Anyone else planting a jungle/tropical garden?

[Koulibiak]

I would love to hear ideas for what plants have worked for you, especially big leaves and ground covers.

As for me: I started with my jungle planting last year. I already had a good sized phoenix palm and a huge, if slightly ugly, cordyline with about 6 trunks). I love foliage plants, so decided to carry on with that. I’m in London, sw exposure and mostly sunny (though trying to establish a leafy canopy to add shade).

One year on, there is still so much work to do. On the positive side, some of my bananas and even the Ensete maurelii seem to have survived winter unprotected. I’ve got some Musa basjoo already sending leaves up and at least one has clumped and now has 4-5 shoots (from a plug plant last year). My other palms (3 chusan palms last year and now I’ve added 2 chamaerops humilis in pots) are all still so tiny. I have to remind myself my phoenix was tiddly when I brought it home on foot from Morrisons many years ago!

But overall the garden still looks bare so I’ve been planting lots of ferns, Heuchera, polemonium etc. I’ve also got some cannas, crocosmias, pineapple lillies and Kniphofia, and am trying to grow Colocasia (not very successfully so far - got three types and wondering when to give up 😄) and have now planted ginger lillies and eremurus (which are very weird looking when just bare roots, and probably all wrong for my garden, but I’ve taken a punt as they are so spectacular).

I’ve got a Tetrapanax that barely got through winter, my dog ate most of my Sambucus nigra and aucuba, and I just planted a Schefflera to add to the canopy but it’s about 20cm tall right now so I’m not holding my breath. My Kniphofia are a snail nursery!

Ive found it challenging buying plants in nurseries as they are mostly geared towards cottage style gardens, with a very small selection of jungle/foliage plants. Buying online is a gamble - I’ve had some good experiences and sadly many negative ones with diseased plants.

It would be lovely to hear from other jungle gardeners with plants that have worked for them, and positive experiences with online sellers. Thank you 🙏

TLDR; please give me your tips!

@Koulibiak , we’re also in SE just outside London. I have two large beds I’m trying to give a jungle/exotic feel. My husband is determined to have evergreen planting which doesn’t help. I absolutely adore big leaved plants too but I’ve found so many won’t survive our winters. I hope someone very experienced comes along to help us.

It's not my style of gardening (I'm not sure some of the plants you've mentioned would survive in my area) but I love this exotic look when I see it elsewhere.
One plant you've not mentioned which might work and I think is quite widely available and not too fussy is Fatsia japonica and also fatshedera could help with the jungly look perhaps?

@ErrolTheDragon , @ErrolTheDragon I have a Fatsia Japonica, a brilliant plant; I love it.

Try these people, they're brilliant. 🌴
architecturalplants.com

I’ve got 4 Fatsia, I agree they are brilliant. One of them is stunted so I just moved it to another location last week.

I haven’t heard of fatshedera <<off to Google>>

@Diamond007D thank you, I will check them out!

@Lovepeaceunderstanding if evergreen is the priority, then palms are a good option. My phoenix palm is now 12 years old and the trunk is close to 50cm across and it looks very tropical. It takes a long time to establish, but think about it as a single malt scotch - the 18 year mark will be rewarding!

Fan palms (chamaerops, trachycapus) are also evergreen. I’ve heard they take three years to really take off so I’ve got my fingers crossed for mine. They are meant to be very hardy. Cordylines are easy to grow but they can get very leggy and are not as attractive as palms in my opinion - somehow they just remind me of Scotland 🤷🏼‍♀️.

I also have a couple of sago palms (cycads) that have survived winter with no protection, against all expectations. They are slow growing but evergreen and very Jurassic looking.

However for big leaves I think you have to have some bananas, and they are most definitely not evergreen. But the reward in the summer is worth it, and they are hardy too. They put in amazing growth, one of mine grew 12 centimetres in one day at the weekend! You can just sit and watch them grow 😁 just like bindweed but in a happy way

Also as you are in the south, I would recommend cannas, the leaves in summer are spectacular and they don’t need to be lifted, they are safe in the ground with a bit of mulch.

Have you considered vertical planting too? I hang sheets of rebar on hooks from the fence and put pots in holders - IKEA do them now. Here's a pic that shows some in my side garden. The quality looks odd because I shot it through the flyscreen.

Also bear in mind this Melbourne, so many houseplants thrive outside. My wall plants are all bromeliads but there might be some suitable for the UK.

When I lived in London I grew fatsia japonica and yucca, though the latter isn't really jungly. Tree ferns did well and I put potted aspidistra and spider plants out in the summer. Trachelospermun jasminoides make a very good ground cover, though slow-growing in the UK.

Sounds very lush ! Just to cast a cautionary note about the Heucheras, lovely though they are. We had quite a few in our London garden and discovered that they are top of the menu for vine weevils. Creamy white larvae growing fat on the roots and you don’t know anything about it until the plant falls over. Worth keeping an eye on.

@Boutonnière Ooh good to know about Heuchera! I’ve only got one (Lime marmalade) but will keep an eye on it in case.

@echt I don’t think I’m ready for bromeliads yet ☺️ though I’ve heard aspidistra is hardy in southern England so might give that a go.

I have some passion flower and clematis growing as climbing plants, and am planning on adding a star jasmine too as I have a pergola that needs shading. I hadn’t considered it for ground cover but will look into it now!

