Brad's Tropical Paradise

One of the last cycads to flush (start sending out new leaves) here in The Tropical Paradise is my  Dioon spinulosum  by my bedroom window, under the olive tree. This is really the premium spot in my yard, because of the shade from the tree and the afternoon shade from the house. The Dioon spinulosum over by the dining room window, which gets much more sunlight, flushed over a month ago. Watching a flush is exciting to a cycad collector. Unlike palm trees, cycads only grow about once a year, sometimes more, and sometime less. And it all happens very quickly, in a matter of weeks. It's an indication that the plant is healthy and growing. During a flush, the best thing to do is to get out there and water it regularly. Don't be tempted to trim away the old leaves, even if they don't look very good, as they provide protection for the new leaves, which are soft and fragile until full grown and hardened off.  In fact, if you do any damage to the young growing leaves, they wi...

Before you plant something here in Arizona, one of the best things that you can do is to visit Los Angeles. Here is a beautiful example of an Evergreen Elm, also called a Chinese Elm. It is in a very nice neighborhood built in the early sixties and it gives you a much better idea of what the plants will grow up to be than just reading the labels at the nursery or looking at pictures on the internet. Even though Evergreen Elms are common in my neighborhood here in Glendale, I didn't even recognize this tree in LA until a friend of mine named it for me. My first thought was "Do they grow that big?", and yes, they do. And even this photo doesn't begin to show the huge size of the trunk, the spreading aspect, and the weeping leaves. And don't be fooled by the name "evergreen". This tree is semi-decidious, that is, it drops all of it's leaves for a very short time in the winter. That means that ALL of these leaves from this huge tree will need to be...

When the temperatures here in the Sonoran Desert get over 110, I call it "getting into the teens" and it's brutal on man, beast, and plants. It's the main reason that my house costs a fraction of what it would cost on Malibu beach. And it's the reason why a lot of people here are convinced that you can only grow cactus, or dirt. But I've been living here in The Tropical Paradise since the 90s and I know that "the teens" will pass. Even the morning sun, as you see in this picture, is very hot at this time of year. It's not quite 8 am and the temperature is pushing ninety. By afternoon the shade of my house and the olive tree will make a huge difference to the plants here. There are a few things that you can do to get through "the teens". First of all, create as much shade as you can. Be sure that your plants are under trees, or against an east-facing wall. If you have recently planted, put up some type of simple shade cloth, like an ...

The Phoenix canariensis x rupicola palm tree cross that I planted last month is growing strong. It is a cross between a Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island Date Palm) and a Phoenix rupicola (Indian Date Palm). The cross was developed by a local grower and fellow member of The Arizona Palm and Cycad Association , Robert Claesgens. This cross is so new that larger specimens than this one are not yet available. It will grow faster than an ordinary Phoenix rupicola , which is notoriously slow, but not as fast as a regular Phoenix canariensis . I have it placed in my garden with plenty of room to allow it to grow. As you can see, I am trying to give it a lot of companion plants. In the foreground is a clump of ornamental garlic. This is a sunny part of the yard, and I am noticing the tips are browning. I'm not sure at this point if it's too much sun, or just from the transplant that is causing this. Behind it is another attempt to get a Canna Tropicanna started here. The firs...

I like dogs. The Tropical Paradise wouldn't be the same without Macintosh, the good little wiener dog. But sharing your backyard with your dog requires some care. If you have a neighbor whose dog barks, sorry, there really isn't much that you can do. I have just such a neighbor in this quiet neighborhood, and when I speak to him, nicely, his dog quiets down right away. But it starts right back up again very soon. He's a day sleeper, and he tells me that he literally doesn't hear his own dog barking in his backyard. I know that he has tried to teach the dog not to bark so much, including a training collar, but it sounds like it has been a failure. I hope that he keeps trying, because he can be successful. You can successfully combine a beautiful backyard with a dog. If you have a nurturing personality for plants, that can be applied just as well to your dog. The first thing to know is that you can exert some control. If you throw up your hands and say, "well, I ...

One of the many things that makes the Phoenix, Arizona area such a wonderful place to live is the low humidity and the sunny skies (not much rain).  For humans, this is wonderful, because, as you know, high humidity is very uncomfortable, and you really can't play much golf in the rain. But plants, especially tropical plants, like humidity, and rainfall. Here at The Tropical Paradise I deliver water to my plants through two systems, one being a traditional "drip" system, and also a mister system. In the picture you can see my setup. On the left is the mister system. This is an ordinary misting system, the kind you usually see along the edge of patios. I have it set to a timer that allows it to go on and off for short periods several times a day. No, it doesn't make The Tropical Paradise so humid that alligators would be comfortable there, but it does help. The white tubular thing is the filter, which I change yearly, and it goes to a standard misting line, which has...

Now that the weather is warming up here in The Tropical Paradise, I am moving into the shade. It's June 3rd, at just about 2 pm, and it's comfortable enough in the shade, but brutal in the sun. As you can see, the olive tree provides shade for the south side of the yard, and in a couple of hours the shadow of the house will take care of the rest. When I bought this house, I intentionally selected a backyard that would get afternoon shade. I work out of my house (I'm a web designer) so it has to be my sanctuary, and it is. I have some nice easy-to-clean outdoor furniture that I got at Target, a yoga mat and some light weights. I find myself sitting at my computer for hours at a time, so it's good for me to go out there and stretch, especially my lower back. The green squirt bottle, by the way, is a technique that I used to teach my dachshund not to bark so much, and now I just have to show it to her to remind her. I didn't really use it all that much, anyway. I lea...

Like all plants that grow from bulbs, cannas multiply. I purchased six Canna Tropicannas a few seasons ago from Easy to Grow Bulbs and they have multiplied so now I can divide them and plant them everywhere. I've noticed that they do their best with afternoon shade and lots and lots of water. So plant them in deep, rich soil with plenty of fertilizer, and don't be afraid to water them. A lot. By the way, the nice cycad in the lower right is a Dioon spinulosum . Beneath it is a little zamia , an ordinary houseplant that I got at Lowe's. The palm tree in the back is a Phoenix roebellini , a dwarf date palm, which are available everywhere here in Phoenix. The purple plants you see used to be called Wandering Jews, although nowadays most places just call them Purple Plants. They are Tradescantia zebrina . Buy a small one, plant it, and then break off stems and replant them around your garden. They root and grow faster than any other plant I've seen. They will grow anywh...

Here is Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, in The Tropical Paradise. Macintosh is a purebred miniature dachshund, whelped in Missouri, and I found her at a pet shop in Scottsdale. Her doggy door, along with the sliding glass doors and the windows, were from Home Depot, and I had them installed. The chairs are from Target, as is the outdoor pillow on my yoga mat, which I got online at Amazon. I don't sleep there, the pillow is to provide neck support while I do my stretching exercises. Sometimes Macintosh sleeps on it, though. The miniature palm tree, right above Macintosh, is a Phoenix roebellini (dwarf date palm) that I purchased at  K-Mart in a gallon container for $1.97 when I bought the house in 1993. I knew that I wanted a miniature palm, as if it were a regular palm tree, it would be a telephone pole by now. The Canna Tropicannas I ordered online from Easy to Grow Bulbs , which has some very cool stuff that works well for this climate. But I've seen Tropicannas for...