(FreeImages/Luca Zaninoni)
In my late teens, I lived in the tropics—in Panama. There surrounded by lush greenery on a daily basis in a climate with perpetually warm weather, I came to love the tropical look. In fact, I brought the lush look with me when I moved back to the States and settled in California. I planted plenty of subtropicals in my yard, including elephants ear, palms, bird of paradise and fragrant ginger.
I also filled my house with tropical plants. It turns out that most of the plants we grow indoors as houseplants actually come from the floors of the jungle. That means it's easy to create a tropical jungle in your home with houseplants. Here are some tips for doing that.
Fill up your space. Jungles are dense with plants. While you probably don't want to fill up every available inch in your indoor garden, you do want to go for the full, lush look. Otherwise the jungle looks just isn't going to come through.
Include multiple colors. There are so many great colorful plants to include in a tropical indoor garden. These include croton, coleus, bird of paradise, phalaenopsis (moth orchid), anthurium, purple velvet plant (gynura) and prayer plant, to name a few.
Opt for bold, dramatic foliage. When it comes to ultra-tropical foliage that will make you feel like ordering a mai tai and pulling up a beach chair, split-leaf philodendron (Monstera deliciosa) is the queen of the bunch. This beauty features large, heart-shaped, shiny green foliage that has striking split leaves. Peacock plant is another good selection, because of its eye-catching boldly striped leaves.
(FreeImages/Sarah Williams)
Grow climbers, trailers and creepers. Jungles are covered in vining, trailing and climbing plants. Such vines hang from trees, creating a lush curtain-like effect. There are a wide variety of vining and trailing plants to include in your indoor garden.
Although there aren't that many true climbers, you can train plants like pothos and philodendron to "climb" along a wall by providing something on which they can climb, such as small nails or hooks, and guiding them or attaching them onto the nails or hooks.
Other good climbers and trailers include lipstick plant, which features flowers that look like tubes of lipstick, arrowhead vine, wax plant (hoya), various ferns and ivies and wandering Jew.
Include tall floor plants. If you've ever been in the jungle, you know that it's awe-inspiring with the massive trees that reach up toward the sky. To create an equally impressive look in your indoor garden, it's important to include tall floor plants.
Good choices include schefflera, Ficus benjamina, fiddleleaf fig, palms, the dracaeanas, such as D. Fragrans 'Massangeana' (corn plant.) The latter beauty not only fills up a space, older specimens flower in the winter months with delicious smelling white flowers that turn your home into a tropical wonderland.
Add jungle accents. In my indoor jungle garden space, I include decorative accents that say jungle, like hanging stuffed monkeys, artwork featuring jungle animals like toucans, and I've even attached a ceramic gecko to my wall.s)