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!

@ungarden I love your frogs 🐸 ! Definitely no amphibians around here, but I’m seeing a lot more birds, bees and butterflies this year. Virtually no slugs or snails, which is a huge win.

@Yamadori welcome aboard! I am currently trying to bonsai a small box as a cloud tree. It was rescued from a neighbour, so no biggie if I don’t succeed - I’ve never done bonsais before.

I don’t have any advice on papaya, sorry.

Isn’t this weather the best? I'm going to have a frozen margarita in my egg chair later, and pretend I’m in Bali 🌴

Fingers crossed with box then, what with box blight and the dreaded box moth caterpillar, you will have to keep a very close eye on it!

@yamadori, yes I know, but I figured I should practise on a free plant before investing in cloud pruned trees. I have two other boxes that are both super healthy, I got them for very cheap and I fully accept that they may not live long, but so far so good 🤞Apparently there is now blight resistant box, so hopefully that’s one threat out of the way. And I’ve got xentari at the ready if caterpillars ever appear.

Hello junglies, I’ve been following this thread and it’s pinned on my watch list. I posted a while back. I don’t have a garden yet! We sold our house last October and have had a loooong saga trying to buy another one, so we’re in a rental, it has a garden but it’s not mine and anyway it’s gravel and astroturf! But WHEN we finally move I should have an excellent garden that’s almost a blank slate – south facing, sheltered, wall on one side and fence on the other, small greenhouse, patio next to the house. At the moment mostly lawn with some very timidly designed narrow beds at the side and a rather nice gazebo in the middle. No completion date yet. I am absolutely champing at the bit to get at the garden! I’ve got lots of pots of things stored in my DD’s garden at the mo but I’ve just started to accumulate more, inevitably. Went to an open gardens event in Bristol recently and bought 2 baby tree ferns 😍 which I’ve just potted on and an Ophiopogon planiscapus Nigrescens, plus I’ve rescued a rogue pulmonaria that was growing in the gravel here at the rental. I can’t wait, it’s driving me nuts. Not too bothered about the house but this garden is going to be the biggest and best I’ve ever had!
@Koulibiak begonia luxurians has just gone on my extensive and crazy list of plants I want and intend to get hold of, it’s gorgeous. I am such a lover of foliage.
@ungarden I see your frogs! I’m not sure about tackling having a pond yet, although DH would probably love to have one being one of those men who collected newts as a kid. But I need to get a handle on lots of planting first.
OK I’m posting pics of my very small collection of plants for the garden-in-waiting. There’s a close up of one of the tree ferns to show its newly unfurling frond. (I love the word unfurl.) I do have pics of the garden that we took on our last viewing but it feels too cheeky to post any of them because we don’t own the house yet. * *

Cloud-pruned trees (niwaki to give them their Japanese name) are usually Ilex crenata these days, which look like box but don't have the same issues.

Niwaki if they’re planted in the ground, surely? Mine is in a pot, so a bonsai

If planted in the ground and pruned in the cloud-pruning niwaki style it is a niwaki, not topiary.

If it is pruned in the niwaki style and growing in any kind of pot, it's still a niwaki not bonsai.

Growing something in a bonsai pot doesn't necessarily make something into a bonsai tree until it has been trained in one of a number of recogisable and accepted styles (some of which I don't particularly like, incidentally). Generally speaking, an ideal bonsai tree should look like an artistic miniature version of what you see in nature, and which appears to have grown like that all by itself over hundreds of years, with no intervention from the human hand at all.

@Yamadori let’s agree to disagree 🙂 - bonsai literally means “planted in a container”, and niwaki “garden tree”. But it really doesn’t matter!

I've got 2 box balls which I've had a few years. Out of the blue they seem to have come down with box blight. I thought it was sun scorch at first but it does now look like its blight. I'm going to chop out all the affected parts tomorrow and see how they get on. If they survive, I will try and chop them into suitable shapes. Fortunately, they were only cheap ones from Asda so its not the end of the world if they don't survive.

