You’re thinking about life on the patio. And whatever your style, you know the perfect finishing touch will be the plants that bring your outdoor space to life. Whether standing beautifully on their own or serving as the height in a combination of colorful blooms, tropical plants lend a natural, relaxing atmosphere to their surroundings. Here we share a few favorites from our collection, starting with the containers they live in.
Start with a Beautiful Container
Bringing life to your patio begins with selecting the perfect outdoor pottery to complement the colors and style you love in that space. Depending on the size, a pot may serve as a decorative vase for a tropical plant to simply set in. Or, a pot may become the foundation for a beautiful combination of blooming and trailing annual plants with the tropical plant standing tall in the center.
For a combination design, we suggest starting with a fiber drop-pot – selected to fit inside the decorative container and filled with quality potting mix. Fiber drop-pots encourage healthy drainage for the plants’ roots and make switching out designs between seasons much easier too. Next, it’s time to select the plants, beginning with your favorite tropical plant for color and height. Here are some of the ones we love.
Hibiscus
With its big, glossy foliage and vibrant blooms, a tropical hibiscus is like a trip to Hawaii each time you step onto your patio. Each 4 – 6” plate-like flower opens for just a day, but new buds are always ready to unfurl, bringing a continuous display of jewel-tone color. And keep an eye out – hummingbirds visit once in a while too. For best flowering, make sure your hibiscus gets at least 4 – 6 hours of sunshine every day, regular fertilizer, and consistent water.
Ravenea Palm
Ravenea palm’s height and bright-green foliage make it a beautiful and versatile choice for the patio. This palm thrives in either full or part sun, so it partners well in a container with almost any of your favorite blooming annuals and colorful foliage plants including geranium, petunia, coleus, begonia, New Guinea impatiens, croton, and mandevilla. But ravenea palm is just as handsome standing alone in a pot too – perhaps casting a bit of dappled shade across your favorite deck chair.
Phoenix Palm
If you like the look of a ravenea palm – but maybe in a shorter, rounder package – then you’ll love Phoenix palm. This sturdy, multi-stemmed palm features arching, silver-toned leaves with dozens of slender, fluttering leaflets. And if you’re in a breezy location, you’ll appreciate that the wind typically passes right through without pulling the whole plant over. Phoenix palm does well in sun, bright shade, and anything in between, so it fits into any patio space and thrives with consistent water.
Croton ‘Petra’
In the wild, croton is a shrub native to areas of Indonesia and Australia, and on your patio, this eye-catching tropical plant will rival all nearby blooms with its vivid, patterned foliage. The leaves on ‘Petra’ are glossy and oval in shape and seem determined to display almost every color in the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, lime green, purple, and black too. Use croton to inspire a wide range of color combinations as part of a container arrangement, or line up a row of individual crotons to create a simple but brilliant display.
Mandevilla
Sun-loving mandevilla is a versatile tropical plant with glossy, deep-green foliage and charming, trumpet-shaped blooms in lipstick-red, bright pink, or white. Plus, each bloom features a glowing orange throat, which partners well with bright orange zinnias, marigolds, or black-eyed Susan vine. Mandevilla is a natural trailer and can be trained to climb a trellis or drape lushly over the side of a container arrangement. For best blooms, make sure your mandevilla gets plenty of direct sun, regular fertilizer, and consistent water.
Plumbago
The vivid – almost electric – shade of plumbago’s blue blooms immediately grabs your attention. Multiple clusters of small, trumpet-shaped flowers practically glow against the plant’s fresh, spring-green foliage. And the blooms appear non-stop all season too. You can find plumbago as a small shrub or potted with its lengthy stems reaching up a teepee trellis to create height in a garden bed or container. Lots of sun and consistent water keep plumbago happy and blooming all summer.
Ti Plant
For many patio plants, bright colors come with a requirement for bright sun – but not always. Ti plants produce some pretty eye-catching colors too, but they also thrive in the shade under a patio awning. Depending on the cultivar, Ti plants can warm up a space with bright pinks, rich burgundies, or even a variegated blend of lime, cream, and soft pink too. And because it’s an upright grower, Ti plant is perfect for the center of a container arrangement or as a colorful floor plant. Ti plant likes consistent water, but in the shade, its soil won’t dry as quickly as some of your other patio plants – so it’s especially important to give the top inch or so of soil a chance to dry out some before the next drink.
Bring Your Patio Space to Life
It’s time to get back to life on the patio. And as soon as our nighttime temperatures stay above 50 degrees, you can welcome all those beautiful tropical plants back outside for the season too. To see all the stunning options, stop by our open-air Greenhouse. Whether you love lush foliage or colorful blooms, there’s a patio plant that’s perfect for your outdoor space. And if you have any questions or need help choosing, just let us know – we’re always happy to help.
