Tropical landscaping

Tropical landscaping is the opposite of restraint: large dramatic leaves, saturated color, and plants stacked in canopy layers so the eye never finds a gap. Think cannas, elephant ears, palms, banana, and bright bromeliads packed tight.

It belongs in warm, humid regions where those plants are at home, but the look is also borrowed elsewhere as a summer-only effect using tender plants that get lifted or replaced each year. Done that way it is a seasonal show, not a permanent planting.

The trade-off is appetite. A true tropical bed wants heat, humidity, and water, and many of its stars die at the first frost. Outside the right climate it is achievable but never low-effort — it is a style you choose with your eyes open about the upkeep.