Great PLANTS for a TROPICAL style garden | Late season garden tour

Tropical gardens are fast becoming very popular amongst gardeners in cooler climates. Combining cold tolerant and half-hardy plants that appear tropical enables us to create the illusion of a tropical paradise in gardens all around the world. Mixing in some true tender tropical plants adds an exotic flair to tropical style gardens for the summer months.
In this video I share a final look around my own UK tropical style garden to share how all the tropical style plants are looking at the end of this years gardening season. This summer has been warm with plenty of rainfall, perfect for these large leaved and fast growing tropical plants. However, a potential frost is now on the horizon and this may be the last chance to enjoy the Grow Paradise tropical garden looking so lush and vibrant.
Heat loving tropical garden plants such as the Elephant Ear (Colocasia), Bananas (Musa) and Papaya tree (Vasconellea) are at their peak after enjoying months of vigorous summer growth. The banana plants have grown to the tallest heights ever seen in our tropical garden. Their enormous tropical leaves create a truly tropical canopy over our garden. Our Papaya tree is even fruiting, adding a delicious extra dimension to our exotic garden.
Half-hardy tropical style plants such as the Bolivian Fuchsia (Fuchsia boliviana), Brassaiopsis mitis (Snowflake Aralia) and Canna lilies are looking lush and healthy but will soon be preparing for dormancy. At this time of year these tropical style plants have reached their maximum size, having charged-up their underground storage organs with energy to survive winter as frosts that will inevitably kill any above ground soft herbaceous material.
Hardy tropical style plants such as our false castor oil plant (Fatsia species), Honey spurge (Euphorbia x pasteurii 'John Phillips') and loquat tree (Eriobotrya japonica) will hold the fort as the other plants rest. Tropical looking evergreen plants are essential to maintaining a lush green garden for 12 months of the year in countries that experience cold winters. Evergreen tropical style trees provide height and create warmer microclimates below their evergreen canopies. Evergreen shrubs will provide structural interest with tropical looking leaves and often produce winter flowers rich in nectar for pollinating insects.
Hopefully this video gives you some plant ideas for a tropical garden and garden inspiration.
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[@Temperate2Tropical]

Great video man, keep up the good work!..the plants here are having a second burst of life with mild and wet weather..

[@GrowParadise]

Thanks! Same here, I’m really hoping it doesn’t drop too far below 5°C here this weekend 🤞

[@alanbrick7333]

Great info, thanks for sharing.

[@peterkuhne5243]

Iochroma is great in containers. Keep them above freezing point in winter. They will loose their leaves. Mine still flower now. And flowered since mid spring. And that is in cold Denmark

[@GrowParadise]

Thanks for sharing this, I’ll definitely keep mine in large containers from now on 👍

[@swedishrainbow_garden7672]

You might be surprised by the mojito being pretty hardy. I even had other forms of Colocasia survive in my garden, even Alocasia and I get much colder weather than your costal climate here in mountains of Western North Carolina, USA. I had the Colocasia ‘Pharaoh’s Mask’ come back from last year’s super cold freeze (it was down to -17C for a couple of days). It was only covered by naturally fallen leaves, in a similar sheltered area like your garden, between my house and neighbors fence. So nothing special was done, it just survived anyway.

[@myexoticfoodplants6727]

Love the progress of the Papaya and sugarcane. How do you overwinter the sugarcane?

[@GrowParadise]

Kept at a min of 7°C and relatively dry through winter. Feel free to post for questions and answers about over wintering on our social support forum: www.growparadise.social/forums/forum/winter-plants-care/

[@olsonlr]

ask the neighbors if you can plant your must basjoo on their side of the fence.

[@olsonlr]

colocaría mojito is pretty hardy. leaves out

[@bloggalot4718]

My loquat took minus 9 without trouble last year.

[@GrowParadise]

Great to know 👍😀

[@dibblethwaite]

Last chance to see? I 'm hoping for another few weeks before I have to take anything in. Mind you , you have some much more tender things than I have, I gave up on most marginally hardy stuff in 2010.

[@GrowParadise]

For me it’s not just the cold, I chop up lots of my plants for propagation. This weekend is the last chance for me to share the garden before I propagate and put plants away for winter. 😀

[@traceyrowlands1220]

Just a quick question, when you made your small central bed did you bother placing a membrane under your small gravel pathway or did you just lay the gravel on compacted earth. I've only got a small patch of grass left and I'm thinking of doing the same and getting rid of the last of the grass 😊 thanks 👍👍👍👍

[@GrowParadise]

Yes I did have to put weed membrane beneath the gravel. It worked great :D

[@traceyrowlands1220]

@@GrowParadise Thankyou 👍

[@traceyrowlands1220]

I just bought one for tomorrow 👍👍👍👍

[@neringag2472]

I am growing Ensete Ventricosum Musa green from seeds. And they about foot tall, how do I need to protect them ? Dry store , o keep damp soil and keep indoor ? Have no idea with little ones , I think i started them too late in the season. I always end up buying new plants after watching your videos, and now i put 2 more names on my list !

[@GrowParadise]

I always over winter small bananas at a minimum temp of 7°C indoors/greenhouse and kept relatively dry in their pots. If you keep them warmer they will keep growing and you can keep watering. We have a great Winter Plant Care Q&A section on our site here: www.growparadise.social/forums/forum/winter-plants-care/

[@richardjohnson7984]

HI great vid. can you remove and plant up basjoo pups now and overwinter them?

[@TreVoun_ElKrim]

@richardjohnson7984 I did this often and I’d say just make sure they are in a southern facing window (or grow lights) & water regularly (remember most of the plant is water, they drink ALOT). I wouldn’t expect too much growth out of them, but they will stay strong until spring when you can put them in the ground

[@GrowParadise]

Absolutely! There’s a video about how to do it on my KZbin channel 👍

[@wesleyhackney]

I’ll be interested to see what tropical flowers you will be putting where the euphorbia is currently located I want to do same I have to much green in my tropical garden

[@GrowParadise]

I’ll be going for big and bold blooms, definitely sticking with a limited colour palette so that the garden still has a tropical feel 😀🌸

[@meboyme]

Hi, I am wondering after watching your early videos how far down did you have to dig that mushroom compost into the clay?

[@GrowParadise]

I didn’t dig it in at all 😀 I dug the clay over once as it was so compressed after being under stones for 10 years. Just a small spades depth. After that I just added the first batch of compost on top and let the worms do the rest. I’ve just been adding a bit more on top each year. I’m a big fan of ‘no dig’ gardening! 😀

[@meboyme]

Thank you, I think that you have save me a lot of work.

[@mltthorn]

Hi. If you cover entire border with 4" of compost will it kill plants? My partner put rotted manure compost over my borders last winter and several Hostas didn't come up this year. Other hardy plants also disappeared. Do you have any thoughts about it?

[@davidbanner9001]

Did needs to be well rotted manure for a start. Not a steaming pile of fresh horse poo from the local stables.

[@mltthorn]

@@davidbanner9001 not fresh manure at all. So could it affect plants spring growth if positioned thickly over plants? Mostly deciduous plants were affected.

[@olsonlr]

Go collect some toad eggs or tadpoles and raise them in your garden. They will eat the slugs.