Katy's Garden

This is the Former Mess, now upgraded to Future Exotic Corner. Shame I don't have a picture of the "before", but when I got round to sort it out, it was not really planned, and I never thought to get a camera.

It is really nice to have a whole year to improve the ground and go through lists of plants. In autumn I will dig up the upper half of the hypericum colony and plant it somewhere else, to get more space for the "hotties".

Now that a place is set out for the tropical corner it is really nice to dream and plan of the plants that will go in there. I only want things I can grow by myself from seed or root, but even like that there is plenty to choose from. Ricinus "Carmencita", for sure, and a colocasia, possibly "Black Magic" if I can get my hands on it,but in truth any colocasia will do. A banana, if my poor shivering seeds manage to get going. I was offered seeds of Brugmansia, this would be a grand centerpiece! Those huge nodding pale flowers would look stunning on the background of waving dark leaves. My zantedeschias will sure enjoy summer holidays in open ground, and nasturtiums "Black velvet" in the undergrowth. Cannas, of course, "Wyoming" I have already. If I cannot get the bananas going I must find Canna musifolia. Easier to overwinter too. I am not sure about dhalias, honestly. I could love Zea mays in some variegated form, if I can find the seeds. Creepers twining their way through things. Rhodochiton atrosanguineum, for sure, and something lighter, may be white... an ipomea perhaps, a passiflora? Cobaea scandens "Alba"? A jasmine? Would Hydrangea "Sargentiana" be out of place? Will my papayas grow enough to make a show? And why not creeping gourds? White cosmos to light up the big leaves, and some true stunner, strelizias, heliconias? A bengal tiger?