Given the opportunity, would you want to live in the tropics? Not just for a few weeks or months but actually move, take residence, and live there permanently.
Would you?
Where it's warm and humid all year round with no winter to contend with. Where you can potentially garden all year round.
Has the tropical dream ever crossed your mind?
Had a wonderful holiday in a tropical location before and would love to live there or somewhere similar one day?
Southeast Asia, Central and Southern America, Africa, India, Northern Australia, The Pacific Islands. The Caribbean....
Having an exotic and tropical inspired garden, we get asked this all the time, especially me, if we want to or would move eventually to the tropics. It's a question that I personally find tricky to answer but before I even start to answer often I would hear the one who asked me say first...
Wouldn't it be nice to live in the tropics?
I would love to live in the tropics one day.
I would move to the tropics if it was easy/possible (and variations thereof...)
Really?
Now I'm curious, given the chance and practicalities aside, if it were to be easy, would you want to live in the tropics?
Mark :-)
This gardening blog follows our journey as we create our Tropical and Exotic themed garden. We hope you'll enjoy the journey as much as we do. We started our Exotic Garden in 2005 and this site will show its development, as well as our travels, both abroad and within the UK to gardens, nurseries and friends.
I love the tropics but I think If I lived there I would miss the variations in the climate that we have in temperate Countries. I also think one would finally get tired of so much rain, humidity, huge growing plants, disease transmiting insects... but I have dreamt many times about living in the tropics and maybe it would be interesting to just try and see how it would feel like...one can dream...
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Good points Lisa. There are pros and cons to living anywhere and always worth weighing both sides before making decisions. If only always possible try first for a month or so before deciding :)
DeleteBut the whole fun of exotic gardening is to create an illusion of the tropics within a temperate climate, a sort of escapist dream. Exotic plants would not be a novelty, and the challenge of growing them less rewarding, in a tropical climate.
ReplyDeleteThat's true as well and agree with you. Being able to achieve that tropical look in a not so tropical location adds to the fun!
DeleteI'd miss the seasons too much and the late summer evenings which stay light for hours. I'd love to grow some tropical fruit but I'm not sure I could live somewhere like that.
ReplyDeleteThe four seasons is such a beautiful phenomenon and has its own charm Kev. We appreciate that too. And those long summer days you get here are fantastic!
DeleteA definite no - it looks idyllic but I can hear myself screaming at the various creepy crawlies, moaning that it's much too hot and as for hurricanes and the like I'm not sure how I would cope. I'm not sure whether I'd want to garden all year round too - it's good to have some down time to dream and plan. Good question though for a cold frosty night.
ReplyDeleteGood points Anna, it's not just plants that get big there but bugs can be too. Instead of heating, air conditioning will be your best friend :)
DeleteThere are pros and cons to living anywhere...
The key here is if it were easy. In theory, yes I would. Mostly because I truly hate the cold and winter. Northern Australia would be the hot (sorry!) tip. I'd want somewhere English speaking and, thinking about when I get older, with 'western style' medical care. I assume I'd get used to the snakes..
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that you have practicalities in mind too Jessica. It's not just beaches and pineapples when one moves into the tropics, which some people easily forgets.
DeleteAnd yep, in reality most of the time it's not that easy. There are so many rules, laws, and paperwork involved when migrating...
If only there's a tropical country within EU eh? lol! :)
Having lived with high heat and humid summers all my life, I would have to live where the cooling trade winds always blow through. I don't care for sand in my house, but I could find ways to adapt. The sticking point is fall, which I truly love. And just a little bit of snow…
ReplyDeleteWith a woodland garden like yours Debs, fall must be truly magical :) A little bit of cool weather never did harm and quite nice at times!
DeleteI have lived in the tropics and I LOVED it.
ReplyDeleteAs far as seasons go, you have warm and beautiful for 9 months of the year, hot and humid for 1-2 months and pouring rain most days for 1-2 months. The gardening advice I got when I moved to Cairns was "put it in the ground and cut it back if it gets too big."
I now live in the sub-tropics - still warm but not as humid or as much rain (and you need to wear a jumper in Winter sometimes). I actually prefer the tropics.
If you ever get the chance to have a holiday in Cairns I think you would love it.
Oh we would LOVE to Missy! There's so much to see and do in Australia, a wonderful country. Perhaps one day. I've only ever been to Victoria and its city Melbourne in May and it was cold then, and weather has reminded me so much of England!
DeleteI would also miss the seasons, particularly fall in the Pacific Northwest as it's the best time for hiking. Berries, beautiful colors, and no bugs! If I were to move to the tropics, it would be to a mountainous area either in or near a cloud forest ecosystem. I know I wouldn't be able to tolerate the heat lower down and my favorite tropical plants are denizens of the cloud forests. But I think even I would get tired of the constant damp and fog. Good question!
