146. Tropical Garden with EASY/SIMPLE Overwintering Plans..

End of October 2025, and the weather here is still quite mild here in Neath, South Wales, UK. I’m going to take you around the garden and see what is still doing well at the end of the season, and what plants are still in flower…

I’m also going to show what minimal Overwintering I do here in the Tropical Garden, I only wrap 2 types of plants in the garden…

1. Musa Basjoo
2. Dicksonia Antartica

This year we have also purchased a Sago Palm, and it will be the first UK Winter that this will be in the ground, I will probably place some fleece into the centre to protect it. The Agaves and Mangaves have been moved into an unheated greenhouse for protection from the wet, and my Cactus have been brought indoors. Everything else in the garden is left unprotected….Almost all of my plants have been purchased for their ‘UK Hardiness’.

I love the look of a Tropical Garden, but I decided that our garden had to be MINIMAL care, as we just haven’t got the time to be digging up plants for the Winter months.

I hope this video will show you that you CAN grow a Tropical Hardy Garden, here in the UK….

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#plantssparkjoy #easyoverwintering #garden #tropicalgardenuk

Welcome back to the garden here in Neath, South 
Wales. Well, I thought I’d take you around today on this very blustery, showery day, although 
it’s not cold, and just to show you what’s still doing well in the garden. We’ve still got some 
lovely flowers going… and I just wanted to take you around and show you what plans I’ve got for 
my overwintering, and really just to show you how basic the overwintering procedure can be. And 
really in my garden, I do the bare minimum and most of the garden is made up of hardy plants, 
and that way it’ll just get through all of the Winter with just minimum care. And so, let’s get 
started and I’ll show you around the garden. So, I’ve been out today just having a little look 
around the garden, and I was hoping for a little bit of peace and quiet, but somebody, one of the 
neighbours, has decided now that they want to do a little bit of DIY. So, this one here, this 
is my Hot Lips, and it’s still in full flower… and that one is a lovely red and white at 
the moment… and behind that we’ve got the Salvia Amistad, and that’s still blooming. The 
John Phillips is still looking good, and just moving over to the other side of the garden. 
There’s another Hot Lips there, and that one is just plain red in colour. Isn’t it 
strange how the two plants can be so different, and yet be right next door to each 
other? So, we’ve still got some Roses in the garden, and considering we’re almost now 
in November, I can’t quite believe that. So, the Salvia Amistad that I’ve got 
in the pot, you can see now that that is just starting to die back. But when the 
flowers do finish on this, I will just trim the flowers off. But I will leave a little 
bit of the foliage, just to protect the roots. And I do seem to love a Salvia in the 
garden as there’s another one there… and that is a Salvia ‘Purple & Bloom’ 
So they’re very similar to the ‘Amistad’ and just tucked in there, if you can see 
next to the Banana is another Amistad, and that now is tucked in with the Banana, and the 
grasses, and that was bought two seasons ago from Grow Paradise, as a small little plug plant, and that now has got to be about one and a half metres tall. So that’s done really well. 
I didn’t lift it last year, and I just left it in the ground. I didn’t take any 
cuttings and it just grew back beautifully. And one thing that I do want to do today, is 
just to give these Tree Ferns a little bit of a watering, as even though it’s been raining, 
they do look a little dry, as the winds at this time of year, can really dry them out. So 
just make sure that you keep these well damp. And this is my other Tree Fern. This 
is a two foot trunk, and I’m going to do exactly the same with this one, and just 
get right there in the middle, and give that a really good watering can full of 
water. Just to keep it damp in the crown. So, my Bonariensis are also coming to the end, 
and it’ll be the first year that I’ve had these in the ground over the Winter, but I’m 
hoping that these will grow really tall next year, and behind that, I’ve got my Hellebores. 
I’ve had a little root around in there, and there’s no sign of any flowers just yet. And just tucked under there, I’ve got some more 
Hellebores, but still no sign of any flowers just yet. I’ve been looking at this lovely Cordyline 
that I’ve got here in the pot, and it’s such lovely colours on this plant, and I really 
am in two minds of what to do with it. So, I was thinking maybe when the Dahlias are 
finished out the front of the house, I could move this plant in the pot near the front 
door. Or shall I take the plunge and plant it at the bottom of the garden so that it can grow 
to its maximum size? Decisions, decisions. And yes, I have been out in my pyjamas just 
doing a little bit of tidying up in the garden, but I’m quite lucky, I’m not overlooked 
here as the garden is enclosed. So, good morning everyone. It’s Thursday today, and 
I’ve come out early in the morning before the rain sets in, as it is going to rain a little bit 
today. So, I’ve been looking around the garden and just taking a look to see what I’ve got now 
to overwinter. So, as you know, I’ve got a lot of the Trachycarpus in the garden, and this one 
