Don’t we all long for a conservatory, whether it’s one of those gorgeous concoctions displayed at the Chelsea Flower Show that we look longingly into or something more down to earth.

And conservatories get plenty of use all year round both in deepest winter, on wet days and, considering our increasingly strange and erratic summer weather, in the summer months too. And plenty of glass means that apart from raising the light levels and thus our mood, we have borrowed landscape beyond our windows to peer out at. I think that in a perfect world, a conservatory would be jungle-like with, of course, a table and a comfortable chair or two squeezed in and maybe some staging for interesting succulents, masses of colour in the form of good old annual pelargoniums, pots of seasonal bulbs and any manner of favourite plants. 

Glazing techniques used in conservatories have moved on so much in the last twenty years or so – in the past the room would heat up so much that it resembled the Arizona desert and be full of exhausted flies and then be icy cold in winter. Now more ambient temperatures are the norm. No plant wants extreme variations in temperature, rather like us. As long as you keep the conservatory at a minimum winter temperature of 2˚C there is no end of plants you can grow.  

At this time of year, I would bring in pots of Christmas box (Sarcococca) as they begin to flower. Tiny white flowers growing amongst glossy evergreen leaves give out such a sweet scent and the pots can go back out into the garden when the flowers are over. The same applies to camellias. C. transnokoensis is scented and flowers in late winter – lovely little pink buds open to simple small white flowers. And the early flowering camellias, C. sasanqua, do best under glass in our winters. I have one in a large pot in a sheltered spot outside the kitchen window at the moment that has flowered for weeks and weeks but after a brief frosty spell, it is looking a little bit ragged. You could also bring in pots of plants like fragrant Daphne odora as they begin to flower and then pop them out again.

My perfect conservatory would have shrubs like Plumbago auriculata scrambling around in it – either in a large pot or in the ground. The flowers are such a perfect sky blue and always remind me of hot holidays.  There’s a white form, Plumbago auriculata ‘Alba’ which is rather choice too but the blue is so evocative.  

Another plant which the conservatory couldn’t be without would be Tibouchina urvilleana, the Glory Bush. You’d need a bit of space for this gem but its combination of downy leaves and the most beautiful rich blue flowers means it is high up the list of conservatory plants which flower later in the season. Under glass, it can flower on until January which is quite a treat. I’d also grow the night scented jasmine (Cestrum nocturnum) or Lady of the Night, native to the West Indies, whose creamy flowers open at night giving off a heady scent to attract moths.

There are so many interesting climbers and twiners to try. I think that if you have a lot of space, it would be worth growing the Australian bower plant, Pandorea jasminoides. The cultivar ‘Rosea Superba’ has large tubular flowers with a deeper pink throat and purple spots.   

And a slightly different version of the twining trachelospermum but hardier than some is T. asiaticum, an absolute mass of creamy scented flowers from mid summer onwards. And if you are happy to have flowers looking down at you from the conservatory roof, consider one of the passion flowers. My only gripe with them is that many of them have rather scraggy foliage but that is made up for by exquisite flowers. Two of them come to mind – one of them, a hybrid called Passiflora x exoniensis has rosy red flowers followed by edible fruit. The other one would be a spectacular plant from the rainforests of Colombia, the most exotic P. antioquiensis with huge red fluorescent flowers hanging down from long stems. I may be getting a bit ambitious here.

Maybe try big pots of clivias from South Africa – bold foliage combined with stunning flowers. And there are any manner of palms to add to the jungle feel. The Sealing Wax Palm is particularly nice as it has such brilliant red stems. Or any of the bromeliads, most of which come from tropical America. They vary hugely but most of them form a rosette and produce extraordinary strange and rather lurid flowers. Ferns, brugmansias – particularly Brugmansia arborea ‘Knightii’ – look great in a beautiful pot. This plant has huge double and very glamorous white flowers with a knock-out scent.

Succulents of all shapes and sizes, aeoniums, aloes, plectranthus from South Africa (you can make quite a collection of these plants grown for their rather beautiful and varied foliage). Try large leaved colocasias. Look out for C. ‘Black Magic’. All these will add to your exotic oasis.

This is a good time of year to check out some of the suppliers of conservatory plants. The Palm Centre near Richmond (palmcentre.co.uk) has a wonderful choice of plants and, of course, can help you choose plants for your conservatory’s conditions. Burncoose Nurseries in Cornwall (burncoose.co.uk) supplies all manner of desirable plants. And the Plant Centre at RHS Wisley often has interesting bromeliads and many succulents for sale in their house plant/conservatory plant section. Finally, JungleSeeds (jungleseeds.co.uk) 01491 614765 are a reliable source of both exotic seeds and plants.

TEST Succulents of all shapes and sizes, aeoniums, aloes, plectranthus from South Africa (you can make quite a collection of these plants grown for their rather beautiful and varied foliage)

Succulents of all shapes and sizes, aeoniums, aloes, plectranthus from South Africa (you can make quite a collection of these plants grown for their rather beautiful and varied foliage)

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