Hi there! Several things need to be taken into consideration when you’re trying to create a zoa garden. Here’s the big 3
1- Growth rate. You don’t want to plant Little Shop of Horror next to a Radioactive dragon eye because the dragon eyes will out grow the LSOH and choke it out. Generally, the more expensive a zoa is per polyp the slower it will grow so use that as kind of a guideline
2- color and pattern. You already mentioned this but color plays a big part in how good a zoa garden looks (assuming it’s healthy). You don’t want to put 2 zoas that are the same shade of green next to each other, instead try using color theory. Yellow and red contrast nice, purple and yellow do too. A big help for people that have trouble with this is to look at sports teams. Each team has two colors that look nice together and contrast well. So if I were to do a zoa garden and I have Gobstoppers (red) then I could look at the Houston Texans and see blue contrasts well and but something like AOI or Tubbs blue there.
Pattern also plays a role in how nice something looks. You don’t want to be boring (no patterns) but you also don’t want to overwhelm your eyes with too much pattern. Instead, try to mix lots of pattern with a little pattern. So if you have Utter Chaos (very bright, patterned zoa) you might want to put something like Blue Hornet, scrambled eggs, or Halle berry next to it because they have less pattern.
3- polyp size and shape. This is definitely not one of the things a lot of people think about when creating a zoa garden but it really makes a big difference! Putting small and larger zoas with normal sized zoas creates a lot of contrast and keeps things interesting! Throwing in some Paly Grandis definitely shakes things up but having tiny zoas like Eagle Eyes creates a great break from zoas that are all the same size. Palys like Beauty and the Beast are also a different shape than your average zoa, some people may not be able to figure out what the difference is but the can tell that they’re different!
So shake it up, have fun! At the end of the day, the only person that has to love your garden is you so make it something you like! Throw those salted agaves next to the magicians, and those Mandarin Oranges by your Utter Chaos, not EVERYTHING has to dramatically contrast! Put some shrooms, rock flower nems, scolys, clove, Xenia, goniopora, whatever into your garden, even more variety and they don’t hurt zoas! Keep it fun, mix it up, there’s not a right or wrong way to do it. Make sure you keep your viewing angle in mind too; will it be viewed from the front, side, from above? Multiple angles? Post some pics when you’re done!
