Mandy

Hi Stephen, thanks for the welcome. I grow mainly tropical but also with any of the cool climate fruits we want including olives. I have bananas, 4 types but my favorite is Blue Java icecream and Australian pineapple lady finger. A lot of citrus, custard apples and macadamia nuts. As far as ornamentals, I grow ceiba speicosia (sp) which flowers well for me, Ficus damaropsis, bauhinias, broms, calatheas, alocasia/colocasia and xanthosomas, cordylines, doryanthes palmeri, kohleria, dypsis baronni and other palms, brugmansias,the list goes on as I'm a shocking collector, I blame my husband for giving me a book on tropical plants. I am putting all sorts of orchids and other epiphytes into the trees at the moment and working on a glade for my heliconias. I avoid things that would need a lot of extra care and also use some of our beautiful natives like puka trees, Whau, poor knights lily and once again, anything that takes my fancy> I am not a minimalist gardener but go for more of a jungle effect with more formality at the top around the house, these days a machete is one of my more used tools. Please tell me about your garden, you are zone 11 where as only some zone 11s will grow in my garden due to heavy clay and cold, sodden winter roots