here is an example of a ‘Waggy’ and with these and the ‘Fortunei’ just do nothing at all. These will look 
after themselves throughout the Winter and there’s no need to protect these at all. In fact, if you 
do, you’ll just cause more damage to the plant. They really are a beautiful plant. I don’t really 
take much notice of this one in the garden as I always seem to be drawn towards the Fortunei. But 
this Waggy is looking really good at the moment. Lovely leaves in there. And this one here in the centre bed. This is 
the ‘Fortunei’ and again doing absolutely nothing with this, Behind that I’ve got the lovely 
Tetrapanax, and that now is 3 years old. And again, I’m going to do nothing at all with 
that one. Now, as you can see on this Tetrapanax, looking at it from the other side, it has produced 
now a large trunk. And the trunk alone now on this tree is probably about four… four and a half foot tall… and 
this is the one that is going to be producing flowers, but still nothing yet. So with this 
one in my garden, the foliage or the leaves, they will go. So it is deciduous in my garden. 
So I am left with just a trunk in the garden. But last year it survived really well. So I’m not too 
worried about it. So, just leave these alone and don’t wrap them up as hopefully they will survive. 
Fingers crossed. Now, the clump of Musa’s that I’ve got in the centre of the garden, this was just 
the one last year and it had four pups. and this now I will be protecting. So, I’ll be cutting 
back the foliage, and all the leaves off the top, and just protecting the stems with some fleece. 
So I have been looking at the weather, and I can see that in the next 10 days there is no frost 
at all. So I won’t be doing anything just yet with these plants. Although I have got my yogurt 
pots ready… as I find them ideal just to pop on the top to keep the rain out. So, I’ve been 
collecting them now for the last few weeks, and hopefully I’ve got at least another two weeks 
where I haven’t got to do anything with these. So, the Tree Fern? What will I be doing 
with that? Well, on the colder nights, just coming out, popping a little 
bit of fleece there into the centre on the colder nights, and later on as the 
weather does get a little bit chillier, I’ll be wrapping up the top of that stem there also with my fleece, and what I tend to do then, 
is on the more sunnier days is just come out and take out the ball of fleece, just to let it 
breathe…. and don’t forget with these Tree Ferns, if the weather is quite dry throughout the Winter, 
don’t forget to water them well. But don’t do that when there’s any frosty or icy weather due. 
But they still need watering in the dry spells. So, as we walk across now from the wildlife 
pond, you can see that that is the main pathway there that I use. And just to the 
left of that, this was the last part of the garden to be dug out, and this now is a large 
oval bed which is full of different plants. We’ve got a Trachycarpus, Nandina, and of 
course over the other side, the Tree Fern. So the centre has also been dug out of the 
garden, and this has been changed quite a lot in 2025 because all the plants now have grown 
quite tall. So we were able this year just to do a little bit of underplanting, and I’m loving 
the effect that that’s having at the moment. It’s the first year that we’ve had a Sago Palm, and I am hoping that that is going to be 
okay throughout the Winter months there. I’ve got plenty of Ferns in the garden, and some of these do keep their fronds, 
and some of them do die back. But they all will come back next year, with beautiful new growth, and Ferns 
are really tough plants. So all of these ferns, if I just move this Nandina out the way, will pull through the winter. Okay. They might 
not look their best through the Winter months, but they look just as good next year. 
So, I don’t protect them at all…. and the lovely ‘Autumn’ Fern that I’ve got 
here in the oval bed. That one will probably die back through the winter months as it’s a 
deciduous fern, but that will come back then next Spring with some lovely bronzy red fronds, 
that will later turn green just like this. That’s a wonderful fern this, and I really like 
the Autumn fern. The grasses that I’ve got in the garden this year is the Arundo Donax and the Miscanthus, and the Miscanthus now, have got some lovely wispy flowers on the top, These I will leave for most of the Winter, just to add a bit of structure and interest, but when they do start looking a little bit scruffy, I’ll then cut them back ready for the new growth next year. But for the moment, they’re looking beautiful in the garden, and looking at the 
bottom of these grasses, I just can’t believe the thickness on some of these Arundo Donax… When I bought these, they were in tiny pots. And two to three years later. Just 
look at the thickness on them stems. The salvias in my garden are still in full flower…. and they are still looking good… and behind there, 
I’ve got a lovely Phormium. And with the Phormiums, I’ve never protected them in my garden. 
And they always just sail through the Winter months. And the Olive Tree that’s been 
in now probably 3 to four years, and again, no protection with that. Just looks after itself. I will be losing the leaves soon off some 
of these plants. But that Nandina there, that’s a beautiful plant throughout the Winter. And that one there is evergreen. So that’ll stay 
