We don’t intend to put an inordinate amount of pressure on you when we say this, but as landscape professionals, we feel it’s our duty to let you know something we consider pretty significant  – your property’s Signage makes an important first impression for your business.

Often, the signage that greets your customers, potential clients, and visitors, is the first thing people see when they arrive on your lawn.

It comes before the handshake, before the tour of the facility, before you can give your well-practiced, and well-informed presentation on the business at hand. In short, what people see on your lot surrounding your signage is going to matter, and you’re going to want to make sure that your Landscaping is only helping provide that wonderful first impression.

One of the best ways to ensure that your signage is making a vibrant, professional, and lovely first impression is to surround it with landscaping that enhances, engages, and draws in your audience. As professionals in the landscaping industry, we’re here to provide you with advice we’ve cultivated from years of challenging work, trial and error, and industry know-how.

Check out our tips below for crafting a beautiful, memorable, and professional landscaping theme around your commercial signage and try to implement them into your own signage landscaping plans!

Make a Statement with Shrubs

We don’t mean this in a demeaning way, but it’s pretty hard to go wrong with shrubs, especially if you’re not quite the landscaping expert you want to be just yet.

Shrubs have the right balance of “I’m a statement piece” and “look how well I work as a complementary addition” that your signage, most likely, is lacking. With shrubs, you can add good Color, great consistency, and charming textures to your signage.

What’s better? Because most parts of Florida, southwest areas included, have nearly 12 months of the growing season, planting moderate growers, like shrubs – large, medium, or small – can save time and energy, and even make taking care of them no trouble at all.

Consider using small shrubs like Juniper, Firebush, Drift Rose, or Ixora to plant around your signage. You might also consider planting in drifts with your shrubs, which mean choosing one to two varieties and sticking with them. This will help make your shrubbery cohesive, orderly, and easier to maintain.

A Good Pop of Color

Nothing helps bring your signage to life more than implementing thoughtful, vibrant color choices. Color is often the first strategy people cling to for landscaping, but for good reason. Including strategic color schemes that apply not only to your signage but also to your building and the season, can help to bring the right amount of pizzazz to your industry’s sign.

But color can be tricky, especially when you’re new to the landscaping game. We’ve come up with a few tips to help you figure out the best way to organize your color patterns for your signage.

First things first, always work with your sign’s color scheme – clashing colors won’t make sense, and anything too matchy is going to blend right into your sign.

Consider this, cooler colors like blues, greens, and purples are said to recede, or rather, make the area around them appear larger. Meanwhile, warmer colors like red, yellow, and orange are known to advance your space, rather, make your area look a bit smaller and more compact.

We recommend working with bright pops of color that draw in the eye but also don’t require too much attention to keep their colors vibrant. Consider how much work your colorful plants will need, how long they’ll stay in bloom, and how durable they’ll be in the hot, Florida weather. Often, we recommend bright, perennial plants like Blue Daze, Cat’s Whiskers, Lantana, Pentas, and Vinca. Perennials are said to last about 3 years and go through cycles of bloom.

Consider Every Season

In Florida, theming your landscaping around your signage based on the season is going to be less of an issue. As a business that operates in Florida, it’s probably no secret to you that we’re not getting harsh Winters, gloomy Falls with changing leaves, or even robust Springs. The good news? It gives us Floridians a little more freedom in how we organize our signage landscaping.

However, if you’d like to go along with the faux-Florida seasons, we’ve come up with a few words of wisdom. First, consider bright, light, colored flowers for spring, like daffodils and tulips. In the summer, make sure you’re implementing crepe myrtle, gorgeous palm fronds, and popping pink petunias to catch your visitors’ eyes. Though, if you’re hoping to give off a Fall or Winter vibe during the respective seasons, try to incorporate plants that show off colors and textures that make sense for that season.

In the Fall, try for plants like Geranium, Coleus, Caladiums, and Cassia for rich, autumn colors. How about winter? Consider rich, deep colors like Red maple, Camellia flowers, and a tropical vining shrub called Bougainvillea.

We Love Lighting

Lighting is so important for your sign. It keeps it illuminated at night, draws eyes in, and puts the spotlight (no pun intended) on the name of your business. That’s why it’s important you’re choosing shrubbery, flowers, and other foliage to decorate your signage that not only stays out of the way of the lights but complements the light’s purpose.

We suggest choosing small shrubs (see a list of our favorites in the shrub section above) that are bright in color, easy to care for, and won’t grow so tall they block the light on your signage. Additionally, we recommend adding lighting not just around the signage, but around your plants to illuminate the beautiful foliage you’ve spent weeks strategizing. This provides your decoration, and your signage with the impact you’re looking for.

Water isn’t Just for Drinking

We know what you’re thinking – you’ve probably seen an over-the-top fountain spitting water in front of your competitors’ sign and you’ve thought to yourself, “I’ll never do something that tacky.” We’ve got news for you, though. Water, if it’s in your budget, can drawn in people with its gurgling, splashing, and soothing sounds.

Sure, you’ll need to consider maintenance, but a beautiful water feature can definitely be worth the expense to bring in a show-stopping feature.

Cleaner is Better

Now that you’ve picked out, planned for, and planted the perfect flowers, shrubs, and more for your signage landscape, it’s important to remember the most crucial step – keep it clean!

Without proper maintenance, gardening, and care, your landscaping isn’t going to keep its beautiful appearance. The remarkable thing about using plants and foliage as decoration is that they’re living, breathing, beautiful facets that bring a breath of fresh air to your signage, but in the same vein, they’re breathing, living things that require care and maintenance.

Consider implementing mulch to keep the weeds under control (this is a great, little landscaper secret we just absolutely had to share with you) and consider perhaps hiring a professional maintenance company to help with up-keep and to keep all flowering plants or tall flowers under control so they don’t block the signage.

Interested in even more tips from the professionals? Are you looking to make your landscape the best its ever been? We can help! Check out our Landcrafters website and give us call at (727)446-2598. We can’t wait to hear from you.