Ideas for Plants in Pool Landscaping

Tropical plants, such as royal palm trees, decorate a pool side.

The landscaping around a pool sets the tone. To make pool goers to feel they are a resort, choose broad-leafed plants and fruiting trees. For a calmer, peaceful poolside feel you may choose to decorate the pool with small flowering shrubs and trees and a high hedge to keep things intimate. When sorting through ideas for plants in pool landscaping, select plants that will grow healthily in your area's climate and not drop too many leaves or flowers onto the pool surface each morning.

Palm Trees

Palm trees and shrubs add a tropical look to a pool area.

Landscape the pool with tropical plants such as palm trees. Tropical plants grow in areas with hot, humid summers and can get protection, when pool season is over, by coming inside. Plant palm trees near the pool, but not too close, to avoid palm leaves, which shed, from dropping into the pool. Or, plant sago or needle palms instead, which are short, shrub-like palms. Because palms have a small root systems, they grow well in containers. For a full tropical theme, add a cabana stand or tiki hut near the pool and surround it with palm trees for a jungle-like look.

Tropical Perennials

Canna is a perennial, tropical lily.

Tropical perennial plants, such as banana trees, canna (a type of lily), elephant ear and umbrella plants make ideal accents to a pool. Elephant ear, a broad leafed tropical plant that produces a starchy tuber food source, is one of the most common tropical plants grown in the Midwest, according to the University of Illinois Extension.

Landscape the pool with larger trees, like the banana tree, in the rear of the pool, so you can look at them from a deck or from the pool gate entrance. Situate smaller flowering perennials, like the canna, in decorative containers near the pool steps. When fall and winter comes, banana trees for instance, require a heavy winter mulch to stay healthy through the cold months. When pool season reopens, the tree should be back to producing fruits, given ideal climate conditions, or creating large palm fronds.

Japanese Garden

Azaleas, which bloom from light pink to cherry red, accent a pool landscape.

Fill the poolside deck and entrance to the pool with Japanese shrubs, flowering plants and small deciduous trees. Create a garden near the pool, about 10 to 12 feet from the water's edge. Fill the garden with bonsai, one or two Japanese red maple trees, a tulip tree and Japanese barberry -- a hedge plant you can trim into traditional patterns.

For smaller flowering plants, grow azaleas and Japanese iris for color and texture. Build a stone path that leads pool visitors through the garden and a path, in the same stone, that leads around the pool. Line the edges of the pool property, the fence or wall, with weigela, a Japanese flowering shrub that you can cut into a floral hedge.

Bamboo Forest

Bamboo is the largest and fastest growing grass in the world.

Cut out all other plants and stick with bamboo. Create a whole world of bamboo around the pool. The largest and fastest growing grass in the world, bamboo is also an extremely hardy plant, able to tolerate below freezing temperatures when the pool is dormant. Choose a "smaller running" bamboo species, such as a larger-leafed bamboo, such as sasa, which has fewer leaves and hold onto their leaves for several years.

Set smaller, thinner bamboo trees, like sasa and variegata, around your pool if you do not mind the height: they cam grow up to 15 feet tall. Create a plot of garden soil around all sides of the pool. Ensure that you have enough space to grow a stretch of bamboo -- the root system spreads much wider than it grows deeper, sometimes spreading 3 to 4 feet per year.

References

• University of Illinois Extension; Urban Programs; Gardene's Corner -- Overwintering Tropical Plants
• Bamboo Garden; Frequently Asked Questions About Growing and Controlling Bamboo
• Brooklyn Botanical Garden; Discover; Gardens -- Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden: Plants and Design
• United States Department of Agriculture; Plants Profiles -- Bambusa multiplex (Lour.) Raeusch. ex Schult. & Schult. f. (Hedge bamboo)

Resources

• Brooklyn Botanical Garden; Discover; Gardens -- Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden: