Brad's Tropical Paradise

In addition to planting a lot of freesia this season, I planted sparaxis for the first time. To be fair, being compared to freesia is pretty harsh competition, because freesia is absolutely beyond belief beautiful, both in the leaf structure and the profusion of blooms. Here are some stray thoughts on sparaxis. I am finding that the majority of them haven't bloomed and the leaves are already starting to look ragged and yellowish as if they are beginning to die back. This flower (pictured) is in an area that I hadn't originally set aside for sparxis, having more shade and more water. From what I had read, sparaxis does well in hotter areas with sandier soils, but it doesn't seem to be the case here. The temperature here is still cool, but getting warmer fast, and I fear for the ability of the sparxis in the hotter areas to have a chance to bloom at all this season. Well, I'm experimenting mostly. Another consideration with sparasix is that the flowers close at nigh...

One of the disadvantages of a plant that flowers profusely is that they tend to tip over. This freesia started with a disadvantage as it was already growing pretty much sideways, toward the south, even before it started to flower. When the first flower appeared, the whole plant tipped over sideways until the flower was almost touching the ground. The solution is a small prop, or crutch, which you can see at the bottom of the picture. The prop is made of a small twig from the tree, and just trimmed into a crutch shape. One end is pushed into the ground, and the other end holds up the plant towards the bottom. As the alyssum grows in, it will hide this little bit of trickery. And that's how it's done! Update 3/28/2012 This little trick didn't last. The flowers got way too tall and top-heavy. The best thing to do is to get some bamboo canes and tie the stalks as discreetly as possible.

One of the things about a small enclosed space like The Tropical Paradise is that it captures and contains fragrance. When the flowers are blooming, the smell is wonderful. And so it's wise to consider fragrance as part of garden design. I just walked outside this morning and my first impression was the fragrance of flowers! Because of the nature of the small space here, confined by block walls, the smells linger. That means that hyacinth, freesia, alyssum, and other fragrant plants are so effective here. But there is a drawback to this type of space. Bad smells linger, too. I am very careful to clean up right away after my dog! I have a few neighbors who go outside to smoke, which is nasty, and that smell lingers, too. I also planted some *deserty* types of flowers here many years ago that gave off an unpleasant musty smell. They had to go! Also keep in mind that that wonderful fragrance, and color, of your flowers attracts bees. They don't bother me or the little dog, but...

There's an old saying that goes, *if it ain't broke, don't fix it* and I tend to disagree. I saw a documentary many years ago about the, uh, sewer system underneath Manhattan. They have been, for many years now, replacing component parts before they fail, based on a schedule. Their engineers know how long each part of the system should last, and it is replaced before there is a catastrophe. The people of Manhattan don't know anything about this, of course, they just think that a system that is nearly 300 years old is still functioning. When it comes to my watering system, I tend to take a very proactive approach. The temperatures here in the Phoenix area get well above 100 degrees in the summertime, and stays there for months. Any system will feel the strain! So this spring I am replacing a lot of the moving parts of my watering system. That includes the timers, the gaskets, the pressure regulator, even the the 4-way connector. I've inspected this stuff, and it ...

I had never even heard of Sparaxis until I ordered some bulbs from Easy to Grow Bulbs last October. But my motto is that I am *experimenting, mostly* and they looked like they would do well here. Like a lot of the plants here in The Tropical Paradise, they are native to South Africa. I guess that I was expecting them to be more like freesia, but they're not. The bulbs were much smaller, and the foliage isn't quite as lush. In fact, it tends to get a little yellow and I've trimmed some of the foliage just for looks. But the idea was to create a more natural look at in the hotter and dryer parts of the garden, so it should work out. The first bud is just forming, as you can see, and it appears to be covered with a thin, papery covering. Interesting! The colors should be spectacular, and the shape should be more like a daisy. I will keep you informed!

