Learn & Explore
Garden Inspiration
See how a tropical garden or landscape is successfully constructed for continuous color and ease of maintenance.
The Art of the Tropical Garden
Color, fragrance, display, illusion and perspective are the elements of a beautiful tropical garden. In South Florida we have the challenges of heat, drought, and salt tolerance to garden with, along with a rate of growth which may keep you forever pruning if you are not careful in your planning.
This vignette captures an unnamed white rose grown in the nursery, clearly dispelling the idea we can't use roses in our Florida landscape.
There are more year-round options with colors and shapes in sub-tropical and tropical foliages. Planting according to mature height is a key to low maintenance.
A successfully constructed layered planting grows in at each plant's mature size. No weeds here! Skillful arrangement prevents plants overtaking other plants.
Plantings should blend together neatly with sufficient space for each plant to make a show without overgrowing others, a tapestry of texture, colors and flowers.
A free flowing 'Pink Cup and Saucer Vine' creates charming contrast with pencil-thin silver palm trunks in the background.
Careful use of contrasting foliages, heights, the right balance of green, floral accents, and stone or paved accents make a beautiful composition.
The tropical garden displays each plant in its full form, and the ground is covered with natural material. Palms are important for a vertical woody framework, especially slender trunks in groups or palms with ornamental trunks. At Jesse Durko's Nursery you will find everything you need from personally collected stock time-tested for South Florida horticulture.