10 Fast & Tall Plants for a Tropical Style Garden

The following plants and trees are ideal plants to create height in a tropical style garden (zone 7 – 8). A few of this list are ectually trees, but with the right pruning they can be used as shrub or perennial:

00:00 10 Ficus carica

A tree, but can easily be pruned as large shrub or small tree. It grows very rapidly and has beautiful large exotic leaves.

01:03 9 Helianthus salicifolius

A large perennial with long leaves that grows very fast. It has an upright growth which is ideal for smaller spaces! It’s one of the latest flowering perennials. Great for autumn interest

01:54 8 Canna

There are many Canna lilies/ The large species (” Giant Cannas”) are great to get height very fast during summer. The tropical foliage is really beautiful and the flowers are a welcome bonus!
Here’s a small list of some Giant Cannas that are really useable in a tropical garden.

– ‘altensteinii’, very strong!
– ‘Russian Red’, red leaves
– ‘Stuttgart’, can grow in a more shadier spot.
– ‘musafolia’, beautiful foliage!

02:28 7 Large oriental grasses

Large oriental grasses like Miscanthus, Cortaderia and Arundo donax provide movement in the garden and can be used for fencing.

03:10 6 Fatsia japonica

Not the fastest one of this list, but can be used to create height in a shady spot. It’s evergreen, very winterhardy and has a nice exotic foliage

03:57 5 Manihot grahamii

Quite a rare garden plant, but very beautiful! It can grow into a small tree very very fast! Needs full sun and some protection around the stem(s) during a cold winter.

04:45 4 Musa basjoo

The most winterhardy banana! Can grow very fast when settled. It’s a greedy plant! Needs much moist and nutrition during summer! Indispensable in an tropical style garden!

05:43 3 Tetrapanax

Enormous eye-catcher that produces giant leaves! Easy, very winterhardy plant that can grow like weed sometimes. It can grow very fast into a large umbrella-shaped tree. Can also be pruned to keep it smaller.

06:41 2 Paulownia tomentosa

A tree with an incredible growing speed! When pruned back early spring it’s new shoots can grow easily 3 meters in one season and produce big leaves! Really spectacular!

07:36 1 Bamboos, Phyllostachys & Fargesia

Phyllostachys & Fargesia species are evergreen and ideal for screening or backdrop in a border. The produce movement in a garden. Phyllostachys can grow very large and produce runners. Fargesias are clumping bamboos that are very useable for smaller gardens. Bamboos grow very quick and some species produce columns that can grow 5 – 7 meters within a couple of weeks.

Music:

Rick Clark – Summer Morning

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