22 plants perfect for a tropical-inspired garden
It's not impossible to achieve a tropical-style garden, even with the unpredictable UK weather. Loved for its big, bold foliage, tropical plants will help you achieve a lush, colourful garden scheme that not only provides a mood-boosting sanctuary but will add style and drama to your outdoor space.
'The key to creating a wonderful, exotic planting scheme, reminiscent of holidays in the sun, is to use large, bold, dramatic foliage and vibrantly coloured flowers,' says garden designer Isabelle Palmer.
Structure is key, so think about combining tall plants with medium-level plants and low-level plants. 'Place at different heights to produce a lush jungle effect. If you're using containers, the bigger the pot the better, starting with the taller plants at the back,' Isabelle suggests.
For example, bamboo and banana plants offer height and structure, so are wonderful for creating a space that feels like your own private retreat, while ferns provide medium-level height, and hostas and begonias add lower ground cover.
So can tropical plants survive a colder climate? 'There are lots of hardy varieties of lush plants that can withstand colder weather,' Isabelle says. 'Planting flowers in hot colours will give your garden a sunny feeling. Bright red crocosmia, vibrant yellow cannas, hot pink dahlias and the sweet scent of ginger lily will evoke your senses and call to mind dazzling, sun-soaked spots.'
There's a lot to choose from, but we've rounded up 22 plants perfect for a tropical garden.
1. Chusan palm/ Trachycarpus fortunei
A really lovely, low maintenance palm with fan-shaped leaves. This is a hardy plant and while it is incredibly robust in very cold winters, it's a good idea to wrap its leaves.
2. Bean tree / Catalpa 'Bungei'
This is a slow-growing tree with big leaves that form an umbrella shape. It's great for giving a small garden a shady, jungle-like feel.
3. Bamboo / Phyllostachys nigra
Bamboos are the perfect plant for a tropical garden; they are reliably hardy, evergreen and with a small footprint so they don't take up too much room. Go for a clump-growing type like black bamboo, phyllostachys nigra, rather than the spreading varieties.
4. Canna / Canna Cannova series
The canna is a showy plant, known for its large, broad leaves. With a bold, tropical appearance, it comes in a range of vibrant colours (including red, orange, yellow and pink), and can either be a solid colour or patterned.
5. Crocosmia / Crocosmia 'Lucifer'
With a long flowering period, these vibrant orange flowers bring enduring colour to late summer gardens, whether in containers or beds. Crocosmia is easily recognisable by its arching stems and sword-like green leaves. A hardy perennial, it thrives in full sun but also tolerates partial shade, and is loved by pollinators.
6. Liatris / Liatris spicata
Emerging in late summer, liatris (also known as dense blazing star or button snakewort) boasts deep purple flower spires that stand out amidst smaller blooms and foliage. They're magnets for butterflies and bees, and great as cut flowers too.
7. Ginger Lily / Hedychium aurantiacum
A truly tropical-looking orange flower, ginger lily is a bulb-like plant that will push up through the soil in early summer to produce red flowers late in the season.
8. Fatsia / Fatsia japonica
Easy, abundant and versatile, fatsia and its climbing relative fatshedera, have big, glossy, evergreen leaves giving a perfect tropical backdrop to the garden. Mature plants will produce exotic spikes of creamy white flowers.
9. Horse tails / Equisetum arvense
These come arrow-straight up out of the ground in spring. They're unusual plants but very exotic-looking – they also spread so place them carefully!
10. Arum lilies / Zantedeschia aethiopica
This lily will be evergreen in sheltered spots and produces the most elegant swan-like white flowers in spring and summer.
11. Japanese banana / Musa basjoo
The perfect tree for a tropical planting scheme, the banana palm produces large, lush green leaves every year and edible fruits once mature. It's suitable for growing in borders in milder parts of the UK, but will need to be protected in winter.
12. Bear's breeches / Acanthus mollis
Tall and stately, this perennial produces huge white and purple flowers in summer and will be evergreen in a sheltered spot.
13. Tree fern / Dicksonia antarctica
A slow grower (it will form a thick, tree-like stem as it grows), dicksonia antarctica is topped with a crown of large filigree-like fronds. Ferns are especially great if you have a shady spot.
14. Trilliums / Trillium grandiflorum
Early in the year this plant's three-petalled, large flower pushes up through its low glossy foliage. It's the sort of thing you might expect to find carpeting the floor of an enchanted jungle.
15. Spanish dagger / Yucca gloriosa
The yucca gloriosa is a very hardy evergreen and sends out a long shoot of creamy bell-shaped flowers.
16. Bird of Paradise / Strelitzia
Nothing's more exotic than the bird of paradise. As its name suggests, the structure of this gorgeous, colourful plant resembles birds. It's ideal for sunny borders or kept in a container, but as the temperatures drop in autumn, bring the plant inside.
17. Canary Island date palm / Phoenix canariensis
The spectacular canary island date palm has the most wonderful deep green leaves. It needs to grow in a sunny position, sheltered from cold winds.
18. Eucomis / Eucomis bicolor
Eucomis look like ginger or pineapple plants with tufts of leaves on top of their massed starry flowers. Choose eucomis bicolor for their purple stems and green flowers for a fresh twist.
19. Lobelia / Lobelia tupa
For blooming red flowers of a dazzling nature, introduce striking lobelias such as lobelia cardinalis and lobelia tupa.
20. Rodgersia / Rodgersia pinnata 'Superba'
Imagine a perennial with enormous horse chestnut leaves and huge candles of flowers poking out from them: that's rodgersia. It dies down in winter but will come up in spring to nearly 6ft if it's happy and kept well-watered!
21. Cabbage palm / Cordyline australis
For milder, more sheltered spots, cabbage palm works as a low-lying shrub or can be trained as a tree.
22. Begonia / Begonia 'Glowing Embers'
With lopsided leaves and abundant flowers, begonias are a must-have for a tropical-style garden. Begonia 'Glowing Embers' features purplish leaves and an array of individual orange flowers.
And finally...
There's no point in filling your garden with tropical plants if you can't immerse yourself in it. To embrace the tropical theme, introduce accents of zesty and vibrant oranges, fresh greens, sunshine yellows, warm corals, flamingo pinks and invigorating teals through accessories and furnishings.
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