Tropical plants in the garden

[hammerman]

I'm wracking my brains for ideas. I have a small patio....12' x 12' and i want to turn it into a small tropical paradise.

It gets full sun and there's no shade at all.

At present, i have a bamboo (phygelius nitida), 2 bananas, plumbego, fatsia, punica, citrus (lemon) and some small datura.

What else would you suggest. Plants have to be reasonably child friendly and dog friendly too (i know...the daturas are poisonous !!!)

I might get a trachycarpus although unless it grows quickly, it might be a bit too big a spread on it. Also thought about stuff like passiflora but too vigorous and even some annuals.

All the plants will be bought into a heated conservatory during winter.

Suggestions ?

[Thunderbird+]

If your thinking about a Trachycarpus, you might like to concider 'wagnerianus' as opposed to the usual 'fortunii', common name- miniature chusan palm, the leaves are about 1/2 the size and the stalks shorter too.

[Alibobs]

I have three fatsias planted to gether against a fence on my patio ( in a bed about 1 metre long), they look mighty jungly and survive over winter. I have a single specimen in my front garden as well but it doesn't give the sam wow factor as three together

[janetsflower]

I have got a tree fern(planted inside a disguised wheelie bin so it looks very tall cos the are expensive) and a honey bush and a canna indicta, a fig, an olive and a kiwi which all look very tropical in my mediterranean corner as well as the fatsia, plumbago and citrus that you already mentioned. Not all passifloras are as vigourous as the ones seen most commonly (sorry i don't have the varieties names to hand) but the less common ones come in some gorgeous colours. Also what about a callistemon (bootle brush)

[janetsflower]

You could also go for oleander, bourgonvillia, strepocarpus (bird of paradise). sorry bout spelling

[janetsflower]

Melianthus major - honey bush
strelitzia reginae - bird of paradise
bougainvillea
agave
solanum rantonnetti
passiflora carulea is the more common blue and white variety. You can get less vigourous reds and pinks and a vigourous purple one (passiflora eden i think)