The greening begins

The variety of tropical plants is so amazing. The colors are vibrant. The forms are varied. The flowers are stunning, a wonder to behold. The scent tingles the olfactory senses, from extreme fragrance to the wickedly malodorous. The leaves come in different sizes, shapes and forms.

This is how we envision our garden would be, a lush garden of diverse tropical plants. To achieve this vision, we have flipped the pages of garden books and magazines, surfed the web, visited nurseries and gardens, to look for the kind of plants we believe would suit our vision.

Here are the list of plants we have gathered so far.

• Alpinia purpurata - "Red Ginger"
• Araucaria heterophylla - "Norfolk Island Pine"
• Bambusa vulgaris - "Buddha Belly Bamboo"
  
• Calathea crotalifera - "Rattlesnake"
• Calathea lutea
  
• Caryota urens- "Wine Palm or Fishtail Palm"
• Cordyline - "Ti Plant"
  
• Dypsis decaryi - "Triangle Palm"
• Etlingera elatior - "Red Torch Ginger"
• Hedychium coronarium - "Butterfly Ginger"
• Hedychium densiflorum - "Assam Orange Ginger"
  
• Heliconia bihai - "Chocolate Dancer"
• Heliconia chartacea - "Sexy Pink"
• Heliconia latispatha - "Orange Claw"
  
• Heliconia stricta - "Firebird"
  
• Heliconia rostrata - "Lobster Claw"
• Phoenix canariensis - "Canary Island Date Palm"
• Phoenix roebellini - "Dwarf Date Palm"
• Plumeria - "Frangipani"
  
• Ravenala madagascariensis - "Travelers Palm"
• Ravenea rivulais - "Majesty Palm"
• Strelitzia reginae - "Bird of Paradise"
• Strongylodon macrobotrys - "Jade Vine"
• Tapeinochilus ananassae - "Indonesian Ginger"
• Zamia furfuracea - "Cardboard Palm"
  
• Zingiber Spectabilis - "Beehive Ginger"
• Zingiber Zerumbet - "Shampoo Ginger"

Looks like a long list, eh? But if you have one or two of each of these, they're just not enough. And currently that's what we have. We are doing what we can to propagate each of them so that one day, someday, there would be a profusion of foliage.

We still have a long list of plants missing in our list but they're just a challenge to find. It takes time and effort to go from one garden store to another looking for a particular type of plant. And it's even more challenging when the vendors don't even know what you're talking about when you mention its scientific name if you don't know its common name.

So to spare yourself from the headaches and frustrations of tracking down a particular kind of plant, bring a picture if you can find one. This will really save you time and money (which you can use to buy more plants).

Happy plant shopping my friend.