As it turned out exact directions to Steve and Dawn Morgan’s house in Yelland were not necessary. There was nothing especially wrong with the other gardens in the neighbourhood, the usual mixed bag of tidy, not tidy, tidy but boring, tidy with promise, messy but interesting and then wham, did I just hop on the Malay Express?! Fragrant gingers and large-leaved paulownias screamed “this is not your usual North Devon front garden and wait until you see out the back, you are catching just a glimpse of the edge of my petticoat” or something like that anyway. As it was a Sunday morning and I was early (over eager after checking out their website http://www.devonsubtropicalgarden.co.uk) I decided to wait patiently until the allotted hour, it not being the done thing to catch your hosts in their onesies. I sat in the car practicing my deep breathing exercises trying to control the overwhelming urge to scale the gate and see what delights lay beyond. Luckily there was no need, which is just as well as these exercises have never worked in the past. I had been spotted and was invited in. Where do I begin? Hedychium on hedychium, colocasias with their sails of black, green and purple, passion flowers that remind you why their name is apt, brugmansias on steriods, the words alone are causing me to dribble (again). But the place that I kept returning to, the plants I stroked and lusted after more than any, were the bananas, more specifically the ensete, even more specifically Ensete ventricosum “Montbeliardii”, so beautiful I will even forgive it its unpronounceable name. My visit was an education, the Morgans were knowledgeable, generous and funny, I almost moved in. Actually, all you need to do is wrap me in a double layer of fleece and bring me the odd bacon butty and cup of tea and I will cuddle up with these fantastic plants all winter long.
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Off The Edge Gardening 
I thought that this post was going to be about my favourite Mancunian pop band 😉
The garden you visited sounded wonderful, quite different to the wannabe tropical gardens up here in inland Scotland!
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You have a few added problems up there, the weather! You had any frosts yet?
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A couple of weeks ago we had a little bit of ice on the car, not much, but a taste of things to come!
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Sounds like a great place to visit in the winter time!
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It sounds as if you had a spectacular time roaming through their lovely garden. Lucky you.
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You’re easily pleased … 🙂 Sounds like you had fun…..
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Lovely. I had a similar experience awhile back, when I visited a local nursery with a lot of “zone busting” going on. Lots of figs, lemon trees, orange trees. One lemon tree is nestled against the south side of the house under glass “eaves”. It has a thermometer permanently installed and hooked up to a string of Christmas tree lights. This seems to be enough to keep the tree producing lemons right through the winter. The oranges live in a large plastic house–I was given one to taste, and it was delicious! It’s way too much effort for me, but it was a treat to see. It’s all aimed towards food production, so not as spectacular as the tropicals you mention.
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Sounds really interesting Mrs D, especially the orange which sounds fantastic!
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Thanks for the lovely write up Gill, and glad you enjoyed your visit. I’ve put a slightly rambling bit on our first page of website. I also seem to have accidentally deleted your email so am replying to this address. All the best Steve
Sent from my iPad
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