Good and Bad Plants to Choose Around Your Pool

Designing your own swimming pool and having it built by a pool company in San Diego is only the beginning of turning your yard into an oasis and place of fun in the sun. The next step is choosing the landscaping around the pool. There is one main challenge that you will face when doing this: choosing lush, colorful plants that don’t hinder you from keeping the pool clean and properly maintained. You want your pool to be a luxury that you can enjoy, rather than a chore.

Plants to Avoid

The first step to choosing pool plants is knowing which ones to avoid. You should steer clear from trees that shed needles, leaves, seeds or bark because they can make it hard to keep your pool clean. Bushes that produce berries and sweet, fruity trees can make a mess around the pool and attract bees and flies. If the fruit gets in the pool, it could clog the filter system and create stains. Thorny plants such as cacti, aloes and roses may be fine for keeping thieves away, but they can also hurt swimmers who get too close. Water-seeking plants such as Weeping Willows seek water so aggressively that they could poke holes in the pool liner to quench their thirst. Finally, plants with invasive root systems such as elm, mulberry or maple trees should be avoided or at least not planted within 15 feet of your pool.

Recommended Plants

To complete the oasis that you started to create, you want plant varieties that provide vivid color as well as the foliage and texture that you need. The bird of paradise has large leaves that spread like a bird’s wings, and the fortnight lily is a perennial with white, blue or yellow blooms that grows up to 24 inches tall and likes full sun. Heavenly bamboo is a rusty red that makes a good screen or background for pool landscapes, and the golden euonymus is a shrub with oval, yellow-edged leaves that brighten up landscapes. Some other great options are the Japanese maple bush, blue sapphire cypress tree and purple heart.