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Tropical Plants - Australia

A tropical garden in Perth

21 years ago

This is my first posting and I'm after advice on setting up a tropical garden in Perth. I've planted several plumeria from cuttings that are doing nicely and intend to develop an upper canopy with self-cleaning palms (Alexandra, foxtails, etc). Hopefully this will create a microclimate suitable from growing tropicals. I'm particularly interested in heliconias, gingers, cordylines, cannas and bromeliads. Any advice on which varieties work well in Perth (near the coast) and where I can obtain plants would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Comments (4)

Tamoure
21 years ago
Be careful of not planting too many palms, something we tended to do when we first started in tropicals (probably because we were palm collectors). We also had Alexanders & Foxtails (plus others). As the palms grow large their root systems make it very difficult for other plants to compete. Cordylines, Crotons and many other understorey plants will eventually suffer quite badly from root competition with trees and large palms. Broms are fine.
Tacca
21 years ago
Ben,
There is a magazine out by the name of Â´Gardens & Outdoor LivingÂ´ out now in which the Jan 2005 edition has an article on creating a Balinese style garden in Perth. The magazine is easy to spot - the photo of the garden on the front cover gives it away. The article details the plantings used in the garden so I suggest it as a source of info for you.

Scott.
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Hi Nat....Alexander Palms are self cleaning so they are Ok but O boy do they self seed. Golden Came Palms I would give them a miss unless you really like them. Have a look at the link below plenty of info there on Palms. I have answered your Hibiscus question on another thread Yes you can move the Bird of Paradise if you can as it probably weights a ton . You may need a back end hoe or similar, I dont know how deep the roots grow But my neighbours growing in a pot near the fence is about 2 mts into one of my garden beds. I have Natives, tropicals, cottage, and exotic plants all growing on my 3/4 block . Mine is not a formal garden everything is mixed, to each his own, do what you like. And if you are not happy with it, put the plant somewhere else I do it all the time. And dont forget the Bougainvillea's Cheers..MM. Here is a link that might be useful: Palms.
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If Cannas need a lot of sun then they won't work. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check those out. I do have an irrigation issue, I have 5 sprinklers servicing a section of my yard. One of them is located in section where there is a block wall on two sides and a large hedge on the other. Therefore because it gets a lot more shade (only gets 1-3hr of sun) but gets the same about of water, it is a lot more damp.
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artiew
21 years ago
One of the earlier threads refers to a story they did on Burke's Backyard where Don used plants like NZ Flax to create a 'tropical-looking' garden in Melbourne. 'Instant' gardens aside, this isnt the first time that I've seen this, so I'm sure that its possible to have the same look in a temperate climate. The key lies in finding plants that can deal with your combination of humidity, soil and rainfall distribution : Melbourne and Adelaide have wet Winters and dry Summers (great combo ... brrrrr), while I believe that WA has very little humidity and infertile soils (generally).

Good luck,

Artie
BenWA
Original Author
21 years ago
Thanks heaps for the info. I'll definitely have a look for that magazine next time I'm near a newsagent. We do have very little humidity and gutless soil, which doesn't make it easy. At least the soil is something we can fix. We just got back from Hawaii and saw the Hawaii Tropical Botanic Garden on the big island. Very inspiring and highly recommended.

Ben

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