Planting time for tropical’s...

The third week of May is the time of year I plant up all the non-hardy tropical’s thus turning the garden into a veritable paradise for the rest of the summer. I like to get them all planted up about a month before the official garden opening on June 21st the longest day of the year. Although the garden has a good backbone of hardy planting, it is the more tender planting that brings the garden to life. I have been inundated with people wanting to the visit the garden earlier in the year as many gardens are at their peak from May through June, but this garden is very much geared up to perform when most other gardens are going over. If this summer is a hot one as predicted by the Met Office, everything should get absolutely enormous!
Unfortunately I had to miss the press day at the Chelsea Flower Show this year (I have been going for the last 30 years) as there is so much to do here. I didn’t miss it though as the Bb is so good at covering the venerable show.
I’m having a day out of the garden today as it’s my Birthday and a good excuse to stay clean and write my sadly neglected blog. It is really difficult to keep up with at this time of year, as I usually come into the house in the late evening covered in dirt and I’m just too plain tired to write, but today is different. I’m really pleased that it rained here in Norfolk all morning, which is absolutely wonderful as it has been so dry of late.



All the plants over-wintered in two Polly tunnels and a conservatory are now making their way into the garden and are covering all the paths. I like to walk around the garden mentally arranging them in their new summer positions.
Unfortunately like many gardeners, I lost most of my Cannas that were left in the ground, due to that unexpected permafrost a few months ago. Most of my local suppliers also lost theirs, hence good, virus free plants of a decent size are rather difficult to get hold of. Unfortunately many of the Cannas I’ve seen for sale in Norfolk look decidedly dodgy!

One tall unnamed green one (it gets to about eight feet tall with small orange flowers) has come through in the ground, and is already a foot or more high, whereas my Durban’s and Black Magic completely rotted. Two Cannas that I have in short supply – C. Australia (pictured below) and Mystique have over-wintered well under glass. Unfortunately I lost one of my favourites ‘Cleopatra’ – does anyone know where I could obtain some?



One of the backbones of the summer garden here are the banana Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelli’. I overwintered seventeen of these enormous beast (four of them pictured below) about half of them are now planted and the rest will go in over the next few days.



My collection of Bromeliads won’t stop growing; in fact a wonderful new Neoregelia should be arriving in the next few days from Florida. Some of them like the one pictured below, was a single shoot about four years ago, and as you can see, this 3ft high and wide plant is in a 3lt pot, desperate for reporting.



Below is a small selection of the Bromeliads in their summer home.



I really do hope this is going to be a spanking hot summer – bring on the heat. We deserve one!