How to Choose the Best Soil and Environment for Your Tropical Plants

When you first move into a new place, things are pretty chaotic. 

You can’t find your favorite spatula. You have to figure out where all the light switches are. You’re depressed to realize you have a favorite spatula. Thank goodness for your familiar cozy slippers. 

Plants feel the same way. They get hustled out of their safe, secure plastic pots, their tender sheltered roots suddenly exposed to bright sun. 

It’s scary. When it’s time to move them into your yard, they need something cozy. 

Here’s what to do:

What Type of Soil is Best for Tropical Plants? 

Nestle your new plants into comforting, nourishing soil where they’ll feel right at home. 

If we handle your tropical plant care, they’ll get our special blend — a mix of surface sand and Comand Soil, a specialty compost that helps restore the soil ecosystem by providing all-important organic matter and beneficial microbes crucial to soil health.

This nutritious blend enriches your plants’ soil with great nutrients and provides the sandy soil drainage that tropical plants love. 

How to Take Care of Tropical Plants? 

Settling in takes a bit. A few key tasks help your leafy pals adjust: 

First Things First: Water 

Moving into your new place makes you thirsty. Same with your plants. 

Proper watering at the beginning is super important for tropical plant care. In fact, we won’t warranty your new tropical plants unless we can set your irrigation controller to water them seven days a week for the first two weeks, then three to four times a week for the next two weeks, depending on the type of plants.
 
But you don’t set your packing boxes down and gulp two gallons right away. Don’t overwater your plants, either. Remember their roots. 

Don’t make it easy on them by giving them frequent sips of water. They need to work for it. If your tropical plant roots have to reach deep into the soil for water, they’ll grow deep and strong. 

Tropical Plant Care: Why So Much Pizza?

When you’re surrounded by packing boxes, your favorite spatula still nowhere to be found, nothing hits the spot like a fresh hot pizza delivered straight to your new door. 

That won’t work for your new plants. They can’t chew. But they’re definitely hungry. 

You know those times when you eat three slices of pizza but you’re still hungry? (Relax, nobody’s actually counting.)

That’s how it is with your plants, because their nutritious fertilizer flows right through our sandy Sarasota soil. 

So you have to keep ordering them pizzas — four times a year. 

That means four annual plant health care visits. But here at Tropical Gardens, we throw in two extra. 

You want those two extra visits so we can keep an expert eye on things, to spot any insect problems before it’s too late to treat them. Bugs attack fast. 

Mulch for Tropical Plant Care 

When it’s your first night in your new place and you’re not sure you can find the bathroom in the dark, nothing offers comfort like your familiar fuzzy blanket. 

Your plants want to be tucked in, too — under a cozy blanket of mulch. 

Hardwood mulch conserves water, keeps weeds from easily sprouting and as it decomposes over time, adds nutrients to your soil. Doesn’t that sound comforting?
 
It looks fantastic, too. 

But everybody knows a cozy blanket snuggle isn’t a one-time thing. Your plants will need a fresh delivery twice a year, in March, then November, so your mulch always looks — and works — great. 

Tropical Plant Care: Trust It to the Pros 

Your plants are settling into their new digs nicely, but there’s always something, right?

During your first few weeks and months in your new place, you realize the kitchen faucet leaks, none of your rugs quite fit and you need to buy a new microwave. 

Your plants have a few extra needs, too. Weeds start popping up. Weird-looking bugs start chowing down on their pretty leaves. 

You can’t stay on top of everything. You still haven’t found your favorite spatula! 

Give yourself and your plants a housewarming gift — professional plant health care to stay on top of your plants’ many needs, including crucial skilled pruning to keep your blooming beauties flowering on schedule. 

Get on board with a comprehensive plant health care program, and experts will catch things like damaging insects and undernourished plants early, before the distressing damage is done. 

How to Take Care of Tropical Plants? Talk to Us 

Moving into a new place is exciting — and kind of overwhelming. 

Leave the planting, fertilizing, pest and disease monitoring to expert landscape maintenance services in Sarasota FL who will show up at the right times with the right care to keep your Florida outdoor tropical plants healthy and thriving year-round. 

We can’t wait to get started. 

Give us a call or fill out our form today! Our Sarasota plant health care team can’t wait to get your tropical plants settled in and loving their new digs — for years to come.