Landscaping Ideas for a Patio Waterfall

Tropical Paradise

• Place an angel trumpet tree, with large, trumpet-shaped flowers, behind the water feature to give height and fragrance to your landscape. Next to the waterfall, place a trellised mandevilla in a container. Choose a white or pink mandevilla to highlight the flowers and foliage of the angel trumpet plant. Hibiscus, available in any color, can partner with the mandevilla when placed on the other side of your waterfall. To finish the effect, stagger a new strain of dwarf hibiscus plants around the front of the waterfall with other flowering plants, such as kalancho. This plan works best for sunny patios but can be done in a partly shaded area. Watch how the sun hits your patio for a few days and place your waterfall where it gets the most sunlight.

Calming Foliage

• Put together an arrangement of greenery to offset your patio waterfall. This has a calming effect to both the aural and the visual senses. Start with plants such as ivy hedera that are fully mature. Some come wrapped around a totem pole, which will give an authentic look to the waterfall, or use ivy hedera in hanging baskets as well. English ivy, which is invasive when planted in the ground, will give interesting color, shape and texture when grown in a pot. Allow the ivy to grow up lattice behind the fountain. Place the container of ivy next to the waterfall for ease in repotting. On the other side of the waterfall, place a corn tree, which will lean to one side naturally. Situate the corn tree so it it leans slightly over the fountain. This plan works best on a lightly shaded patio. Add a hammock, and you have a place to relax after a hard day's work.

Butterfly Garden

• Container gardens for butterflies work best if you have a sunny area on your patio. Choose flowering plants such as purple coneflower, zinnias, butterfly bush and Joe-Pye weed to attract butterflies. Place containers of purple butterfly weed in back of the waterfall to add structure to the design. Joe-Pye weed adapts well to a pot and adds color and fragrance to the container garden, and when added to the sides of the waterfall, its pink flowers will blend nicely with the purple butterfly bush. However, it has a tendency to live up to the "weed" in its name, and the foliage can be rather uninteresting. Help cover the foliage and highlight the flowers with intermediate plants such as purple coneflowers and zinnias. Choose colorful containers for intermediate plants to draw more butterflies and arrange them around the front and sides of the waterfall. Include a large pot of butterfly milkweed, and you might have a butterfly farm on your own patio.