Brad's Tropical Paradise

On an impulse this spring I purchased some mint and some thyme in tiny pots at Baker's Nursery in Phoenix. I just thought that they had a nice look to them and their small size seemed to be just right for the tiny scale of The Tropical Paradise. I've tried to grow mint before, and it failed, so this time I tried to nurture it along. It has made it through the summer - is it too early to say that? - and I have confidence that it will really start growing strong. This area of The Tropical Paradise is where I have the deepest shade. As you can see, I have also planted begonia, and right behind the light fixture is a zamia cycad. The idea of the mint was for it to spread and cover up the unsightly "stilt" roots of the Phoenix roebellini (dwarf date palm). While those roots are perfectly normal and absolutely healthy, I just, well, don't like the looks of them. So hopefully the mint will spread and do the job this season! I had been trimming the mint back regula...

A healthy garden is also a welcoming place for weeds. Weeds are, of course, just plants out of place, so you have to decide what is, and what isn't, a weed. It's your garden, so it's up to you to decide. A garden is, by definition, a piece of trained ground, so while weeds look great out in the wide-open spaces of Arizona, they look terrible, to me, here. To control weeds, I do several things. The little olive seeds that sprout, I usually just bend over and pull out. The weeds that grow low to the ground and spread, I shoot with RoundUp®. I've tried using the large economy size, but I really prefer using the regular size and just keeping it handy. I walk around the garden like James Bond, or a first-person shooter in a video game, and just give the weeds a blast. Careful aim is important as RoundUp is taken in through the leaves. If you accidentally spray it on a plant that you don't want to die, you have ten (10) minutes to wash it off with plain water. After t...

A tropical environment, like a rainforest, will have understory plants. Those are the ones that are protected by the taller plants, which create a canopy above. In this corner of The Tropical Paradise, I am trying to develop that type of area. As you can see, there is a little bit of shade protection provided by the patio cover (lower left) which, although has been protecting the coleus, has been protecting it a bit too much, and it has gotten stretched out and leggy, so I trimmed it. You can also see, on the far left the fronds of a zamia cycad, which stays small, likes shades, and unlike most other cycads, doesn't mind living in damp soil. Beyond the shade of the patio cover, the understory changes quickly. The palm tree that you see in the foreground will provide nice dappled shade in a few years, but it's still a baby. So the carpet bugle ( Ajuga reptans ), which is the ground cover, has burned up where there has not been enough shade. The groundcover, however provide...

I was noticing yesterday that my Placoderm (armored fish) was becoming completely invisible under the growth of new plants at Trilobite Reef, so I have moved it. This area, which is my new cycad colony, I will call Placoderm Bay. It's a good place to put this little bit of nonsense sculpture, as it's an area that needed some visual interest. Everything that I planted there has died from the summer heat, and the bulbs won't be appearing until October. There is more than just whimsy here. There are some design principles. The one that I mention a lot is *visual interest*. That just means guiding someone's eye to where you want them to look. Some people refer to it as a *focal point*, but in my opinion, that is going too far. Bright, gaudy garden decoration that screams *hey, look at me!* is very popular, and very ugly. Instead I am trying to do the double-take. As someone looks at this area, they will say, *is that a scorpion?* And from a functional standpoint, I am...

While I was doing some trimming on the southern end of Trilobite Reef here at The Tropical Paradise, I noticed something had returned - my Alocasia Amazonia (African Mask Plant). It was wildly expensive, and I purchased it from a very reputable grower online, but I had figured that it had died from the heat. Nope - here it is again! The coleus behind it, which I just trimmed way back, had protected it. Hopefully it's late enough in the season so that the protection isn't really needed anymore.

Cannas are an old-fashioned plant. I can't say that I ever had much enthusiasm for them, until now. Most of the cannas that I've seen around Phoenix are usually pretty ratty. They have an uninteresting green leaf and a less-than-thrilling flower that doesn't last very long. But then I discovered a new variety of canna, called the Tropicanna . When I first got these a few years ago, they were rare, and I had to order them online. Since then they have become common in Home Depots, etc. But if you really want the vivid color of the leaves, there are some tricks that I have discovered. • Cut them back viciously. The beautiful leaf color is only from new growth, so chop the old canes down to the ground. I use a small curved saw. • Cut off the blooms as soon as possible. The flowers look ratty pretty quickly, so that's not a problem. Remember that you are growing this plant for its gorgeous foliage, not flowers. The flowers are nice, and I leave them on for a while,...

In habitat, cycads, like these *sago palms* grow in groups, called colonies. When they are displayed in groups, they are spectacular, but they are expensive plants, and people tend to plant them all alone, or in a pot as a specimen. But cycads don't like to be lonely! This new project, a cycad colony, started by accident. I had suspected that one of my cycads was dying and a fellow-member of the Arizona Palm and Cycad Association was kind enough to donate one of the pups from his cycas revoluta . When I planted it, I noticed that the one that was *dying* was starting to come back to life! So I planted them fairly close together. Then a few weeks ago another friend dropped off two ailing cycads that I promised him would grow better here at The Tropical Paradise than in a pot on his porch. It had one little leaf straggling - you can see the one - and seemed to be on its last legs. But the new growth is strong, and the weather is nice and wet, and still warm, so I decided to get...

