Exotics?

[geo7x]

Anyone into it? I am!

Got my own section of our garden where I plant various exotic plants, have done over the last couple of years but am really into it this year, especially now as everything is sprouting up again.

My joined favourite plants are canna lilies and bananas, the bananas I have are several Musa Basjoo (Hardy Japanese Banana), Musella Lasiocarpa, and Ensete Maurelii. Got various cannas, though most of them I have lost the tags of so don't exactly know what they are, not until they grow a bit more anyway, but new ones I have this year are Canna Durban and Canna Praetoria, both stunning and can't wait for them to grow more foliage and flower.

I also have Ginger lilies, got 4 new plants, Hedychium Greenei and Hedychium 'Anne Bishop' are two, can't remember others. Plus I have black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra), Cordyline, phormiums, bird of paradise plant (Strelitzia reginae, a very well known and symbolic plant of several countries, my one is just about to come into flower), and various ferns.

When I talk about exotics I mean growing them in cooler climates like the UK, but if people from overseas enjoy such plants too then feel free to talk about them!

 

[three-fingers]

Sounds cool, though I have no idea what most of those are .

I had a section of our garden where I grew succulents, though it's just been destroyed as we're getting an extension built up over it, I only managed to save some Aloe vera into a pot.

They grew surprising well, I covered them in plastic boxes stuffed with bubblewrap in the winter, and they still got a bit mushy at times, but always bounced back and grew and multiplied during the summer .

Once the extensions done I'm going to create a mini-bog for hardy carnivorous plants .

 

[geo7x]

Cool, carniverous plants will be awesome

Keeping many exotics becomes even more difficult up in Scotland. Down here in the south I can just about get away with keeping most of my plants out in the ground over the winter, the frosts cut them down to the ground but they (usually) come back up again around the beginning-middle of may as most species are at least root-hardy.

 

[Esfa]

I love exotic plants (yay i be geek) but dont keep any lol. used to have a venus fly trap, though.

 

[angelmouse]

I,M very into Cannas and banana's . My banana has grown lots of new plants so i've put them into pots, my cannas are abit slow this year, i would love to get a really tall one like sky hawk, they look amazing. i though about the ginger too as they are beautiful, will our winters kill it as i don't have access to a greenhouse? but most things do well as its very sheltered.
regards Angel

 

[geo7x]

I,M very into Cannas and banana's . My banana has grown lots of new plants so i've put them into pots, my cannas are abit slow this year, i would love to get a really tall one like sky hawk, they look amazing. i though about the ginger too as they are beautiful, will our winters kill it as i don't have access to a greenhouse? but most things do well as its very sheltered.
regards Angel

Cool! Do you know what bananas/cannas you have?
Mine have been the other way round, bananas have been a bit slow this year for me and the cannas are shooting up.
I think with gingers it depends on the species but most need to be in a greenhouse or conservatory over the winter, they are not as hardy as cannas. It's only really the hedychium genus that are suitable for putting outside even in the summer but I'm pretty sure they still need to be brought in over winter. I've kept my gingers in a pot as then I won't have to keep digging them up. I always leave my cannas outside over winter, this year I tried it with my 2 Musa basjoos as well however both of the main plants died, but weirdly the baby plants (suckers) have come up. Luckily I have a new basjoo, a lasiocarpa and a maurelii that I have added to my collection this year.

Never heard of skyhawk cannas, just googled it, they look amazing! My favourites are Durbans as the foliage is really striking.

 

[angelmouse]

Mine is a Musa Basjoo, i covered it with a sack the first winter and it sprouted out of the top and kept its trunk but this year i left it and the main trunk rotted but lots of small ones grew from the base so i just cut them off at root, i put 2 in a pot and left 4 growing from main one. The cannas i have are Wyoming with lovely pink/orange flowers and one i bought of ebay labled as lemon but not sure of real name.
Have you seen the "Claines Canna" web page, look at the giants, make a real statement in pot by front door. "urbanjungle" is another webpage i drool over
regards Angel

 

[geo7x]

Wow thanks for the links

I left mine this year as well and the same happened- main trunks have gone but lots of little plants sprouting up. From now on I am going to wrap the bananas up well so that they don't get cut to the ground. That way I can have big plants in no times without them dieing down over the winter.

