JunglePlants

A small cool tolerant, deciduous tree with bright green glossy leaves growing to 15ft when planted but much smaller to 6ft if container grown and lightly pruned. Custard apples make excellent container specimens even grown from seed when they can come into fruit bearing age after just 2-3 years. The trees produce a small knobbly fruit with soft, creamy white flesh often having a minty or custardy flavour. Often called the sugar apple it is extremely popular throughout the tropics. This hardier mountain form with very fragrant fruit will take temperatures down to frost level once mature and therefore easier to over winter under frost free greenhouse or conservatory.

Rare cool tolerant Mountain Papaya - Grow your own Papaya Fruits on a dwarf 3ft to 6ft tree!

This mountain hybrid Papaya comes from the highlands of Ecuador and thrives in a cool subtropical climate, free of frost. The babaco is much more tolerant of cool, damp winters than the papaya. It will withstand temperatures to about 28° F in very short bursts, although it may lose most of its leaves. The babaco is ideally suited to container culture and also excellent for greenhouses in a sunny spot.

Eventually growing to about 6 feet in height it does not branch and during the cold winter months the leaves degenerate and are usually shed below 12C but will keep growing if kept warmer. As these plants are vegetatively propagated they only produce self fertile female flowers. The excellent large seedless fruits, to 12" long ripen in the late autumn to winter depending on the season. The flesh of the babaco is very juicy, slightly acidic and low in sugar with a unique flavour that has been described as having overtones of strawberry, pineapple and papaya. New growth from the base should be only encouraged when the old stem has become too old to be productive.

The cool tolerant parent of the Babaco hybrid this tough mountain Papaya will tolerate short spells down to frost level but best grown in warm humid conditions. We think that like the Babaco it will be easier to overwinter than normal Papaya in a heated glasshouse. The fruit is smaller and although it can be eaten raw is best cooked or made into jam. A small branching tree not reaching more than 6ft in pots even after a few years so ideal as a pot grown conservatory plant.

Such a well known commodity! But did you know that the plants make interesting house or conservatory shrubs with dark, glossy green leaves, small white scented flower clusters followed by bright red coffee beans. Don’t get too excited though about grinding your own coffee from the seed - unless it is dried and cured correctly, it tastes awful!

The Surinam cherry rarely grown outside of the Americas is a bush or small tree to 25ft in height that can be kept to a manageable size when pot grown . It has adapted to both subtropical and tropical climates and is hardy to -3°C when full grown and possible a good candiate for a sunny winter cool conservatory. Plants like full sun and are drought tolerant, needing only moderate rainfall. Fruits develop and ripen in just 3 weeks from flowering on young trees and eaten fresh with sugar or used in preserves.

These plants have been raised by seed from a large hybrid guajava with tennis ball sized green fruits. Guava's grow best in full sun with tropical or semi tropical conditions. For this you will need a heated glasshouse. Flowers will self-pollinate and fruit develops in a few months from young 2 year old trees. Guava's can be eaten fresh but more often are used to flavor drinks, desserts, sauces, preserves, and many other food products.

We are now offering potted plants of sweet potatoes for you to over winter in a heated glass house in the same way that you would look after one of the ornamental types like Ipomoea blackie. We supply full instructions for you to take as many cuttings (slips) from this plant as you want in early spring, that can be grown on in pots to obtain larger plants before planting out early June. As long as you keep the plant above 15C in winter it will keep growing as an herbaceous perennial.

Beauregard Improved is a 90 day to crop with light-purple skin and salmon-orange flesh. It produces a high yield given a hot spell of weather in a sheltered position and has a good flavour. Not so vigorous as T65 with less top growth.

We are now offering potted plants of sweet potatoes for you to over winter in a heated glass house in the same way that you would look after one of the ornamental types like Ipomoea blackie. We supply full instructions for you to take as many cuttings (slips) from this plant as you want in early spring, that can be grown on in pots to obtain larger plants before planting out early June. As long as you keep the plant above 15C in winter it will keep growing as an herbaceous perennial.

Georgia Jet is a 90 day to crop red skin type with orange flesh. Again good yields given enough heat but not so vigorous as T65 but this one has the best flavour of the three that we offer.

We are now offering potted plants of sweet potatoes for you to over winter in a heated glass house in the same way that you would look after one of the ornamental types like Ipomoea blackie. We supply full instructions for you to take as many cuttings (slips) from this plant as you want in early spring, that can be grown on in pots to obtain larger plants before planting out early June. As long as you keep the plant above 15C in winter it will keep growing as an herbaceous perennial.

T65 is the heaviest cropping Sweet Potato variety available for planting in the UK. It produces long vines and the potatoes have a velvety light-pink skin with creamy light-golden flesh, with a reasonable flavour.

These plants can be tricky to raise from seed and we only send out fresh seed on a back to back basis when we receive it. Even then many of you have had problems with germination so when we received our last batch of fresh seed we decided to plant some ourselves and now have about 50 small plants for sale. Strictly a novelty requiring warm humid greenhouse conditions it grows quickly into a small shrub with large delicate tan coloured new leaves that hang vertically. An attractive tropical looking shrub or small tree for enthusiasts with stove house conditions.