It's been terribly hot this summer here in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Even in this protected area, you can see plenty of leaf burn. Look at the elephant ears, and at the cannas. This is my *prime real estate* area here at The Tropical Paradise, which is east-facing and gets afternoon shade. But even a few hours of sun in the summer here is brutal. The star of the show is a dioon spinulosum cycad. I'm a big fan of cycads, and I have several here. The most common one, and one that you see a lot of here in Phoenix is the *sago palm* (cycas revoluta). Cycads aren't palms botanically, but it doesn't matter to me. They aren't ferns either, but they give the illusion of a small palm or fern. This cycad is a little bit rarer than an ordinary sago palm, but they are available at ordinary nurseries and Home Depots in Los Angeles. They take more care than most people in Phoenix are willing to give, that's all. Getting rid of the palo brea in September of 2010 Th...

I've gone to great pains to make the *plumbing* of The Tropical Paradise as invisible as possible. There are two systems - one line is based on a drip system, which has sprayers, and the other is a misting system, similar to the ones that you see spraying and dripping on you on patios at restaurants. It rained last night, but here in the desert you really can't rely on that. And so creating a system to discretely water the plants here is critical. I've seen people go out and try to *hand water* using a hose, but their plants eventually die, or look so ragged that they end up planting cactus, or just putting in gravel or concrete. I don't get many visitors here to The Tropical Paradise, but the ones that are expert gardeners never, ever, walk up into the garden. They stay on the paths. They know that in addition to bulbs that may be beginning to sprout, there are sprinkler heads that might get kicked, or stepped on. And it is especially difficult to see them here, ...

There is no doubt about it, summer in the Phoenix, Arizona area is brutal. I planted a lot of things here in Trilobite Reef in the spring, and most of it died. But the portulca (Moss Rose) is doing great. This clump is from two tiny sprigs from a six-pack from Summer Winds Nursery on Bell Road. I planted it elsewhere here in The Tropical Paradise, but this is where it is really happy. This area gets morning sun and a surprising amount of reflected heat from the rocks. I planted portulaca elsewhere, but nowhere else in the garden is it doing as well as here. It's all about location! Apparently it can take as much water as you can give it, as these plants are right next to a spray that comes on every day. Look at the cannas behind them and you can see the leaves have literally burned in the sun. Also notice the burn on the carpet bugle at the base of the cycad and it gives you an idea how terribly hot this area is. But the Moss Rose just goes on blooming!

To my surprise, many palm and cycad collectors leave their plants in pots. Sometimes even in the ugly black containers that they were grown in. And while this is usually not fatal to the plants, it certainly isn't how to get the most out of them. Of course, if you live somewhere that gets below freezing, like England, I can understand. But I've seen people do it here in Arizona, and even in California. Leaving your palms and cycads in pots is like keeping a goldfish in the bag from the pet store instead of letting him go free in the aquarium. In a tiny container, there is more chance of fatal fluctuations in temperature, there is a greater chance of disease, it more difficult to feed, that sort of thing. This is what you need to do - • Buy your plants small. Digging a hole for a fifteen-gallon pot is quite a task here in Arizona where the ground is mostly clay. By the way, when I dig a hole, I start a bit, fill with water, let it sit, dig a bit out, refill, etc. Even a ...

If you live in the southwest, whether Arizona, Texas, or New Mexico, and unless you are up in the mountains, you can have a tropical paradise. The most important thing that you need is a lack of freezing temperatures. It really can't get too hot. Believe me, I'm in the Phoenix, Arizona area and it's nearly 120 F out there right now. It can, however, get too sunny. Many of the plants that I have here don't mind the heat, but too much direct sunlight will kill them. So, if you are just starting out, you need to think of shade. If you haven't bought your house yet, you need to look for one with a backyard that faces the rising sun. Since the hottest part of the day is in the afternoon, your house itself will provide good shade at that time. No, you don't want a north-facing backyard, or an south-facing backyard, or a west-facing backyard. You want an east-facing backyard. If you're not good with directions, go look at the house. If the backyard is shaded ...

If you have a Phoenix roebellini (pygmy date palm) that has been in the ground for several seasons, you have probably noticed that its roots get exposed. This is perfectly normal for this plant, and is known as *stiliting*. And believe me, no matter how much potting soil you spread around, it eventually gets back up on its stilts. And even though it's perfectly normal, it's, well, a little unsightly. I've tried piling rocks up, too, but they just get pushed aside. There must be some reason why this plant wants to expose its roots. I haven't done any research on it, and I am satisfied to think that this is just the way God made it. Anyway, I am trying to grow some ground cover around it. Because just because it's natural, doesn't mean that I have to like looking at it. Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, doesn't seem to mind.

The new leaves of a Dioon edule var. edule cycad start out with a bronze color. Personally, I prefer the Dioon edule var. palma sola , whose new leaves start out bright green. The bronze color of the new growth always worries me a little bit, although I've seen it for many seasons here at The Tropical Paradise and it's perfectly normal for this species and variety. It always looks a little, well, sunburned. But it's not. In a few days the leaves will reach their final shape and then turn the same color as the old leaves. It is brutally hot and humid here in the Phoenix area now, in August, which is wonderful for the plants, not so good for man or beast!

I have often heard "never throw a cycad away", and it is more often true than not. If the caudex, that is, the pineapple, the truck, is still firm, the plant has a very good chance of coming back to life, even if the leaves are all droopy and yucky. I had a friend of mine drop off some cycads here yesterday at The Tropical Paradise as they had been doing poorly at his place, where they had been in pots on his patio. The first thing that you need to do is squeeze the caudex. If it's firm, it's worth trying to rehab it. If it's mushy, go ahead and throw it away. The one thing that is guaranteed to kill cycads is overwatering. If the caudex is firm, give the plant a tug, as if you were trying to pull out a weed. If the root system is strong, then it ain't moving. If it pops right up, chances are the roots are either all gone or they are very weak. Out in my courtyard is my rehabilitation area. I have several pots filled up with volcanic pumice. Ailing cyc...