zeeth, Ferns,elephant ears,bananas,areca palms,canas,
bamboos,gingers.
There are many more of course. What is your plan?
Felix

bromeliads... They are my favorites.

An Australian Tree Fern would make a nice focal point in a rainforest garden.

John

Those all sound good. My plan is basically to have a corner of the yard that has some nice rainforest looking plants, with canopy and understory. Basically to make the backyard more tropical.

Zeeth,I like the idea. Please post pictures of the project as you go along. I would love to see.
Felix

Hi
Have you looked at the post"Garden after rain?" depending on what you want of course the first thing you need to start are the upper canopy plants. Give these the most thought particularly how much space you want to devote to this area. Give some thought to built in irrigation By "rain forest" do you mean a true biotope or just layered planting??
Get the canopy started first though and then move on from there. Select from those that will get about the height you want how much shade they produce growth rate and then how well they support secondary growth, What's a rainforest without epiphytes?? lol
Usually what happens is you plant a bunch of stuff gets too big chop that out plant new stuff shades secondary growth too much thin or reduce that .
Takes time and a lot of work . Good luck !!! gary

Heliconias. Ya can't have a rain forest without them.

Don't forget anthuriums, phils and orchids. What kind of established canopy do you have?

A Raphis for more interest.... and a plumie.. ornamental bananas

I've noticed that many posts/links are not showing up when:

1) Your logged on
2) You don't use the exact correct phrase

So, here's a link to Garden after the rain.

Tom

Wow! I'll be lucky if I get anything near that cool.

Don't forget Calatheas for beautiful foliage ground cover.

It also has a lot to do with how the plants are used. Try to plant some taller trees and some medium trees or tall shrubs to give a layered effect. Exclude any traditionally northern flowers, but make sure you have a hardy variety of backbone plants to form the architecture, protect tender plants, and keep it pretty all year. A lot of folks up north see plants with large leaves as tropicalesque, but make sure to provide finer foliage like ferns, jacaranda, wax myrtle, podocarpus, etc. to really make the architectural plants pop. Any rainforest's trees are festooned from top to bottom by vines, lianas and epiphytes as well and using these gives a ambience of abundance and luxuriant growth. Make sure to include a water feature to provide a look and sound complementary to a rainforest too. That "garden after the rain" post captures to look perfectly!