As the Gardening forum seems to be overrun with spam, I thought I would ask a question here.

Looking for a tropical plant or plant that will suit with a triopical garden up to height of about 2.4m – 3.0m that will hide a fence and the neighbours house behind the fence. I am looking for a screening tropical if you will.

Garden is about 1.5m wide and will be about 15m long. It will be heavily planted throughout with small shrubs / plants at the front and progressively larger plants behind them. Plants like cordelines, crots, bird of paradise, broms, calatheas, halyconias, elephant ears.

Any ideas? Here is an example of what is trying to be achieved. Any other plant suggestions will be appreciated.

stan101 said:

As the Gardening forum seems to be overrun with spam, I thought I would ask a question here.

Looking for a tropical plant or plant that will suit with a triopical garden up to height of about 2.4m – 3.0m that will hide a fence and the neighbours house behind the fence. I am looking for a screening tropical if you will.

Garden is about 1.5m wide and will be about 15m long. It will be heavily planted throughout with small shrubs / plants at the front and progressively larger plants behind them. Plants like cordelines, crots, bird of paradise, broms, calatheas, halyconias, elephant ears.

Any ideas? Here is an example of what is trying to be achieved. Any other plant suggestions will be appreciated.

You want that much colour and diversity?
I’d have gone for one of the “Pandorea“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandorea on a mesh trellis which will give you most of your 1.5m back to whatever else will grow there. The Pandorea can be kept pruned. A lot depends upon the microclimate. Which way does the fence face, in NS EW?

Lipstick palms.

Is the garden tropical or sub tropical?
I’d like to suggest some of the tropical native lilies for your smaller plants. Crinum pedunculatum, Helmholtzia glaberrima, Curcuma australasica (native turmeric), Alpnia caerulea (native ginger)…the last two are edible as well.

I’m just told that the photo is what is required :)

Thanks for the suggestions. It is on the sunshine coast so I should have specified sub tropical.

Thinking some Dracaena Reflexa, large Heliconias, tree ferns, and Alocasia giant Elephant ears. to get some shade happening and offer some screening.

Sunshine coast gives you more options.
Some of the smaller cultivars of lilly pilly would give you good screening without the need for constant pruning to keep in bounds, there are a few out there like Syzygium Bush Christmas, Elite or Hot Flush, but Cascade would be my pick. Xanthostemon chrysanthus Fairhill Gold is worth looking at.

Galangal for all your Thai-style cooking.

Grows to well over 2 metres tall here in highly impoverished silica sand.

Michael V said:

Galangal for all your Thai-style cooking.

Grows to well over 2 metres tall here in highly impoverished silica sand.

Yes, galangal! Looks tropical and looks good in my garden even though it gets zero attention. And I get to use it in my cooking.

ruby said:

Michael V said:

Galangal for all your Thai-style cooking.

Grows to well over 2 metres tall here in highly impoverished silica sand.

Yes, galangal! Looks tropical and looks good in my garden even though it gets zero attention. And I get to use it in my cooking.

My bit that MV sent me is not happy with our Winter coming on. I’ll mark where it is and see if it tries again next year…

buffy said:

ruby said:

Michael V said:

Galangal for all your Thai-style cooking.

Grows to well over 2 metres tall here in highly impoverished silica sand.

Yes, galangal! Looks tropical and looks good in my garden even though it gets zero attention. And I get to use it in my cooking.

My bit that MV sent me is not happy with our Winter coming on. I’ll mark where it is and see if it tries again next year…

It looks like this…didn’t get much size over Summer, but at least it thought about throwing up a leaf, I suppose. We are getting close to a frost now, so I expect it to die right down. I’ll relieve it of its weedy friends sometime soon, mark the spot properly and heavily mulch it. And then see what happens next Spring.

buffy said:

buffy said:

ruby said:

Yes, galangal! Looks tropical and looks good in my garden even though it gets zero attention. And I get to use it in my cooking.

My bit that MV sent me is not happy with our Winter coming on. I’ll mark where it is and see if it tries again next year…

It looks like this…didn’t get much size over Summer, but at least it thought about throwing up a leaf, I suppose. We are getting close to a frost now, so I expect it to die right down. I’ll relieve it of its weedy friends sometime soon, mark the spot properly and heavily mulch it. And then see what happens next Spring.

