Blog 11. The finished jungle

Such a beautiful garden.Tropical bird song sounds interesting,I wonder what the local bird population makes of that.

We forgot to turn it off one night and were woken by the sound - it reminded us of our time in the tropics! We have a very large tiger to put in the jungle this summer - so I will have to download appropriate sounds - that will scare away the foxes!!

Ive saved some of your pics 4seasons, your garden is my inspiration for my "jungly bit" in my back garden, Amazing garden you have, Thanks for sharing...Dee

Wow I'm green with envy 4seasons I love a jungle garden the tropical kind not bramble and nettles lol!

A brilliant job and setting the scene with music (I have a pair of those rock speakers too £10 another bargain from B&Q) as well as mist is brilliant I'm sure both young and old are enchanted with your lovely plot.Hel.xxx.

Such creative touches! I would never have thought of something like that. My idea of finishing touches is a nice planter or border edging!!
Wonderful garden that deserves the recognition it's getting

a beautiful garden, you must be so proud of all the work that went into creating it.

Amazing garden and pics - I can almost feel the warmth, humidity, and hear the sounds.

Lovely exotic planting and exciting combinations of textures!
Have you seen the book: "Christopher Lloyd and friends exotic planting for adventurous gardeners" (B.B.C books)
It is a superb source book for exotic planting and vibrant colour theming in the garden.
Christopher Lloyd also used a lot of Coleus and exotic leaved Begonias as well and we are considering them for our exotic garden this year along with dahlias and orange and chocolate coloured lilies.

We have Christopher Lloyd"s book: "Colour for adventurous gardeners" ISBN 0-563-52171-6

Also have Alan Hemsley's book: "Tropical Garden Style with Hardy Plants" ISBN 1-86108-237-1

"Exotics are easy": ISBN 1-86108-231-2

"The new Exotic Garden" by Will Giles ISBN 1-84000-692-7

Each of the books have provided us with some ideas, but mainly it has been trial and error!

We don't use bubble wrap on the tree ferns and bananas. That can encourage growth too early and then the sun shines through it and scorches the new growth. We have some bananas that stay outside shrouded in fleece and the brown fabric sold as a membrane to keep weeds from growing through. (We prefer to see brown rather than the white fleece). The tree ferns have some fleece stuffed in the top and then they are covered with plastic dustbin lids tied down with bungy straps. The Pawlonia is pollarded so that the leaves are enormous. The houseplants come into a spare bedroom for the winter. Otherwise, the palms and bamboos seem to be quite hardy and have their own microclimate because there are so many evergreens in that area - palms, magnolia grandiflora, and towering bamboos - one shoot grew 19 feet in one year - that was down to the chicken manure pellets!

I really fancy a Paulownia - could you tell me about conditions needed to grow one please?

I don't think it needs anything really special. The Paulownia is in the first photo - on the left. The roots of our Paulownia have gone under a concreted area where we have a water feature. The trunk started off with me being able to put one hand completely around it and now, this is its third summer, it has a circumference of about 12 inches. The first year we cut the branches back to the main trunk, but the last year we cut back to some chunkier lateral branches. The leaves can be huge and each one makes a "plop" sound when they drop in the autumn. A hailstorm at the end of last May peppered the new leaves with holes and then they shrivelled in the late frost. They recovered and the first photo was taken last year in July. The tree is also call Tree Hollyhocks - it can flower if left but the leaves would be smaller and I dread to think what size its canopy would be without the drastic pollarding we give it in the winter!

Great pics selection ! Beautiful exotics plant..love it ! My type of Garden