A Personal Resort in the Suburbs: Tropical Escape on a California Porch

Davis Dalbok starts weekdays with breakfast "in the tropics" on his remodeled Fairfax, California porch — a subtropical oasis inspired by South Sea Islands. A plantscape designer who travels globally for unusual plants, Dalbok proves you can cultivate a tropical retreat throughout the mild-winter West with adequate sun shields (roofs, awnings, tall plants) to retain moisture.

He replaced a drab concrete slab with colorful slate tiles, added French doors and granite columns, and edged the 8-foot-deep porch with a 12-foot planting bed. Tall banana and palm trees provide backdrop and shade for delicate maidenhair ferns. A 5-foot wooden trough at the porch edge holds bromeliads and philodendrons, adding 2 feet of planting space with excellent drainage.

Large ceramic pots with seasonal bloomers, bamboo and teak furnishings, and artifacts like Indonesian and African figurines complete the illusion. Dalbok rotates showy plants — cannas, crotons, cycads — in and out for year-round color.

DESIGN: Davis Dalbok, Living Green, San Francisco (415/864-2251 or www.livinggreen.com)

How to Create an Exotic Retreat

• Use overhanging eaves, awnings, large trees, or umbrellas for partial shade.
• Bring the garden onto patios/decks with troughs and containers — don't limit to existing beds.
• Layer plants: tall in back, small in front for visual depth.
• Rotate showy plants (orchids, begonias, bromeliads) for continuous color.
• Let plants grow full and loose for a lush look.
• Water subtropical plants attentively — needs vary (bromeliads: weekly; maidenhair ferns: twice weekly).
• Source exotic accessories locally — many stores carry affordable reproductions.