That new leaf is a promising sign that it is a healthy plant. Hopefully there is a nice sized rhizome underground to give it enough oomph to last over winter. If not, I can take a turn to send you a new one.

ruby said:

buffy said:

buffy said:

My bit that MV sent me is not happy with our Winter coming on. I’ll mark where it is and see if it tries again next year…

It looks like this…didn’t get much size over Summer, but at least it thought about throwing up a leaf, I suppose. We are getting close to a frost now, so I expect it to die right down. I’ll relieve it of its weedy friends sometime soon, mark the spot properly and heavily mulch it. And then see what happens next Spring.

That new leaf is a promising sign that it is a healthy plant. Hopefully there is a nice sized rhizome underground to give it enough oomph to last over winter. If not, I can take a turn to send you a new one.

Thanks ruby. We didn’t really think it would go anywhere, I’ve not been able to get ginger to even send up a leaf. It will bud out on the bench in the kitchen, but if I put it in the ground it just gets super shy. I think I am just too far South.

buffy said:

ruby said:

buffy said:

It looks like this…didn’t get much size over Summer, but at least it thought about throwing up a leaf, I suppose. We are getting close to a frost now, so I expect it to die right down. I’ll relieve it of its weedy friends sometime soon, mark the spot properly and heavily mulch it. And then see what happens next Spring.

That new leaf is a promising sign that it is a healthy plant. Hopefully there is a nice sized rhizome underground to give it enough oomph to last over winter. If not, I can take a turn to send you a new one.

Thanks ruby. We didn’t really think it would go anywhere, I’ve not been able to get ginger to even send up a leaf. It will bud out on the bench in the kitchen, but if I put it in the ground it just gets super shy. I think I am just too far South.

I attempted ginger for years without success. Then a few years ago it decided to be happy and took off. My best patch is growing next to my shed, I suspect it gets a bit of reflected warmth there.
I bought the galangal at a plant event, and that took a little while to begin any new growth. I took three divisions of it to act as a divider at the top of my vegie patch, and they took very little time to grow away. In my garden at least, the galangal looks to cope with cold better. Here’s hoping for yours.

buffy said:

buffy said:

ruby said:

Yes, galangal! Looks tropical and looks good in my garden even though it gets zero attention. And I get to use it in my cooking.

My bit that MV sent me is not happy with our Winter coming on. I’ll mark where it is and see if it tries again next year…

It looks like this…didn’t get much size over Summer, but at least it thought about throwing up a leaf, I suppose. We are getting close to a frost now, so I expect it to die right down. I’ll relieve it of its weedy friends sometime soon, mark the spot properly and heavily mulch it. And then see what happens next Spring.

A baby galangal.

roughbarked said:

stan101 said:

As the Gardening forum seems to be overrun with spam, I thought I would ask a question here.

Looking for a tropical plant or plant that will suit with a triopical garden up to height of about 2.4m – 3.0m that will hide a fence and the neighbours house behind the fence. I am looking for a screening tropical if you will.

Garden is about 1.5m wide and will be about 15m long. It will be heavily planted throughout with small shrubs / plants at the front and progressively larger plants behind them. Plants like cordelines, crots, bird of paradise, broms, calatheas, halyconias, elephant ears.

Any ideas? Here is an example of what is trying to be achieved. Any other plant suggestions will be appreciated.

You want that much colour and diversity?

I’d have gone for one of the “Pandorea“https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandorea on a mesh trellis which will give you most of your 1.5m back to whatever else will grow there. The Pandorea can be kept pruned.

A lot depends upon the microclimate. Which way does the fence face, in NS EW?

That’s a very very important question you seem to have overlooked

t’would be a shame to spend a good deal of money
not to mention the time and effort to plant then care for them
only to spend huge amounts of effort fighting to keep them all alive
and wind up throwing it all away just because you failed to take into account
something as simple as which direction (amount of sun-to-shade) you’ll be dealing with

“Which way does the fence face, in NorthSouth / EastWest?”

You’d be surprised the amount of time saved
NOT Struggling to keep plants alive that were
incorrectly selected for the ratio of sun to shade

roughie also asked about “the diversity”
that’s because plants do better when grown in “like groupings”
some like more water / others like it well-drained sandy soil etc.
if you can’t ask the nurseryman, at least consult the Plant Tags

‘nother tip: Have your Soil Tested
Getting the pH right BEFORE planting saves a lot of grief down the road.

with a little fore thought, the perfect garden should all but care for itself

that’s a lovely garden..

