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!

Yes I lust over the bigplantnursery website, whoever writes it has got a funny side. But everything is out of stock at the moment, so I’m growing impatient.

I love cannas. Last year I got Tropicanna blacks from B&Q for very cheap and they grew like crazy, it was very satisfying. This year I’m hoping to get Durban and Cleopatra ones. I haven’t had any luck growing them (or gingers) from rhizomes so I’m going to buy potted plants when in season.

I just got three Musa sikkimensis from eBay. The Musa basjoos I got as plug plants last year have done well, and I’m hoping sikkimensis will be the same, but with the bonus of red striated leaves.

Today I managed to apply Vitax 6x to everything just before the heavens open, which was perfect. I love it when the weather fits around my gardening schedule. ☺️

How are the jungle gardens coming along?

I bought a tree fern yesterday - they carried it to my car and when I got home I was shocked by how heavy the bloody thing was - it took a lot of creative manoeuvring to get it into the backyard. Staking it is the next challenge.

What kind is is it? They shouldn't need staking.

It's a 4ft Dicksonia Antarctica and weighs an absolute ton, we struggle to get it out of the car - should have got it delivered.
I've been told their fronds are like sails when the wind picks up, burying deeper would help avoid the toppling over but at nearly £100/foot, I'm reluctant to bury that cash, I want to retain as much height as possible.

We have some stakes to sit around it and provide support for its first year

You won't be able to buy cultivated Gunnera. It was reclassified at the end of last year as an invasive species and it's not allowed to be planted anymore.

Just back from the garden centre and fell in love with a Rheum Palmatum Rubrum and an Angelica Archangelica. Both would work in a jungle setting, not sure I have the space for either sadly

I was never able to grow Rheum, I think I planted it in the wrong spot and it was too dry.

I’ve been busy planting lots of ferns (mostly polystichum plumodensum, athyrium Ursula red and dryopteris cristata depending on sun/shade positions), ground covers (vinca minor athropurpureum, asarum europeaeum, bergenia), and big leaf plants - gingers (Hedychium), Musa sikkimensis and cannas. Also more low growing foliage (asplenium, cyrtomium) in my quest to cover the ground fully.

I found the J Parker’s Wholesale website (also trading as Dutch Bulbs), and their prices are very fair. The plants all look healthy (some leaves bashed up but I expect that) and they delivered within a week, much faster than 21 days as stated on the website. They don’t have anything truly exotic, but lots of ferns and ground covers which any garden needs.

I’ve also divided lots of kniphofias , I like the flowers but the foliage is too strappy for my taste and mine were badly congested. I think I need to accept I need to keep them small. Some of mine started flowering in March 🧐 I always thought they were a late summer plant?

I ordered eremurus (foxtail lillies) by mistake, and then couldn’t plant them for about 10 days because of the weather, and then read on the RHS website that they are really hard to grow. But miraculously they have already put up huge growth and look very healthy, big crowns and putting growth in every day. I shall report on whether they flower later.

In good news, my Ensete maurelii which I left in the ground over winter is definitely showing signs of life, although it will have to regrow from the ground up. My tiny Tetrapanax has also risen from the dead to produce a single leaf so far. But what a lovely leaf 😁

Also, I think I may have managed to make Colocasia bulbs germinate at last. They take a long time - fully six weeks on a window sill but they are showing eyes and bumps so I’m feeling hopeful. I am putting the pots outside in the daytime but bringing them in overnight until the weather improves. If I do this again next year I will start them in Jan/Feb, not late March.

I’m now at the stage where I can see how many gaps I’ve still got and I can focus on filling those. I think I’m going to order some persicaria as ground cover for my self contained beds (as I’ve heard it’s very invasive), and more gingers, Colocasia Pink China and cannas for big leaves and a splash of flower colour. And some star jasmine as climbers.

It’s hard to balance having some repetition in the garden so it feels cohesive, and ordering lots of different things because, well, they’re all lovely and I want them all ☺️

I’ve also been trying to be better at feeding/fertilising regularly. Let’s see if this works - too early to tell now.

It’s quite fascinating to see it coming together, but patience is not my best quality and I wish everything was big now. 😊

As Charlie Brown would say, good grief - what a long post. Sorry. How is everyone else’s jungle doing?

I didn't know about this, thanks for the info. I won't be tempted to pass any on .

We've started setting up the smart irrigation system controlled via an app - we are often away during the week, so I am sure to forget to water without the routine - it's currently misting the new tree fern on a daily basis, we have two channels depending on plant needs - it doesn't water the plants if it's raining, I think it will require some tinkering but dh looked like he was having fun.

Regarding the Gunnera of anyone interested , following reading more about this it seems only certain types are banned, you can still buy some varieties. Anyway OP says they don't have a wet enough area.

We inherited one from previous owners. Be careful with crocosmia, it takes over the entire garden - I spent half of last summer de-crocosmia-ing a bed so that I could plant something different.

I love the tree fern - I think it's a ponga or similar. I love watching it unfurl in the spring, like an alien plant! The banana has not been that happy with the colder winters for the past couple of years, it's hung on for dear life but it's not loving life right now.

Consider colour as well as type of plant. I wanted to put in some native and more reliable plants without ruining the look of the garden, so I've put in some apricot coloured erysimums, some red-flowering sage and some big bright gladioli: whilst these aren't "tropical", they will flower reliably in our climate and the colours add to the overall vibrancy of the garden.