If I could go back to when this house was built, and plant a tree in the backyard, I would put it right where mine is. Yeah, I'm lucky. The tree that I have in the back yard, an olive, is planted in the southern half of my backyard. When I bought this house years ago, and the tree was small, it really didn't give much shade. But now it does! I'm no astrophysicist, but I know where the sun is here in the northern hemisphere. It's in the south. It's never really overhead, and even in the middle of summer, it's still a little bit in the south. So, naturally, the shade from a big tree falls to the north. So, if you are trying to get shade in your yard, plant your shade tree in the southern part of your yard. Well, not too close, as you don't want the branches hanging over into your neighbor's yard. Say about 15 feet away from your property line. On the other hand, if you plant a shade tree in the northern part of your backyard, it will shade your nei...

If you have an olive tree, now (February through March) is the time to have it sprayed to stop it from fruiting. When my trees were smaller, I did it myself, and in later years I hired the son of a friend of mine to get up on the roof and spray the trees. Last season, I failed to do it, and the amount of olives was just terrible! So this year, I marked on my calendar to arrange to get it done at the beginning of February. This is turning out to be much more difficult than I had imagined. Olive spraying is a specialized business, and there seems to be very few companies here in the Phoenix area that do it. The company that was recommended to me was so overwhelmed that they were unable to keep up with their requests. After several polite inquiries as to when they could do it, I ultimately got an email that said that they had so many other customers they really didn't know. So I tried contacting other olive sprayers by doing a Google search. One company did respond very quickly,...

I've had occasion to repair the 1/2" water trunkline on my system a few times. It happens mostly when I, uh, dig through it accidentally, which I did a couple of days ago, while moving some daffodil bulbs. These things happen! There are a few ways to repair this type of damage, and I've tried them all, which is why I do it the way I am going to describe. Even though this is a low-pressure system, it is still under pressure, and a leak is the least of your concerns. A water explosion is more likely whenever there is a breach of the system! So don't even think about being sloppy on this type of repair! I've used the simple compression-type repair tubing, but they really don't work. The best thing to use is this system that I found at Home Depot (pictured). In order to do this right, you will need two assemblies and a short piece of 1/2" tubing. Cut away the damaged tubing and slide the connector over the existing tubing. There is a nipple that fits in ...

It's February 14th and I just noticed the first flower of the freesias that I planted in the front yard starting to open. Now that's actually happening, it's pretty impressive. When I planted them, last October, I watched the video at Easy to Grow Bulbs that explained how many flowers there would be. And it should be pretty amazing in a few weeks. Each bulb has about four stems, each stem has about 12 flowers. And I planted a LOT of bulbs! As I expected, the plants getting the most sun are blooming first. My front yard faces the setting sun, and is very, very, hot in the summer, so it's the best for spring-blooming flowers. In the backyard, where I have more freesias planted, some haven't even started sending up stems. But they will! I expect to see these plants flowering in profusion throughout February and March.

It's the first week of February here at The Tropical Paradise, and I am beginning to see the first flower buds of the freesia that I planted last October. Freesia is a beautiful and fragrant flower, and is easy to grow here in the Phoenix, Arizona area. It's too late now, of course, to plant them, but put a note on your calendar for September or October of this year. Other than getting the timing right, which is to plant them in September or October, freesia need no special care. That is, you don't have to chill them or anything, just put them in the ground (I always add a little slow release plant food) surrounded by plenty of potting soil. Actually the trick to getting just about anything to grow here that isn't native to the Sonoran Desert is to remove the native soil and replace it with potting soil. I often say that my plants aren't really planted in Arizona, they're planted in holes in Arizona filled with potting soil! I purchased these bulbs from ...

The main reason that The Tropical Paradise uses so little water is that there is no grass. Instead there is artificial turf. And the plants are selectively watered using a low pressure drip system which has sprayer heads attached to the end of the tubing. Each one of these sprayer heads is mounted in such a way to allow them to spray over a very precise area, some with a 90-degree sprayer head, and some with a 180-degree sprayer head. The main trunk line for the water, which is 1/2", sits above ground and is only hidden beneath the gravel close to the wall. The individual tubing, which is called *spaghetti tubing* is 1/4", runs down to the area to be watered. So, if you want a tropical garden, and you still want to conserve water, you can!