Daily details from the garden to bring you inspiration throughout the year
Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Rex’ in the company of the dark dahlia ‘After Dusk’ in the gardens at Great Comp
If you’d suggested to me ten years ago that I’d begin to develop a hankering for plants that create a tropical atmosphere, I’d probably have choked on my cucumber sandwich and told you to toddle off down my lavender-lined path. But even then a shiny leaved fatsia was taking root in one corner of the garden. What I really want is its much larger – and slightly less hardy – cousin, the rice-paper plant Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Rex’, whose huge felty-textured leaves can grow to a metre in diameter and tower over you from four times that in height. Whether I could make it work here is another matter, but it would be a perfect excuse for a reshuffle.
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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, writer, photographer, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking this image.