Ooh I love Angelica, but the snails always get it. Does anyone know how it does in a pot?

I love big leaves too!!
Sadly my gunnera didn't make it through the winter this year, I didn't tuck her in tightly enough, so sad.

@countvoncount oh no, I hate losing plants. RIP gunnera. 🍃

Speaking of big leaves, I can confirm that my tiny, single stemmed Colocasia Pink China not only survived winter outside in a bed, but is now sprouting at least 4 stems that are starting to show small leaves. So yes, PC is actually hardy 😮 I’m unreasonably excited by this discovery. I had really not expected it to grow this much. I’m going to feed it like crazy now.

@Koulibiak fantastic!
I will keep my eyes open for one of these!! Thankyou!

Ooh, have just ordered a couple of Colossians in the farmer Gracy sale (50%off for anyone needing tempting!!) so that’s great news!

im converting to jungle this year so the garden (tiny courtyard) is still a bit of a confused identity space but the news planting (fatsia, canna, lilies, begonia and monkey flower, few ferns and hostas) are settling in and it’s starting to get going. Exciting times!

Damn you autocarrot! That was meant to be colocasia!

😁 at autocarrot

@Isthisjustnormal , in case you haven’t tried growing Colocasia before, the bulbs are pretty slow growing and I’ve never managed to grow one straight outdoors in beds. I think they really need starting indoors in pots and they can take two months to germinate. Also I’m not sure what varieties are hardy other than Pink China. But they all look fabulous. Let me know how yours do!

Thank you: I haven’t so that’s useful :-) mine may not be hardy, but then I am in a very enclosed walled garden in the south east so lots of stuff that isn’t hardy manages to stay alive!

@Isthisjustnormal my garden is similar, it’s a sun trap and I love it. You could try Ensete maurelii, mine survived winter. Bananas (Musa basjoo and sikkimensis) are also easy to grow and inexpensive as young plants. All three have lovely big leaves and do well in sheltered areas with minimal or no protection (I only mulched mine with bark mulch last year).

I’ve got two new colocasias, the standard esculenta one and Jack’s Giant this year. I haven’t decided yet whether I will leave them out for the winter, I’m waiting to see how they grow over the summer. I would love to have Hawaiian punch and Pharaoh’s mask but am pacing myself ☺️

I’m reviving this thread to see how the jungles are going?

Here in South London, the weather has been a bit cold and wet in the last month (what else is new), but the few days of sun have really helped - and at least I haven’t had to water much.

My bananas have grown pretty well, my little sikkimensis plug plants have rooted well and the leaves have the deep green and red streaks, very different from basjoo.

I’ve just planted a bunch of young colocasias which look very healthy (I got them from Jungleinabox, very quick delivery and fair prices). I’ve been doing a lot of research about the new Colocasia varieties that are being developed in the US and they are meant to be almost as hardy as Pink China, so I’m going to experiment with winter protection and leave them in the ground. 🤞

I’ve got two eremurus about to flower (out of five I planted...) I’ve also planted a few Persicaria that look very cheerful, and European ginger which has the cutest little round leaves. It’s tiny but makes me happy every time I see it.

My tiny Tetrapanax keeps being eaten by bugs (I think ants 🤷🏼‍♀️) but it is valiantly pushing out new leaves so I’m hoping it will eventually gain some height and beat the pests.

I’m hesitant to say it out loud lest I might jinx it, but I think my Hedychiums have germinated - I’ve got two little sprouts and maybe a third one, in the right area where I planted rhizomes, that don’t look like any weed. And I finally have my canna tropicanna, still small leaves but the colours are already amazing.

So, overall the jungle is still a bit bedraggled, but getting better and better. I have had to admit that I don’t have room for new plants until I see how things grow in the next few months, so now I just need to sit back, bear the bare patches, feed like mad, and keep a watchful wait.

Please let me know about your trials and tribulations… I love hearing about other peoples’s gardens and plants 🌴🌱🌿

Our Tetrapanax has been in a pot for three years and dies back over winter but comes back in the spring.

It's going in the ground this year though as I think it's established enough to survive.

@ManilowBarry that's interesting, mine is in the ground and I’m pretty sure it’s not slugs eating it as I keep a close watch. I just want it to grow a foot tall overnight so the leaves are off the ground… <fetches liquid seaweed, miraclegro and chicken manure>

I’ve just managed to get the garden to the point of starting to plant, dug up a few tree stumps and they are having a trial period beside the tree fern, with some moss and another fern I found in the garden - am tempted to start the jungle with a stumpery/fernery. Also added an oak barrel pond - this isn’t sounding very much like a jungle yet 🥹but I did plant a single banana tree…which is a start! I’m going shopping for plants when I come back from holidays.

@ungarden A fernery sounds lush. I don’t have a tree fern so I’m envious, but I have dozens of other ferns and I love them, and how different they are from each other - sizes, colours, frond shapes. I have a bunch of them growing with pulmonaria and (self seeded) nasturtiums in a shady corner under a cordyline, and the different foliages look great together.

Well done on the banana! I planted some last year and a few have clumped, so I have little clusters now. And they grow vigorously in their second year - last year’s plug plants that died back over winter are now 2-3 feet tall, and the growing season is just starting.

Lots of jungle plants are perfect as marginal plants around a pond - colocasias, creeping jenny, cannas, junca spiralis, so your barrel pond will be perfect.

Good luck with all the planting - that’s the most exciting bit. The promise of things new…