Exotic plant ideas to brighten the garden
Now’s the time to shop around for the best plants this summer
While many gardens start to decline after an early summer peak, it’s now that exotic gardens reach their pinnacle of display, which should continue right through late summer and into the autumn. So it’s a good time to shop for some unusual and new exotic plants in garden centres or at plant fairs.
Colocasiaa are becoming more available in many lovely colours and their huge, heartshaped leaves look instantly tropical. They need a sheltered spot in sun or light shade and plenty of moisture. ‘Black Magic’ has inky dark leaves and is often available. There are many others including some such as ‘Jack’s Giant’ that produce enormous leaves. The related
alocasia and xanthosoma
are similar. In particular, look out for the lovely xanthosomaanthosoma ‘LimeLime Zinger’ Zinger’. They hey all grow from rom fleshy rootstocks ootstocks andd may be overwinterederwintered awayway from frost for another year.
The pineapple lilies are often available at this time. Eucomis bicolor is a bulb that makes lush green foliage with spikes of greenish-white flowers topped with tufts of leaves like a pineapple head. ‘ Sparkling
Burgundy’ has purple foliage and bright cerise-pink flowers. If planted in a warm, sheltered location outside, eucomis should be hardy in most winters. Or grow in pots and move to a cold greenhouse overwinter. One of my favourite foliage plants is
Strobilanthes dyeriana, the Persian shield plant, with vivid purple and silver leaves, veined in dark green. The purple fountain grass Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’ is an excellent summer exotic. Also look out for the more compact ‘Fireworks’ with red leaves with a dark purple stripe down the centre. Very similar to this is a little sedge called
Uncinia uncinata ‘Everflame’, which also has red foliage and is hardy, unlike the others.
There are many new bedding and patio plants each year which mix well with exotics. Look out for some of the new bidens. While the old familiar ones were all yellow, you can now get ‘Orange Drop’, white ‘Moonlight’ and ‘Firelight’, which is pink. There’s a new
nasturtium called ‘Flame Thrower’ with curious cut petals and fancy yellow and red markings. Thunbergia, (black-eyed Susan) is a well-known annual climber but
a nice variation from the usual yellow and orange is ‘African Sunset’, which includes smoky purples and pinks.
Exotic gardens are generally troublefree and need little maintenance apart from basic weeding, watering, feeding and deadheading. However, keep a look out for pests and diseases. Slugs and caterpillars can decimate plants such as canna in a few days. Chemical as well as biological controls are available for both but remember, if you kill the caterpillars, you’re also destroying the butterflies they would become. Red spider mite is a pest that can creep up on you unnoticed and affects a wide range of exotics. Leaves start to turn yellow and on the underside you’ll find thousands of tiny mites. With bad infestations, webbing will occur from leaf to leaf. It’s worst in hot, dry locations, such as groups of potted exotics standing on a patio. Initially increase humidity by regular damping down and remove badly-infected leaves. A biological control can be used or spray with a systemic containing imidacloprid.