 

[kribensis12]

You might want to try Calamondin Oragne Tree's, but you would need to pot for the winter. They are a dwarf, about 6 feet max in hieght, and take about 2-3 years to mature. It takes 9-11 months for the fruit to ripen aswell. I have that i bought in florida as a grafted cutting, and its done well. It has grown about 6 inches and about 16 new lealves ( alot for a orange tree. You will obviously have to order it, but i highly recommmend them. I love mine, might pick up a Lime this year when my family goes down to FLorida.

 

[geo7x]

You might want to try Calamondin Oragne Tree's, but you would need to pot for the winter. They are a dwarf, about 6 feet max in hieght, and take about 2-3 years to mature. It takes 9-11 months for the fruit to ripen aswell. I have that i bought in florida as a grafted cutting, and its done well. It has grown about 6 inches and about 16 new lealves ( alot for a orange tree. You will obviously have to order it, but i highly recommmend them. I love mine, might pick up a Lime this year when my family goes down to FLorida.

We've already got a lemon tree in the conservatory but haven't had it very long. If it stays alive ok then I may venture into other varieties of citrus

 

[angelmouse]

geo7x whats your Ensete Maurelii like, is that the one with huge leaves and do you bring it inside for winter, i was thinking of getting one. I just bought a canna durban, lovely colour leaves.
regards Angel

 

[geo7x]

geo7x whats your Ensete Maurelii like, is that the one with huge leaves and do you bring it inside for winter, i was thinking of getting one. I just bought a canna durban, lovely colour leaves.
regards Angel

Yes, all bananas have big leaves but the maurelii has dark red colourings on them. IME the leaves of a maurelii are thicker than that of a basjoo for example, therefore more wind tolerant. I only bought mine a few weeks ago so haven't overwintered it yet, though I will be bringing it indoors when winter arrives., enetes aren't as hardy as basjoos.

Yeah Durbans are my favourites, I got one for the first time this year too and it's always exciting when a new leaf unfurls so you can see what patterns and markings are on the leaves.


Got a couple more plants that sprouted up last week that I forgot I had they survived the winter anyway, they are eucomis bicolor (pineapple lily, a very interesting looking plant, named after its pineapple like blooms)

and Colocasia esculenta (elephant ears, named after the huge leaves)

(not my pictures just got them off google)

angelmouse I'll got and get a picture of my maurelii, maybe of some other plants as well

 

[geo7x]

Of course when I say 1 picture I mean at least 10

Ensete Maurelii (young one):

some of the pineapple lily shoots:

elephant ears, grown incredibly quickly, I only saw the shoot last week:

Musa Basjoo + others:

Musella lasiocarpa, still waiting and hoping for the main plant to grow It was moved so growing slower than rest:

My group of durbans, still small as were moved:

assorted cannas:

bird of paradise bud, the buds take ages to open, nearly there now though:

and my black bamboo, held up by bamboo canes (lol) due to strong winds recently:

Please excuse all the weeds you can see in the pictures

 

[angelmouse]

thanks for info. Great plant pics, you have a good variety and very greenfingers obviously. It is surprising the amount of tropical plants that now do well in our climate. Your cannas are growing well, mine are tiny stumps, i really need a greenhouse. Those pineapple plants look really nice
thanks for sharing your photos i enjoyed them
regards Angel

 

[geo7x]

Thankyou and you're welcome.

In buckinghamshire you are further north than I am, and with the mini heatwave we had a few weeks backs the cannas grew very quickly. I have a greenhouse however as I said I left everything out in the ground, I will probably be using the conservatory rather than the greenhouse for the gingers, bird of paradise and maurelii as the greenhouse has many broken glass panes so still gets very cold.

I'm sure your cannas will catch up, there is still lots of time until mid-late august when they flower. A couple of my cannas I got new this year are still small with only one or two leaves.