Newsletter Articles
Enjoy Tropical Plants Inside and Out
By: Marge B
The serene landscape of tropical plants in your home landscape can help to reduce stress and add a positive feeling of happiness and peace. The varied textures and colors add impressive beauty to your outdoor landscape. Including tropical plants in your landscape provides a touch of serenity and a sense of well-being. Tropical plants in your yard can even help you to recall the enjoyment of a prior vacation to a tropical location. Green Thumb Nurseries has a wide variety of plants that can help you create your own topical paradise.
This palm is also known as the Butterfly Palm, Golden Cane Palm and Bamboo Palm. This palm is native to Madagascar but is also popular in Thailand, Vietnam, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Canary Islands and Florida. The Areca Palm is extremely easy to grow; cane-like multiple stems that resemble bamboo. The sky-reaching branches add a graceful look to the landscape. Areca Palms require minimal maintenance and do not require pruning. The Areca Palm will add a natural tropical look to your landscape.
Areca Palm can grow to a height of 15 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 15 feet. These palms have a slow growth rate, and under ideal conditions Areca Palms can live for approximately 10 years. Areca Palms requires full sun to partial shade. These palms do best in average to evenly moist conditions but do not like to be left in standing water. Although the Areca Palm does best when planted outside. You can also plant your palms in containers for enjoyment inside the home or office. When this palm is in a container, it may require more frequent watering than it would in the garden.
Plumeria Common Frangipani
The Plumeria plant grows in abundance in Hawaii. Plumerias flourish in tropical climates. The fragrant plumeria flower can symbolize many things, including spring, charm, beauty, and new beginnings. Plumeria is popular in many cultures, including Hindu, Buddhist, Mayan, and Mexican culture. The Plumeria is a shrub or small tree, producing showy flower clusters. Plumeria shrubs grow tall and upright. Plumerias require occasional maintenance. Only prune your Plumeria after it has finished flowering.
Plumerias grow to be about 15 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 15 feet. This shrub does best in full sun to partial shade. It is very adaptable to both dry and moist locations.
Plumerias are drought-tolerant and make an ideal choice for xeriscaping moisture-conserving landscape. Parts of the plant are known to be toxic to humans and animals. The Plumeria looks great in your yard, but it is also well-suited for planting outdoors in pots and containers.
Mojito Elephant Ear Colocasia esculenta ‘Mojito’
Elephant Ear – Alocasia
Common Name is the Mickey Mouse Plant
Elephant ears provide a bold look to your yard. The varieties of the Elephant Ear plants can be black, purple, green, chartreuse, or yellow. The mammoth leaves of the plant can range from 3 to 8 feet in height. Alocasia and Colocasia species provide a wide choice of colors and sizes.
Mickey Mouse is a rare plant that belongs to the Alocasia, or Elephant Ear, family. Its large, lobed leaves tend to look like Mickey Mouse’s big ears. The Mickey Mouse Elephant Ear is an ideal plant for your indoor or outdoor landscape. Each leaf of the Elephant Ear plant has its own unique pattern which adds to the beauty of the plant. The Elephant Ear provides a striking tropical look either when planted outside or used inside as a houseplant.
Bird of Paradise
The Bird of Paradise is a beautiful plant that forms large clumps of stunning flowers of orange and blue giving the appearance of a bird’s head. The Bird of Paradise looks great in your yard or inside the house as cut flowers. The Bird of Paradise requires minimal maintenance. Trim off the flower heads after they fade and die to encourage more blooms late into the season. It is an excellent choice for attracting birds, bees, and butterflies to your yard. Bird Of Paradise plants will look great if planted in your garden, but they are also a suitable selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers.
INDOOR PLANTS
ZZ Plant
The ZZ plant makes a great indoor plant and provides a tropical look to the indoors. It is durable for indoor spaces and does well at handling low light, drought, and abuse. The attractive glossy green oval leaves along the stems also look perfect for office environments. ZZ Plant’s attractive oval leaves start light green, turning dark green in color throughout the year. It prefers dry to average moisture levels with very well-drained soil. It may die if left in standing water for any length of time. Parts of this plant are known to be toxic to humans and animals.
Calathea Lancifolia ‘Rattlesnake
Also called the Peacock Plant or Zebra Plant
This Calathea Lancifolia, commonly called the Rattlesnake, has dark green leaves that have unique ripples. Like all Calathea plants, the leaves adjust as the sun rotates throughout the day. Calathea plants are native to tropical South and Central America, Africa, and the West Indies. The Zebra plant is known for its brightly colored, upright, oval leaves.
Philodendron Monstera Split-Leaf – and Hope Philodendron
The Philodendron is popular as both an indoor and outdoor plant. When grown outside, these plants prefer temperatures between 70- and 80-degrees Fahrenheit. Indoors, these plants prefer indirect light. When grown indoors, Hope Philodendron can reach a height of 4 feet tall. It grows at a fast rate, and, under ideal conditions, can live for approximately 10 years. Parts of this plant are known to be toxic to humans and animals.
Primarily grown for its broad green fiddle shaped leaves. This plant is native to Western Africa but popular in other countries and regions of the world. The Fiddle Lead Fig is popular both inside and outside. It is a beautiful addition to a tropical landscape. It can also provide a tropical look inside the home or office. This plant releases negative ions into the air, which helps balance serotonin levels in the body. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that regulates your mood and reduces anxiety. In addition, the fiddle leaf fig tree also has aromatic properties that help soothe and relax the body. The Fiddle Leaf Fig can reduce stress and assist with mental well-being.
Outside, the patio looks good. The Fiddle Leaf Fig can also be an interesting addition inside the home. When grown indoors, the Fiddle Leaf Fig can grow to a height of 6 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of four feet. Under ideal conditions, the Fiddle Leaf Fig can live for approximately 100 years. This houseplant will do well in a location that gets either direct or indirect sunlight. It does best with evenly moist soil but will not tolerate standing water. Parts of this plant are known to be toxic to humans and animals.
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