Passion flower is a workhorse, it grows so fast even from tiny supermarket plants. It’s a shame the vines don’t look very pretty but I love the flowers, they look like they’ve be drawn by a child 🙂. I’ve heard lots of good things about clematis armandii as it’s evergreen and can look quite jungly. Sadly mine are Montana but hey ho.

I used to have a yucca, I dug it out as it was huge and rather unattractive - I think it would be more at home in a Mediterranean/desert scheme with agaves etc. I’m trying hard to limit the amount of strappy leaves, hence all the ferns and big leaves to counteract crocosmia and kniphofia.

@Koulibiak I've only seen star jasmine used for ground cover in Melbourne but it grows fast here. Agree about yuccas.

CN we see any pictures? Sounds brilliant!

I am planning three themes for our three levels.

A sort of Derek Jarman-style - painting the shed black, peebles and med style planting on the top terrace, moving down to the middle terrace - this will be wildlife focused, a bit cottage-like but not full on - more modern cottage and finally a jungle theme on my eating terrace where I want the feeling of being cocooned in plants.

I have saved some plants from the previous owner's design, we have some bamboo (the smaller clumping kind) some grasses and a few ferns. I would love a tree fern but given how expense they are I've bought a small one to see if I can keep that alive first.
We have https://www.urbanjungle.uk nearby and it's a good place to stroll around gaining some inspiration but we are really just at the landscaping stage.

We're moving slowly as we need to get rid of part of a hedge (on our side of the boundary) - our neighbours are insisting we keep the hedge, so we are leaving some of the landscaping till Sept when the birds have stopped nesting (we've taken advice from a wildlife expert and our plans do not endanger the birds but it's optics, innit) we don't want to wind them up any more than we have already.

Just logging a space as we are just starting re-planting our tiny, London-outskirts courtyard in a more jungle style - will come back later to read although not sure I have any learnings to share yet!

Sort of, but we can't have flowering stuff due to pets and so many of them being "toxic" so currently we have things like cordyline, ferns, tree ferns, windmilll palms, phoenix palms, etc

I actually found the bigger tree ferns easier, the smaller ones seem more delicate and a frost can kill them off quite easily - I lost a small one the other year despite wrapping it up. My big one however it totally fine.

Urban Jungle is expensive for tree ferns, if you are in Norfolk, Taverham Garden Centre sometimes has them at a better price

@RiverFlowers very useful to know, is Tavenham generally cheaper for everything?
We're trying to set up a smart watering system - so we can control watering in the garden from our phones whilst we are away and/or too busy (lazy) to water during the summer.

I love the looks of tree ferns, but I’m put off by how slow growing they are (and of course the big ones are eye wateringly expensive). I think on some level I really enjoy my plants getting bigger and bigger and would feel let down by a plant that basically stays the same forever. It’s not at all rational I know!

I’ve now drawn a wish list of everything I want to plant, and am just waiting for stock to be available again. I usually buy smaller plants to save money, then try and nurture them as best I can, and wish them to get big fast.

Last year I thought I was clever when I sowed lots of nasturtiums seeds to fill the empty spaces. It worked so well that I had nasturtiums everywhere, some of them 2m high and wide. We went on holidays for a week and came back to the day of the triffids 🤭. They killed parts of my new lawn and I eventually had to pull all of them out due to black fly. But they looked lovely for a short time. This year I’m only planting Tom Thumb, hoping they stay small - but will be ruthless pulling them out if not.

@Koulibiak , thank you so much. I’ll look at those. 🙏🏻

With tree ferns the excitement is in the knuckles uncurling. 😎

Oh yes that would be lovely to see I’m sure!

Can you share your wishlist please. I use RHS free account to collect my wishlist, useful because you can store all the plants in your garden or in the wishlist with handy advice on plant care at hand - mine is not very long atm.

I have stumbled into a jungle theme in my tiny London garden, which seems to be more or less frost free these days. Musa Basjoo, aka Hardy Japanese Banana is in the ground, thriving with no attention. In a hard frost it will die down then come roaring back in the spring. I also have an Ensette (Ethiopian Banana) which is tender, so it sits in the front room unhappily over winter. I also have a hardy ginger, and I put the houseplants such as Aspidistra in the garden over summer. I have my eye on a Yucca too.

For inspiration, have a look at Dan Cooper/ The Frustrated Gardener on Instagram, especially the posts about his own garden at The Watch House.

He used to be the Christmas specialty buyer at John Lewis, so also has some posts under Mr Christmas, but the garden stuff is marvellous www.instagram.com/reel/Cwspd6Kq6XA/?igsh=N3ZwMXp0bnl4NGpl

@ungarden , my wish list is :

• more Musa, gingers (Hedychium) and cannas
• some more ferns, maybe the Japanese/painted types
• climbers like star jasmine and clematis armandii
• begonia grandis and bush impatiens
• groundcovers : I like the look of farfugium but am worried about snails, so maybe asarum europeaeum? And some Persicaria
• And I’m still holding hope for Colocasia - I’ve had limited success with Pink China last year, it’s supposed to be hardy so I’m waiting to see if it comes back

@FatArse123 this sounds like my garden. I left my Ensete outside (lazy) and it seems to have survived winter in the ground - the core is green and not soft. I will update in a few weeks whether it’s growing or not. I’ve also heard aspidistra is hardy in London.