Totally tropical Britain

A English hotel is taking advantage of the mild autumn and successfully growing bananas, olives and oranges. The owners of the Cary Court Hotel in Torquay, south Devon, put the tropical fruits down to the "fabulous" English Riviera weather - however the Royal Horticultural Society said that global warming could be turning winter milder in southern England.

The hotel, one of the few remaining plantation-style houses built a century ago on part of the Cary Estate, has about 20 banana palms and about half have flowered and fruited. There are also oranges bushes with satsuma-style fruits.

Owners Paul and Linda Garwood took over the hotel three years ago.

Mrs Garwood said: "The Japanese banana palms had fruit last year, but this had been the first year olives have been produced while it also marked the largest crop the citrus bushes had grown. In previous years the fruit on the bushes has been pea-size before dropping off. This year we have satsuma-size fruit. We have eight or nine growing on one bush and about a dozen on the other. It's a beautiful garden, exotic and is like being in the Caribbean."

A spokesman for the Royal Horticultural Society said that the exotic fruits were "pretty remarkable." He said: "It is certainly in keeping with what you would expect from climate change. It is pretty remarkable but if it is going to happen anywhere it would be on the south coast. Hopefully this will encourage other people to try and grow some exotic plants."