Poolside Planting: What Survives Chlorine and Glare

Poolside planting in the UAE has three jobs: tolerate chlorinated splash, take the glare bouncing off water and pale coping, and keep its debris out of the pool. The third one decides your weekly workload. This guide covers how splash and glare affect plants, a three tier litter rating, the species to rule out, and how to lay out a pool edge.

What splash and glare do to poolside plants

Pool water splashed onto foliage leaves behind chlorine compounds and, on salt chlorinated pools, sodium chloride, which burn leaf edges as the droplets dry in the sun. Glare adds reflected light from the water and from white coping, so poolside plants take more light than an open lawn.

A salt chlorinated pool carries about 3 to 4 grams of salt per litre, a tenth of seawater, and that is enough to brown the margins of thin leaved shrubs within a season if the same leaves get wet every day. Plants with thick, waxy leaves shed the droplets before they dry. Keep thin leaved plants out of the first 1 m of the edge, where splash lands most.

Reflected light raises the load on the shaded side of a plant as well as the sunny side. Species that grow happily in part shade elsewhere in a villa garden scorch next to a pool. Plant for full sun at the pool edge even if the bed sits in a building's shadow for half the day.

Leaf litter, the real poolside cost

Leaf litter is the real poolside cost because every leaf, bract or fruit that lands in the water has to come out, through the skimmer basket, a pool net or the filter. A plant that drops small material every day costs more in labour and filter wear than one that drops large pieces twice a year.

Three things decide how much work a species makes. The first is frequency, daily shedding against a seasonal drop. The second is size, since fine litter slips past a net and loads the filter while a large leaf floats and is scooped out in seconds. The third is stickiness, because fruit and sappy flowers stain tile and grout.

Those three traits give a simple rating. Tier 1 species drop fine or sticky material all year and are ruled out within reach of the water. Tier 2 species drop large, dry material in a short season and can sit back from the edge. Tier 3 species drop almost nothing and can go right up to the coping.

Species ruled out by litter

Five species common in UAE villa gardens are Tier 1 and should stay well away from a pool, because each sheds fine or sticky debris throughout the year. None of them is a poor garden plant. Each is simply the wrong choice within wind reach of open water.

1. Bougainvillea drops papery bracts in every flush of flowers, and the bracts clog skimmer baskets and stick to wet tile.
2. Ficus nitida sheds small leaves year round and drops small figs that birds then scatter.
3. Casuarina drops fine needle segments that pass through a pool net and settle on the floor.
4. Date palms drop sticky fruit in summer, exactly when the pool gets the most use.
5. Delonix regia, the royal poinciana, sheds tiny leaflets by the thousand and then drops long seed pods.

Tier 2 covers frangipani, Tabebuia and most broadleaf shade trees. These drop large leaves or flowers over 3 to 6 weeks. Plant them so the edge of the mature canopy stays at least 3 m from the water on the side the prevailing wind comes from, which in most of the UAE is the north west.

Plants that belong at the pool edge

Tier 3 plants for the pool edge drop almost nothing, hold their leaves for years, and cope with splash and glare. Six choices suit UAE pools, from palms to architectural succulents, and all of them look intentional against water and stone.

• Phoenix roebelenii, the pygmy date palm, holds its fronds for years and produces fruit too small to matter.
• Bismarckia nobilis, the silver Bismarck palm, carries 20 or so very large fronds that are removed by hand when they brown.
• Cycas revoluta, the sago palm, grows one flush of stiff fronds a year and drops nothing between flushes.
• Agave attenuata forms soft, spineless rosettes that stay put for years.
• Strelitzia reginae, the orange bird of paradise, keeps its leaves and drops spent flowers that are easy to cut first.
• Pandanus shrubs form a dense, waxy leaved screen that takes splash well.

Palms with fronds that stay attached until you cut them are the simplest pool planting in the country. Browse the palm trees collection for pygmy date and Bismarck palms, and check each listing's mature crown width against the distance to the water.

Laying out a pool edge

A pool edge layout works when Tier 3 plants sit closest to the water, Tier 2 plants sit behind them at the 3 m line, and anything thin leaved sits outside the 1 m splash zone. Raised planters with a lip keep mulch and soil out of the water as well.

Leave a clear strip of paving at least 1.2 m wide between the coping and the first planter, so wet feet don't carry soil into the pool. Point irrigation drippers away from the pool side of each plant, since fertilised runoff feeds algae. If the pool, its edges and the planting are being designed together, the pool and water features service plans the planters and the drainage as part of the same build.

FAQ

Splash and litter are the two questions that decide a poolside plant list. The short answers below repeat the tier logic from above in a form you can take to a nursery or a garden contractor when choosing plants.

What tolerates splash from a chlorinated pool?

Plants with thick, waxy leaves tolerate splash because the water beads and runs off before it dries. Pygmy date palm, Bismarck palm, sago palm, agave, pandanus and orange bird of paradise all take daily splash at a UAE pool edge without the brown margins thin leaved shrubs develop.

What drops the most litter into a pool?

Bougainvillea, Ficus nitida, casuarina, date palm and royal poinciana drop the most troublesome litter, because it is fine, sticky or constant. Keep all five out of wind reach of open water, and plant large leaved seasonal droppers at least 3 m back.