DG Site Updates: Hardy Tropical forum. , 1 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
Well their is not much for planting a good tropical display. The thing is I have to do it differently than I would if I were just trying to make a colorful tropical effect. Here are my common rules to making a tropical display. Plant in mass groups. One of each canna next to each other is not as dramatic as large full clumps. I suggest this for most of the flowering stuff. If you have display plants sets of 3 to 5 are best in triangle patterns. 3 bananas in a triange patter look better than one. This is the same with Caladiums one form in a mass display is much nicer than tons of different forms scattered. Another thing to always do is lay the garden out as if it were a stadium minitures in the front mediums next and so on till you get to your tall stuff this give a better over all effect. The problem in my case is my displays are not just for show. I am breeding with the plants and I need as many of each form as possible. I also have found that planting new hybrids in the landscape can lead to odd effect. I planted cannas in the front and second roll of my beds a few years back all were new seedlings and very small. By the end of the season I found I had used omega in quite a few of the hybrids they were extremely tall and right next to the walkways. It took away from the effect but just something else to look out for in my future breeding.

Misty I usually plant coleus, caladiums, Eucomis, callas, amaryllis and oddly enough some amorphophallus up front. After that I usually use a zig zag pattern for Colocasias Alocasias and cannas. Then in the back is usually the bigger things like Ensetes bananas and larger cannas. It's hard to go wrong just most people don't know what to expect form their plants. At times they put what looks bigger at that moment in the back and plant the small bananas up front. It's easy to learn and as you do it more and more you get a feel of what should go where.

Years ago a friend of mine did a display using canna bengal tiger and Colocasia illustrius in a zig zag pattern. It was a large clump of bengal tiger then slightly out front of it was a larger clump of Illustrius colocasia this went on for around 100 feet and was one of the most coloful displays I have seen. Non of the plants were extremely rare or hard to find but putting dark colors next to light colored plants always draws attention.


This is not the greatest display but it seves it's purpose. I needed a place to propagate and grow out more of my pollen parent cannas. I also wanted to make a display that could be seen from the road draw people in to visit. A lot of people thought I was crazy when I planted those little plants out their but they kept looking as they grew up.