rare tropical plant collection with mature exotic palm specimens & a huge atrium as big as a botanic garden glasshouse – only seen by a few people and almost lost – today’s tour is pretty much my dream greenhouse with a lot of potential! A real life secret garden, a tropical style holiday paradise right outside your living room? Yes please! Complete with a fountain, converted tropical fish pond, seating amongst towering palms and rare desert plants plus ornate brickwork pillars, heating, ventilation & irrigation systems – this setup would likely cost over £500,000 today! That’s before you start talking about the adjoining indoor swimming pool & established grounds complete with more fountains, an island and unusual trees. I don’t know about you but I want a lottery win now! In today’s tour I have the privilege of sharing this amazing space with you, walking round the yuccas, palms, citrus grove and entertaining spaces, taking in the relaxing & plant filled atmosphere and revealing the story behind the history, buying, property renovation & future potential for this amazing atrium. I talk about the practicalities of growing under glass during cold winters and hot summers (this place gets VERY hot!), watering and how this unique environment is kept frost free. If you’ve got any tropical or exotic plant ideas and inspiration to continue this incredible project then please let me know in the comments, the new owners are keen to inject more colour and flowering plants for scent into this luxury entertaining space. With room for cacti, tropical flowers, exotic houseplants, rare palms & trees, climbers and tender or Mediterranean plants from around the world, the options are endless but lower maintenance & tough plants would be preferred…
If you’ve enjoyed this atrium and exotic planting, you’ll be pleased to find out a lot of these palms and exotic plants are tough, hardy and evergreen throughout a lot of the UK, or at least there are very close alternatives for you to create your own tropical style paradise in your back garden. I’ve got other videos providing tropical style, Tiki and jungle garden inspiration plus care guides for many of the plants featured. Whilst some of the plants are borderline hardy in some of the UK (Washingtonia robusta, Cycads ‘Sago Palms’, Dasylirion, Dicksonia antartica, Butia feather palms & Phoenix canariensis), others such as Chamaerops humilis (Mediteranean dwarf fan palm) and similar plants like hardy yuccas (rostrata & linearis etc.), Trachycarpus fortunei, Cordylines, Phormiums and Agaves could definitely be used to create this effect around your patio, in raised beds or as part of a container display. A little taste of holiday living until you get your own 5200 sq. ft. tropical plant filled atrium! A massive thanks to the lucky new owners of this amazing property for being able to share this place with you, a rare glimpse into a private paradise.
0:00 Intro
0:52 An exotic plant filled secret garden story
2:11 Huge palms & rare greenhouse desert plants in a private atrium
3:39 Dream atrium / greenhouse / glasshouse plant tour
5:39 Cycads ‘Sago Palms’, Dasylirion & Indoor Tree Yuccas
7:42 Indoor plant problems – Wollemi pines & Dicksonia tree fern
9:01 Tropical & houseplant ideas & inspiration required!
10:31 Butia feather palm specimen
11:07 Giant Yucca houseplants, palms & indoor citrus grove
11:47 Huge Washingtonia robusta palms in UK atrium
12:58 What are fan & feather palms?
14:17 A incredible Chamaerops humilis hardy palm specimen!
16:34 Beautiful seating area surrounded by palms & desert plants
17:09 Phoenix canariensis, specimen sized indoor plants
19:55 The UK greenhouse / glasshouse / atrium rare plant dream!
21:46 Greenhouse automated irrigation & heating for tropical plants
22:55 A tropical pond, fountain and massive indoor garden project potential!
23:42 The cost of building this massive & unique atrium structure!
24:29 Ornate brickwork pillars & architecture, an amazing indoor space!
25:05 Indoor swimming pool opening onto rare tropical plants
25:41 An opportunity for arid succulents, desert plants & rare houseplants!
If you’ve enjoyed my content and would like to say thanks for the price of a coffee then please head over to my Ko-fi, any kind donations would be appreciated and put towards creating more exciting content: https://ko-fi.com/georgesjunglegarden
Thanks,
George
39 Comments
Absolutely stunning. Fairly new to your videos George. I’m hooked!
What a great place tfs
How can people know about suffering plants and not care about them???? They are living creatures!
They probably let the fish die too!
It looks nice, but a little to sterile.
The hard landscaping gives me an Arabic vibe. The plants that are already there wouldn't be out of place in a desert oasis. The Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh could be an inspiration,
That’s impressive,absolute dream space,personally I’d have keep the pond and fish but understand if it’s not their thing,make a great tortoise enclosure!
Amazing atrium. Some tips I can think of:
1. Grey gravel won't work, use stone or whiter (obviously not bright white lol) or brighter for reflection, to make sure the undergrowth of plants doesn't end up shabby.
2. Having a fish pond in itself will reduce the cost of heating as the larger the body of water that's there, the less fluctuation to the temperature overall they'll be. Also increases humidity. Heating the pond is probably cheaper again than just heating from 0 the entire atrium.
3. Definitely start by getting rid of everything you want rid of and then you'll know what you can plan for…
4. Go on a holiday to a place that you've researched has the same temps avg all year round and then go and pick the plants you like. Madeira is amazing!
Good Luck!
Simply fantastic
Nerium Oleander, + approx 10.000 other plants… If I bought the place, no grey gravels, no red tiles, and as earlier mentioned a tons of Mediterranean plants, Bougainvillea citrus…. just to mention a very few..
George it's crying out for a dinosaur or three !
What a beautiful garden! And the potential for greatness is a few steps away, though honestly its already there in my eyes. For some reason, I can see this as a themed garden… Maybe something exotic! Like a Balinese/Javanese Garden! The only thing missing are beautiful sculptures to create punctuation points throughout the garden. Also, maybe various sized rock/boulders to break up the linear sense of the grey gravel. Just a suggestion😌
Firstly amazing brickwork. I can really appreciate that. It's your backdrop that's not going to change so make it work from there. I'd go more succulent, agave, yucca and cactus with a few large specimen olive and aloe trees and keep a few of the palms that are thriving that will add not only contrast and height but also shade when needed. If they dont want to go down that route what about a huge crevice garden full of rockery plants and alpines the raised beds are perfect heights for viewing with small semi mature flowering trees for shade and height. Definitely reinstate the pond to some extent, possibly move more towards a pondless waterfall for a flow of water sound rather than a wet dripping sound. Please rescue them wollemi, I really want one!
Thanks for the video George keep the updates coming on that patio of your too!
Beautiful to have that space under cover omg I would be in heaven .
They should do open days to help pay for the up
Keep or future plans/plants .
I would have tropical birds monkey sound on a sound system going off
Nice glass of wine on a tour
Hint to the owners .
That pond area is beautiful as well 👏🏻 to the owners .
Great video George ! 😊
Id be tempted to paint some of that brickwork white or black to help show up the plants. Think i need somewhere like this to over winter my tenders.
I don't understand the idea of a sunken seating area. Why not build it high so that you can see more plants?
I understand the idea if it's outdoors and can provide shelter from the wind, but it makes no sense to me if it's inside…🥴🤯
It's amazing…
Some lovely big old plants there.
I would recommend crinum Asiaticum purpureum. It's a tough strappy leafed plant with, (what I think is), a tropical / exotic vibe.
We recommend reading Subtropical and Dry Climate plants by Martyn Rix for ideas. Take a trip to visit Tresco Abbey garden. Perhaps each bed could represent a zone/ area/ have a theme for each one. Trailing plants also to soften the bricks, statues and mosaics to add interest and colour. Definitely restore the pond. An amazing atrium what an opportunity!
