Why is it that warm climate gardens look so good when they’re filled with hot & bright coloured plants? Is it the bluer sky? Do brighter hues look best growing beneath a hot sun? Whatever’s going on, these riot-of-colour gardens in warm places (think southern California, Tuscany, Sydney) make us feel happy. If you live somewhere warm, this is an easy way to make your garden look fantastic – like you’re on vacation at home year round. Here are 4 steps for bright coloured plants:

step one: work like a stylist and pull together the hot colours you want – purple, blue, red, orange, yellow, pink. If you’re nervous about committing to this ‘hot’ mix, just add in some white. Now take a look online for flowering plants, searching using each colour in turn. (You can also search for foliage colour too.) There will be lots of choice but keep in mind not all the plants you find will be fans of a warm climate.

step two: which is why you’ll need to narrow your list so that it focuses on those plants that do like a bit of heat. The easiest way to do this is to check each plant candidate to see if it originally comes from sunnier climes. Canna Tropicanna® is a good example. Originally spotted growing gloriously in a South African garden, its relatives thrive in warm settings. Or take the brilliantly blue-hued ceanothus which is a native Californian, so an ideal candidate. There are even roses that have been bred to love the heat, like the Flower Carpet® rose series.

step three: to sort out where to plant your new hot-colour additions, lay everything out and stand back to take a look. Your plants will be young, but you can squint your eyes and imagine them in a few months’ time. As for colour combinations, the trick here is to not sweat the detail because hot colours pretty much all look terrific wedged up against each other, any old which way.

step four: because you’re gardening in a warm climate, you’ll especially need to look after your new plantings until they have established themselves. Follow these rules and you’ll be set: plant before things start to heat up; water everything in well; be sure to mulch thickly to help hold in moisture and keep the soil cool; keep to a steady routine of watering until everything looks like it can look after itself; and if a bunch of weeds pops up, get rid of them before they start hogging the water and soil nutrients. A few handfuls of slow release fertiliser scattered about in spring and autumn is a good idea too. Simple.