June is right around the corner, there’s no time like the present to turn your home into a tropical oasis of your very own.

As the weather starts warming up there’s nothing like sitting in your own backyard surrounded by tropical plants making memories to last a lifetime with your family.

I always seem to talk so much about all our tropical flowers, let me spend some time talking about all the tropical palms that will really give you that lush tropical feeling like you get when you are on vacation.

Our favorite Palms for your porch or patio are:

• Phoenix Robellini- (pygmy date palm) the palm that most of us think of as the perfect tropical palm. This palm loves the sun, can tolerate some shade, and likes to go dry between waterings.
• Spindle Palm- a slow-growing palm, giving you the true tropical flare. This palm is a great container plant because of its slow-growing habit. Imagine this palm with some tropical hibiscus surrounding it in your favorite container.
• Areca Palm- (butterfly palm) This is a great porch or patio palm, as it likes bright indirect lighting, so if you have a covered porch with good lighting this is the palm for you.I like this one for its feathery fronds. I can just picture swinging in my porch swing with the wind blowing through the palm.
• Majesty Palm- This is your classic palm, a great container palm for your shady area. This palm unlike other palms also likes to be kept on the wetter side and loves humidity.

So as you can see palms are very different and all do not like sunny conditions as one often associates with palms. So no matter what your lighting conditions are there is a palm for you to help you create your own backyard oasis.

I think we have all dreamed of being able to re-create that feeling we get when we are on vacation in the tropics.

The large palms, beautiful flowering trees, and fragrant climbing vines have a few of us doing our best to transform our yards into our own personal oasis, that we can come home to every night.

What are your favorites? Here are a few of ours here at Van Wilgen’s.

• Robellini Palm – If you are looking for the typical palm tree you see in Florida this would be your choice, only in a smaller manageable size perfect for your patio. ( my personal favorite). Sun-loving
• Adonidia Palm—Also known as the Christmas palm in Florida, because of the flowers and berries it produces around Christmas time in Florida. This palm is also an easy-care plant its self-cleaning which means when fronds die off they shed and fall off by themselves. And we can’t forget that this palm is also on the deer-resistant list. Sun-loving.
• Majesty Palm—A great robust palm with graceful feathery type fronds. Although this plant can be planted out on your patio it does much better in bright but indirect lighting conditions.
• Tropical Hibiscus—What can I say, if you’re looking for a big show of color, this is your plant. This plant produces exotic large flowers, that will bloom from now thru fall. Loves full sun and lots of water. (Tip to remember) This plant likes to be slightly potbound this sends all the energy up to those beautiful flowers.
• Mandevilla vines—These vines have become a very popular plant over the last few years. The trumpet-shaped flowers not only look amazing climbing up a trellis, but here at the greenhouse, the hummingbirds have been adding this plant to their (favorites list).
• Star Jasmine—If you are looking for a plant to block those nosey neighbors, this is your plant. Not only is this one of the most fragrant tropical for your patio, but its foliage also becomes a strong vine, creating a barrier where needed. Sun-loving but can handle some shade.
• Gardenia—There is nothing like walking into our tropical paradise here at Van Wilgen’s and smelling all the gardenia’s every day. They’re the best smelling flowering plant in my opinion. Like the hibiscus, this plant does better slightly pot bound, and likes its water. It is a plant that will do better in an indirect lighting situation like a covered porch.

With a combination of any of the above, you can surely make that tropical oasis we all dream about. Just in time for summer.