Joe’s care plan
Buying and planting
Focus your money first on the palms, as they’re slow growing, then on the bamboo, buying one medium-sized plant or several smaller ones.
Dig in plenty of garden compost or well-rotted manure before planting, and add grit beneath the chamaerops to aid drainage. Water in well.
Year-round maintenance
In mild areas, leave the cannas in the ground all winter, covered with a deep mulch of compost.
In colder areas, lift the rhizomes in autumn and store in a frost-free shed over winter.
In cold areas, wrap the palms in horticultural fleece over winter. Mulch the soil in autumn.
In spring, apply a general fertiliser to all the plants. Feed the cannas regularly all summer with a high-potash feed to encourage flowering.
Apart from the palm, all these plants like moist soil so water them well all summer for best results.
Seasonal additions
Add plants with large lush foliage, such as ferns, hostas, fatsia, asarum and tetrapanax.
Introduce big, bright blooms and some summer bulbs, such as eucomis and large alliums.
Creating more plants for free
The banana will produce new plants at the base in spring.
Cut off, with some roots, and replant.
With the bamboo, slice off a section of the clump with several shoots and vigorous roots.
Divide the canna rhizomes in spring – each section needs two or three growing points.
Divide the persicaria in autumn or spring.