Our Top Tropical Plants

30 Nov, 2021

Enjoy lounging around under palm trees in your own backyard. Teamed with hibiscus, tropical impatiens and cannas, you can create your own tropical oasis this summer.

Flowering Tropical Plants

Hibiscus

One of the most iconic tropical flowering plants, hibiscus come in a huge range of colours, as well as sizes and types, including Fijian, Hawaiian, hybrids, and even our own native hibiscus!

Gardenia

Prized for their glossy, green, tropical leaves and highly scented flowers of white and gold, gardenia is best for those shaded parts of the garden. The variety ‘radicans’ is a groundcover and is best for gaps in the garden or smaller pots.

Star Jasmine

Looking for a hardy evergreen climber that produces a flush of desirable scented white flowers? Star jasmine can be trained up most structures, as well as pinned to the ground as a groundcover, just make sure they get full sun.

Tropical Vireya

Dubbed the ‘tropical rhododendron’, vireyas do well in Auckland’s subtropical climate and provide bursts of colourful flowers multiple times a year. As compact growers, they are also well suited for medium to smaller suburban gardens. Plant in well-draining soil loaded with Kings Organic Compost in a partly shaded area.

Mandevilla

A tropical vining plant with evergreen leaves, the mandevilla is best suited to part shade and produces a mass of colourful blooms of either yellow, white, red, or pink.

Bird of paradise

A plant popular for its tropical vining plant with evergreen leaves, the mandevilla is best suited to part shade and produces a mass of colourful blooms of either yellow, white, red, or pink.

Palms

King Palm

A graceful, tall palm that forms a pale grey trunk, with 2.5–3m arching fronds. Does best when grown in full sun. Grows to 10–12m.

NZ Nikau

New Zealand’s only native palm. The fruit is a favourite of the kereru. Best grown in part shade, though it will tolerate full sun. Best planted in free-draining, moist soil. Slow growing,
eventually reaching 10m.

Kentia Palm

With graceful arching fronds and a delicate slender stem, kentia palms can be grown both indoors and outdoors. Full sun to shade, suitable for coastal areas. Slow growing, they eventually reach 15m high.

Subtropical Fruit

Here are our top picks to plant this season. Living in Auckland has its perks when gardening, one of which being that many of us can grow subtropical fruit in our own backyards.

Passionfruit

Great eaten fresh off the vine or added to baking and desserts. Plant passionfruit in a position that gets full sun and has free-draining soil combined with Kings Organic Compost. Positioned up against a structure is best as it will need support as it grows.

Cherimoya

A highly underrated fruit that is possibly one of the sweetest tasting fruits you can grow in Auckland. Not usually found in supermarkets due to its short shelf life, cherimoyas are similar tasting to vanilla, custard and fruit salad. Plant in free-draining soil with full sun and protect from frosts, and strong winds in its first two years.

Banana

Have a spot in the garden that gets a bit boggy in winter with clay soil and struggling to find something that will survive there? Bananas are incredibly hardy to soil types, provided they have shelter from harsh winds. Our Misi Luki variety has tight bunches of lady finger bananas that are harvestable in spring.

Share this post