Brad's Tropical Paradise

One of the best ways to add a tropical effect is to grow cannas. These are Canna Tropicannas , which like all cannas, grow from an inexpensive bulb and reproduce like crazy. If you live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, I recommend that you try these, but I have learned a few things - here they are: • Plant them in shade or part shade. T hey will try to grow in full sun, but will look terrible, and eventually die. That's morning sun you are seeing in the photo, which is all they get. • Grow them for the leaves, not the flowers. The flowers are nice, but it's the leaves that give that wonderful tropical effect. I let the flowers bloom a little, and then cut the plant back as hard as I can. • Cut them back hard. This bunch was cut to the ground last month. Don't be timid about cutting them, and make sure that you have easy access so you can do it often. These are not "front yard plants".  If you see a stalk that's looking straggly, cut it back as far as you ...

If you are tempted to buy some freesia bulbs at your local dollar store, I recommend it. Keep in mind that they will not be as big and beautiful as the super-duper ones from places like Easy to Grow Bulbs . But freesia does fine here in the Phoenix area, requires no chilling and blooms year after year. A dollar store freesia bloom will be smaller, and strictly speaking, more primitive. It will have less of the look of those gorgeous blooms you see at florists, and more of a "wildflower" look. This little flower has been blooming for about three years, and there was a whole bag of them for a dollar. Let's see, I'm not very good with math, but, uh, that's pretty cheap, isn't it? Freesia will bloom in late February and throughout March. You can plant them anytime of the year. No chilling or digging them up is ever required. Include a little bit of slow release fertilizer, and in subsequent years, add a little more. I like to use the little house plant food ...

This winter I cut the Canna Tropicannas completely to the ground. I have to admit that it was kind of sad to see so much empty space for a while, but it was also true that the cannas had really gotten out of control. I will make a note to do this again in another year or so. These cannas, which extend well beyond the photo, were started with six bulbs three years ago. Like all bulbs, they reproduced and spread. In fact, they had completely blocked off that little path there that you see that let me get behind the palm trees, so this year I'm digging them out if they get too close. I also dug a bunch out in the path behind that leads to the water timers, which were virtually blocked last summer. I don't think I have to worry about them coming back strong with plenty of coverage. In fact, I've filled a bucket full of bulbs that are sitting out in my courtyard. The area there in front of the cycad gets an awful lot of reflected heat, and I haven't decided what to pl...

One of the best things, and one of the worst things that you can put in your garden is furniture. Done correctly, it makes a more comfortable and welcoming environment. Done wrong, it really makes a mess of things. This is what I have learned • Give people a place to sit. And, just as importantly, a place for them to put their beverage. And although I had been proud of the little plastic tables that I had scattered around the yard, they just weren't making it. I got this table yesterday from Walmart. It's aluminum, and was relatively inexpensive. I've made the mistake before of trying to use plastic, or metal furniture outside. Never again! There is no plastic in the world that likes to sit outside in a Phoenix summer, and any metal that rusts should never be left outside. Aluminum. Wood? Even I was never dumb enough to do that! Oh yeah, and no glass-top tables. They look terrible and dusty about ten minutes after you put them outside. Outdoor furniture should not be du...

One of the worst places for plants in the Phoenix, Arizona area is a southern exposure, that is, along a north-facing wall. The reason for this is that this area gets sun all of the time. It's pleasant in colder parts of the country, where the southern exposure would mean a cheerful, sunny area where you could plant flowers. But in Phoenix, where the temperatures can exceed 100 degrees F, it's the fires of hell. The block wall adds to the heat also. In addition to the constant blazing sun from the south, the wall itself reflects heat back. Here at The Tropical Paradise, you can see the line (where the cannas end) where the house itself provides some shade to this area (it's off to the left). Without that, this entire wall would be a dead zone. Most of what I have planted there in the past twenty years has either died, or is just barely hanging on, like these stunted cycads. In fact, I have a friend who has suggested that I paint this wall, just so it doesn't look ...

I have a lot of cycads here at The Tropical Paradise and by far my favorite is the Dioon edule. I've had this one here for over ten years, and while it gets a bit of shade, it doesn't need as much as an ordinary sago palm (cycas revoluta). The one over to the right is a variety of Dioon edule called a "palma sola" which does even better. Oddly enough, these are not readily available in the Phoenix area. I can't imagine why, they are beautiful and tough. During the big freeze we had in January, about all of the other plants around the dioons were badly damaged, they they hardly showed any damage at all. And they love the heat, too. As for price, they are a little bit more expensive than an ordinary sago palm, but not ridiculously so. They are very slow-growing and this one really doesn't look all that much different than when I planted it.