George, so impressed by the atrium (a dream come true for the owners and wish I was in their shoes!) and by your ability to shoot your talk-around walk-around in a single take. It's a delight to watch. Well done 🙂
I’d be experimenting with some of the more common houseplants that won’t be a disaster if they don’t make it. I’ve seen loads of big, gnarly, twisted dracaena growing in freezing cold porches over the years, and they’d compliment the yuccas. Snake plants could look great – not a fan of cold below about 10c (although they’re so cheap, you could experiment in warmer/sheltered spots – their colours get quite washed out in direct sun)
Lots of reports of Monstera being surprisingly hardy, too, especially when on the dry side over winter (I’m trialling one in my greenhouse and the leaves are absolutely enormous thanks to the high light levels). I’ve seen them in Portugal growing as an understory plant (and taking the occasional dry frosts) under large trees, so we’ll worth a trial, and could tolerate less humidity than other tropicals. If they defoliate in a frost they come back rapidly in heat, but UK summers aren’t (without an atrium at least!) hot or long enough for them to recover sufficiently, so they tend to go into steady decline without some help: Or so I’ve read. Pothos are so cheap that you could trial it in different spaces – especially anywhere you expect to stay a little warmer, and when they get growing and the leaves start to fenestrate, they are amazing plants. If they don’t make it, you’ve lost a fiver – heck, I’m sure you could get some cuttings from a friend!
Kentia and/or parlour palms might do well and Bird of paradise, as you already mentioned, should both be ok at lower temps, when dry.
I’d look at getting some other interesting cycads, I think I might have spotted a couple beyond the revolutas, but there are lots out there, and not crazy expensive in small sizes.
Aeoniums are surely a must have, especially being kept frost free, and could be amazing candidates for the pool-border – imagine when they start to flower en masse… 😍 cyclops is a particular favourite and is quite huge. Check out some of the @surreal_succulents’ show gardens on IG for inspiration.
Alocasia could work – I saw some where my brother lives in Rome and they see plenty of (again, dry) frosts in winter, but bounce back in spring – you could grow in a large pot sat in the pond for the extra moisture.
I’d be really tempted to get some climbers in as well, some tropicals would be nice, but even plain old bougainvillea would be fun, and jasmine would be incredible for scent. Obviously your monsteras would climb in there too… I’d also look to get some trailing plants – perhaps some succulents – lampranthus, for example, that could soften the edges a bit.
Cacti, as you say, would be great – I’d go round the garden centre, or even supermarket and buy a couple of trays of ‘mixed cacti’ and go to town. You can always remove/thin out later, and things will size up pretty fast in those conditions. Opuntia rapidly get to tree-like proportions in similar conditions, so don’t overdo it with those! Key, in my opinion, would be to invest in some interesting hard landscaping, and create some new levels, as the monotone slate will be a bit stale otherwise.
Perfect conditions for some more interesting yuccas as well – plus, if/when they get too big in the future, they can be cut back hard, and they’ll likely branch. Faxoniana, felifera, for example, would be amazing.
For scent, what about brugmansia? They could probably take the chill, and would smell incredible for months on end. They’d also get to a good size, so you could be walking underneath the trumpets in a matter of months.
Bananas, as you mentioned, are a great shout – I’d be tempted to try some more interesting things from seed (ensete glaucum and musa velutina, for example – the latter of which might even give them edible bananas!). Moisture (and associated excess humidity) might be an issue, if they want them to grow strongly but they could always keep them to one well-watered/fed bed with other similar plants.
Last thing I’d do would be paint the lower brickwork – the terracotta floors are nice, and the red brick walls are inoffensive, but I think painting the lower/border walls a bright Mediterranean white, or even a dark colour like ‘Railings’ could look incredible.
It’s an amazing space – a few more yuccas than I’d choose, but they’re good fillers for the time being. I’d be tempted to ‘coppice’ some to the ground – they’ll soon send up new shoots, and you’d create a lot of understory space around the giant trunks (but perhaps best to wait until they need the extra space – that’s already a lot of room to fill!
