Site map

Links to and descriptions of, all pages on cooltropicalplants.com

Home
Site home page. Here you can be alerted to new pages added to the site by clicking on any of the rss feed buttons.

Tropical garden design
Some ideas to ponder when considering going down the tropical garden path.

Winter interest in the tropical garden
Pictures and discussion about gardening in the winter
Planning a garden
Before and after pictures of seasonal plantings.

Growing canna
General information on canna plants with links to more in depth coverage of many canna related items.

Growing canna from seed
An illustrated, step by step guide to raising canna from seeds.
Direct sowing
An illustrated, step by step guide to direct sowing.
Growing canna from rhizomes
An illustrated guide to growing canna from rhizomes.
Harvesting canna seed
An illustrated guide to successful canna seed collection.
Overwintering canna plants
An illustrated guide showing how to deal with canna plants over winter.
Canna varieties
Seed raised canna varieties are featured here with pictures of the canna flowers and plants.
More seed grown canna varieties
A few more seed grown canna are discussed here.
Canna pest and diseases
Natures' more spoil sport attitudes are discussed here.

Cold Hardy bananas
A discussion on growing banana plants so far from home.

Protecting cold hardy bananas over winter
An illustrated, step by step guide to protecting cold hardy bananas through a typical zone 9 winter.
Banana seeds
Pictures of banana fruits, flower and seed.
Banana plant
Dealing with pseudostem loss and corm removal.

Tropical foliage plants
A portal to a collection of some of the more obliging tropical plants. Links to the individual plants (Expect some lavish sub 100kb pictures)

Elephant ear plants
An illustrated guide to growing various elephant ear plants from shop bought tubers.
Colocasia esculenta
Another Asian grocery aroid, cheap and plentiful.
Colocasia tubers
How to overwinter Colocasia tubers in the compost bin.
Hedychiums
An illustrated guide to growing gingers.
Hedychium gardnerianum
An illustrated guide from seed to flower.
Alpinia zerumbet 'variegata'
Attempts to grow this plant in England are discussed.
Ricinus communis
An illustrated guide to growing the castor oil plant.
Echiums
An illustrated guide to growing Echium pininana.
Echium wildpretii
Echium wildpretii flowers
Echium wildpretii seeds
llustrated guides to growing Echium Wildpretii.
Cyphomandra betacea
An illustrated guide to growing the tree tomato.
Strobilanthes dyerianus
An illustrated guide to growing the Persian shield.
Spider plants
A good, low growing all rounder.

Garden ponds
Pond related discussion with links to more specific subjects.

The wildlife pond
Ideas to help create a successful wildlife pond.

Garden compost
A general discussion on home composting with links to more in-depth examination of the subject.

Compost ingredients
What you can, can't and shouldn't compost.
Compost bin
Location, location, location, it's true about compost bins as well.
Leaf mould
A guide to creating your own weed free surface mulch.
My compost regime
How I make compost in the cool tropical garden, (illustrated of course.)

Flowering plants
Discussion and links to noteworthy flowering plants including:

Cuphea ignea
Cultivation advice and photos of the Mexican cigar plant.
Amaranthus
Cultivation advice and photos of Amaranthus.
Dahlias
Information on growing dahlias including:
Taking cuttings
Illustrated step by step guide to taking dahlia cuttings.
Dividing tubers
An illustrated guide to dividing tubers.
Storing tubers
How to store dahlia tubers over winter.
Impatiens
How to grow Impatiens.
Mirabilis jalapa
How to grow Four O'clock plants.

Container gardening ideas
A discussion on container gardening with links to appropriate plants.

Mosquito control
Non toxic mosquito control for your garden.
North American pitcher plants
An illustrated guide to growing Sarracenia from seed, through to their first flowers.
Venus fly traps
Culture of these greedy plants is discussed here.
Pond plant basket
An illustrated guide to planting a pond basket
Lotus seeds
How to germinate them but your on your own after that.

About me
Strangely enough, a little snippet about how I became involved in cool climate tropical gardening.

Hardiness zones
An explanation of the hardiness zone classification and a discussion of factors affecting a plants ability to put up with cold.

Tropical garden pictures
A portal of stunning photographs of the garden featured on this site. Details below: (All images less than 100kb)

Picture 1
Exotic planting surrounding a sun trap patio.
Picture 2
An alternative view of the sun trap patio.
Picture 3
An atmospheric picture of the garden at dusk.
Picture 4
Large Abyssinian Bananas feature in this picture.
Picture 5
Lush tropical foliage features in this picture.
Picture 6
Big leaves of the coco yam in a tropical border.
Picture 7
Another mouth-watering picture of tropical plants.

More tropical garden pictures
You will just have to click on them to find out. How intriguing...

Ensete Ventricosum
General discussion on the Abyssinian banana and a portal to more in-depth information on many aspects of growing this fine plant.

Growing Ensete Ventricosum from seed
A guide to growing Abyssinian bananas from seed.
A germination experiment
An experiment carried out in the interests of science and betterment of mankind to determine if germination rates of Ensete V. could be improved.
Overwintering Ensete Ventricosum
An illustrated, step by step guide to getting these plant through winter.
Planting out of Ensete Ventricosum
An illustrated, step by step guide to putting them back in the ground again.
Abyssinian banana flower
An illustrated account of the development of an Ensete flower.

Ornamental grass
A portal to various useful grass and grass like plants. Including:

Arundo donax
4 meters of thick canes.
Arundo donax variegata
Same as above but different.
Arundo donax removal
Removal of a plant that has out grown its position.
Cyperus papyrus
An introduction to this plant.
Cyperus papyrus from seeds
A seed growing tutorial.
Cyperus alternifolius
How to care and propagate this attractive plant.
The lawn
Not the place to find info on creating the perfect lawn.
Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'.
How to propagate this black grass (illustrated), which is neither black nor a grass.

Exotic tree and shrubs
Discussion and links to useful plants for permanent planting in the garden. Including:

Beschorneria yuccoides
Lots of nice pictures of this plant in flower can be found here.
Beschorneria propagation
Seed and offshoot propagation is covered here.
Melianthus major
Info on growing the Honey bush.
Paulownia tomentosa
Info on growing the Foxglove tree.

All plants A-Z
At a glance guide to successes and failures.

Greenhouse gardening
Advice on general greenhouse gardening with links to more specific topics. Such as:

Greenhouse equipment
A look at various pieces of equipment designed to make life (for your plants) easier.
Germinating seeds
A general discussion on germinating seeds with links to illustrated guides:
Plant seeds
Step by step guide about the business of planting seeds (illustrated).
Seedlings
An illustrated guide to pricking out.
Repotting
An illustrated guide to potting on.
Starting seeds
A seasonal guide to starting seeds.
Plant cuttings
An ilustrated guide to taking cuttings
The baggie method
An ilustrated guide to the baggie method for germinating seeds

Gardening techniques
A portal to some of the less glamorous elements of gardening.

Soil improvement
Illustrated guide to conditioning your soil.
Bog garden
Turn those hard to grow areas into flourishing ones

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