It was very windy yesterday, and like a lot of people in the valley, I was the recipient of a generous amount of my neighbor's leaves. I've seen this sort of thing create confrontations in otherwise quiet neighborhoods, with people somehow under the impression that the scattering of leaves is something that is under someone's control. If you're ready to go confront your neighbor about their making a mess with their "darn tree", well, sorry, you are an idiot. If you live anywhere near trees, there will be leaves. The leaves will fall. Why am I explaining this? Here at The Tropical Paradise, that steady supply of leaves, both from my trees and from my neighbors', has been a regular free supply of mulch. I have a small rechargeable leaf blower, and I just blow the leaves from the patio, and the artificial turf, up into the garden. Not only does it look great, the mulch helps to keep moisture in the garden, and to keep the soil cooler. And did I mention ...

When freesia start to bloom, it's quite a show. But they are incredibly top-heavy. I discovered that last year when I planted these and watched the blooms tip over. This year I started staking early with little bamboo sticks from the dollar store. It looks like I will have to go back to the dollar store! There are a lot more blooms on the way, and the stakes are already showing the strain. You can see the one in the foreground really curving under the weight! I don't want to use any thicker stakes, so I will just add more. I like how the bamboo stakes really don't show much, but I'm not crazy about the "green" that the flexible plant tie manufacturer chose. But it's important to use this type of flexible tie, you want the stalk to be firmly tied, but you don't want the flowers to be "decapitated". March 23, 2013 These flowers came from Easy to Grow Bulbs , by the way. Nah, they don't pay me to say anything, but they grow the kind ...

I can't really recommend trying to combine a Canis lupus familiaris with a small garden, but I have been sharing The Tropical Paradise here with Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, now for almost eight years. We've made many mistakes, but this is what we have learned: If you have a nurturing spirit, you can care for a dog. Caring for a living thing, whether plant or animal, is all about paying attention at the right time, understanding its needs, providing the correct support, and staying out of the way when necessary. If your backyard looks like a scene from a World War I movie, then you probably should re-think getting a dog. Dogs like to dig, especially a breed like a dachshund. If you don't have the time and patience to train, let the dog live elsewhere. If you think that that tearing up the garden is inevitable with a dog, take a look at The Tropical Paradise. This place is enhanced by her, not destroyed by her. Get a pooper-scooper, and use it every day. N...

The tropical plants here love the heat, but too much direct sun can sunburn them. My backyard faces east, so it gets a lot of shade in the afternoon, which is critical to the success of a garden like this, but this morning I am doing some design refinement that will add shade in the morning. As you can see, I got a shade umbrella. It will make a nice addition to the backyard, and will be a nice gathering place for my visitors. But the real function of this is to shade the area you see here. It's 7:30 am on March 22nd so I think, hopefully, I am on the right track. Morning sun for most of the year is the best thing that these plants can get. But through May and August, the morning sun here in the Phoenix area can be brutal. I've seen people put up elaborate shade structures, but that's not for me. This is my backyard, not a greenhouse! The plant that I am most interested in protecting from the sun this summer is the dioon spinulosum cycad. The sun won't kill it,...

Of the few things that I have done right here at The Tropical Paradise, having artificial turf installed is at the very top. I like the look of neatly-cut grass, just looking at it makes me feel cooler. Having glaring "hardscape" in an area like this, or that awful "pea gravel" that is sometimes used, is just wrong here. In addition to not having to water, mow, or edge it, there are other advantages that I have learned about. Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, likes it too. It's perforated, so her pee doesn't puddle on it, it sinks in, and I hose it down every once in a while. Her poop is easy to scoop up (if you've ever tried to scoop doggy poop out of gravel you know how terrible that is). And did I mention that artificial turf doesn't glare like concrete or paving? And it doesn't bunch up like that awful "pea gravel"? Yeah, I guess I did. Your tropical paradise should not have hard-packed dirt or heat-refecting hardscape. A...

I cleared away more of the frost-damaged plants from The Tropical Paradise and it's evident that the Dioon edule cycads were the clear winners. Here they are tonight, uplighted by Malibu lights.

