How to Grow Tropical Plants in Cool Climates and Frost

It is a fact of life that most people want something different, not just in the way of their looks, but in the way of their garden. No one wants to have the same plants as the neighbours, and wants their garden to stand out from the crowd. This does however often mean growing plants which do not grow easily in your climate. People in the tropics often wish to grow cottage plants in a cottage or formal style garden, whereas people in temperate and cool climates love growing tropical plants in a tropical, or Bali style garden.

Your aim is to provide a climate as close to the tropical plant's natural climate, that is, the climate it originates from. Many plants come from places close to the equator for example, where the weather is always warm, and very humid. There are many things you can do to produce an artificial climate for the plants you want to grow. These frost protection methods range from very simple, temporary solutions, to permanent structures such as shade houses. The purpose of all the available frost protection methods listed below is to stimulate the natural needs of each plant so they grow well regardless of their position.

Often, when you live in a fairly mild climate where you do not experience a lot of frost, and when you do get frost it is very mild; you may not be prepared to protect your plants from frost. Most of the plants you are growing in your garden are probably semi hardy to frost, and would survive many winters without any damage. Until, one day, a hard frost strikes your garden.... This frost may only be a few degrees colder than the frosts you received the other years, but it's enough to kill some of your semi-hardy plants if they are not protected from the frost.

You will usually get some warning about when a hard frost is about to strike. There will most likely be a few nights of mild frost preceding the really serious frost. You may also see some very mild damage on the foliage of the plants, or some frosted stretches of lawn or soil. Some places are more susceptible to frost; these places are known are 'frost pockets'. Frost occurs more readily in stretches of open ground exposed to the sky (as frost settles from above), in hollows in the ground, and in valleys where the frost settles on the bottom and can't escape easily.

Some simple ways of protecting your tropical plants from frost include a cardboard box placed around the plant, of which you can open the top ('lid') in the morning, and close it at night for protection. You can also pile up leaves or palm fronds around the plant to create a frost barrier, or use bamboo stakes to create a simple tent frame around the plant, which plastic covering. Hessian bags are a great way of covering plants to keep the cold out, and small greenhouses can be purchased very affordably these days!

( Elle M )

Give in to Exotic Pleasures with Tropical Landscaping

There is little point in paying exorbitant amounts for exotic holidays very year, when they offer just a few days of entertainment. Instead try something ingenious that won't come to an end after a week or so. Try your hands at tropical landscaping and fulfill your dream of a Hawaiian vacation...for free!

Getting started

It doesn't matter if you could never make it to any of the tropical paradises such as Hawaii or Phuket. To create a tropical landscape just out of your backdoor, you need two things: imagination and right kind of visualization.

What conjures up the image of a tropical garden as you close your eyes? Well, it is a riot of color on the backdrop of lush greenery and gushing water bodies that immediately cross our mind as we dream about a tropical holiday.

So this leads us to three major points:

Lavish sprinkling of vibrant hues

Plants and shrubs with rich foliage

Water body

While designing your tropical landscape, don't forget these three primary elements; these will do the job of creating a tropical illusion. Weave your dream landscape around these three major elements.

Tips on using tropical plants

The major part of your landscaping effort will involve the right selection of plants.

Cover the floor area in the thick carpet of grasses and border it with the plants that bear colorful flowers.

Choose the plant varieties that come with deep green hues to emulate the effects of dense tropical rain forest.

To add to the ambience, grow creepers along the light poles that give an illusion of tropical vines.

Adding a water body is a must

Just recall the scenes from any movie depicting tropical rain forests! One unforgettable element is the inclusion of water-sounds in the background.... It may be the tickling of a narrow waterfall, the gushing sound of a rocky river or just the faint humming of stream finding its course through the dense rain forests.

Thus to complete the tropical ambience to perfection, you should include some water body in your landscape designing.

If it is a pool, border it with rocks and stones in different sizes and shapes. The best option is to add an artificial waterfall featuring large rocks.

To get the maximum feel, add to it some colorful fishes and water plants.

Points of caution

Plenty of sunlight goes to create those splendid hues in tropical plants and flowers. Naturally, you must make sure, that your plot gets enough sunlight to let these tropical plants live and thrive.

Also make sure of the other requirements of the plants.

You can apply one trick---instead of planting them directly on the ground, first let them grow in the containers and then transfer them to the actual spot. Use decorative planters to contain the plants.

Bring the final touch with proper accessories

It may not be possible for most of us to soak the sun in the Waikiki beach while a Plumeria scented sea breeze calms our senses; but you can get the same experience right at your home by sparing little imagination. 

