The cooling effect of tropical plants

-
Resorts here in the Phoenix area have used tropical plants to create the illusion of cool ocean breezes for a long time now. No, tropical plants don't actually make it any cooler, it just feels that way. Yes, it's still over 100 degrees here, even in the shade!

To me, having harsh desert plants like cactus staring at you just reminds you of how hot and miserable it is in the summer here. Don't get me wrong, I have a beautiful Saguaro cactus out front, but in the back I want to imagine that I am in Tahiti, not the Sonoran Desert. So, dried up skulls of cows and tumbleweeds just don't appeal to me.

This is an oasis. Like any oasis, it's small. Trying to achieve a Tropical Paradise that is the size of Disneyland in your backyard is a terrible mistake. All you really need is a place to sit surrounded by your tropical plants. Here in The Tropical Paradise, I installed artificial turf about six years ago, and it's the best investment I have ever made. Still looks great. You have to go outside and sweep it occasionally, but that's about it. I spray it with the hose, which cleans it up nicely and also waters my plants, in addition to the water that they get from the automatic system.

Something that I try to do regularly, which helps with the cooling illusion, is to get out and trim as much sunburned leaves as I can. Even in the afternoon shade, most of my tropical plants will sunburn at the tips, especially the cannas, from morning sun, which is still pretty harsh. And every once in a while, I cut them right back to the ground. That's what makes them come back so beautifully.

This is the view I have from my window by my computer, so I want it to be soothing. Sure, it's hot out there, but it doesn't have to look that way!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to tell if your cycad (sago palm) is alive or dead

-
Image
Cycads are strange plants. They're beautiful, and look like small palm trees, or large ferns. They grow very slowly, and can be very expensive, even common ones like "sago palms". But sago palms, in spite of their common name, aren't palms at all. They belong to a group of plants called cycads. They are wonderfully weird, and grow in strange ways. And sometimes they lose all of their leaves. Of course, if it were a palm tree that lost all of its leaves, you would know that the plant was dead. But it's not true of cycads. So don't dig that cycad up and throw it away! Not yet. If you've recently transplanted a cycad, and the leaves have all faded away, hang on. Take a look at the top center of the plant, at what I call "the pucker". There you will see some stubby, soft fronds, no more than an half-inch or so. At least that's what you should see. That means that the plant is still alive, and has dropped its leaves to focus on building r...
Read more

Rooting sago palm pups for more plants

-
Image
Once a sago palm ( cycas revoluta ) reaches a certain level of maturity, it starts to create pups. Like agaves, these are little plants that are exactly the same as the parent plant, only smaller. And yes, you can trim them off and grow them into new plants. This is how to do it. Cut them off from the parent plant with a sharp knife. If there are any roots at the bottom, try to save them, but chances are there won't be any. That's not a problem. The next step is rooting them. Douse the cut part and the bottom of the plant with some garden sulfur and some rooting hormone powder. Rooting hormone powder is pretty easy to find at your local Home Depot. I had to go to a real nursery to get garden sulfur. Anyway, the idea is to keep the little plant from rotting while giving it time to grow its own roots. Sago palm pups being rooted Bury them fairly deep in some free-draining mix. It should include volcanic pumice, if you can find it, and if not, you can use perlite. I ...
Read more

Growing sunflowers from Pennsylvania in Arizona

-
Image
It's October 21st, and I just received some sunflower seeds from a friend in Pennsylvania. Their season is ending and the season for planting here in Arizona is just beginning, and I'm kinda wondering if the seeds are wondering what's going on? It's spring again already? If you're new to the Phoenix, Arizona area, and are from back east it must seem kinda strange that fall and winter is our flower season, but it is. By springtime it will start to get so hot here that the flowers will die, and of course back east the season is just beginning.  Sunflowers growing in Peoria, Arizona, about a mile from where I live I've seen sunflowers blooming around my neighborhood of Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, in the winter, and although I've never grown them I understand that they're easy to grow. I guess I'll find out - I learn best by doing! The seeds arrived safely, and it's my understanding that they were still connected to the spent flower (I do...
Read more