Exotics to try at home
Plant seeds or take cu ings now to boost your plants
When I started growing exotics, plants such as alocasia, xanthosoma and colocasia were only ever seen in botanic gardens, but now there's a huge range readily available. Look out for tubers in your local garden centre and start in a warm greenhouse. Cannas were unfashionable and then gardeners started growing them again until virus swept through plant collections and decimated them. But now we have new seed-raised strains like the Cannova cultivars that are healthy and very floriferous.
While specimen exotics such as palms and bananas take some years to grow, there are many fast-growing exotics that can be added to displays and there's plenty of time to bulk these up for this season. Cuttings can still be taken of plants such as coleus, iresine, arctotis, dahlias, pelargoniums and plectranthus. At this time of year a frost-protected greenhouse is all you need.
Musa velutina is a fast-growing banana, which originates from the Himalayas and can be grown from seed. This makes a lush, leafy plant which will sometimes flower the first year, producing pretty pink flowers and eventually attractive pinkish fruit. It's edible but the hard seeds can crack a tooth! Germinate seed in a warm greenhouse or propagator ideally at 21C (70F). Many other seeds can be sown now, such as some of the exotic-looking climbers. Black-eyed Susan, (thunbergia) comes in lovely colors such as the ‘Blushing Susie’ mix or a white. Rhodochiton atrosanguineus has flowers reminiscent of a dark red fuchsia and ipomoea ‘Spanish Flag’ has red and orange flowers and scrambles through other exotics or background shrubs. Sow at 16C (60F) and grow on for planting at the end of May.