Fancy a Festival in your Garden?!

Writer Erle Nickel says that “ornamental grasses have firmly established themselves as key elements in the modern garden, and their ranks keep swelling. That may be because ornamental grasses offer many rewards. They showcase distinctively beautiful foliage; the taller species add motion to your garden as they ripple in the wind; and they provide almost year-round interest.”


Festival Burgundy is a perfect complement for these popular ornamental grasses. Its distinctive burgundy color and cascading form provides a dynamic focal point in the garden or it can be a great accent plant in garden beds and, when planted in a large decorative container, it adds the wow factor to patios, entrances and pool areas.

Tropicanna at a famous landmark

Having made a recent pilgrimage, well pilgrimage for me; I thought I would share the experience – especially since to my surprise I found a previously unknown association between one of our Star Plants and the brightest Star of All

See if you can guess where I was – though it shouldn’t be too hard?

Put on my blue suede shoes

And I boarded the plane

Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues

In the middle of the pouring rain

W.C. Handy, won't you look down over me

Yeah I got a first class ticket

But I'm as blue as a boy can be

Then I'm walking in Memphis

Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale

Walking in Memphis

But do I really feel the way I feel

Saw the ghost of Elvis

On Union Avenue

Followed him up to the gates of Graceland

Then I watched him walk right through

Now security they did not see him

They just hovered 'round his tomb

But there's a pretty little thing

Waiting for the King

Down in the Jungle Room

Excerpt of Lyrics from Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn.

Yes you guessed it – Graceland.

It is not often that I get to do the tourist thing; but during my recent travels I found a spare Saturday ahead of a meeting in Tennessee and thought what better thing to do than tick off one of my bucket list items and visit Graceland.

In fact spend some time at other Memphis must see attractions like Sun Records, Beale St and the Gibson Guitar factory.

If you have never had the chance or inclination to visit Graceland / Memphis then I highly recommend it and plan to spend some late nights listening to some great Blues on Beale St; also eating some great Creole Food.

Check out these bands on You Tube to get a feel on who I saw and what you can expect – Brandon Santini, Jake Lear, and the Ghost Town Blues Band.

Anyway back to the key topic and imagine my surprise and I was “All Shook Up” to be touring Graceland and see Tropicanna alongside the King’s pool - we have always recommended this as one of the best uses for Tropicanna and it can be used in pots or in ground as you see in these images.

Unfortunately the plants were still only young as it was early in the season.

But as you can imagine these will look stunning when fully grown and we know the King loved the Tropical look given his concerts from Hawaii and the famed Jungle room at Graceland so I am sure he would have enjoyed these alongside his pool.

Tropicanna Gold was also included in various plantings and we will now have to make an effort to get the recently released Tropicanna Black to the gardeners at Graceland so that we have the full set on display for the King.

Anyway if you do get the chance to visit Graceland make sure to look out for the Tropicanna and be sure to allow plenty of time to see the home of King and Delta Blues.

In case you were wondering if I have a favourite song – well it is a hard choice but down to 2 final contenders “Burning Love” and Suspicious Minds.