It's the first day of spring here at The Tropical Paradise and the freesia are now really blooming. Last year these guys bloomed about a month earlier, but it has been cold here in the desert this year. As usual, I am living and learning. I was surprised to find that some of the freesia were badly injured by the frost in January. I guess these really are tropical plants! And, in my enthusiasm, I transplanted some of them from the front yard to the backyard a couple of weeks ago, which was a bit of a mistake. Those plants are blooming, but the intense heat has turned the leaves yellow. Anyway, this bunch looks great. It looks like they found exactly the right place. They get plenty of sunshine, and since they are at the bottom of a slope, they get plenty of water. These are big, showy blooms, from bulbs I got two years ago at Easy to Grow Bulbs in California . I have tied the stems to thin bamboo sticks because last year, these top-heavy blooms started tipping over. I have f...

Now that the cannas are coming back strong, I am having to keep them away from the areas that provide access. I discovered that just trimming them doesn't do any good, they grow right back, so I am digging the bulbs out from the edges. It's wonderful to have them growing so well, but I feel kind'a bad about throwing the bulbs away, so I am stashing them in the big pot out in the front courtyard, which is already full to overflowing. By the way, note how the plants on the left, that get more shade, are redder than the plants on the right, which get more sun. This whole "grove" started from the same 6 bulbs planted three years ago.

I was a little nervous about moving this Partridge Breast Aloe to its new location last year, but it looks like it's the best thing I could have done. It now gets more shade and a little bit more water. It's March 18th and it's blooming like it's never done before. These plants are beautiful all of the time, and the bloom is a bonus. By the way, if you're worried that they will die after they bloom, they won't. Agaves do that, not aloes.

It's always wise to look at a plant's Latin name. Most of the time you will find the genus and species, and sometimes variety, printed on a label. This really doesn't matter for common plants, but as you get into the exotics, like cycads, it gets very important. I've been collecting, growing, and talking about cycads for almost twenty years now, but I still really don't get it. I've read the exact scientific explanations and it just seems to make it worse, so here's what I know: Under the main category of cycads are these that I have here at The Tropical Paradise are: • Cycas • Dioon • Zamia • Encepharalartos The most common cycad is a "sago palm", which is a cycas revoluta . Using the common name is pretty safe here, but if you're just starting out collecting, I would recommend that you get into the habit of calling it a cycas revoluta . Collectors usually just call this beautiful plant (somewhat scornfully in my opinion) a revol...

Here at The Tropical Paradise, the turf is artificial. I had it installed in 2006 and I just love it. The only maintenance it needs to be cleaned with a leaf blower every couple of weeks. I had one of those old, heavy, corded leaf blowers many years ago and it was, in addition to being terribly noisy, a terrible hassle. I had to go get the heavy duty cord from the garage, unwind it, etc. OK, call me lazy, but I have found a much better solution. The blower I use now is a small, lightweight rechargeable one. You don't need to strap it on your back, you can easily hold it in one hand. I just "mowed the yard" a few minutes ago and it took me about five minutes. I store it in my spare room, go out and blow a few leaves away, and put it away. The whole process takes me about fifteen minutes. No, I don't anything else important to do this Saturday, but I just didn't like spending a lot of time taking care of the grass.

It's March 16th and the cannas here at The Tropical Paradise are coming back strong. We had a very nasty hard freeze in January that knocked these plants right to the ground, but as you can see, they're coming back. In fact, maybe a little bit too well! One of my weekend tasks will not be to thin them. Just like thinning carrots, the idea is to go through and cut back a few in-between plants to allow the rest of them more room to grow strongly. These canna, which are Canna Tropicanna , by the way, get to be about six feet tall and grow very strongly. I started with just a handful a couple of years ago, and like all bulbs, they multiplied. Oh yeah, cannas love water and fertilizer, so give them plenty of both. Then stand back! Cannas last summer here in The Tropical Paradise

In addition to water, your indoor palm tree needs food. Like so many things relating to caring for plants, it's kept as a secret. That is, you want people to see a beautiful, healthy plant, not a lot of "behind the scenes" stuff. But the "behind the scenes" stuff is what makes it work. Most gardeners don't talk about this, they just show you their green thumb. Not exactly liars, but not exactly telling the whole truth! To feed a Kentia palm like this, apply some three-month slow release granules and scatter them on top of the soil and work them in with a fork, and then lightly water the soil mixture. Personally, I like Osmocote, but that's probably because it's what I see when I'm shopping at Walmart. Get any kind you like, preferably on sale, as long as it's slow release. If you prefer a water-based plant food, dilute it to 1/2 the recommended amount, and then apply as directed. Of course, you don't want any of this to show, so ...

