Starting Tropical Garden, Could Use Your Help

N nuimaleko Member Sacramento CA Joined: May 03, 2005 Posts: 70	N nuimaleko Posted posted on Sat, Jul 9, 2005 4:58 PM I have lived in the SF bay area, Hawaii and now Sacramento for 9 years. I just took a lot of still grabs from some video earlier this week and put them into a file. My tiki garden used to be a swimming pool area with the pool now the huge center bed. You could do something similar by cutting a bed into the lawn and leaving grass as your walking paths between the center and enlarged side beds. You can not get more bang for the buck than with cannas and taros. Even in cold areas they can be lifted and stored easily. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/calthai2003/album?.dir=5038&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos Looks like your yard could use some shade trees too. Many choice tropicals like a semishaded location. Maybe a Jacaranda or Cassia tree. You can basicly look around at other yards and see what thrives in your location. They are bound to be mostly subtropicals. The hardiest things will be the ones you see the most of. I see you have agapanthus already, that's easy. Lantana and plumbego are are also reliable bloomers. So are dwarf oleanders. As I said cannas are worth their weight in gold. Gingers are favorites in both Hawaii and CA. I am farther north so butterly and shell gingers are the ones that do best for me, but in Hawaii I had all kinds of torch gingers. Bird of paradise and giant bird of paradise are choice plants. The birds will give you late winter flowers. Princess flower is another favorite of mine. It thrives throughout the tropics and subtropics. The colored types of Cordyline are standards landscape plants in Hawaii. Not sure if you can grow crotons outdoors year round there or not. Worth a try if you can get some 6 inch house plants as starters. Ixora is very popular too, I think you can grow that. I can't grow it here so I grow it's cousin pentas. Don't forget gardenias and jasmine for fragrance. You never see bouganvillia as a vine in Hawaii, it is always a shrub, but you could grow it as a vine on your fences. Anyway just a few ideas from an old subtropical gardener. [ Edited by: nuimaleko 2005-07-11 13:13 ]

I have lived in the SF bay area, Hawaii and now Sacramento for 9 years. I just took a lot of still grabs from some video earlier this week and put them into a file.
My tiki garden used to be a swimming pool area with the pool now the huge center bed. You could do something similar by cutting a bed into the lawn and leaving grass as your walking paths between the center and enlarged side beds.
You can not get more bang for the buck than with cannas and taros. Even in cold areas they can be lifted and stored easily.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/calthai2003/album?.dir=5038&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

Looks like your yard could use some shade trees too. Many choice tropicals like a semishaded location. Maybe a Jacaranda or Cassia tree. You can basicly look around at other yards and see what thrives in your location. They are bound to be mostly subtropicals. The hardiest things will be the ones you see the most of. I see you have agapanthus already, that's easy. Lantana and plumbego are are also reliable bloomers. So are dwarf oleanders. As I said cannas are worth their weight in gold. Gingers are favorites in both Hawaii and CA. I am farther north so butterly and shell gingers are the ones that do best for me, but in Hawaii I had all kinds of torch gingers. Bird of paradise and giant bird of paradise are choice plants. The birds will give you late winter flowers. Princess flower is another favorite of mine. It thrives throughout the tropics and subtropics. The colored types of Cordyline are standards landscape plants in Hawaii. Not sure if you can grow crotons outdoors year round there or not. Worth a try if you can get some 6 inch house plants as starters. Ixora is very popular too, I think you can grow that. I can't grow it here so I grow it's cousin pentas. Don't forget gardenias and jasmine for fragrance. You never see bouganvillia as a vine in Hawaii, it is always a shrub, but you could grow it as a vine on your fences. Anyway just a few ideas from an old subtropical gardener.

[ Edited by: nuimaleko 2005-07-11 13:13 ]

Post #170714 by nuimaleko on Sat, Jul 9, 2005 4:58 PM