Garden Design is not necessarily all about core principles of design (unity, balance/symmetry, proportion/scale, repetition/rhythm, emphasis, and simplicity). For most clients (the public end user) the success of a garden or landscape is often simplified by one single emotion, ‘feeling’ – how it feels to look at it, walk through it, touch and smell the plants, how the family interacts and plays it in, how safe the space is.
The elements of design (space, line, form, texture, and colour) are used as tools to create the core principles (above) of a landscape but the success of a space that uses living plants as the defining component that makes it different from other spaces, relies on one critical component – that plants are the basis for all successful landscapes that give humans a ‘feeling’.
Call it biophilic design or whatever alternative catch-phrase is trending (i.e. eco-affinity, green-affinity, environmental connectedness, innate inclination to nature, etc.) most people feel relaxed and recharged when in a garden landscape that has plants.
COLOUR
Colour is often associated with tropical gardens – think of hibiscus, frangipanis, heliconias. Flowers come to mind first.
Colour is also present in foliage – think of crotons, cordylines, acalypha, calatheas. Foliage colour is either always present or can be seasonal with flushes of new growth.
Obviously colour is present in other landscape elements such as paving, seats, artwork, etc.
These are the best pick plants for our TOP 10 Tropical FLOWERING Plants with Colour for our local conditions in humid South East Queensland.
- Bougainvillea – all colours
- Dipladenia – white, red, purple, pink, orange
- Frangipani – all colours
- Gardenia – white, yellow-gold
- Heliconia – Red, yellow, orange, pink, etc.
- Hibiscus – white, red, pink, yellow, orange, etc.
- Ixora – white, red, yellow, coral
- Ornamental gingers (Costus, Globba, Hedychium, Zingiber) – all colours
- Tabebuia (Handroanthus) – white, pink, yellow
- Tibouchina – purple, mauve, pink, white
These are the best pick plants for our TOP 10 Tropical FOLIAGE Plants with Colour for our local conditions in humid South East Queensland.
- Acalypha – all colours
- Alocasia/Colocasia
- Alpinia zerumbet ‘Variegated’ – yellow/green
- Bromeliads – all colours
- Caladium – all colours
- Coleus (Plectranthus) – all colours
- Cordylines – all colours
- Crotons – all colours
- Philodendrons – red, orange, pink, variegated, etc.
- Prayer Plants (Calathea, Maranta, Ctenanthe, Stromanthe) – various colours
Note: It is by no means discrediting other plants that may fit this criteria. It is our recommendation for local situations. Some of these plants we do not grow in our nursery but can source them if needed.
