Hardy Tropicals UK

They look great.........Lord Kristen

Kristen wrote:I thought the March of the Bananas looked a bit comical when I saw them through the window

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Looks like a scene out of The Day of The Triffids!

Looking good, it'll fill out in no time

How I wish mine were like that..

The Codfather wrote:Lord Kristen

If I were a Lord I could fiddle my expenses, or do a cash-for-questions for "only" £150K p.a., and I'd be able to afford all the plants I wanted and to afford them NOW !!

What a bite.....

Hows your tropicals doing Kristen, any pics..

Deedee wrote:Hows your tropicals doing Kristen, any pics..

Needing another week or two to bulk up I reckon ...
Main path. Brugs looking rather manky, need to sort out better irrigation I think.

Particularly pleased with the height of the Musa sikkimensis, and the size of the paddle-shaped leaves on the top. Nice and sheltered in this spot, which helps
Paulownia tomentosa - first year stooled
I've grown a number of varieties of Amaranthus this year to see if I like how they look in the beds. This one is A. Fat Spike - sprawling over the path a bit
Persicaria Red Dragon has made a nice clump
Festuca Elijah Blue with some Heuchera I grew from seed (Metalica or Emperor's Cloak, or one of those - they have grown better for me than the poncy varieties I have bought plants of)

Impressive kristen, love the TF entrance, I need Big TFs like yours, they have the wow factor, the fronds on my 2 are a lot smaller this year so a bit Un-Wow
I also need Musa's, couldn't find anywhere selling them up here this year, or Ensettes for that matter, just ordered 3 littleuns, im hoping to get a bit of a show before summer ends! Persicarias are great, arent they? just chop bits off if it gets too big and i love the way it grows through neighbouring plants.
All in all your jungle is looking jungly, are you enjoying growing tropicals or do think its a bit of a chore, overwintering etc..

Looking impressive Kristen. The leaf colour and textures are working really well.

Deedee wrote:I also need Musa's, couldn't find anywhere selling them up here this year

Grew mine from seed. They got to 6'+ in the first year ... challenge is whether they [the ones left outdoors] over winter, or not, as none of this year's seed has germinated so no replacements for next year if they go T.U. over winter.

Persicarias are great, arent they? just chop bits off if it gets too big and i love the way it grows through neighbouring plants.

I got a nice, green, complementing Persicaria "Oriental Dragon" in Holland recently (Googling it was only bringing up Dutch sources, so maybe not common in Blighty?)



made a note about these that I liked too:

Persicaria microcephala Silver Dragon
Persicaria microcephala Night Dragon
Persicaria microcephala Dragon's Eye

All in all your jungle is looking jungly, are you enjoying growing tropicals or do think its a bit of a chore, overwintering etc..

Plenty of Faff in my garden, so not sure its more aggro than other parts. Very rewarding though, I think. Only downside point I can think of is that it is not presentable until end of July ... but then its "perfect" through to November, and I have plenty of Shrubs and Herbaceous that are Wow! for a month (many only for a week) and then That's It

OTOH the Jungle looks completely bare in the Winter. That's fine in a large garden, of course, because I just don't go there.

Big wins for me are:

The Boy thing. BIG leaves. Brash in places. Thick culms on bamboos.

I can put any colour plant in there. e.g. "rejects" from other parts of the garden on the grounds of colour-clash.

Single plants work well. Elsewhere I have a clump of something. In the Jungle I have single plants in many places. For example I have Arundo donax (obviously was only planning one of them anyway!) forming a clump, and then where not yet large enough I have planted one each of Ricinus (the Blue one), a Solanum laciniatum, a single Cleome, one Canna, and perhaps a couple of other tall-ish / architectural plants which are all vying for the same space. The combination looks "right" somehow, whereas elsewhere in the garden single-plants like that would look skinny / mean

The speed:

Planted last year (first season) in mid June it was grown and ready for viewing by end July.

Planted-out in 1st week of June this year, ready for viewing by mid July, looking good by end July.

Reaction of visitors ... no one I know has seen / considered a garden remotely like it in the UK. Friends ask me if they can come to see it (having seen it before, or having heard from other friends). They don't ask that about the rest of my garden!

My wife and I love looking at What's New there. The [teenage] kids think its brilliant (and, predictably, are ambivalent about the rest of the garden)

P.S. I also bought (from CGF)

Persicaria amplexicaulis Blackfield
Persicaria virginiana var.filiformis

be interesting to see how they get on too The second one has some nice "eyes" on the leaf.

Coming along brilliantly Kristen, I might have to tap you up for a few persicaria cuttings

pdid wrote:I might have to tap you up for a few persicaria cuttings

The Red Dragon I have done root just by looking at them, so finger's crossed I'll have plenty to share.

Looking great there Kristen

I got a Red Dragon cutting from Deedee which did great in the year I got it but has done very little this year. Seeing yours makes me realise how it used to look.