Tropical garden art such as tiki-inspired statues can help a hardy landscape to feel tropical.
You don't have to live in the tropics to have a tropical-inspired landscape. Even areas that feel winter's chill can look like the tropics through tropical landscaping. Tropical landscaping is less about what plants you use and more about creating a tropical state of mind. This may mean incorporating plants that look tropical, but are actually hardy. Or it may mean adding accent decorations that suggest warmer climates. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Substitute hardy plants that resemble plants that grow in the tropics for their tropical counterparts. Examples of these types of plants include nandina or hardy bamboo varieties such as pigskin bamboo or yellow grove bamboo and mallow plants in place of tropical hibiscus.
2. Plant fast-growing tender bulbs such as canna or elephant ear bulbs as annual plants. These bulbs may be dug up in the fall and replanted each spring. Taller bulbs typically work well as background or accent plants in a bed.
3. Choose annual flowers such as black-eyed Susan vine, impatiens or petunias for seasonal color in gardens. These planted were originally discovered in tropical locations and give any landscape a tropical feel.
4. Decorate your garden with tropical-themed hardscapes, statues and furniture such as tiki-inspired masks hung on a wall or fence, bamboo torches, stone faces such as the kind found on Easter Island, patio furniture made of rattan and rugs made of coir fiber or sisal.
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