Using tropical plants to add an element of luxury and elegance to your outdoor spaces

Tropical plants can be difficult–expensive, fickle, and ill-suited to most of the year’s weather.  And when done incorrectly, a tropical installation can scream “70’s Tiki Party” reminiscent of cheap beer, grilled pineapple, and terrible shirts.  Mind you, all three of these things can be GREAT–just not necessarily what you may be intending to convey when utilizing tropical materials.

But when done correctly, a well-curated tropical installation can hearken back to earlier times when only the Elite could afford to have tropical elements cultivated and shipped on their behalf.

We recently executed a rush installation for one of our new clients in Montgomery County, preparing for a catered and valet’d July 4th party.  Although the actual installation was relatively quick (approximately a day’s work), curating a collection of pristine and coordinated elements can be difficult on short notice.  The basic design was established ahead of time, but some adjustments needed to be made to accommodate current stock at our favorite suppliers.

We created a more formal arrangement in the dual urns flanking the front door.  Elements include pink caladium, oregano, black sweet potato vine, white angelonia, variegated ivy, magenta sunpatiens, tall dark tropical foliage, and a large pink bromeliad.

The garage featured three cocoa-fiber windowbox style wrought iron trough planters, installed below a decorative lattice.  For these three planters we chose a brighter installment–pink mandevilla vine, pink caladium, white angelonia, blue “kauai mix” torenia, and variegated ivy.

Not pictured are two second story window boxes complete with pink begonias, diamond dust euphorbia, and variegated ivy; as well as two tropical mix urns featurining orange hibiscus centerpieces located on the back patio.

The tropical arrangements at this tudor estate complimented its outdoor themes well–the property also features a koi pond, tea house, and other “collected” elements reminiscent of turn of the century luxury living.

If you are interested in more tropical design ideas, get in touch!  Also make sure to check out our tropical feature garden at The Fareway within the Chestnut Hill Hotel outdoor compound.

Helleborus “Silver Dollar”.  How fabulous is that foliage?!  In winter, flowers open a pale green color with prominent yellow stamens, then petals soon transform to white with pink-brushed undersides.

Dwarf Pieris, soon to be incorporated into an evergreen border.

Such a pretty pumpkin,  a gift from Joe Marano, local  nurseryman (Marano Gardens, Bethlehem Pike, Ft Washington)

Tiarella (Foamflower) “Running Tapestry”, excellent shade groundcover with showy white flowers in spring.

Kale, an extra from planter projects.

Lustrous Tassel Fern, earmarked for an upcoming installation.

Swiss Chard.

Illicium (Star Anise), a very interesting evergreen shrub, in flower.

Ornamental Millet, another leftover from planter projects.

]]> http://www.philadelphiaoutdoors.com/images-from-our-nursery/feed/ 0 http://www.philadelphiaoutdoors.com/tropicals-2/ http://www.philadelphiaoutdoors.com/tropicals-2/#comments Sat, 04 Oct 2014 02:23:44 +0000 http://www.philadelphiaoutdoors.com/?p=941 We’re having lots of fun with tropical plants in the landscape.  They’re unexpected.  They’re exotic.  Most thrive in both sun and shade and ask little.  And by this time of year, they’re exuberantly overblown.  Some images to inspire…

Above, Calocasia (Elephant Ears, aptly named) “Mojito”.

An elegant assemblage of tropicals in what used to serve as a fountain trough.  Each is planted into its own pot and brought indoors for winter.

Caladium “Garden White” with a companion Boston Fern, wonderful texture.

A full tilt tropical garden at the Fareway in Chestnut Hill.  Blue-flowering plant is the herb African Blue Basil.

Canna tubers can be dug and stored in the basement til spring.

Bananas in a classic perennial/annual border.  Banana trees can be left in the ground, cut back, stump covered with a plastic pot and a pile of leaves over all.  They’ll return in spring with lots of offshoots, even in harsh winters (as we discovered last spring).

Baby bananas!

I like words. Words are places, rooms, distant airs, thin and tropical. They make us feel and imagine we are more than our bodies.  Rickie Lee Jones

 “Lay down upon your pillow

And turn the lights down low

let me take you to the garden

where the passion flower grows.”

Charles M. Moore