The worst tree for frost damage is the ficus and the worst flowering plant is the bougainvillea . If you have these on your property now, chances are they look terrible. And they will look terrible every time we get a frost. Get rid of them now. • Ficus. Beautiful trees, dense canopy, but most of them around town, including the gigantic one next door to me, are now a mass of brown leaves that will all fall off. Smaller ones will die. Don't plant ficus. Instead, plant an olive tree, or a mesquite. I have two olive trees here at The Tropical Paradise and they don't show a trace of frost damage. Nowadays you can get them as fruitless, which is the best way to go. And if I could go back twenty years, I would have planted a mesquite. Beautiful, soft, feathery leaves, the kind of dappled shade that plants do so well under, and, of course, no damage from frost. • Bougainvillea. I had one of these in the front courtyard for years. But when the temperature cooled off, it was a m...

The water for the plants in The Tropical Paradise is delivered through a low-pressure drip line system. That's the one on the right, with the black tubing. The timer is an inexpensive battery-powered timer from Home Depot. I have tried many different types and prefer these simple ones. There is no reason to have a complex computer-style timer! If it comes with an instruction manual, don't buy it. The water pressure is stepped down to 15 psi and the water goes through a filter cartridge, which is cleaned every year (or at least it should be!). The trunk line runs all the way around the outer perimeter of the garden and the individual plants are watered with 1/4 "spaghetti tubing" with sprayer heads. As you can see, I am generous with the plumber's tape as this system is always under pressure, and you don't want drips. And even if you do it right, it's a good idea to go out there and check it every once in a while. I had the hose bib replaced a few years...

No one was more surprised than me at how well the "jungle" by the dining room window had grown in the past few years, but it had created a problem. The cannas and the elephant ears had made it impossible for me to get access to the cycad, a dioon spinulosum , which is really supposed to be the star of the show in this area. The winter frost, which was one of the worst I've seen here, knocked the cannas and the elephant ears to the ground. Last month I finished up clearing away the last of the devastation, and this month I'm getting a chance to redesign the area, with access a priority. Of course, the idea is to make this as inconspicuous as possible, so that it's the plants that display, not the access routes. These are access routes for maintenance, not garden paths. As you can see, I have placed stepping stones on both sides of the cycad. There are also flagstones and stepping stones that run parallel to the house which will allow me to get back to the wat...

One of things that I notice when people take photos of their flowers is that they haven't given any thought to the overall display. It's all well and good to plant bulbs, or go buy flowers at Home Depot, but if the background is the hose, stray weeds, or just dirt, you are making a mistake. I know, I've done it often. In this shot of the bulb garden, you can see some of the preparations for the final display. This morning I added some alyssum in-between the plants. It doesn't look like much at this point, and it really shouldn't. Alyssum will grow strongly and fill in the background quickly. You don't need a lot, just a few from a six-pack will do. I transplanted these from the front yard. Also, cut them down to the nubs. The flowers will grow back! At this point, you are looking for strong root growth. Be very generous with water at this time. I rarely find information like this, usually the photos I find on the web are when everything is in full bloom. B...

One of the worst mistakes that you can make in the garden is losing access. I'm not talking about the main garden path, I'm talking about access to the back of the garden, and the watering system. I've been working on clearing up a bit of a mess that has evolved over the years in what I call "Wiener Dog Highway". It's a narrow strip that I can get in behind the garden. It's where the 1/2-inch main water line is (you can see a little bit of it there), and of course, it's where Macintosh, the good little wiener dog likes to hunt for her geckos (actually just common wall lizards, and she really doesn't have much luck). Anyway, all gardens need access. The best designs follow the concept of a "perennial border", which are always no more than 6 feet wide. That allows the gardener to be able to reach from each side without ever having to step into the garden bed. A good idea, and one that I started with. But if everything gets overgrown a...

Just because a bulb is sold at your local nursery, or Home Depot, doesn't mean that it will do well here in the Phoenix, Arizona area. For the past twenty years I've been experimenting with just about anything I could find. I bought bulbs at dollar stores, online, etc. and just planted them. This is what I have learned: The flowering bulbs that do best here in the Phoenix, Arizona area are: • Iris. The purple kind, called "Bearded Iris". They grow practically like weeds, and given a little care, they bloom, and re-bloom, like crazy. That's one of them in the right foreground. • Daffodils. Any kind does well here. I have found the grandiflora Narcissus does the best. • Freesia. Wow - these are amazing! If you look closely at the picture, they're the ones that are tied to stakes. They bloom so much, and so heavily, that you have to stake them or they tip over. • Hyacinth. There's one next to the iris. The re-bloom isn't that great, but the b...

