Why tropical style?

Most of the plants we use grow big quickly. If you are an impatient gardener looking to create an easy wow factor for the minimum of effort then this is the style for you.

I have come up with a theory about those of us who garden in this macho way. It seems to me that there are two basic reasons why anyone gardens: To have fun (f) and to show off (s) - (which is probably the motivation for most male activity) while the other factor is the amount of effort (e) we are prepared to put in to achieve it. This then suggests the simple formula:

 f = s/e

However for those of us who garden in the tropical style the fun and the show off element are permanently set to 11 and therefore, unless the effort element is always1 for all of us, the formula  needs to be more complicated. I'm open to suggestions.

What does it mean?

Whatever you want it to really. Creating a wild lush area using plants which grow enormous and make people gasp as they come through your gate,plants with exotic flowers and scents between them. In the approximate words of Christopher Lloyd 'giving the impression you are closer to the equator than you actually are!'     Like his silent movie namesake Harold, Christopher fearlessly did his own stunts in the garden. I never properly met him but did once encounter him on a visit to Dixter charming a group of middle-aged American tourists. 

Isn't it just a trendy affectation?

Probably, but is that such a bad thing? After all most ideas start out this way, take pants for example. Since being introduced as the 'trendy' loincloth about 7,000 years ago they have now become, for many of us, a necessary part of our clothing to the extent that there are few social situations in which we feel comfortable without them. For tropical gardening things have moved on and, at the risk of sounding pretentious, the tropical style has recently become somewhat passé, which is a relief as we can just add it to our garden design toolbox and get on with it. However on a more cautionary note I recently read an article suggesting that passé might, in fact, be the new trendy.

Over the past few years we have noticed some sort of false competition between gardening styles and gardeners being encouraged by the gardening press in a desperate attempt to 'sex up' horticulture (for example, a photographer who visited us two years ago only seemed interested in getting me to be critical of Will Giles). Some styles are seen as being more virtuous than others. A naturalistic garden wears some kind of environmental halo whereas a garden relying heavily on non-native plants is seen as more self-indulgent. Though from my recollection of student days, a real natural garden would contain an old ford escort on bricks and a couple of fridges slowly rusting amid the brambles, nettles and interestingly stained mattresses.

All gardening styles are really only effects created by using different plants and materials in different ways. I don't think the insects which visit our garden care whether the nectar on offer is from native plants or more exotic ones. Since our tacsonia passionflowers evolved to be pollinated by humming birds there may be a slight flaw in my argument there (but when has that ever stopped me?)  

What we do in our garden is to have a few focus areas of tropical style amid what could essentially be seen as a 'cottage garden' minus the lawn. Our garden peaks in late August and September with the bananas, rudbeckias and the hedychiums but also in April and June- foxgloves, wisteria, geraniums and so on.

Hardiness

The hardiness or not of a plant is, in my humble* opinion, not a particularly useful piece of information. It will vary considerably depending on moisture, soil type, aspect, its star sign and a variety of other factors. Additionally knowing that a plant is hardy does not necessarily mean that it is worth growing. The majority of hedychiums are hardy but flower too late to make them worth growing outside. Brugmansias are also hardy but if cut back to ground by frost take the entire season to even break ground level.

*clearly a relative term.