Southern Exotics

Come and Explore...an exciting new trend in garden design — tropical plants that are incorporated into annual or perennial borders. If you are like most gardeners, you might get bored with traditional flowers well, welcome to the jungly world of huge, shiny leaves, bold outrageous colors and ferny textures. It is possible to change the look of a traditional annual or perennial border by skillfully placing just a few tropical plants in the right place for impact.

This garden style relies on using traditional tropical plants as well as tropical looking temperate zone plants to create the feel of a tropical setting. Yes you can set up a tropical paradise right in your own snow covered backyard. Palms, cycads, bananas, and other tropicals are yours to enjoy every day even in Tennessee!. Knowing the what, where, when, and how makes it all possible.

As with all plants of marginal hardiness, these hardy tropicals should be planted early in the season. This will allow the plants to become well established and build sugar storage for the upcoming winter dormant season. Tropical plants installed late in the season, will usually not survive.