Tropical Garden tips, tricks, and plant picks
Are you interested in creating your own tropical-feeling garden? Or giving a corner of your garden a taste of the tropics. Read on to discover what plants we use, what we have found works well in the Waikato (and what doesn’t), and how we protect our plants from the worst of winter’s frosts.
The desire to create a luxurious, tropical-feeling garden in a temperate climate goes back to at least Victorian England (read more about the story behind our Tropical Garden).
But getting true tropical plants to survive the winter in the Waikato is only possible in the warmth of a glasshouse. Instead, we use subtropical plants, some native species, and tropical-looking hardy and semi-tender exotic plants.
What is the tropical look? Gus Flower is Horticultural and Operations Manager at Hamilton Gardens and says it is evergreen plants with large and shapely boldly shaped foliage, large or bright flowers, and plants with unusual features, such as bright stalks or striking shapes.
Gus says one of the most successful plants in the garden are the bromeliads, which are planted on the edge of the path. “On the deck the bromeliads are brilliant, they cover the ground and overhang the path.”
Other exotics include king and queen palms, as well as vireya rhododendrons, Aechmea, Bilbergia, and Strelitzia for their bright and unusual flowers, and cycads whose ancient otherworldly flowering adds a sense of the exotic.
Large and bold-leaved plants like tractor seat plants, gingers, bananas, spear lilies (Doryanthes), canna lilies, and elephant ears are great for creating a tropical feel. Other good plants include aroids, marantas, and club mosses. Our Tropical Garden uses stands of bamboo to add to the sense of a dense backdrop, while the drooping fronds of palms are grown to deliberately lean over the path and create the sense of the jungle wanting to take over.
Gus says native species work too. “We have drifts of the native begonia, we have nikau palms, native ferns, Griselinia, kawakawa, and pseudopanax.”
Besides complimenting the ornamental plants and providing variety the natives are easy to obtain and cultivate, says Gus.
Use of space
Creating a tropical feel means dense planting, every available space should be used. This means you need to prepare the soil well because it will be working hard and there won’t be much room later between all the plants if you need to get in and do some remedial work.
Gus says not every plant has been a success, but this still provides the team with nice challenges and opportunities to research and introduce new plants that will fit in and contribute towards the tropical feel of the garden. “We tried Black Eyed Susan, the climber, but that didn’t work, unfortunately. We tried orchids but we lost those. Fine-tuning allows us to have good team discussions, improve, and learn.”
Frost protection
Despite not using true tropical species many of the plants are still susceptible to frost damage. Gus says the garden uses an automatic misting system when the temperature drops near freezing. It comes on and sprays fine droplets of water that keep the temperature above zero. The ideal is to have droplets as fine as possible but the finer the droplets the more easily the system can become clogged and stop working efficiently.
“The biggest problem we face is if you get a succession of four or five nights of frost, and the mist kicks in many times over the night. It creates a dampness, which would be fine in the tropics but makes it hard for some plants in the Waikato winter.”
Gus says there were some fantastic frangipanis in the garden whose beautiful scent added to the tropical feel, but it just got too damp, and they didn’t survive.
“If anyone is interested in creating a tropical-feeling garden then a good idea is to come and have a look at how we’ve created ours. You can mix and match the species, it's good to have some big striking palms, the colour of the bromeliads down low is just great I think, and then mix in some large-leaved plants to create layers. As always with gardening, you should see what works in the space you have and have fun.”
Visit our Tropical Garden page for more information about this garden.
