Tropical theme ideas plz gang

So i need to buy a big one im 44 i cant wait 15yrs but i might buy the little one from ebay in hope my 18yr old daughter will leave home one day and grow it will grow with her
Any ideas on suppliers jwk? x

 

No trust im blonde it would never survive i dont want it that much i shall give a swerve

 

if you want a fun plant that grows rapidly and that has huge leaves .... get an alocasia mayan mask ... (they grow larger than the one in the pic)

 

Not sure about the layout yet jwk,i need to pick a section of garden which will prob be where my tabacco is growing now so i will have to keep everything potted up for this summer.. Phormium tenax(bronze) and Trachycarpus wagneria ordered jwk im still searching for the mayan mask dim

 

I would choose Chamaerops and Trachys over CIDPs and Washys as they are not hardy, even down here they have died after last winter. Some folk treat them as short term exotics replacing every couple of years.
Some will have to be lifted and overwintered at least frost free, Colocasias and ensete Maurelli (red banana) will need some heat.

 

The one piece of advice I wish I had heard (or maybe I did, but didn't "heed"!) was which plants are slow and need to be saved up for, and purchased big.

Tree ferns and the Palms fall into this category IMO.

The other thing is to consider which things are quick. Bananas are incredible, I grew some from seed last year and they were 8' tall by the Autumn, with huge strapping leaves. They are a nightmare to germinate though, and you need greenhouse / conservatory space suitable for them. The only one that is reasonably hardy is Musa Basjoo (sterile, so can't grow that from seed) and, for me, it doesn't have the big strapping leaves of Musa sikkimensis - but M. sikkimensis is dubiously hardy, so you need to have space to bring them in frost-free (but an unlit garage will do for most of these tender tropicals, provided it is frost free)

The Musa's suitable for growing here are (I think??) from the Himalayas and used to some cold at night, but an alternative is the "Ensete" bananas which have cold nights and a dry season in their native Ethipoia. Ensete maurelii and montbeliardii are spectacular, and can be dug up in late Autumn, all their leaves and roots cut off, stored dry (in an attic say) and then started off again the following spring. Those two varieties are quite expensive (for re-planting each year), but the "Sheds" sell bog-standard green Ensetes each spring, and a 1L plant will be 8' tall by the end of the Summer (I have two that I bought as 1L plants in April that were in conservatory until 1st June and are already 5' tall and outside)

Exotic gardeners often favour architectural leaves and the specialist forums that discuss them are, IMO, frequented by more Macho, and less generally gardener-skilled, people than this forum; the talk is about measuring leaf sizes and feeding regimes designed for obesity ... but its a lot of fun

Tetrapanex Rex is a great, large leafed, plant. Mine is 3 years old and the leaves are 80cm across, with is half the size that they will be in a year or so's time. If you have a wet area you could also grow Gunnera.

Typically Exotic planting is accompanied by Bamboo's of various varieties, some of which have gorgeousness colourings (and look really smart in a clump with all the lower leaves removed to showcase the naked culms) and Cannas (there are flowering ones, tall mega-leaf ones [one of which has the latin name which translates as "Bannana leafed"!], and some fancy colourful leaf ones). Be careful where you buy Cannas, as most of the ones in "Sheds" are likely to be virus-infected, and that will spread to all your other Cannas, and wreck the quality of the foliage. Best to buy from specialist groweers, and always as a plant rather than a tuber (i.e. so that the grower is able to see whether it is "clean", or not - only apparent from the leaf)

You can put whatever you like in, of course, but the Colocasia is a useful plant. It IS difficult to get underway, but it may just be a case of reading up and really REALLY adhering to the advice; I haven't and mine are not great (and JWK says he had trouble too). Start them off with bottom heat, very well drained compost (50% Perlite even), and minuscule pots. In fact just putting the "bulbs" in a plastic bag and blowing into it to inflate the bag will provide enough moisture; tie the bag closed and put it in the airing cupboard for a fortnight. Once they are growing you can stand the pot in a tray of water (how ironic is that! but they do rot incredibly easily in the initial stages). For cheapness you can buy Eddoes/Taro or Xanthosoma (or some name like that) in Asian Supermarkets. I bought Eddoes at about 30p each, but I stupidly put them on the side for a week before doing anything with them and they had already started to go mouldy, and only one grew. But for that you'd get plants costing £5 or more each for 30p a shot

