Tropical Gardens: Large, colorful and unusual foliage along with an amazing array of big waxy as well as a few small delicate flowers and exotic fragrances make up just some of the very identifiable features in tropical gardens.

Tropical plantings are those horticultural species that originate in the climate zone immediately surrounding the equator on both sides, including those plants that extend up through the temperate zones. Basically, we consider plantings tropical when they prefer a climate where warm temperature and high humidly are a constant expectation and rainfall is a plentiful, almost daily occurrence.  At any rate, you tend to know tropical gardens when you see them, that’s for sure. If your temperature range can accommodate tropical plantings, there is probably not a more popular design style. These plants, often from rain forest or tropical island environments are generally easy to maintain, as their natural growth does not require frequent trimming. This also means that you have to choose carefully because many tropical plants grow very large indeed. The trees tend to grow very tall to grab as much sunlight as they can and they spread their canopies out-ward’s as well. These trees also have very dense foliage that will make under-story plant growth difficult except for the most shade tolerant varieties. Many other tropical plants, and particularly flowering species are sun lovers. This persuades the tropical landscape design professional to carefully space trees on the project site at sufficient distances that will allow low growing, sun loving plants to thrive between them and those that demand shade to be under the tree canopy. Avoiding low temperatures is the biggest consideration when selecting material, followed by insuring adequate humidity levels. Water is not as big a concern as sprinklers often provide what water is needed for these tropical gardens. Tropical garden landscape design can be assured by using bamboo, wood and stone for buildings. Palm trunks and tropical wood for garden accents and small structures such as pergola’s and tiki huts are popular. On the floor and ground, select reed and bamboo matting and seashells in everything imaginable from terrace floors, walkways, lamps, fountains and art objects.  Some of the thousands of plants you can use are bougainvillea, hibiscus, ginger, heliconia, palms of an astounding variety, bromeliad’s, orchids, tropical iris, Hawaiian ti, jasmine and philodendron, just to name a very few.

Photo Palette Offerings

(Obviously, only a small sampling of related garden elements can reasonably be displayed, but the viewer should be able to use these as a springboard to develop their own design palette.)

Typical Tropical Garden Scenes

Typical Tropical Plants

Typical Tropical Hardscape Elements

Typical Tropical Decorative Elements