ReplyDeleteGood points Evan! The four seasons are such a delight and have their own beauty. If we did move (not that I'm saying we will) we'd sure miss this phenomenon indeed. There are pros and cons to living anywhere...
DeleteNow speaking of cloud forest ecosystem, there are so many amazing plants in such habitat and the atmosphere is being in it is great! Not sure about all the time though...
A great question and one that many gardeners ponder from time to time. There is beauty in the changing of seasons and autumn is a beautiful if bittersweet time of year. I'd be happy to move down the west coast to a nice zone 9b/10 area but am not sure about the hot and humid tropics.
ReplyDeleteThe west coast sounds delightful Peter, warm and mild but still gets a little bit chilly in the winter months (but not so chilly as to feel full on wintry).
DeleteNo tropics for me! I'm not a fan of humidity. It's the desert I dream about...
ReplyDeleteI did think you'd say that Loree :) The desert...spiky heaven!
DeleteAlthough if Peter buys an estate in USDA Zone 9b/10 I'd happily accompany him to California...
ReplyDeleteAnd we'd visit you both there!!
DeleteExcellent question, Mark, you've sparked a flurry of opinion there! As with every climate, there is a balance between good and bad. I'm with Anna on the bug argument and I really couldn't stand to live with the thought of snakes nearby! A few of my childhood years were spent living on Key West in Florida; 100% humidity in August, splashing in the pool or beach swimming in the middle of winter. Water spouts, hurricanes (lived through 3 of those!), poisonous jellyfish, sharks were balanced with snorkelling for conch shells, fishing off the pier, wearing shorts every day, cycling in warm downpours, swimming with dolphins, regular barbecues - adventure and fun! For a child, life really couldn't get any better! More recently, I spent several months in the Caribbean - the sailing was great, the cockroaches and mosquitoes less so. I definitely prefer English gardening but would love to spend winters in the tropics! Yin/yang!
ReplyDeleteChildhood in the Key West, a few months in the Caribbean, all sounds lovely Caro! Spring till autumn in England then the tropics for the winter is a very good idea. If only it was that easy... :)
DeleteThe weather and gardening year round sounds wonderful but I would not want to deal with the hurricanes, no more than in Florida. :)
ReplyDeleteCher Sunray Gardens
Tropical storms is quite an experience, and sometimes a deal breaker when it come to picking a location Cher :)
DeleteMy husband and I've talked off-and-on about moving to Hawaii. Every time we visited, we'd engage in a little day-dreaming about where we could live (i.e. afford) and what we'd do. He actually mentioned it to me again recently, even though it's been 5 years since we've visited. But the truth is, while I love to visit, I wouldn't want to live there year-round (although, if we ever win the lottery, I wouldn't mind a vacation house there!). Even though LA only has 2 real seasons, warm and cool, that's one more than Hawaii has. If we were to pick up and start over somewhere, I'd probably pick the Pacific Northwest (even considering the difficulties the area experienced this past winter).
ReplyDeleteYou're the first person to have mentioned Hawaii when I was expecting more will :) and pleasantly surprised to hear your liking for the PNW, whose climate is very similar to here.
DeleteA big, resounding NO!
ReplyDeleteI've lived and worked in several tropical countries in the past, and loved the experiences.Subtropical Deserts too, but must admit the extreme heat of 125°F in Saudi Arabia was just too much. I could easily see myself back again in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, but the reality is the real job opportunities are all in Sâo Paulo, Brazil, and Brazil is now a rather expensive and also frustratingly complex culture to readapt to. Bali is magical too, as was Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The problem is mainly one of visas for permanent residency are more easily acquired via marriage than my profession, and finding good paying jobs here in the San Francisco Bay Area is almost too easy. I fantasize about living in the Canary Islands, or perhaps Puerto Rico, which wouldn't present any visa complications. Somehow Hawaii doesn't appeal, the reverse systemic racism towards haoles just isn't something I'm prepared to deal with. Cape Town, South Africa isn't tropical, in fact very similar to where I live, and also appeals. But having to live life constantly worrying about being mugged or robbed, couldn't adapt to that stress. I hear from friends in Bahia that crime has gotten out of hand there as well, and living in a favela a block from the beach as I did in 1979, wouldn't be advisable these days. Perhaps best to love the place you are, and really appreciate each day as the gift it is. Although I really do miss daily swims in the ocean, and going barefoot and never feeling cold 365 days of the year.
ReplyDeleteDavid in Berkeley
Oh my goodness how beautiful! I can just see you two living there!
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