How do you make a tropical garden NZ?
To create a tropical garden include in your planting the bold foliage of large, broad-leaf plants – agaves, aloes, palms, bananas, taro and puka (meryta sinclairii). Bright coloured foliage from plants like canna tropicanna, bromeliads, phormium (flax), grasses and coprosma.
What plants go in a tropical garden?
Here are my top 10 tropical plants:
- Trachycarpus fortunei (Chusan palm)
- Chamaerops humilis (dwarf fan palm)
- Dryopteris filix-mas (male fern)
- Cordyline australis (cabbage palm)
- Hosta (plantain lily)
- Carex comans (bronze New Zealand hair sedge)
- Athyrium (lady fern) ‘Ghost’
- Dicksonia antarctica (soft-tree fern)
How do you make a tropical garden border?
Other tips for creating a tropical border
- Add plants with large lush foliage, such as ferns, hostas, fatsia, asarum and tetrapanax.
- Introduce big, bright blooms and some summer bulbs, such as eucomis and large alliums.
Is potting mix good for tropical plants?
For container planting, look for a lightweight, commercial potting mix labeled for containers. Add in earthworm castings for extra organic matter, and you’ll have a mix ideal for tropical plants. Low-phosphorus fertilizers encourage abundant tropical hibiscus blooms.
What makes a tropical garden?
Tropical plants thrive in heat and humidity, so it’s best to site a tropical garden where warmth multiplies. In regions with a short growing season, a full-sun setting surrounded by heat-retaining surfaces, like concrete, walls or buildings, helps tropical garden designs achieve their full potential.
What do you put in a tropical garden?
Give your tropical plants a little TLC to keep them looking their best. DIG copious amounts of well-rotted manure or compost into the soil. Organic matter will hold moisture in the soil to keep your large-leafed plants healthy. FEED generously with compost or cow manure in the spring and summer.