Tropicals & Tender Perennials: How to make a tropical jungle 101, 1 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
You really cannot screw this up to badly I have stuff come up in wrong places all the time and I just figure what I will do with them the next year. You want to make it possible to see as many plants at once as possible. Now sometimes this may take away from some plants or make other plants less dramatic. A main them is to go from smallest up front to the largest plants in the back. Plants for the back usually are Bananas large growing cannas usually in between them I put gingers in they do not bloom as much for me and grow to a nice hieght. The next role is a bit crazy it zigzags usually with cannas at 6ft tall to colocasias at 5ft tall and curcumas at 4 ft tall. so cannas are slightly back further in between them are colocasias and curcumas a bit out front. I find that putting a lot of the same varieties together is not as attactive so I usually alternate 1 colocasia 1 curcuma or darf canna. Colors play a large role in were to put your plants as well. I usually go for a blast of every color but it usually only makes a huge impact if the colors clash. Yellows with blacks reds with whites and so on. I usually put coleus and caladiums right to the edge and they usually tie into the plants that are behind them color wise.

PS at this early stage I should add that the plants are not fertilized but usually hit with root hormone until a few good leaves are present. This usually lets me know the root system is doing well also. After a hand full of good leaves I begin watering weekly with a liquid fertilizer.

This message was edited Nov 30, 2005 1:50 AM