We had our pool built last year and because of delays it didn’t finish up until Sept so didn’t want to do any landscaping then. I live in NJ and want a tropical kind of look but I know a lot of these plants will die in the winter. Just curious if anyone in the colder areas treats their pool plants as annuals and just replant them every year. There are some perennial bushes that we like that would fit but just thinking about using some different palms around it too but they’ll die in the winter; mainly around the waterfall area.
Pool landscaping northeast
- Thread starter mrm1682
- Start date
- Oct 16, 2020
- 262
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Jandy Aquapure 1400
Hi! My pool was completed last summer so I'm still working on the landscaping as well. I plan to have several large leaf plants that I'll keep in planters and then move inside come the fall. Some may not make it but they might give a bit of a tropical look. In the planter, they'll need to be watered more often though.
So my family owned a landscaping business years ago. I watched my grandfather try and bring some of that Southern charm to grass he did and landscapes he did. All with a huge struggle. When I built my house I was all about the challenge like him and wanted these crazy beautiful plants but they needed to seed themselves to propagate each year, or other plants that needed to be wrapped and watched over in winter. It was always work and the spring was always a challenge and then the issue of filling in plants that died but now not being able to locate the proper color again. This was all fine cause we had no kids. enter kids. . . . . rip it all out! rip it all out! I need to be up and running in spring with ease and less baby sitting of the yard. . . redid whole yard. . . was decent. enter pool. . . ok time to get this right and easy. . . I got a pool to watch over. . . kids. . . and I need 3/4 of my time that is free to be for fishing. . . rip it all out again. . . learn from past 10 plus years. . . ok we are going formal English garden style so white was the main player. picked 3-4 plants that could be divided easy for replacing dead plants in spring or to fill in other places cause I was worried about replacing them from a grower if need be. other plants needed to be white and easy. . . easy to maintain. . . so what I settled on. . .
1. day lilies can be divided with a hatchet and not killed. can not be killed with weed killer even. if you kill one you should not be allowed in your yard. they are that strong. dividing was most imp cause the 3 variety I have are very limited by growers and odd. I took 8 and made 60 the one spring.
2. white hydrangea. little line and bobo. you can literally wack em to the ground each year if you want to start over and they pop right back up. bobo is awesome. like a groomed poodle in your yard. all white and poofy.
3. white frothegialia. I just wanted something different for this one area.
this setup allows me to literally plow down the year in fall and in spring I don't have to do a thing unless I want to divide some plants. My yard is finally stress free and maintains itself. no winter baby sitting. it gets old really quick. all I have to worry about now is not stepping on some day lilies while I hook my boat up to go fishing with the kids. lol
this might not help but I would think about your sanity with what you decide to do for a certain look.
1. day lilies can be divided with a hatchet and not killed. can not be killed with weed killer even. if you kill one you should not be allowed in your yard. they are that strong. dividing was most imp cause the 3 variety I have are very limited by growers and odd. I took 8 and made 60 the one spring.
2. white hydrangea. little line and bobo. you can literally wack em to the ground each year if you want to start over and they pop right back up. bobo is awesome. like a groomed poodle in your yard. all white and poofy.
3. white frothegialia. I just wanted something different for this one area.
this setup allows me to literally plow down the year in fall and in spring I don't have to do a thing unless I want to divide some plants. My yard is finally stress free and maintains itself. no winter baby sitting. it gets old really quick. all I have to worry about now is not stepping on some day lilies while I hook my boat up to go fishing with the kids. lol
this might not help but I would think about your sanity with what you decide to do for a certain look.
i get what you’re saying. It’s a total of 4 plants that would probably die off because of the cold. The rest would stay each year. Mainly we don’t like the look of traditional outdoor landscaping around a pool so I’m thinking replacing 3-4 plants each year isn’t a huge deal if it gives us the look. But who knows I may regret it next year and not do it again.
Banana tree. they grow from a bulb similar to elephant ears. They die in the winter but will come back the following year. you can also pull the bulb out of the ground for better care. They look very tropical, like palm trees. They can get to 10ft tall. I don't think they'll actually produce bananas up there though.
Thanks. I was looking at a medium sized red banana tree and I’ve read if it’s wrapped in burlap and cut down it’ll grow back quickly. The other palms can be buried in some top soil around the waterfall and they’re pretty cheap so if they last the year then great. Hostas don’t quite have a tropical feel but they don’t have a traditional landscape look either so somewhere in between. Basically we just don’t want plants that’ll look like landscaping in front of an office building. It’s our first full year with the pool so we’ll give it a go and see how it works out.
I also love elephant ears for the tropical look. They are bulbs that can be preserved over the winter and come back in the summer. I prefer the upright (alocasia) version.
I bought several elephant ear bulbs for planters this year that I'm going to try. I will have to dig them up n store them for winter because they can't handle our cold winters.
I have had no luck with elephant ears in my location. I have to dig them up and bring them in too, and they never seem to last more than 2 seasons.
Same thing with Cannas, either brining the bulbs in the garage for the winter or putting 2 feet of hay over them - no luck.
Hosta are easy, and come in many interesting styles.
Asiatic Lillies are awesome looking and come back every year - but you have to support them or they flop over, and after the flowers die off they are just big and green (but I like them)
I had ferns going, but they decided to die too - I think due to poor soil where I tried to grow them.
I have a few things that I bring in for the winter and put out in the summer - bottle brush palm, aloe, jade, etc.
I have a small greenhouse but it is passive (not heated) so it is really just for getting a start on the garden (it has a bunch of vegetable seedlings in it right now)
Same thing with Cannas, either brining the bulbs in the garage for the winter or putting 2 feet of hay over them - no luck.
Hosta are easy, and come in many interesting styles.
Asiatic Lillies are awesome looking and come back every year - but you have to support them or they flop over, and after the flowers die off they are just big and green (but I like them)
I had ferns going, but they decided to die too - I think due to poor soil where I tried to grow them.
I have a few things that I bring in for the winter and put out in the summer - bottle brush palm, aloe, jade, etc.
I have a small greenhouse but it is passive (not heated) so it is really just for getting a start on the garden (it has a bunch of vegetable seedlings in it right now)
I’m leaning towards trying some smaller palms in the waterfall along with some hostas around the pool itself and a larger banana tree. Just waiting for the weather to turn the corner here before planting them because it dipped into the 30s at night last week which probably would’ve killed off the palms. They’re pretty cheap so I don’t mind replanting them each year if it works out and gives us the look we want. The larger banana tree may last they said if I trim it and wrap it in burlap so we’ll see. Last spring was start off excavation and build so just having the pool all done is a huge win already.