Walking Talking Tour of Amazing Private UK Tropical Garden. Inspirational

Hello and welcome to my channel. I've been kindly invited to come and visit this tropical style garden created over the last 20 years by its maker Simon and it truly is one of the best individual private gardens that I've ever visited. I've been here before about five six years ago and it's just got better and better so I'm going to take you on a walk through talk about a few of the things that I can see some of the plants that are in and yeah it's very impressive. So starting off the garden is this absolutely stunning arid bed to the left there's an agave americana. Simon tells me that it gets a bit of protection during the winter shelter over it for a couple of months of the year but otherwise stays out. This would probably be classed as a zone 8 garden. This year I think he had about minus seven minus eight celsius. It's in a raised bed with plenty of drainage which obviously helps but by far one of the best examples I've ever seen in a private garden. Then there's all these potted succulents and agaves that are giving it real character. Moving up and to the right here we have a beautiful looking spanish flag and a ricinus new zealand purple then we've got an inset there potted and these are impressive you've got the green leafed inset ventricosum and the red leafed one these are dug up during the winter and taken inside this large one here is taken into his conservatory and some of the red bananas are taken and kept frost free in his garage but I can imagine this is July at the moment I can only think how much hard work that's going to be to lift that out as I stand the camera at the moment is at about six foot high and that's still got a good couple of months worth of growth yet cracking plant then we've got another pathway going around there which is more of a woodland walk I'll just take you for a little look around before we carry on then we've got these colocasia esculenta with the allocations behind which are obviously brought in for winter and planted out for the summer months what a stunning begonia luxurians Simon says he brings these into his frost free greenhouse over winter keeps them a little bit moist as they don't like to dry out too much and then plants them for the summer months absolutely stunning this is a bit of a woodland walk around here tends to be a lot softer than the other garden lots of greens really nice relaxing walk through and that goes out into the main lawn area let's go back a bit and we'll go around the other way if you're looking at this video and you're as impressed as you should be then what I would say is over the years you can sort of see the different layers we've got canopies and height above a head then we've got mid-story plants and then we've got to finish it off all these low story plants around here and I think once you sort of get the hang of that that's when you can really sort of get the in-depth sort of look to your garden I have to keep bringing the camera back to that agave americana how impressive is that and that's without me even showing you the tetrapanics as you walk in all right let's turn around because there's still plenty to see like I say I've walked around this garden with Simon he's gone through how this garden sort of evolved over the 20 years how he's changed little bits the work it entails but absolutely every bit of work and effort that goes into this garden is worth it because I've visited quite a lot of private gardens tropical style in the UK and this is by far one of them that's in my top three now we come out to this open area which is really nice really it gives you a different feel bit more perspective of the garden the thatched tiki hut type thing there with the gunnera to the left being set absolutely stunning I'll take a zoom round before I walk into that area lots of gingers racinas bananas I've got more mousse au bejus there and we've got some colocasia coleus to give a real spot of colour in the lower canopy this one is colocasia aloha he brings these in to a frost-free greenhouse and there's a bit of a propagator to help him get through then there is some bugmances in there that are planted out every year but brought in so it's quite a volume of backbone plants here things like the palms the bamboos the loquat and then there's a mixture of tenders and stuff that comes out that really does make this garden my own garden I don't put so many of these tender type plants in but a walk around here is making me really rethink using some again right let's take a walk through to this back part of the actually I'll go to the right first and look at this Schefflera macrophylla absolutely stunning they are they can take a certain amount of cold he does bring this into a frost-free environment over winter just to well who wouldn't let's make sure we look after a plant that looks that good I've got to say I think it's now on my wish list I've seen a few in the past but yeah I think that's going to happen now move around we've got some Canna Cleopatra now if you'd like me to name all the plants here I can't name every plant because I don't know exactly what they all are but what a great little touch here with these epiphytes giving that little bit of colour and height stunning now I'm going to take you through to the last part of the garden which is one of the most impressive I'll be quiet for this part and let you soak it in I want one that's all I can say absolutely stunning pond the tree ferns and just a group planting of ferns underneath with a waterfall lots of greens used in this bit the jerseys and then the large gunnera overhanging absolutely stunning and as I zoom around to the left this is where the gazebo is what an absolutely lovely place to sit in an evening and look over the pond this is something I'm going to take from this garden as well which I'm going to do on my own I think it's absolutely brilliant these climbers going up the post there's a Spanish flag as well grown from seed most definitely going to do that in a pot but used to climb up these posts and yeah really impressive just starting to rain now but I'm not going to stop filming because I'm going to make the most of this stunning garden let's have a little look around what else is here we've got some Wysinus New Zealand purple there absolutely cracking especially next to these pink flowers really compliments them well then we've got some more potted succulent type plants there just gives that extra little bit of character another inset I'm just going to walk backwards under the gazebo because I'm getting wet now 20 years to make this garden give or take but what a cracking job there's so much interest in it these rocks look stunning and I was talking to Simon about it and he just got a load of these rocks cheap off the internet someone was selling bought a trailer load of them back here and ended up creating this beautiful pond like I say I visited this about five six years ago and it was just as stunning then but I just feel like the plants have just got that little bit bigger and this garden's just going to get better and better so impressive I'm going to take a walk back round here just a simple gravel path linking one end of the garden to the other but the simplicity actually adds to the garden because you can feel the sound of the gravel under your feet it makes you want to just sort of as you're walking down look round and just take it in some really large tracheocarpus fortunae back there Simon says the bamboos have a root barrier around them but even with that they do they do still try to get out now and again hence this one here growing through here to the left here we have a variegated brugmansia I have one of these and I keep mine in my pot which obviously they like to have a lot more water and feed than what I could probably give it he plants his out and I think I'm gonna have to work on that because they really do look so much more impressive when planted in the ground going down in some of the lower canopy we've got ferns we've got a nice purple leafed heuchera there then you've got your persicaria then we've got some more heucheras and coleus so there's lots of these plants that shade loving but can really add a proper colour to a shady border if that's what you're looking for heading back look at that that is impressive for a banana in the arid bed there's I think I'm quite sure it's a heuchera strata and then there's a brahia amarta in there as well that is in this big stone raised bed drainage is really good but it's the little details that add to this garden as well as the impressive plants like this pot here just by the agave bed just full of little succulents it's like a mini garden in itself love the idea of that really impressive and just gives you that other focal point as you walk through you know as you stand here there's just so much to draw your eye in without overcomplicating it and I always think with these gardens if you can create an atmosphere that makes you feel like you're a little bit somewhere else you've achieved a cracking job there's other plants like the monstera there that's coming out just for the summer one last walk around I'd love to be able to name every plant in this garden but to be fair quite a lot of the gingers and stuff I'm not sure until they flower what they are so I won't be able to ask if answer any comments regarding what all the plants are at certain times but if you want to know I will speak to Simon if there's any that you really need to know and try to find out let's take one last look at this pond and then I'll leave it there love it thank you for watching see you next time