Creating a miniature garden

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I am really enjoying my latest project at The Tropical Paradise, which I am calling Trilobite Reef. It started with a replica of a trilobite that I got online at Paleoscene.com. I spoke to the owner, Glen, about  my intention to use it as a garden sculpture, and he cast it out of a tougher material which should hold up better outdoors. It gets to over 100 degrees here, so even then I have it in a fairly shady area.

Once I placed in in the area that I am now calling Trilobite Reef, I started to add small plants, and to my surprise, started to get an *ocean floor* tableau look. I have even added seashells and sand. And since it's right up by my patio, I can keep an eye on things, trimming as necessary and making adjustments. This morning I found that the mint was looking pretty bad, so I moved it elsewhere. In a miniature garden, there is no place for anything to look bad.

This is a design project, and requires more than just plants. The star of the show is, of course, the trilobite, and everything else is a supporting cast. The miniature palm trees are, at left Phoenix robellini (dwarf date palm) and Phoenix rupiola x reclinata. The plant just to the left of the light fixture, which gives an amazing look of some strange undersea coral plant, is ordinary English lavender (an herb). The reddish plants are just ordinary begonias. The little cycad is a zamia, sometimes called a coontie. In the foreground is a beautiful piece of petrified wood from here in Arizona. And there are a lot of rocks, some smooth, some pointy.

The green plant just above the petrified wood is a natal plum, boxwood beauty. The little blue green plant at about center is an Aloe Striata. It has a nice shape that compliments the haworthia very nicely. The little green clumps are a very tiny variety of ice plant. In the background are cannas and elephant ears, and you can just barely see the caudex of another cycad, a dioon spinulosum, which has ajuga reptans, a ground cover, growing around it.

This is morning sunlight that you are seeing, as this area will be shaded by the house in a few hours. Even then the morning sun is fierce here in Arizona. Hopefully these plants will be tough enough to take it. They just look delicate!

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