasteland'.

[Mr List]

i suppose i am a designer type,
picking plants i think will be good , moving and replacing as things thrive or fail.

a slight touch of collector as in now i prefer to get the best varieties of plants rather than what are usually available
eg
hosta big daddy not just any old hosta
heachurella yellow stonefalls or heuchera southern comfort not just a heuchera purple palace

looking to the future i hope to zone in on being more theme gardener since i want a jungly look but atm i am getting a woodland feel

[Dave Brown]

I suppose I'm a bit of all 3 but phase in and out with more emphasis on one rather than others as the stages of your life progress.

I started out as a collector, but then realised my collections were to create a theme It was all Palms, palms, palms, but them just a collection of palms, was just a collection, and I needed more to give me the feel that I was somewhere else. The palms became the backbone trees, then followed the jungly understory, so I started on Bananas.

With children arriving the garden had to take on a more utility function, so collecting and themes were less important. Fortunately for me this coincided with some devastating weather which wiped out most of my collections anyway. These were slowly rebuilt over the years.

My horizons really widened with access to the internet, when I realised Soooooo much more could successfully be grown either as permanent, or frost free plantings. The biggest changes have been since 2003 with Aroids (Alocasia, Colocasia etc) and with these I'm becoming more of a collector again, but with ones that will do well (designer), and fit the theme does that make me confused

The biggest input, for me, has come from the forums since 2005, where you suddenly hear of a plant doing well, that you never even heard of, so couldn't search for it.

My garden has multiple themes, which is difficult in a small area. In the back the Arid bit merges with Mediterranean bit, but there is a predominant jungly theme. Out front although I didn't plan it that way, has a much more Australian feel, requiring less watering.

In summary

I'm a collector, but only collecting with themes in mind, and at varying stages, I've needed to be a designer.

[Ian Cooke]

I think I'm a bit of everything but my preferable exotic style tends towards sub-tropical bedding - all the rage in 1900! I love the tender exotics, cannas, coleus, colocasia, iresine, bananas and all that. The permanent and hardier plants are valuable for structure and as a background but I just love all that colour and especially from foliage. Got to curb my enthusiasm next year - getting a bit expensive and tedious repeating it all each year.

[Jo A P]

I can't say what I am! If I had only plants that suited my soil I'd have lavender, oleander, olives and couch grass! I grow my moisture lovers in big pots to keep me happy rather than them. I can't call myself a designer unless I say I'm a very poor one!
I'd love to see some pics of your cactus collection though

[Yorkshire Kris]

I'm a bit of all three although there is an innate need to collect things! Overall though it's the theme of "Jungle" that I will try to achieve in my next garden. At the moment I'm just collecting plants for then, trying to arrange them in an interesting way.

[stephenprudence]

I'd say for me, it's collector and theme, I really am the worst designer in the world, therefore tend to steer clear of trying to design something.

More specifically I'm a fan of rare plants, plants you don't see at all in peoples gardens, but do like the exotic theme overall, so incorporate lots of these common exotic specimens too.