Tropical Vibes with VA Hardiness

At Colesville we firmly believe in hardiness. Our experienced sales staff can always suggest the proper plant for the environment in question.

Hardy Tropical-looking plants are frequently requested, especially when someone is installing a pool or a similar project.

Some easy tips to help get started:

-Bright colors both in foliage in blooms

-Some structured plants underplanted heavily with perennials

-Plants that attract butterflies and hummingbirds

-Bright container plantings with annuals

-Stay away from pruning and let everything get a little wild

Below is a list of plants that will handle our weather and provide a resemblance to a tropical paradise. For the best visuals of these suggestions, at any time of the year, visit our "Plants" page on our website (found at the top tool bar) and search the latin names provided!

  • Aesculus parviflora - A quick growing leafy green large shrub that produces a large, segmented soft red flower
  • Agastache - This tall growing perennial comes in a variety of showy colors that will attract many butterflies to your space
  • Agave - Known to prefer dry warmer climates, the varieties we carry will do very well in a protected bed or container and offer a large succulent presence
  • Allium - Whether you go with the large bulbs in the Fall or the smaller bulbs in the one gallon size we provide year round, these globular purple spikey blooms add a whimisical bright touch
  • Akebia - Do you have privacy walls? A trellis? A smaller space? Choose a semi-evergreen vine like Akebia that provides round bright green foliage, vibrant wine colored flowers that face downward, and large purple tropical-looking fruit
  • Amsonia hubrechtii - These are amazing Natives that provide chartreuse, fuzzy quick growing foliage topped off with periwinkle panical blooms (very attractive to butterflies!)
  • Aralia "Sun King" - A bright short perennial for shade that offers large yellow leaves
  • Asclepias - Another classic Native, commonly known as Milkweed, this plant will host & feed Monarch butterflies! Bright orange flowers clumping atop dark green stems with lateral leaves
  • Aucuba - An easy choice for anyone looking for something evergreen, for a tropical vibe we reccomend the "Gold Dust" which is a variety that maintains gold speckles throughout the plant
  • Azaleas Native/Deciduous - Our Native Azaleas are known for the bright salmon, soft yellows and deep orange blooms they provide on tall skinny brown stems
  • Baptisia - Fast growing soft blue foliage with deep indigo blooms, this Native plant provides food for butterflies through the Spring & Summer, then birds with their long dark seed pods in the Fall
  • Betula - River Birch, exfoliating pink bark, large shady canopies. This is a great choice for anyone searching for some woody structure in their paradise
  • Brunnera - A wonderful ground cover with tiny eye-catching blooms that shoot out from the center of the plants, quite effective in mass plantings
  • Buddleia - Butterfly Bush come in a variety of colors and mature sizes, they will attract all sorts of pollinators and provide some height and woody structure to your tropical landscape
  • Callicarpa americana - With bright purple berry clusters amongst large green leaves, this shade loving Native will feed the birds and the bees while offering large woody architecture and bright color to shady gardens
  • Calycanthus - Whether you call it "Carolina Sweetshrub" or "All Spice" this unusual deep red blooming Native provides fragrance and large green leaves in a shady habitat
  • Cephalotaxus - A great evergreen option for keeping your garden going, a broadleaf conifer available in a large range of sizes, this deep green oddball will add texture and color all year
  • Cercis canadensis or chinensis - Canadensis is the Native while the Chinensis variety hails from parts of Asia, Redbuds offer lilac colored flowers clustered tightly on their cinnamon bark, their foliage is bright & heart shaped making it perfect for height and structure in a tropical wilderness
  • Clematis - A small perennial vine that gives off large flowers in the Spring & Summer, great for small spaces or for peeping through larger growing perennials
  • Cotinus - Known as Purple Smoke Bush or Tree, this large woody shrub provides round deep purple leaves that grow laterally from dark cinnamon bark, but what makes it even more tropical are the large fuzzy mauve blooms that appear like smoke above the branches
  • Cryptomeria 'Globosa Nana' - Most cryptomeria reminds one of Japanese landscapes however this variety is bright green with a mop like presense rather than tree form, another great evergreen choice for an all year landscape
  • Cytisus - Need some quick growing height? Scotchbroom is a very different choice for the landscape and with its peppery flowers & string like stems, this green shrub will help break up textures and add some height to a large perennial planting
  • Delosperma - A succulent ground cover, great for containers or edging beds, this fleshy perennial bloomer will add a succulent presence to the garden
  • Deutzia "Chardonnay Pearls" - Chartreuse foliage with prolific white flowers, this shrub is a punchy accent
  • Digitalis - Foxglove has many large flowers & foliage that can add some serious height to a garden bed
  • Echinacea - Long lasting blooms will help your tropical garden stay colorful from Summer to Fall
  • Edgeworthia - A weird feathery bloom that faces downward will appear on light striped wood in January! Add some fragrance to your tropical garden in the Winter season when not too many other plants are in action
  • Euonymus "Emerald & Gold" - A great round leafed evergreen with bright yellow & green variegated foliage
  • Euphorbia "Ascot Rainbow" - Pictured above, this kaliedascopic perennial is a hardy succulent-like plant with attractive blooms
  • Ferns! - Large mass plantings of ferns (especially tall ones like "Cinnamon" & "Ostrich") will add a flashy and fleshy presence
  • Fruit - Pomegranate & Persimmons will add to your lush tropic scene
  • Grasses - From tall to short, grasses will add movement to your landscape, the most tropical grasses are "Pampas" with large blades & showy plumes & "Muhly" (Muhlenbergia) with exotic fluffy pink & white plumes. A nice touch to the edge of a garden is the shorter growing Hackonechloa grass, often showing off bright lemony foliage
  • Heuchera - A great deep shade addition, coming in bright oranges and deep purples this Native can help add tropical color to a shady spot
  • Hibiscus - A classic for any tropical imitation, known for populating the Hawaiian landscapes, this showy big bloomer is a must have
  • Hosta - Large maturing and deep colored Hostas are just the thing for those craving a vacation further south
  • Illicium "Florida Sunshine" - Yellow leafed & licorice scented, this pink stemmed beauty is large maturing and easy going underneath your leafy canopies
  • Lonicera "Major Wheeler" - Hot pink fluted blooms attract hummingbirds & butterflies all summer long, great for climbing porches or  balconies
  • Magnolia macrophylla - This Magnolia is much different than those scattered popularly throughout Virginia, this deciduous tree boasts 3' long leaves similar to a Banana tree but much hardier and suited for any environment in Virginia
  • Palm "European Fan Palm" - Looking for a hardy palm here in Virginia? We carry these palms and watch them live through the winters every year!
  • Passiflora - Passion flower is a really neat architectural addition with deep indigo and white features, curly tendrils add a pinch of whimsy
  • Rhus "Tiger Eyes" - Ferny bright canary foliage atop a thin trunk, sometimes multi-trunked, this oddball will remind you of the rainforest
  • Salix "Hakura Nishiki" - Speckled pink & turquoise foliage springs outward from this Asian shrub Willow, this can be found both in shrub form or limbed up into a standard
  • Spirea - Not all Spirea has bright foliage, but the ones that do are rocket red & fiery orange with blush colored flowers
  • Stokesia - The more color the better in a tropical garden, mixing purple & yellow are great ways to create eneregizing color flow
  • Yucca - Yucca is found in several areas throughout the US and is very hardy here in Virginia, with spikey foliage and huge yellow & white vertical blooms, this unusual plant is a great punctuation to a tropical garden