Make a Splash! 8 Tropical Poolside Plants & Summer Succulents
Poolside plants are an awesome way to create ambiance and bring a tropical flair to your favorite summer hangout. However, you need to choose your poolside plants wisely! Our backyard swimming retreats create their own little microclimate, and since the water is typically chlorinated or high in salt content, you’ll have to stick with ones that can handle getting spritzed once in a while.
Turn Up the Tropical Vibes This Summer With These Poolside Plants
If you intend on spending all summer lounging by the poolside sipping tropical drinks, these colorful plants will make great company! Arrange them in cute containers outside, and when it’s time to close up in winter, you can easily bring them back indoors to enjoy as houseplants!
Schefflera Arboricola
The Schefflera arboricola, or “Umbrella Plant,” might not be quite as effective as an actual umbrella for providing shade, but it definitely adds to the tropical beachy aesthetic! It’s moderately tolerant to salt spray, and it loves the sun, so it makes an excellent poolside accessory. There are many sizes available, but if you fertilize regularly and repot every few years, your Schefflera will grow tall like a tree! You’ll love the way its distinctive leaves flutter in the breeze.
Golden Pothos
Known as one of the most low-maintenance plants in existence, the Golden Pothos brings a warm, opulent glow to your outdoor scenery. Its gorgeous vining foliage can be trained to climb up trellises, or you can let them trail down in a hanging basket. Like many tropicals, it prefers indirect or filtered light, so place it somewhere with a bit of shade or under a tree canopy. Intense, direct summer sun can scorch the leaves, but if your yard is shady, you’re in the clear!
Beaucarnea Recurvata
This curiously shaped tropical plant has a chunky trunk and a wispy tangle of leaves that splay out like a ponytail, hence the nickname “Ponytail Palm”. Unlike a tousled mop of hair held in place with a sparkly scrunchie, it will never go out of style. It’s perfect for the poolside, with moderate salt tolerance, high drought tolerance, and little maintenance required. Beaucarnea recurvata is a bit of a slow grower, but if you give it enough space to grow outdoors, it could reach as high as 30 feet!
Aloe
Aloes are so easy to grow, and they’re excellent for placing near saltwater pools due to their high tolerance for salt. Their distinctive shape brings attractive visual elements to your outdoor decor. Aloe distans is a particularly pretty variety, with thick, plump leaves that grow upright, and sunny yellow spikes along the edges. Those plump leaves are packed with watery gel, which is why they’re so drought-tolerant. That gel is the same stuff that’s used in after-sun aloe vera lotions. So, if you have a habit of spending too much time poolside and getting sunburnt, keeping an aloe nearby will be especially convenient!
Echeveria
Everyone’s favorite swirly succulent just so happens to be one of the best poolside plants for full sun! Echeveria love basking in the summer heat, and they can handle a little splish splash, so they’ll be quite at home around the water. Pop a variety of different echeveria, like Perle von Nurnberg or Lola, into containers in cute tropical colors like coral and turquoise. That’ll really help to brighten up the landscape and energize the space! We’ve even got some pre-arranged echeveria garden pots with a cute trio of assorted succulents, for an instant pop of color.
Staghorn Fern
The wood-mounted fish is classic poolside decor, but it isn’t exactly stylish for summer 2021! A more modern alternative is the tropical Staghorn Fern, which can be mounted on a wood plaque and displayed on a wall or fence. Cute, right? It’s like a vegan alternative to taxidermy! This fern can handle direct sun, but it thrives in partial shade as well, so you’ll have no trouble finding a spot to display it. It thrives in humidity, so the moist microclimate around your pool will mimic the natural habitat of this tropical rainforest plant.
Ivy
There are so many gorgeous varieties of ivy to choose from, and they make fantastic poolside plants for summer! They may look delicate, but these tenacious vines are tough as nails. Choose your ivy depending on your color palette for your landscape design. For something more warm-toned, try the sunny Gold Child Ivy. If you like cooler, icy colors with grey or blue undertones, try Glacier Ivy. Train your ivy to climb up the wall, or create a privacy screen by training several ivy to creep up a large lattice trellis.
Set the scene this summer with more gorgeous plants to beautify your poolside, patio, and anywhere else you like to kick back and relax. Check out Plant Decor Shop’s full catalog to see all our poolside plants for sale, plus plenty of other lush green beauties, available now to be shipped to your door!
