UK Tropical Garden Basics 4: How to Plant a Tropical Border from Inspiration to Design & Planting

Today I look at how to plant a tropical border or garden and the 10 (or more!) steps I'd use to get your exotic garden or jungle project from garden inspiration and planting ideas through to the design and planting out. The goal is to create a UK tropical garden with impact, packed full of plants like bananas, bamboos, tree ferns, palms, Colocasias and more that will continue to look better with every following year whilst at the same time planting to make it as low maintenance and as easy to look after and overwinter as possible!

0:00 Into
0:31 My 10 Tip Plan for 'How to Create a Tropical Garden or Border'
1:19 Gather Photos of Tropical Gardens for Ideas and Inspiration
2:58 Get Hard Landscaping and Soil Improvement Jobs done before Planting
4:45 Find out whether your Plants are Structural or Evergreen Hardy Exotics or Tender Summer Plants
7:23 Group Exotic Plants together based on their Foliage plus Overwintering and Care Requirements
10:55 Consider your UK Tropical Plants' Growth Rates and Mature Sizes
13:24 Plant Out Structural Hardy 'Permanent' Plants First
15:15 Arrange your Plants so their heights work together in a Design You Like
16:16 Plant Out your Tender Tropical Plants After the Last Frosts in Your Area
16:27 Consider the Spacing of your Tropical Plants and the Jungle Look you want to Create
20:07 Use Colourful Tropical Bedding Plants like Coleus to tie your design together
21:39 Be brave and experimental with your planting, you can always mix it up next year!

Thanks,

George

[iriviking]

This Wil be my third year of tropical foliage plants in the garden! I used to have a huge house plant collection but you convinced me that you can recreate that same tropical vibe outside!
Now I have an insane garden and everybody loves it and it's pretty rare to find tropical style gardens here in the netherlands. I always wanted to have a hobby such as this and now I got my hands full and really developed a passion for tropical gardening!
and it all started because of Your videos!

[mich]

As always, very informative. Thanks George

[TheBergmaster]

Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens near Weymouth was a big inspiration for me

[onestophoopshop]

Excellent video, thank you. You have been a massive help to me in creating my first tropical garden. Desperate for the weather to warm up so can start getting the tender plants out. Xx

[parttimeninja]

Again great video, can't wait to start my own tropical garden!
Hugs ♥ for that cute hot dog ☺

[JB-lrtf]

Great vedio iv leaned so much in this one vedio I'm beginning to feel more confident at what it is I wsnt to achieve and plan it out thank you so much 😊

[GeorgesJungleGarden]

There might be more than 10 tips but hopefully they help, it’s an exciting time of year!

[littlesammyf]

I absolutely needed this, I have gaps, I worried that things won’t fill out and I just need to be patient for a few more months. Thank you George

[brendapowis]

Yeh, thanks George. Really looking forward to watching this and the next few videos. Always enjoy your videos, learn such a lot.

[raphlvlogs]

having a composting toilet will make tropical landscaping much easier.

[janica]

Love your videos. They are very helpful. Thank you so much.

[bobcharlie]

My parents live a few miles from lands end in cornwall. Im so jealous of the weather they get. I dont even think they had much of a frost if anything this year. Although they get a hell of alot of wind so the plants get battered alot which is a shame. I love driving round and seeing massive echium bugloss, they seem to grow like weeds down there

[supermankelly]

I put in a 1 ft banana plant but didn't survive winter. Feels like half of what I stick in each year doesn't come back after winter. Its not easy getting the thick high jungle look, especially without spending hundreds on pregrown large plants and trees. You're not in Essex are you so can some do my small garden 😆😉

[JH-fvgq]

Damn, you fit a lot of good info into a vid . My go to chanel for exotics plants, nice one 👍

[estherterrier]

Hi, I moved house so am just planting all my exotics, these videos are really helpful, thanks 😀

[msdrummerkitty]

Thanks George! This could not have come at a better time... I'm planning to design my garden this weekend as my hard landscaping has just been completed! ... definitely some tips I will be using!

[johncurley]

Thanks for this video George. Really making me excited for what my garden may look like in just a few months - really useful info and some needed reassurance!
My Ricinus seedlings are doing well - you were exactly right with your advice for those.Looking forward to planting them out after frosts have gone. Thanks again.

[rj]

Really informative video thanks George!

[iviewforfun]

Thank you George!
My small garden is a new build and is just 4years old. To start I dug up the obligatory lawn and planted out a fairly traditional English garden. Then I discovered the “jungle look” so my problem is which of the existing plants ( shrubs, roses, trees and mixed herbaceous) can I incorporate into the ‘look’ and which will I have to murder in order to creat my Jungle!
Wish me look
Mike

[jondi]

Great tips George, what are the yellow stem Bamboos you have and do you use a barrier?
My 1st year fully committing to the tropical style. Love your content, would like more demonstrated vids too. 👍🏼