Tropical Foliage Container
This streamlined container is one of our easiest to create. Using only two types of plants, you can add vibrant tropical flair to your deck or patio. The begonias serve as the star of the show, with bold blooms, while the colocasia provides height and added texture.
This container will thrive in part shade, such as dappled or morning light. These plants will want some protection from the hottest afternoon sun and can take up to 4 cumulative hours of sun.
What is Thrill, Spill, Fill?
When planting a container, select one or more plants that fill these categories to make sure you have a well balanced design. The number of plants you choose depends on the size of the container. If there is only room for one of each, that is fine.
Thrill plants provide height to your container.
Spill plants cascade over the side of the pot.
Fill Plants fill in the spaces in the middle of the pot.
Get our step-by-step instructions on how to pot up your containers here.
Thrill
Colocasia: These tropical summer foliage plants add texture and serve as an excellent companion plant to the bold red begonias we’ve chosen for this container. If you wanted, you could select a vibrant caladium in place of these colocasia for smaller containers, and opt for a white or pink begonia in place of the vibrant red-orange.
There are a wide variety of colocasia, some growing very large! These make great plants for large containers where you are looking for dramatic height.
Fill and Spill
Begonia: In this container, we are using begonia as both our fill and spill plant to ensure it’s blooms are shown off to the greatest effect. You could easily swap this for any color of begonia you choose, but we love the tropical feel of these red-orange ones.