Tropicals & Tender Perennials: "what-can-I-grow-in-my-zone", 1 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
Red I personally think their are 4 different hardy tropical looks and it is usually best to to stick with one for each section. You can mix them up some but usually they look better in their own groups.

One is the Hardy desert look. Mostly yuccas agaves and other hardy looking cactus

The jungle look. This is usually bananas colocasias and cannas with a few others.

Shaded tropical or prehistoric look. This usually deals in hostas petasites airasema and a lot of other odd shade foliage plants

The last one is the Mediterranean look using hardy palms and cycads as well as a mixture of other plants.

Now this does not mean you cannot or should not mix the plants but usually they work well together in these groups. I often like to have a transition from one to the next. You may go jungle in the bright areas and in the shaded go prehistoric and back to another area with the Mediterranean over to desert look. So you can have all of them in one garden but some areas you will water much more and some areas will need more or less light. Your light and soil and drainage can play a key on what areas are best.

Here is a small area of my mothers yard were it goes grasses and somewhat succulent plants over to a desert area fairly fast. She wanted to try some desert plants and this well drained spot worked out find. It is still only a 6 to 8 foot from here pond but its up high and dry and looks fairly natural in the area were it's at.