JWK's Garden Destruction

Sounds like some exciting times ahead.

One thing to consider on the cordylines is they tend to do better longer term starting out as a smaller plant. I planted a few £2.99 ones in the garden and a few others i grew from seed. These have overtaken the 3' plants i bought for a bit of instant impact. As they have a tap root i think the smaller plants establish more quickly and then take off.

Trachycarpus are a lovely family of palms, there can be a lot of variation, even with the fortuneii. Have you also considered Butia and chamaerops palms?

 

John, re the cordylines, If you know roughly where they are likly to be going id be tempted to pop a couple of small ones in now. Give them this year to get started. They are very quick growers, from a small seed grown one i was given 3 years ago i have a 3-4' plant. Which is the same size as the larger ones i bought that size 3 years ago.

Butias are anotehr good palm for the UK but tend to be more expensive than chamaerops or trachycarpus fortuneii - have a look at hardypalms.co.uk for some pictures etc, they ship them in from field grown sources in South America. chamaerops are readily available, Wilkos were doing some reasonably sized small ones for about £3. Again if not planting till next year they may be worth pot growing, especially if you can pop in your greenhouses over winter to keep the frost off.

One of the other common ones to think about would be Phoenix caneriensis - Canary Island Date Palm. This is available all over from quite low prices, but small ones cant be regarded as reliably hardy, many will come through winter, especially if sheltered, once larger they are reputed to be hardy to -8 to -10 in the UK. A beautiful palm, but in truth not guaranteed to be sucessful.

Finally a word or caution about palms in B+Q and other garden centres. The hardyness ratings are very optimistic. Some hopelessly tender plants have the advice protection needed in winter, which translated means - heated conservatory for winter. So if in doubt check on here or elsewhere first.

There are a couple of tropical nurseries in your part of the world (depending on where in Surrey you are) check out www.architecturalplants.com or www.bigplantnursery.co.uk.

Over on the hardytropicals forum one of the members has put together a map of tropical garden centres and gardens Map here

 

Hi John,

Great project, but I wondered what your car was? Looks a bit like a Bristol...

Cheers
Craig

 

Excellent pics Loks like its gonna be sooooooo cool when its done

 

Wow, what a fantastic job! You are motoring on despite the little unfortunate breakage! :thumb:

I really look forward to seeing your continued progress

 

Lovely motor, lovely garden.

Cheers
Craig

 

John, that's really impressive. Well done. Keep the pics coming.

cheers

 

Fantastic thread, I love bulding work!!!

Some nice timber work with the roof, ive slated, tiled and helped set up trusses before but never yet done a cut timber roof.

I always find big projects amazingly satisfiying, even though they apear daunting to start if you think about each individual element then things become do able.

 

Did you buy one of them dodgey spirit levels from B&Q cos I rekon that wall is slanted