Take a look at www.jungleplants.co.uk for ideas (they aren't cheap, but the plants are good quality) as they use a colour code for hardiness, as does www.urbanjungle.uk.com who have an Autumn/Winter sale if you are able to stock-up then and overwinter before planting out in the Spring, similarly Amulree have an Autumn sale too and both of those are near Norwich and could be visited on the same day as Will Giles exotic garden which is excellent (also in Norwich) [the article on my website about our visit to Will Giles garden is a bit crappy, but might give you some ideas]

 

Cheers kristen i think i will give the colocasia a miss untill im a bit more experienced.. its sound a tad tricky
I will have a good look on all them sites thanks,ive got room to over winter so autumn/winter sales could be a bonus i can pick my christmas presents x

 

Canna picasso is def going on the list (jungleplants )
And i might have a bash at growing a few others from seed

 

Good plan. Worth starting them in late Autumn so they are big enough to flower in Year One - although they are liable to need some supplemental lighting over winter. This was as recommended on Gardeners World "in order to get flowers in the first year" ... so I duly bought a Metal Halide growing lamp one September (might have been October), from a dubious Hydroponics shop which sold all sorts of accoutrements for the avid indoor grower nod-nod-wink-wink and ... they flowered in December and set seed in January, so from my original 6 seeds I had hundreds that I sowed the following spring! so you might not want to go quite as OTT as I obviously did!

No (well, "negligible") worries about Canna Virus if you grow from seed too.

 

I tend to think you need to look into growing a backbone of plants, the hardy ones that actually look tropical.
The likes of hardy palms and spikies, like yuccas, phormiums, green cordylines.
Large leaves can be produced from Catalpa, Fatsia or Paulownia.
Dont go for Musa basjoo unless you are prepared to protect it over winter, the recent winters have been too cold for it.

Then each summer you interplant them with the plants that are really tender, cannas, castor-oil plants, ensete. A few gazanias or Livingstone daisies are good as ground cover and give good colour.

 

I will protect the musa(its ordered already) pete and il also get as much info on growing cannas before i attempt to , ive grown gelato red livingstone daisies this yr but they only seem to open in full sun,very vibrant when they do and my gazanias over wintered ok but again with no sun theres not much of a flower show at the moment
Paulownia i will google.. i dont know that one
I bought another cordyline today..australis,its green
i shall have a look round for some yuccas,i can keep them in the living room for winter x

 

That made me giggle ...nod nod wink wink
but at least you had seeds to sell if ya wanted i bought perlite and clay pebbles in the large bags from a grow shop its cheaper than wilkies and cheaper than bags of pebbles for drainage
There is some seeds on ebay for a canna indian cream which i might try n grow..it inspired me..i want it love the colour
Guess what aslo..ive only ordered a trachycarpus latisectus instead of wagnerianus so im thinking i might hold off and get a large one for a xmas pressie x

 

There's an "eBay" seller in Spain (most of his listings are in German - not sure of the connection) who buys for large stores, and the stuff that is rejected by them is sold on "ebay" - his delivery charges to UK are astonishingly low.

You take a bit of a risk as this is clearly not his main line of business, and people say he is slow to respond, and sometimes slow to ship ... but ... bargains to be had for sure. I brought one of these for 40 Euros:



http://myworld.ebay.es/palmen3103/

Other sources which other people have bought from (no personal experience):
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/palmenspezialist/
http://www.palmenmann.de/shop/

hopefully you are using Chrome which will translate the pages for you, otherwise you'll need to sue Google Translate (or speak the language of course !!)

 

We have an exotic themed garden and the best tip is to go hardy and use exotic looking.

Trachycarpus is the best palm by far. Phoenix palms are just not hardy, Cordylines are reasonably good (and fast growing) but many have been killed to the ground in the last few winters.

Lots of bamboo are very hardy.

Use ferns, hostas and perenials with big leaves to give an illusion, then as suggested plants like Tetrapanax rex are good and fairly hardy. The harsher winters have cut many of these back but they are fast growing.

Annuals like ricinus, even dahlias can help make it look very exotic.

As mentioned we have an exotic themed garden (started 7 years ago) so here is a few ideas from our garden