Exotic travel being very complicated at the moment, NewsJardinTV suggests you take advantage of the summer period to offer yourself a moment of escape. Our editor-in-chief, Patrick Mioulane, invites you today to Nantes, in the Grand Blottereau park. Accompanied by Patrick Le Bâtard, the head gardener of the place, he will make you discover an exceptional garden worthy by its opulence and diversity of the most beautiful creations seen in tropical Asia or in the Caribbean. The Grand Blottereau park is a large municipal garden of 19 hectares which presents landscaping achievements evoking all the continents as well as the tropical agronomy vegetable garden in which NewsJardinTV filmed an interesting video on peppers ( • ANTHOLOGY OF PEPPERS AND PEPPER OF T... ) But for 25 years, it is a unique experiment which has been led by the gardeners of the place, namely the creation of a tropical-looking garden which grows bigger from year to year. The secrets of success (in addition to a relatively mild climate in the Nantes region) are: a permanent supply of water in hot weather thanks to a drip system totally invisible in the vegetation, a generous organic amendment based on manure, controlled fertilization, a mulch of fresh grass clippings in the spring, then a covering of wood chips to finish. Experience also shows that plants gradually manage to harden off and better withstand winter over the years. The plants are planted in open ground. The least sensitive to cold are left in place from one year to the next, the others are grown as annual plants. Our two gardeners present two types of banana trees: Musa basjoo (Japanese banana) and Ensete ventricosum (Abyssinian banana). The first are left in place and pruned back in the spring above the part that has frozen. More sensitive to cold, the Abyssinian banana trees are kept in a greenhouse during the winter after being severely cut back. The plants presented in this report are exceptional in their size, particularly the Colocasia esculenta (taro) and Colocasia gigantea (elephant ears). Patrick also shows a related plant: Alocasia macrorrhizos, whose leaves are similar, but with an upright habit. The tour continues with the presentation of an ornamental sugar cane and the real Nile papyrus before the discovery of a spectacular and little-known plant: Amicia zygomeris, a Mexican perennial grown here as an annual. Patrick shows you its particularities, as well as the flamboyant Cuphea melvilla native to South America. The report ends with the presentation of the palm trees (7 species in this park) which reinforce the exotic aspect of the place. Patrick Le Bâtard gives us some advice on how to protect them effectively in winter and handle them without hurting yourself. A truly superb and exotic garden that you should not miss visiting in summer, especially since entry is free! To find out more: https://jardins.nantes.fr/N/Jardin/Pa... And don't hesitate to follow the publications of NewsJardinTV regularly by subscribing for free. Just click on the bell icon at the top right of the home page and you will be kept up to date with all the new uploads on our channel. See you soon for new gardening adventures, on NewsJardinTV, of course!