Building a Tropical Garden in the UK– Part 1: Evergreens

When building a garden from the start you need to consider what the garden will have to look at it winter. If we are honest when we walk around the garden centre we aren’t drawn to the green foliage plants as our first choice. Most people are attracted to the blousey flower of Canna varieties or the vibrant shades of Crocosmia 'George Davidson' not that waxy green Fatsia Japonica. But evergreens are the base to your garden, the backbone to get you started, the plants that will make your winter garden.

Palms are often used as a great starting point. They hold their leaves all winter but come in different shape and sizes, you could start with Trachycarpus fortune a nice hardy fan leaved palm with a hairy trunk from China or if you live in a warmer climate something more broad and open like a Phoenix Canariensis, the date palm, often seen on England's coasts or inside large cities.

To break up the look of your garden you should try to use plants of different textures, as I said above the waxy leaf of a fatsia japonica isn’t always the best to grab attention in summer but will stand out proud in the winter time. Also by using different evergreens, it give you focal points and structure.

Phoenix Canariensis growing happily in the UK

Bamboo are often mis-sold with poor information about them or just simply identified incorrect. If you chose to use bamboo in the garden, you must be aware of the overall growing space that plant will be allowed to have. Most gardens aren’t large enough to use running bamboos without a form of root barrier below the soil, so are often recommended that they purchase clump forming bamboo, like fargesia rufa. Fargesia is the most common suggested bamboo for a smaller garden. There are many types of fargesia like fargesia robusta standing 12-14ft tall with a tall proud shape or fargesia scabrida standing 10-12ft tall but generally a more interesting plant with its blueish stems that arch slightly.

Using different types of foliage creates a diverse garden, interesting and changeable. By adding further evergreen shrubs like euphorbia pasteurii, the honey spurge plant, you can double your luck with all year round foliage and a beautiful honey smell in the spring too.

Even shady areas have a huge choice of evergreen ferns like polystichum polyblepharum and many more or something a bit larger you could try some weird and wonderful psuedopanax ferox or other forms.

Once you have created your backbone, they go and buy some colour and start to brighten the garden and add some personality to it.