The UK is hotting up – warmer weather and election fever have gripped the country.
Plants are loving the heat.Here is a shot of the new leaf on my bannana plant taken in the glorious sunshine that greeted me when I woke up on the south coast for the weekend after working in London.
I originally bought this as a tiny plant with just two small leaves in 2008 from a supermarket – Tesco in fact, but most of the leading chains and garden centres such as Morrisons, B&Q, and Homebase now sell exotic plants such as bananas for the garden.The best place to buy this type of plant is really from specialist nurseries who stock a much wider range and quality:
For information about selecting hardy bananas for growing in the UK http://hardybananas.co.uk/
Musa Basjoo is one of the easiest bananas to grow and, after two years of TLC plus over-wintering in a warm place, mine is now a very impressive specimen, just starting its rapid growth spurt. To adapt to the outdoors after a winter spent indoors, I give it a daily dose of fresh air during the day but always bring it indoors for night until mid May, by which time frosts should have disapeared. Today is predicted to be the hottest day of the year so far – reaching up to 19c which is pretty impressive for April in the uk.http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/apr/09/sunshine-weekend-bring-it-on
Exotic plants area perfect for climate change gardening – they really are the most outrageously wonderful plants that can be grown in protected temperate gardens, imbuing the lushness and colour of far away places with exuberant tropical and sub-tropical planting. With very little money you can create your own jungle, as I found out when I chatted to Will Giles, the guru of exotic gardening, in his beautiful garden in Norwich at the end of September 2009 .If you want to learn from the master, have a look at the video we made about Exotic Gardening on a budget in the video section of this site . Will has lots of hints and tips on sourcing exoic plants to make instant impact without hurting your wallet.
April is the time to prepare exotic plants that are living indoors for the big planting out that starts during May . Will Giles is currently blogging about the trials and tribulations of growing exotic and tropical plants in an East England garden.http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/
Check out Will’s directory of exotic plants suitable for UK gardens http://www.myclimatechangegarden.com/blog/category/climate-change-gardening/plants/exotic
Hope these links inspire you to experiment with tropical and exotic plants as latest news suggests that we might have a sizzling summer! http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2010/mar/22/sizzling-summer-uk-weather-forecast
Sat, Apr 10, 2010
Climate Change, Climate Change Gardening, Exotic, Growing Bananas in UK