Design has me banging my head!

20 years ago

Here up in the far north we use wood to heat the house during the cold months.. it works well but... there is that woodpile out back. This year I am building a lattice wall to hide it, the first section will be 8 ft then a 4 ft opening where a hammick ( I know thats not right ;)) will hang, follwed by another 8 ft. section. All the walls will be 8 ft.high. This area is in full sun untill about 4 pm in the summer. Along the lattice I would like to have vining moonflowers and passion flower. That all being said I am kind of confused about a few plants I would also like to put out there, My banana plants.. I have one that overwintered in the house and the leaves are already over 3ft foot long and it is about 4 ft high. My bruggies that I cut and used the tub and bubbling water method, the tallest of those is also right around 4 ft and it is shaping up to look like a tree. I also have tall cannas and a Colocasia Giantiea. How would you arrange these plants to.. 1) use the textures and form to draw interest.

2) use your experience growing all or most of these and having knowledge of their growth per year.

The first section of the wall can be brought out about 2o ft. The second section has only about 7 ft.

There will also be understory plantings along bordered by annuals.

How creative can you all get because to be honest, I have been trying to plan this garden since Oct- 05 and those are the plants I get stuck on everytime. So I have come to ask some of the best "tropical advisors" for help. Thank you for any and all advice!

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Comments (2)

vancouverislandgirl
20 years ago
It sounds like you have the beginnings of a great tropical bed...if it were mine, I would first choose the anchor for each bed. The banana(assuming it is a 'hardy' musa) will be the largest specimen so I would use it in the 20' bed to the back and off center to the left. You can probably expect the banana to reach 10' or more this year if you keep it fertilized and moist. On the sunniest side of the banana I would plant a grouping of cannas and to the shadiest side I would plant the colocasia. They all love rich soil and moisture so ensure the bed is heavily ammended. If the cannas have colored leaves they will pop next to the banana. If you want to add a brug in this arrangement I would tuck it in between the cannas and the banana off center. Once the brug is old enough, it will be larger than the cannas but not as big as the banana.

For the other 7' bed, I would use your largest brugmansia off center to the right and group another clump of cannas if you have it next to it. Are you planning to dig in your bruggie or leave it in a pot? A great alternative is to cut holes in a large pot and plant it in the ground pot and all. The roots will grow out of the pot and in the fall you can easily dig it up by cutting the roots around the pot with your shovel. Then lift the brug pot up and store in the garage. This method allows the brug to grow HUGE instead of limiting it's size in the pot. Anyhow, if you leave it in the pot it will stay smaller-probably 6' or 8-10' in the ground. Brugs are outstanding specimen plants and deserve to be a feature so don't plant more than one in each bed.

I hope this helps,

Cheers from the Island!

Here is a link that might be useful: brugmansias at Tropical Touch
shiollie
Original Author
20 years ago
vancouverislandgirl, Thank you very much!!! I can visualise what you have outlined, and I love the idea of an anchor plant (makes sense). It is good to know that the banana will be bigger than the brug. I can have the lushness of the banana with the pop of the brugs. I went to the link and loved the colors but I have 13 of the pinks and yellows that need to find a home here. They will not all be in this tropical bed.
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