Clivias would look lovely so would hoyas, anthuriums
Wow that is certainly a project! Personal preference but I couldn’t cope with all that red brickwork I’d be growing plants up it as fast as possible or even rendering parts of it and retiling the floors but I’m sure they didn’t buy the place to do those kind of works. Bougainvillea, passionflowers,daturas I’d want to fill every spare inch of wall space with plants😁maybe a trip to the Eden project could give inspiration. Well done to the new owners for taking it on what a fabulous journey they will have, I hope they make a beautiful garden that they enjoy and get years of pleasure from it
Amazing what a dream I'm a huge lover of water fountains ⛲ thank you so much for sharing to the owners and you George cactus lavender mint and well can't get enough of all the different palm 🌴 beautiful
If it were me I'd change the blue slate, it creates stagnant soil, especially for plants, less so if dry and light soil. A golden corn 10mm gravel would be good in the arid areas and bark chippings or even for lush areas a blended compost. They would sit better with the deep red brickwork, compliment it better.
I think I remember someone at a garden centre telling me about this place years ago, somewhere slightly north and west of myself…. If I'm right.
I would take the eriospatha out whilst still youngish. Plant sabals, kentia, caterinensis, multi stem palms that will be good to maturity in there. Most of the plants in there would be ok/ish outside, seems a bit of a waste. Datura for scent and foliage, bougainvillea, grass trees, macrozamia, golden barrel cactus, agave, crassula, new Zealand Christmas trees, hardy bromiliads. More tender passion flowers, protea, leucadendron, hardier philodendrons. Wollemi outside, would do better. The old pond made back into a pond would look fantastic with a water fall feature with cyathea around it. Fish would look great, done right, very low maintenance. Even European tree frogs. It would be great to plant and create that space. To save on heating or even no heat, a thermal blanket could be used on a low gear motor to retain heat at night. I'm planning a simular type of thing in the future. Everything is personal choice, just a few suggestions, it's an awesome space, too many ideas to list!! Very tidy brickwork!
Not sure where to begin. It certainly a stunning place. First I would get rid of the gray gravel I think it clashes with the red and does not highlight the yuccas. I instead would use a white stone and maybe a small pea gravel vs the larger gravel stone.
Next thinking more succulents since it is dry plus a few more varieties of yuccas and perhaps agaves.
That area where there used to be a pond and now is just a smaller water feature I’d go back to a larger pond in the center you could walk all the way around and put fish in the pond and then look at arid style plant to plant on the perimeter to view as you walk around maybe even a few more small yuccas.
Would love to see it in person but will just enjoy seeing it as I did with this video on my 75” screen at home.
Hope you can go back in a couple of years and show an update on what they did
Wow, that's a truly awesome space – and so much potential 😍
Personally, I'd probably turn the old pond into a bog garden and have things like Zantedeschia, ligularia/farfugium, lotus, canna & caladiums – I'd imagine that'd also help with humidity.
I'd add in some large rocks and the occasional random statue, possibly introduce another colour gravel on top in a ribbon design just to help break up the grey gravel and give more interest and give the eye something to follow, then lots of creeping sedums to soften things up, also dot about cactus, agave & mangave (faster growing and more interesting colours/shapes).
For a bit of extra colour, there is stuff like pink cordylines: pink passion/charlie boy or the red non-trunk forming festival burgundy and I guess they could try some colourful coleus for areas with more shelter from direct light & irrigation as they're not drought tolerant, also not sure how coleus would hold up in the summer heat in there.
If they wanted to add more edibles – perhaps a self fertile kiwi vine? They have lovely soft fussy leaves.
In that seating area I'd be tempted to try some lavender & maybe rosemary and sage, then replacing the palms that need to go with large specimen olives, just as they can have such interesting trunks and it would give a more Mediterranean feel, maybe also a protea somewhere as they have such beautiful flowers.
By the indoor pool – so the irrigation would need to be set to give more water… but, gardenia & daphne for ALOT of scent, alstroemeria for long lasting colour, I'd also be quite tempted to add agapanthus. 😁
So amazing, thank you for sharing
I wouldn’t heat it much above 5oc as with the lower light levels over winter and heat the plants might start to go all reachy. Obviously the citrus might need a bit warmer but if it was left for a year with everything turned off they might be established enough to cope.