Simple accessories such as rope hammocks can create magic. To add to the comfort factor, visit the furniture stores for tropical themed furniture in cane or bamboo.

Scented candles add to the ambience by filling up the air with fruity scents.

If you want to absorb the ambience long after dusk, make imaginative use of landscape lights that will bring alive a beautiful moonlit garden of some faraway exotic land.

Tania Penwell

Tropical Plants - Grow Your Own Tropical Garden

Love at first sight. You hear the stories of two people meeting for the first time, and they "fall in love at first sight". It's a very magical experience, and it is happening over and over again with more and more frequency all over the world involving more and more people.

People from all over the world are seeing tropical plants in their natural habitat, and they are falling in love with them. More people are travelling to the tropical and subtropical regions of our world discovering for themselves the myriad of tropical flowers. They travel to various Caribbean Islands in the West Indies, to Hawaii and the Polynesian Islands such as Tahiti, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Bali, and the jungles of Central and South America.

The modern international travelers, like the explorers centuries before them, discover the precious gems called tropical plants and flowers, often for the first time. Their bright exquisite colors, rich intoxicating fragrances are like gold in the senses of the modern day explorers.

Like their predecessors, they, too, want to bring these newly found treasures home with them. These treasures include heliconias, gingers, bananas, costus, bromeliads, hibiscus, bird of paradise and other tropical plants with variegated foliage.

With love and for love they want to create a bit of the tropics and a bouquet of tropical blossoms right in their own backyard gardens, green houses, porches, and in every room and window available in their homes savoring the very sensuous experience of the tropical paradise they just visited.

Many of these international travelers live in temperate zones that would prevent these subtropical and tropical plant species from surviving and/or growing. In the past this would have been the end of the story. Like a disappointed teary-eyed child, they would have returned home and lived with a broken heart for the rest of their lives.

But over the years with new modern day equipment of indoor lighting, better techniques and improved growing methods, the dream of creating one's own tropical garden of visual beauty and intoxicating fragrances can become a part of their reality.

More and more books are being written for the passionate tropical plant lover. More and more nurseries and garden centers each year are introducing and offering more and more varieties from more and more destinations around the world.

Both locally and on the internet interest in tropical plants is growing by leaps and bounds every year. With more and more books being written on the subject describing in details how to grow your own tropical garden and how to care for your tropical plants, more and more tropical plant lovers can live out their dreams.

Even if you live outside the subtropical and tropical hardiness zones of 9, 10, or 11 hope springs eternal for tropical plant lovers worldwide. You, too, equipped with the right book with good solid information and a good and reputable nursery or plant store, can create your own tropical garden both indoors and outdoors, in greenhouses, garden rooms, and on window sills throughout the house.

Even if you can't afford to travel to a tropical paradise every year, you will have a bit right there in your own home with all of the beauty and fragrances of these exotic flowers.

Bob A Walsh

Bringing Your Tropical Plants Inside for the Winter

As autumn creeps toward winter, it's time to start thinking about protecting their tropical plants in pots before the coming colder temperatures. And even though we all have different definitions of "cold" for a tropical plant, which begins at 55 degrees. Fahrenheit.

However, it is not as simple as quickly bring their tropical plants inside. Often owners of tropical plants wait until autumn to winter is changing, and suddenly what your houseplants. This just is not working. This causes an excessive burden on the plant. Possible outcomes of this case, the loss of leaves, yellowing of leaves, their scale depends on the severity facility is shocked by the transition. However, there are some simple steps that can be taken to avoid all the problems between the seasons.

A simple but valuable tool preexposure their plants to the conditions inside the gates. The main part of this technique is the exposure light and daylight. About three weeks before your scheduled collection day, they start changing daylight hours and the level of exposure of plants to light. That sounds complicated, but all you have to do is, move the potted plants in the shade and later to the deepest shadows withdrew.

The plants in the deep shaded outdoor for about a week before moving tropical plants start indoors. This allows plants to low light (indoor simulation of the atmosphere) and fewer daylight hours to adapt to the day. This is easy to bring a much less severe shock work indoors immediately.

Even three weeks before moving day, you reduce the amount of water that you feed your tropical plants. You, the less tolerated only a minimal amount of water before suffering. With less exposure, the plant will naturally need less water to survive in a healthy condition.

Interested in more information on natural pearls [http://www.naturalpearls.org]? Visit how you will find the latest website of Jack in [http://www.naturalpearls.org], useful information to find the top line of beads.