Does anyone have any suggestions for good sized reasonably priced pots for my cannas? I love terracotta pots but they're not really suitable for cannas. I have my oldest cannas in resin pots which are great but no longer available. I'm really lost without Homebase as they used to be very good for pots, our old one is now a Wickes.

I'm not a massive fan of plastic pots (except as a temporary measure) and am trying not to buy any more unless I have to. I would like some glazed pots ideally but resin/fiberstone etc would also be fine. I will resort to plastic ones if I have to. Most of the pots I have seen are grey and I really don't want grey, I would also prefer to avoid black if I can. I am now growing some cannas in the ground but want to keep one "mother plant" of each variety in pots as insurance.

I couldn't resist the opportunity to attach a photo of some of my potted cannas, taken the other day.

🙂Planting a niwaki into a pot does not turn it into a bonsai tree. I'm a bonsai grower, a member of the RHS, three regional bonsai societies & one national society (and have served on the committees of two of them), won regional competitions and have exhibited at national level, but hey ho. Oh yes, and my friend has won a gold medal for their bonsai exhibits at Chelsea on more than one occasion. And a contact of mine imports both bonsai and niwaki trees from Japan. And another friend of mine has been on Gardeners World with their trees.

My musa basjoo is taking over the garden! I have 6 babies growing around it - has anyone got the knife out to make the cut? I have a few people offering to take the offshoots.
Still enjoying the frog antics in the garden, who knew 3 frogs could provide so much entertainment? I've got everyone who visits as obsessed as I am!😂

@PsychedlicSally I got a few glazed pots from the local council reuse centre. Or try Facebook Marketplace. Your cannas look amazing, and those are very nice pots too. 😁

@PsychedlicSally I love your cannas and resin pots.

I’ve also found it challenging to find suitable pots for my cannas - they need a lot of space and do better in plastic/resin as the soil doesn’t dry up as fast.

I’ve got four pots like these https://www.amazon.co.uk/simpa-Speckle-Effect-Plastic-Planter/dp/B09ZPGGW97, though mine are a different colour (a neutral brown/beige) that doesn’t seem to be available anymore in this size. All are planted with cannas and they are all doing great, some are over 2m tall.

@ungarden I split up some Musa basjoo last year, it was not as scary as I’d imagined. The offshoots all grew well.

@ungarden That's a great idea, the reuse centre. I need to do a tip run and will call in the reuse shop at the same time. I have seen gorgeous pots in the skips at the tip before, nothing wrong with them.
I split the pups off my basjoo this spring, easier than I thought, a hori hori knife works really well.
@Koulibiak They are really nice pots, thank you. B&M have similar ones on their website but I've never been able to find them in our local branches, except one which was badly damaged.

I now have 2 brugmansias in flower and a third about to. I haven't done much pruning so they're not very big. The plants are about 2ft and the flowers about 6" long. Unfortunately, one of them is supposed to be red/orange and one white but both have flowered white. I was looking forward to the red/orange one.
I am hoping they will continue to grow and flower some more, I'm not sure if I should start pruning them after flowering to get them a bit bigger or just leave them to it.. They smell absolutely divine.

A third brugmansia is now in flower, it is supposed to be pink but it is also white. I thought it was too good to be true when they arrived, bigger than expected and in lovely condition.
The fourth one from the collection isn't showing any signs of flowering yet so may actually be the intended colour, which is yellow.
Fortunately, I also bought brugmansias of a different variety from elsewhere. They aren't flowering yet, so fingers crossed they are the correct colours, don't have another red/orange one though.
My colocasias are loving this hot weather and are growing really fast with some huge leaves.