It’s very exciting for the type of plants you could grow and how amazing it can be. If you got the height the definitely Travellers Palm, Licuala grandis Ruffled Fan Palm but the humidity will have to be increased
Of course fill ever bit of free space with tons of succulents, Aeoniums, aloes, Echeveria, crassula and agave.
Tree Aloes would be amazing in there, Aloe Polyphylla you could get so much colour in there
Endless possibilities 😂
So much potential.
I would just go crazy with it and pack every free spot with tropical plants.
Thanks for sharing George. What an amazing place with bags and bags of potential. Would love to see it again when the owners have put their stamp on it and planted more. 😃
Hey George. Fabulous tour of a fabulous space. So much potential. Some beautiful plants already in place but the interesting thing for me is most of them could be grown outside without the atrium (apart from the large yuccas).
There's already lots of greens. The first plants I'd buy would be all purple and silver foliage plants to contrast with them.
Purples (cannas bird of paradise/black tropicana/wyoming/cleopatra). Ensetes maurelii.
Silvers. Brahea Armatas. You could easily grow Bismarckia in pots there.
I'd move the tree ferns and the Wollemis outside. I'd put in some standard bird of paradises, heliconias for colour and load up on exotic dahlias for the summer.
I'd remove the gravel bringing it back to soil. The brick edges look great but everything needs softening with some trailing plants.
I'd absolutely use the sunken area as an area for sunbeds surrounded by potted exotic palms. I'd try lipstick 💄 palms, bringing them into the house in pots for the winter. Those beautiful red trunks would look stunning.
I'd have an arid area planted up with colourful mangaves which would size up quickly in those conditions and do really well. I'd put a couple of large yucca rostratas for more silver together with a yucca linearlis for it's symmetrical architecture
There's unlimited possibilities here. Plenty of cash and time needed but it'd be worth every penny.
Cheers mate. Brilliant video
Btw I agree with you re filifera id
Wow, what a place. I like some others would change the grey slate gravel for something a bit lighter think it would set of the planting better.
As for that border near the swimming pool doors, definitely some form of Ensete Banana, maybe a Ginger or even a Brugmansia..
What a place! The size of these Yucca and Chamaerops humilis is mindblowing! Very attractive bush of pink Pelargonium.
The fountain is so elegant! A lot of plantation still to do. I'm a fan… of fan palms and also of the Yucca rostrata shape.
A bush of Aloe arborescens would be nice (in the Atrium or in the two rectangular symetric places). And yes, these two
places would be great for Cactae and succulent plants would be great.
The Phoenix canariensis will have to travel a bit someday…
As for your garden, i agree to say that the Washingtonia sp is not hardy enough. Thank you George for the tour. Tc 💚
Such great potential practically unused!
This could be such a wonderful space, but it’s ruined by the awful gravel and brickwork. A space like this should be all about the plants, but it looks so sterile and bare. Each to their own I guess
This is phenomenal. I love the mature tropical specimens in the atrium. Being a pond person, I would absolutely get that pond back up and running.
Thank you to everyone who enjoyed the video of our atrium. And a bigger thanks to those who left comments. And of course, thank you to George for his wonderful narration and content. We appreciate all comments and suggestions regarding future ideas for plants with more fragrance and color, as well as general ideas for smaller/lower plants. While we may never reinstate the indoor fish pond, we do have the small lake outside and we have a couple hundred gold fish/carp out there. Having both a small lake and a swimming pool within our property are enough bodies of water to look after at this time. We feel honored to have been able to purchase this property and to pick up where the original owner left off. He definitely had a specific vision and taste, and while it may not have been what we would have done in some instances – the amount of thought, time and money he put in really shows. We are looking forward to learning how to become amateur gardeners and slowly adding more plants and such over time. And hope that George will come back in the future and film an update! Thanks to everyone again!
Love it David ❤