What's Looking Exotic 2026

Yep it's a Bt
A Brugmansia aanguinea in our community garden in Heswall (Wirral), it's an experiment to see what we can grow in a sheltered area. The area is home to a Mediterranean border with olives, cistus etc. We have a challenging area as it's really dry but this is an area with enough moisture in winter. So far it's stayed above 0C in that area so the Brugmansia has not been damaged. In the garden/Park as a whole, it's been about -0.5C. The problem is the lack of moisture in Spring and Summer

 

In wet summers it gets bigger and has flowered in mild years when it gets the growth through the winter.
Seems to grow the most in the autumn.

 

@stephenprudence thanks for making me totally envious!
As it reached -4.7c here week before last, I don't think I'll be trying brugs outside!
Though saying that, I knew someone in rural Nottinghamshire who did. He just cut them down and mulched over winter.

 

Yes its true, Brugmansia sanguinea will over winter in the ground at root level. You do have to treat it as a dieback perennial in that situation though.

 

Another one from me, this time not o n Costa del Wirral but in Llandudno, an equally, if not more mild climate! I was there today just for a day out with the family, and I remembered at the end I'll check on a Crassula ovata that has miraculously survived in a border out in the open without protection for a few year. Suffice to say it looks impressive this winter, a testament to the lack of frost along the north Wales coast!

 

Just been to local exotic an hours drive . Wife's not happy as lounge looking like a tropical rain forest. Will post back with some pictures of what I got when I get a chance.

 

Isoplexis canariensis ‘Bella’

 

After a several -5cs and gale force winds these last two weeks, the Acacia lost loads of buds and turned some leaves brown. The Calothamnus has brown tips too and the small pink Echium bought in the Summer looks dead. We still have February to get through!

 

The Strelitzia reginae are opening ...

 

That "dwarf" plant looks like its getting pretty big now @Victoria

 

That’s a cheering sight @Victoria, such vibrant colours.

 

Too true. I think she came to us in 2005 ...


and went in the ground in 2008 ,,,

 

Protea cynaroides Little Prince just started. The other cynaroides with the white bracts will be a bit later.

 

That's a nice one @CarolineL .