@PsychedlicSally Oh no, what a shame about the brugs, mine aren’t flowering yet, now I’m worried they will also all be white…

Managed to take a photo of my cleome- the caterpillars are razing them to the ground so they won’t last 🙁

Bananas, Tetrapanax, colocasias are all huge. Even the coleus/solenostemons are massive. One of my cicads (sago palm) that lost all its leaves to frost has come back with a flush of new fronds.

@PsychedlicSally well the White Brug Curse is spreading. But in my case, it’s the one that I grew from a seed. It was meant to be a double orange. Not only is it single white, but I think it’s a datura, as the flowers are pointing up. I’m bitterly disappointed, like my baby was swapped at birth and I’ve been looking after the wrong child.😂

I’ve got no flowers yet on my T&M plug plants, although they are growing well. If I end up with four more white ones I might cry.

Speaking of set backs, my schefflera taiwaniana is very poorly. I think it got overcrowded by the gigantic salvias, so I’ve moved it out of the bed and into a pot to keep an eye on it and try saving it.

The caterpillars have finally stopped munching on my cleomes and I can see lots of flower buds, so all hope is not lost. I absolutely love the flowers, they are huge, weird and long lasting. The leaves are pretty too. I will try germinating more next spring, but sowing them outside as I think they need cold nights.

Other than that, the garden is ticking along. I’m seeing lots of bugs I’ve never seen before, and masses of pollinators. The evening scent from the nicotianas is divine.

We’ve been hosting lots of friends (and having tradesmen over) and it’s so nice to see other people enjoying the space. Clearly flattery works with me 🤭

@Koulibiak Sorry to hear that you have been stricken by the White Brug Curse. Still an achievement to get to flowering stage from seed though. It does look like a datura, lovely dark stems and at least its not a duplication.
Two of my white brugs are now forming a second set of buds, the third is still on its first flowering. The fourth T&M plant hasn't flowered yet and looks a bit different to the others, its supposed to be yellow but I'm half-expecting/hoping for a surprise, as long as its not white!

A curse it is indeed, T&M sent a second collection out FOC and Yodel have lost the parcel in their depot, over a week ago, so the plants will likely be dead now. T&M have now refunded as they are sold out. I am enjoying the white ones a little more knowing they were free but would rather have had the correct colours.

I had meant to post previously about your cleomes, they are absolutely gorgeous and I love the leaves. Huge, weird and long lasting sounds right up my street, I must try and grow some next year, were they tricky?
I don't have much patience with seeds, its the pricking out I struggle with, so fiddly. I have resolved to sow some seeds next year as I have not been able to find nicotiana bedding locally this year. I finally found coleus but later in the season than I would have liked. Do you grow your coleus and nicotiana from seed?

One of my hedychiums is flowering, it has 4 flower stems this year, last year there was only one. Two stems are flowering already, the other two are in bud, the scent is quite intoxicating. On the other hand, despite rampant growth and huge leaves, it looks like my inula magnificas aren't going to flower this year after all, sigh.

@PsychedlicSally how annoying about the replacement brugs. I’ve also had my lot of wrong (and therefore free) plants this year - the cannas Tropicanna Gold I ordered turned out to be Stuttgart. I like them a lot, but I still want the tropicanna gold - will have to squeeze them in next year.

Nicotiana and coleus are dead easy to grow from seed in a propagator. Nics grow very quickly, coleus are slower. I planted standard and dwarf coleus, and the standard ones are now huge compared to the dwarf type - like 10 times larger. I will review my sowing notes and post dates.

Sadly it’s a totally different story for cleomes, I had very poor germination rate and many died in infancy. But once I took the surviving seedlings out for hardening off, I noticed more seedlings coming out all of a sudden. I think they need cold nights on a repeat cycle to germinate - just putting the seeds in the fridge for a few days didn’t work for me. So next year I will start them outside, or maybe do a batch indoors and one outdoors to see how they compare. In the end I only have 4 plants, but they are quite statuesque and about 1.5m tall, so they take up some space.

Chiltern seeds have cleomes in lots of colours.

