A Green-fingered town couple has gone bananas by swapping their English country garden for a tropical paradise.

Mark and Yvonne Langford have brought their love of the tropics to Lydiate Ash by turning their back garden into an exotic utopia complete with banana trees and butterflies.

The Halesowen Road couple grew the banana trees from seeds and five years later they are more than 12ft tall.

"When the trees are about 30ft tall they should start to produce fruit but that won't be for a few more years," said Yvonne, who works at Bromsgrove School.

Now, the trees have had to be trimmed down and re-potted ready for winter, where they will continue to grow in the warmth of the greenhouse.

"The other day one of our neighbours came round as he was intrigued by the trees, and when I told him what they were he thought they were brilliant!" added Yvonne.

The couple also has a passion for exotic butterflies, which they nurture throughout the summer and then take to Stratford Butterfly Farm to be released.

They regularly visit the butterfly farm and have also been to the Eden Project - an environmental haven in Cornwall.

Exotic gardening expert, Richard Evans, told the Advertiser/Messenger: "Growing bananas in this country is not that common. But, there does seem to be a big surge in the popularity and ability to grow them in the UK. I only grow them as hobby, just loving the stature of them in the summer."