Jungle fever!

Inspired by his travels, Dave McKenna has created a lush tropical garden in the heart of Birmingham

Avisit to the Eden Project, when it opened its doors in 2001, ignited Dave McKenna’s admiration for tropical plants. “I saw a red banana inside the dome and just knew I had to have one,” he says.

When Dave tracked down his first Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’, he says it was just like he’d come home with the Holy Grail. “I tried it in every spot of the garden to see where it would go best!”

As the Eden Project started to expand, so did Dave’s tropical plant purchases. “I visited the domes every year for five years and kept finding new plants I wanted to source.”

At the time, tropical plants were expensive and hard to find, but “since we’re experiencing the effects of global warming, nurseries are being more adventurous and now you can even buy banana plants for £5!”

Dave began packing in more and more tropical plants, but his first fully-themed area happened almost by accident. He decided to dig up the front lawn because he had to bring the lawnmower through the house to mow it.

Dave replaced the grass with stones and a pond, which gave the garden a Japanese feel. He replicated this idea in the back garden, adding a tree house, bridge and plenty of acers and bamboo plants, and the Eastern influence had begun.

Then a trip to Thailand five years ago provided a new area of inspiration. “I couldn’t believe the range of exotic plants that were growing like weeds along the roadside,” he says.

Back home, he began filling the garden with mementoes from his trip, from statues of Buddha to wind chimes, a bamboo hut with Malaysian canopy and a plethora of exotic plants from pineapples to cannas, colourful begonias and coleus and 48 green and red banana plants.

“I wanted to create surprises for visitors and realised that a network of pathways through the garden was the best way to do this. They provided barriers and corners, rather than leaving the garden open to view all at once,” Dave explains. “Even better, it meant that I could fit in yet more plants!”

He joined up the different