A Closer Look At The Hardy Tropical Garden

This blog is as much a diary for me as a tool for sharing. I'm learning that the having a garden and being a gardener means being a part of a constant evolution. It will grow and change even if I don't lay a finger on a single plant- which, I think is also quite difficult, as sometimes I'll think to myself "Aha I've got it looking just right!" but then the seasons change, and years move on and before I know it, the lovely small filler I have planted is actually now a metre tall. 

So I want to document the gardens as they grow and change, I can see what's worked and what hasn't, and very likely, after a total overhaul, think "it looked way better before, I'm going to change it back.

As I've shown before, the Hardy Tropical garden surrounds the patio by the back door. We spend most of our home time out here and in summer, when the hills and fields around us are crispy and brown I wanted to be enveloped in cool green.

Most of my (Australian) friends and family are located in Queensland, a sub tropical region where palms, cannas, monsteras grow like crazy all year round, everything is always lush and green (apart from times of drought) and I'm sure this garden is a throw back to my time living in Queensland. 

Which leads me to why I don't just refer to this garden as the 'Tropical Garden'. It's the 'Hardy Tropical Garden' because everything that grows here needs to be able to live through a Tasmanian winter, with hard frosts and temperatures to minus 5.

I have bananas, I'll get to them in a bit. But firstly, lets have a closer look at the beds.

Above and below are the beds that flank the path to the stairs to the main yard and pond. I have installed shade cloth over this area to give some UV protection as well as frost protection in winter.

The beds I framed in treated pine, filled and mulched over the top of the gravel base. They're all growing quite happily in about 3 inches or 10 cm of soil.

What we started with

The beds when they were first installed

My ornamental banana- Musa Ensete

The following are the gardens under the retaining wall. Casurina glauca 'Cousin It' was planted to soften the retaining walls which were also painted.

The above photo shows the small pond whose sole purpose is to house water and bog plants such as the Hosta and Sarracenia- pitcher plant.

To me, what makes a successful tropical-style garden is lots of green, as well as big, interesting foliage and depth of planting- or plants on top of plants on top of plants.

My octopus statue, a souvenir from Bali

We also have an outdoor lounge area in our carport so I wanted the garden to look interesting from all angles.

Not all of the plants in the garden stay in the garden over winter. The purpose of the garden is to look green and lovely all year round, but some of the plants are just too tender (the bananas, dahlias, ginger lilies, bird of paradise. They either die back or spend winter in pots in our north-facing guest room. 

This is how they spend the spring getting used to being back outside again. These lovely bananas were so healthy going into summer before getting hit with a brutal late frost in December. They were also roughed up pretty badly by wind when I had them in the more exposed container garden. I feel very blessed that they are still alive at all!

Not as lush in winter, but still green. The cannas which provide most of the structure die back and about 20% of the plants are potted up and brought in.

The Canna Lily is the most prominent planting throughout the garden. To me it screams 'tropical'. They are tough as anything and multiply like crazy. I have around 50 plants now which all started with one plant. Their flowers are really lovely, but it's their foliage that does it for me. I would love to get some of the other varieties with dark red and variegated foliage.

I have 4 Fatsia japonica, this one being the largest. It looks like this even during a minus 5 frost. It's leaves are huge. I have already scored 2 extra plants from pups. 

Monstera deliciosa, as you can see by it's pot only visits for good weather and lives in the house from April to December. It's highly recognisable leaves really add to the tropical feel.

I've screamed of my love of Heuchera from the roof tops. But I think what's so important for this garden is the density of the layers, I have groundcover of dichondra and native violet and try to have them meld into short plants with visual interest. I think it helps with the overall tapestry effect.

Aspidestra, or Cast Iron Plant is a great big, leafy foliage filler. It doesn't thrive in winter but definitely survives and holds it's form. Also really easy to divide and made heaps more plants for inside and out.

Solomon's Seal is known more as a woodland plant, but it's lovely large, fernlike fronds fit the bill perfectly.

Rabbit's foot ferns soften the edging very well and are very hardy.

Likewise this Dryopteris fern handles the frost as well as fairly instesive blaring sun.

Queen's Tears Bromeliad give really pretty contrast to the ferns.

I have Hostas growing in the small pond, both bare-root and in pots. I also have them planted directly into the gardens and all seem equally happy. These do die back in winter though.

More of the Canna interplanted with bamboo iris.

On the upper tier I have started to extend the tropical feel. The Dahlias have gorgeous dark green foliage and such a mass of colour from their flowers. The palm is a Trachycarpus Fortunii or Chinese Windmill Palm and is reportedly hardy to minus 15. It has survived one of our winters so far, so I am hopeful. A very slow grower in our climate however. It will be quite spectacular in fifteen or twenty years, I sure.

Not pictured but also very present are aquilegia, pepperberry, the beautiful hibiscus doppelganger abutilon, philodendron, penstemon, Japanese anemone, daphne, New Zealand rock lily, hydrangia, staghorn, star jasmine, and growing over the patio is wisteria and clematis montana alba. I'm sure there is more.

In time I would love some 6 or 8 foot tree terns to use as a natural canopy, but at $200 each, I'll have to wait a little while longer.

I would very much like to thank the crazy English gardeners who decided to have tropical style gardens (in THEIR weather) to give me the confidence to try this experiment. And will try to spend the next couple of months just enjoying the space.

If you have any suggestions of plants that I haven't thought of, I'd love to hear about them.