Combining flowers, palms, and cycads in your garden

-
Combining flowers, palms, and cycads in your garden takes a few tricks. The problem, of course, is that these different plants require different amounts of water and sunlight (commonly called their cultural requirements if you're a stickler for that).

The most important trick is to have a slope. Here in this photo, taken along the southeastern edge of The Tropical Paradise, you get a better view of the slope, which is 20 -30 degrees. I wish I could take credit for this idea, but it just happened that when I moved here there was a whole bunch of gravel everywhere that I just shoveled up against the walls. When you visit gardens you will rarely see everything planted on flat ground. And it isn't just to make things display better, it helps your plants to grow better.

Towards top of the slope are the cycads. They appreciate water, but it needs to drain off right away or their roots will rot. As you go down the slope, you see where the palm trees are planted. They also like water, but don't like standing with their "feet wet". At the bottom of the slope, and planted in little "swales" along the way are the flowers. In this photo you can see iris, amaryllis, and a lot of freesia.

I turn off the automatic watering system in the winter here at The Tropical Paradise so I keep an eye on the flowers and water them with the hose if the weather seems dry or hot, of if we don't get much rain. The rocks also help to catch and contain the moisture in the soil, so I try to get a bunch of them along the edge of the artificial turf. I could use some more!

Flowering plants, of course, need plenty of sunlight, and you can see that even though it's still late morning, they are getting plenty. They face west and will get good sunlight until late afternoon when they are shaded by the house.

Of course, viewed from the front you don't really see any of this, and that's the point. You just see a Tropical Paradise!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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