At least now I know about the caterpillars so won’t be surprised next year. They give me the ick 😳.

I quite enjoy pricking out - I use surgical gloves and a dibber, and it’s usually straight forward. My tiny 12-cell propagator tray yielded 79 nicotiana seedlings, I gave many away and still had too many.

Anyone fancy sharing a firm favourite and a new discovery? I got some Zea Japonica, variegated pink leaf ornamental corn that is bringing me great joy. Also apple of Peru, which i grow every year, and is currently trying to outcompete my musa basjoo. It's quite goth with purple flowers and black tinged lanterns.

@SprigatitoYouAndIKnow you always have the best exotic plants. I love the pink variegation on those zea leaves 🥰 - it’s going on my wish list.

My new plant is coniogram emeiensis (bamboo fern). It’s got unique leaf markings, and while it is diminutive, it seems happy as underplanting under bananas and palms.

My firm favourites are Musa basjoo, they have really taken off big time and look amazing this year.

Dutch bulbs have refunded me for ten cannas which were wrongly labelled, the second batch was supposed to be Perkeo which it definitely isn’t. I think possibly coccinea? Any guesses welcome.

i have small flower buds on three of my T&M brugs, but I’m about to go away so won’t know what colour they are for weeks 😭 I may have to video call DH and have him walk me through the garden.

My new discovery is iochroma fuschoides, a relative of the brugmansia, it was a little twig a couple of months ago when it arrived. Not spectacular as a stand alone plant but would look great in amongst the borders, am hoping to propagate more for next year.

My firm favourite has to be Colocasia Pink China at the moment, mine have grown so well this year and the leaves are huge.

@SprigatitoYouAndIKnow I love the Zea, what gorgeous coloured stripes, might have to have some next year. Thank you for reminding me about apple of peru, my neighbour used to grow it every year. he called it the shoo fly plant, I much prefer you name, I will use that from now on.

@Koulibiak If its any consolation, I find my tropicanna gold is less tall and a late plus not very prolific flowerer in comparison with my other cannas. My Stuttgart looks much more impressive, despite being newer/younger. Both worth having though.
Thanks for the seed growing advice, I will definitely give all of them a go next year, I'm looking at propagators already.
I love the bamboo fern, that's going on my list! Glad your musa basjoos are romping away. All my nanas seem to be on a go slow this year despite the warm weather. Some have also had set-backs, the main stem on my largest basjoo had to be cut down after a suspected squirrel attack and my largest ensete was vandalised the other day, I suspect a gang of delinquent magpies.
Sorry, I don't recognise the canna but it is lovely. I am on tenterhooks wondering about the colour of your brug flowers. I bet they bloom the moment you leave!

if only I had the space for a pond… (photos from a dreamy tropical garden I saw on holiday last month)

Hello! Has anyone got suggestions for tropical looking, winter flowering plants? I’m going to Wisley this week so I’m updating my wish list as I need to avoid impulse buys 😂.

I would like a winter clematis (Armandii), and maybe some daphnes in pots. Beyond that, I’m drawing a blank. I will also have lots of bulbs which I’m about to order from Dutch Bulbs soon. And I’m thinking of starting some succulents from seeds as I absolutely love my new aeoniums.

The garden has basically looked after itself for months now, and I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty again, planning for next year and preparing for the winter.

The Brugmansia mystery is still unsolved! The one that was labelled “white” is flowering, but the other ones aren’t yet. The yellow one should be next. The orange and pink ones are behind. Last year the orange one didn’t flower until well into October, so I’m trying to stay positive. I also now have lots of rooted cuttings, though strangely only the white ones have rooted🤷🏼‍♀️. It’s a white brug conspiracy. Meanwhile, the white datura grown from seed is flowering very well, new buds opening every day.

My next project is to try and take cuttings of begonia luxurians. 🤞

Jungle mingle - brugmansia, cleome, colocasia and solenostemon