I have just ‘finished’ my back yard garden, which has been six years in the making.. I did the last bit a couple of days ago (before the rains) and now I wait.. almost all of what I have planted has been tube stock, so very cheap, but if one doesn’t make it I also don’t feel like I’ve wasted money… I have also been very conscious of making it all native so water wise and bird/insect/small creature attracting..
I have let it develop ‘organically’ in that I had no real plan other than I wanted a native garden, and created it bit by bit. I don’t have a lot of backyard, but it works for us…

What I have now is not what I had planned, but it’s pleasant and functional and all of the above things.

I would have loved to just plonk in a whole garden, and be done, but I think I have enjoyed doing it this way more…

It’s not the end of the garden, but it’s going to sit like this for a few years now as I allow everything to grow and take more time on the care, rather than the creation…

Arts said:

that’s a lovely garden..

I have just ‘finished’ my back yard garden, which has been six years in the making.. I did the last bit a couple of days ago (before the rains) and now I wait.. almost all of what I have planted has been tube stock, so very cheap, but if one doesn’t make it I also don’t feel like I’ve wasted money… I have also been very conscious of making it all native so water wise and bird/insect/small creature attracting..
I have let it develop ‘organically’ in that I had no real plan other than I wanted a native garden, and created it bit by bit. I don’t have a lot of backyard, but it works for us…

What I have now is not what I had planned, but it’s pleasant and functional and all of the above things.

I would have loved to just plonk in a whole garden, and be done, but I think I have enjoyed doing it this way more…

It’s not the end of the garden, but it’s going to sit like this for a few years now as I allow everything to grow and take more time on the care, rather than the creation…

A garden is never, ever finished. And if something does not survive it’s just an excuse to try something else.

buffy said:

Arts said:

that’s a lovely garden..

I have just ‘finished’ my back yard garden, which has been six years in the making.. I did the last bit a couple of days ago (before the rains) and now I wait.. almost all of what I have planted has been tube stock, so very cheap, but if one doesn’t make it I also don’t feel like I’ve wasted money… I have also been very conscious of making it all native so water wise and bird/insect/small creature attracting..
I have let it develop ‘organically’ in that I had no real plan other than I wanted a native garden, and created it bit by bit. I don’t have a lot of backyard, but it works for us…

What I have now is not what I had planned, but it’s pleasant and functional and all of the above things.

I would have loved to just plonk in a whole garden, and be done, but I think I have enjoyed doing it this way more…

It’s not the end of the garden, but it’s going to sit like this for a few years now as I allow everything to grow and take more time on the care, rather than the creation…

A garden is never, ever finished. And if something does not survive it’s just an excuse to try something else.

Yes.

Brian May taken to hospital after tearing buttock muscles while gardening

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/08/brian-may-hospitalised-gardening-injury-tears-buttock-muscles

dv said:

Brian May taken to hospital after tearing buttock muscles while gardening

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/08/brian-may-hospitalised-gardening-injury-tears-buttock-muscles

He should have been a fat bottomed boy.

Himalayan salt comes from Pakistan. The lying shits.

sibeen said:

Himalayan salt comes from Pakistan. The lying shits.

The Himalayas lie partly in Pakistan

sibeen said:

dv said:

Brian May taken to hospital after tearing buttock muscles while gardening

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/08/brian-may-hospitalised-gardening-injury-tears-buttock-muscles

He should have been a fat bottomed boy.

sibeen said:

dv said:

Brian May taken to hospital after tearing buttock muscles while gardening

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/may/08/brian-may-hospitalised-gardening-injury-tears-buttock-muscles

He should have been a fat bottomed boy.

He’s not the first member of Queen to suffer some discomfort around the blurter.

sibeen said:

Himalayan salt comes from Pakistan. The lying shits.

Well, it’s the alluvial plains washed down from the Himalayas. So it was once part of the mountains.

I’ll call it near enough :p

sibeen said:

Himalayan salt comes from Pakistan. The lying shits.

:)

buffy said:

A garden is never, ever finished. And if something does not survive it’s just an excuse to try something else.

:) It is a work in progress.