Love at first sight. You hear the stories of two people meeting for the first time, and they "fall in love at first sight". It's a very magical experience, and it is happening over and over again with more and more frequency all over the world involving more and more people.

People from all over the world are seeing tropical plants in their natural habitat, and they are falling in love with them. More people are travelling to the tropical and subtropical regions of our world discovering for themselves the myriad of tropical flowers. They travel to various Caribbean Islands in the West Indies, to Hawaii and the Polynesian Islands such as Tahiti, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Bali, and the jungles of Central and South America.

The modern international travelers, like the explorers centuries before them, discover the precious gems called tropical plants and flowers, often for the first time. Their bright exquisite colors, rich intoxicating fragrances are like gold in the senses of the modern day explorers.

Like their predecessors, they, too, want to bring these newly found treasures home with them. These treasures include heliconias, gingers, bananas, costus, bromeliads, hibiscus, bird of paradise and other tropical plants with variegated foliage.

With love and for love they want to create a bit of the tropics and a bouquet of tropical blossoms right in their own backyard gardens, green houses, porches, and in every room and window available in their homes savoring the very sensuous experience of the tropical paradise they just visited.

Many of these international travelers live in temperate zones that would prevent these subtropical and tropical plant species from surviving and/or growing. In the past this would have been the end of the story. Like a disappointed teary-eyed child, they would have returned home and lived with a broken heart for the rest of their lives.

But over the years with new modern day equipment of indoor lighting, better techniques and improved growing methods, the dream of creating one's own tropical garden of visual beauty and intoxicating fragrances can become a part of their reality.

More and more books are being written for the passionate tropical plant lover. More and more nurseries and garden centers each year are introducing and offering more and more varieties from more and more destinations around the world.

Both locally and on the internet interest in tropical plants is growing by leaps and bounds every year. With more and more books being written on the subject describing in details how to grow your own tropical garden and how to care for your tropical plants, more and more tropical plant lovers can live out their dreams.

Even if you live outside the subtropical and tropical hardiness zones of 9, 10, or 11 hope springs eternal for tropical plant lovers worldwide. You, too, equipped with the right book with good solid information and a good and reputable nursery or plant store, can create your own tropical garden both indoors and outdoors, in greenhouses, garden rooms, and on window sills throughout the house.

Even if you can't afford to travel to a tropical paradise every year, you will have a bit right there in your own home with all of the beauty and fragrances of these exotic flowers.

By Bob A Walsh