looking like that now right through the colder season. Now in amongst the under planting in 
this area here, there’s plenty of grasses and no problems with them, and I have got the Persicaria 
there. Now these will die back to the ground. But don’t worry with these, they’ll spring back next year. Always 
a great filler plants, the Persicaria. Definitely a wonderful addition 
to any ‘Tropical Garden’ So the ‘Pink China’ that I’ve got in my 
garden, I only planted in this year. You can see that it’s absolutely tiny there. 
Tiny little leaves. But I’ll be leaving this in, and hopefully this will just get a lot 
bigger for next year. But I won’t be digging these up. These are quite hardy here 
in the UK and should come back next year….hopefully. Now the salvia Amistad is 
started last year in my garden. You can just see them tucked in there… I left them in the ground and they just came  back without any problems. So some people do take cuttings with these, and just replant them every year. But last year I 
was lucky. So I’m going to take my chances again this year. Hopefully they’ll pull through. So the one thing that I have learned growing a Tropical Garden is really you don’t need to have purely tropical plants in it. A lot of the plants for me are very ‘Winter Hardy’ plants, and they 
at this time of year just add the structure, the backbone to the garden if you like. And that’s 
what gives the garden 12 months of interest. And at this time of year when 
things are starting to slow down, I do enjoy just the basic plants such as 
this Photinia ‘Red Robin’. They add a little bit of structure and also a little bit of colour 
into the garden at this time of year. And these always look wonderful when other things have 
just died back throughout the Winter months. And there’s another example there 
of the Photinia ‘Red Robin’ Nothing tropical at all about these plants, but I 
just love them in the garden and I think they work really well as they’re so hardy 
and they look really good all year round. Lovely to edge pathways, or to add just a little 
bit of background in the garden. And the one that I’ve got at the bottom of the garden is a 
Photinia ‘Louise’ and these have usually got some pink markings on the leaves. You can just see a 
little bit there, and these are so easy to look after, and they just add loads of interest in the 
garden. No protection, just look after themselves. So I have got the Yucca Rostrata in a 
pot, and I’ve had this now for one winter, but I just left it outside and 
it was absolutely fine. So I’m not going to be too worried 
about that this year. So looking at the garden now from the bottom… and the Cordylines, they will look after 
themselves. No protection there. And really most of my garden is made up of 
quite hardy plants. So there’s not an awful lot of work to do here to keep 
it going through the winter. Now the Cycas?… This is the first year 
to have one of these in the garden. So, this is going to be a little bit of a 
learning curve for myself. And the plan is, maybe just to pull up the fronds 
on the very cold nights, and tie them up, and definitely pop some fleece into 
the centre there. And I’ve really got my fingers crossed for this one because it’s 
a lovely plant and I do want it to survive. So they are the only plants 
really that I protect in the garden, as the plants like the Fatsia 
Japonica here, and the Rhododendrons, I just leave them well alone and they will 
look after themselves. They’re pretty hardy here in the UK. The Bamboos are the same. Oh, 
hello Vim. Didn’t know you were there, boy? The Mahonia… That’s a lovely plant at this time of 
year. Although the flowers now have faded, but again takes no winter protection here. 
They just look after themselves. Now, moving now into the cover of the greenhouse. This 
gravel area here on the left is where I’m going to lay my trays. And in these trays, this 
is where I keep my potted Dahlias. So, they will be cut back, and just stored there in the 
pots. I’ve also got my Aeoniums in here, the Mangave, and this is where I’ve started to put Tony’s 
collection of Agaves… and we’ve also got a Yucca here, that I bring just into the protection of the 
unheated greenhouse for the colder winter months. So everything now inside the greenhouse 
will be safe and away from the winter weather, and I just come out here every now 
and again just to give a little bit of water, especially to this little Tetrapanx pup 
that I’ve got growing…. And that’s doing and that’s doing really well at the moment. So all of the leaves now are off the Acer Bi-Hoo, but just look at them beautiful stems. Such a 
lovely colour on them. Bright orange and red… and these just give winter interest even 
when there’s no leaves on them. So I hope you realize now after looking around the 
garden, that it is possible to achieve a ‘Tropical Style’ garden here in the UK with the 
bare minimum care, and you really don’t need to spend an awful lot of time overwintering 
things. Most of my garden, as you’ve seen, is made up of ‘Hardy’ plants, which will just 
go through the winter with no protection whatsoever, and a lot of the plants here will 
just come back as good as new next year. So, I hope that’s helped you if you are thinking of 
starting a ‘Tropical Style’ garden here in the UK. So, until next time, if you haven’t already, 
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