I agree, the Xanadu is a great option. Hibiscus is also a good option as it can be kept trimmed if needed to save it encroaching on the space, and there are heaps of different colours to choose from.

Or perhaps cordylines? How sunny is it?

drop the bird of paradise idea.. they clump to enormous dimensions and are a lot of work. similarly the bamboo. the above pic of bamboo will take a lot of work to achieve. it involves 'pletching' or trimming all the lower shoots to give the lollipop tree look. bamboo also sheds leaves and your deck will be covered in papery detritus.

Rhonda

Have you thought about using the fence - perhaps attach some reo mesh to train climbing plants or use for attaching pots with various plants, maybe some trailing ones - Bunnings have various pots for vertical gardens and then planting the Xanadu or a ground cover in the garden - maybe you could use the plants you already have in another part of the garden or in some pots

I have recently planted several tropical gardens around my house so have just been through the same issue . The tropical gardens that I prefer are those with colour and leaf variation Have you considered Heliconias or ginger . Xanadu is great ! I agree that the giant bird of paradise could be to large if planted in the ground. I personally like them in pots.

I just spent a couple of hundred dollars removing a clumping bamboo using a backhoe machine from the side of my pool. It was planted by previous owner ad dropped leaves continuously. They are light and will fly into the pool. I would advise against bamboo beside a pool.

I have no idea of what your climate is so I would suggest that you get advice from your local garden centre and have a look around the neighbourhood to see what plants are growing well. I would strongly suggest you get a good, strong, fast growing creeper and train it up and along the fence line as that in it's self will add a lushness. You are going to need plenty of plants and your garden bed appears to be very small in length and width so you may need to look at large pots.

If this were my space, I'd attach a trellis and plant the climber chinese star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) - it looks great, smells fantastic and flowers during the warmer months when you're hanging out by the pool. Keep the red plant (cordyline fruticosa rubra) in front of the jasmine and maybe plant a couple more alongside it to give it balance (odd numbers always look better than even). Personally, I would avoid bird of paradise as the space is simply too small and as much as they are "no maintenance", if you want them to look neat, tidy and at their best, they actually do require a reasonable amount of maintenance (deadheading, thinning out etc.). For optimal flowering, they also want full sun all day and if you have the fence on the west side, I would guess the garden bed has sun only until around 1pm at best.

Your area is too small for a golden cane palm unless it lives in a pot. Also, unlike most palms, golden canes do not have a round root ball that stays nice and compact, but have a wandering root system that can cause damage to hard landscaping and plumbing. As for the travellers palm (Ravenala madagascariensis), from what I remember, it is not a palm at all, but is one of the larger members of the bird of paradise family, needs a lot of space and would outgrow your garden bed very quickly.

avantgardener, I thought of frangipani too, but if it can only grow forwards and sideways, it can become off-balanced and fall over due to their small root sytem (as I found out the hard way a few years back). Having said that, Plumeria pudica might well fit the bill, as it has a narrow, upright habit and grows to 4m. I'm also liking the heliconias suggestion or even the taller variety of canna lillies.

Don't plant the giant bird of paradise in this small bed. Fantastic plants and have used them at our house. They will grow so big and destroy your paving. I have also used clumping bamboo and my wife hates it due to the mess it makes. Constantly dropping leave etc. Would not plant near a pool for this reason.

Another negative comment. Bougainvillea should never be planted in the ground. Lovely flowers but get our of control, dangerous spines and almost impossible to kill. Keep in a pot and keep trimmed.

We put Xanadus next to our pool at our holiday house. Perfect size and clean.

Consider other ways to hid the fence. Perhaps some type of bamboo screening??

The garden bed is far too small. No garden will perform well here. Sorry.

The scale is wrong; you need height but no room for spread.

How is it looking now? I’m in Melbourne and have similar issue... wanted to know update

Row, how did you go with the heliconias? Did you choose them?