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Create an exotic area
• Create a scenery with pots
• Growing plants in unusual containers
• Make your potted plants more beautiful
• Choose the material of pots
• Look after your pots to make them last
• The right pot for the right plant
• Upright-growing plants in pot
• Growing a tree in a pot
• Hiding a cumbersome stump
• Hiding the compost heap
• Optimize Trees
• How to redesign a flowerbed ?
• Create a flowering border like a painter
• Harmonise foliage between them
• Succeed with your borders
• An attractive garden in winter
• Create a Mediterranean corner
• Create an exotic area
• Create a Japanese corner
• Create a green roof
• Create a rockery
• An Acer, for all gardens
A Travel in a few square meters, it is possible and this in all climates providing you choose the plants well and organise them just like a postcard!
The right conditions
From April to the end of August, the period is ideal to create an exotic area. The hot temperatures offer the plants the right conditions to root well and form a solid crown which will give them a good resistance. Give them rich compost as often they greedy plants. Enrich the soil with a lot of potting compost. Water them copiously, as if they were Bamboos. In winter, cover them up with a layer of dead leaves. However be careful: stagnating humidity (in a waterlogged soil) is often lethal. Make sure that the protecting layer does not keep them too much in a humid environment.
The Palm trees inescapable!
How to choose plants and landscape
It is from a happy mix and without particular order that you get the impression of lushness. This does not mean that the plants are chosen and planted at random. You must on the contrary follow a few simple steps:
- favour plants which have large leaves and plants with noticeable blossoms, mixing them without following lines;
- Avoid mixing together classic plants (Dwarf Dahlias, Rose' bushes, Clematis) which reminds more of the countryside than the exoticism;
- Plan ahead for a screen which will used as a backdrop (An openwork partition or Bamboos or big ornamental grasses such as Miscanthus);
- anticipate a late growth: a lot of exotic looking plants are late growers.
Rice paper Plant (Tetrapanax)
Large foliage
The exotic effect is given by plants with large leaves which evoke the tropics: plant them to your heart's content. Amongst the most reliable, choose the Musa Bajoo (Banana tree), a Tetrapanax Papyrifer (Rice paper plant), a Gunnera Manicata (Chilean Rhubarb), A Phormium (New Zealand Flax), the Fatsia, Cannas and even a Catalpa (to cut right back every year), etc. Of course Palm trees and Cycas are highly recommended: isolate them a bit from the other plants. Increase the diversity's effect of the foliage in planting several varieties of each plant.
Canna flower
Flashy colours
Next to the plants which have large leaves, plant vivid-flowering plants such as Campsis Radicans (Trumpet Vine), Cannas (Canna Lilies), Clerodendrom trichotomum (Harlequin Glorybower), Michelia figo (Banana shrub), Cassia, etc. At the beginning, mix with them short-lived flowering plants to bring in colour, to give the slow growing plants the time they need to establish and start blossoming. On the foliage side, Heucheras and Hostas bring in a colourful effect, even outside the summer months regarding the Heucheras. They will be just ‘the' perfect complement for the flowering plants.
A touch of decoration
A well-positioned sculpture, a fountain or even a colourful hammock for the ‘tropical idleness' side will balance the jungle effect and will invite you to enjoy the freshness of the setting. Do not hesitate to install lighting (by candles or electric) for the long summer's evenings!
