Tropical Flower Beds

Choosing the Flowers

• The type of tropical flowers you choose to grow in your bed depends largely on your climate. If you live in a colder climate, featuring cooler plants that tolerate colder -- but probably not freezing -- temperatures ensures more blooming and time for you to bring the beds indoors, or accept that they'll die out and need replacing. Canna is a showy flowering tropical that's hardy down to zone 7 with plenty of bed mulch. You can always dig up the rhizomes after the first frost and save them for later seasons in colder zones. Moonflower can be grown as a perennial in zones 8 and above, and as an annual in colder zones. It has large, white, scented blossoms opening in the evening. You need to stake and train this climbing plant.

The Bulb Flower Bed

• Tropical bulbs give fragrant, showy often brilliantly colored blossoms. Instead of planting tropical bulbs in the fall, like irises or lilies, plant tropical bulbs as soon as you can work the soil in the early spring for a head start before the hot weather begins. Plant the bulbs 3 to 4 inches deep for regular size bulbs. Choose bulbs like tuberoses, which are easy to grow and give off plenty of fragrance. Gladiolas, cannas and caladiums also work well in the tropical bulb bed.

Cheating

• Just because you live in an area with below freezing temperatures doesn't mean you can't have the look of a tropical flower bed. Of course, you can always take tropical flowering plants indoors if you have raised beds, but you need plenty of space and strict temperature conditions to avoid pests and diseases. Subtropical plants thrive in areas near tropical climates but lacking in tropical winters. You don't have to maintain them as much or bring them indoors during winter months, either. Plants like the Japanese ginger (Zingiber mioga) can overwinter in climates down to USDA zone 5. For a taller plant for your bed, the Chinese yellow banana (Musella lasiocarpa) grows 4 to 5 feet tall, and produces fragrant and large yellow flowers.

Vines Above the Beds

• Add some tropical flowering vines along the wall behind your flower bed to add texture and color. Bougainvillea is a well known choice, giving delicate crepe-textured blossoms in reds, pinks, purples, yellow, orange, white and color combinations. Purchasing the plant in bloom ensures you have your desired blossom color. Climbing lily isn't a true lily. It has flowers up to 4 inches across in red and yellow. Passion flower (Passiflora) can grow up to 30 feet, but you can also find smaller varieties you can place directly in your flower bed. The showy flowers range from tiny 1/2-inch blossoms to giant ones 6 inches across. Your color choice is wide, ranging from scarlet and yellow, to purple, pink and white.