Xeriscape just means "dry landscape". But before you jump to the conclusion that a xeriscape has to be a moonscape, please take a look at The Tropical Paradise. This is a xeriscape garden in the Phoenix, Arizona area. I learned these tricks when I bought this house in the 90s by reading pamphlets and visiting the xeriscape garden at the Glendale Main Library, which is just a few blocks from me. No, I didn't want cactus and goofy-colored gravel. Those sterile landscapes in Sun City are repulsive to me. I wanted to have a beautiful landscape that used very little water. This is the desert, after all. And, well, water costs money. So here is what I learned: • Install a drip system. Mine is not elaborate, and it didn't need professional installation. You can get a starter kit at Home Depot. It's a low pressure system that feeds water discretely to your plants. Install it yourself and maintain it yourself. You don't need to do any digging, it's just a co...

One of the worst mistakes that you can make in your garden is putting a plant in a space that is too small. Cycads, like these, look best where they have room to stretch out. They also have sharp edges, so it's good to keep them away from where people will be walking. This is a morning shot of what is next to my bedroom window, where I am looking out from my computer right now. The plant in the center is a Dioon spinulosum cycad. Like all cycads, they are miniature plants that grow very slowly. So this one is fairly large. But it will get bigger in the next 100-150 years, and hopefully I will live to see some of it. Next to it, at left, is the new sago palm ( cycas revoluta ) that I rescued. As you can see, I only left three fronds, so it will look a whole better when it starts to grow, which I am hoping will begin later this spring, or at the latest, next year.  The leaves of cycads are not as sharp as cactus, of course, but they're sharp and hard, and not good to have ...

Here in the Sonoran Desert, there are two rainy seasons, one in the winter and and one in the summer. The winter rains, like the one this morning, are gentle. The summer rains are thunderstorms, which were once referred to as "monsoons" by a Phoenix radio announcer in the 1960s, who was joking. Now the term is actually used seriously. I guess people have short memories, and the humor of it is lost on them! I grew up in Minneapolis, where it rains (and snows) a lot, so .005 inches of rain is not what I would call a monsoon, unless I was being sarcastic. No, Phoenix does not get "monsoons" - but everyone here seems to get so excited by "water falling from the sky" I guess you can't blame us for exaggerating a bit. The Sonoran Desert only gets 7-8 inches of rain a year, so every little bit helps! I did a lot of planting over the past week and this rain is what I call "blessings from above". And a nice day for ducks!

I finally got around today to getting the correct pot for my indoor palm. The shape is called an "urn". I bought this one impulsively to see how it looks and I kind of like it. It's just plastic, but it has a beautiful shape and it is exactly the right size for this tree. I also added some moss along the top, which not only looks better than seeing the black plastic pot in there, it also helps, as all mulch does, with keeping moisture in. Another advantage to this urn shape is that the bottom part is hollow, and excess water can drain well away from the bottom of the inner pot, which will make it much easier to water. This is a trick I've used many times - if I like it, I will invest in something more expensive. But, hey, it looks pretty good as is, don't you think? Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, as usual, is not impressed.

Conditions in your garden can change very rapidly. Technically, they are called "micro-climates", which just means that a plant that does well in one area will not do so well just a few feet away, and vice-versa. Along the eastern slope of the Tropical Paradise, towards the south, is an area that I have been failing with for many, many seasons. It's because it gets the blast of the afternoon sun as it's along a line of the edge of the house, where the sun penetrates to the side yard. And in the summer, everything that I have planted there has cooked. This season I am going with agaves and aloes. I am fortunate enough to get advice from the guys at The Arizona Palm and Cycad Association, which is kind'a like having NASA help you with your science homework So, as of March 7th, this is what I've got. The aloes in bloom are actually from only two plants, which I subdivided. They will grow together, which is why I made sure that there was access from all si...

Today is March 6th and I am planting fountain grass here in the Phoenix, Arizona area. There are many plants that should only be purchased at specialty nurseries, and carefully selected. But fountain grass is not one of them! In fact, I like to give it the "toughness test" by finding it at a Home Depot, mostly neglected. They always look a little ratty up close, but that's what's they're supposed to look like. This planting area is what I have called "the fires of hell" for a long time. This is no place for a delicate plant, and maintenance should be minimal. Fountain grass is perfect for this. There's a little shade here in the winter, but by summer it will be one of the hottest and driest places in the garden. Fountain grass is a typical "background plant", which is what I want here for The Outback. It is very tough, does well in poor soil, needs practically no care, but it does need water. And that's the trick. Before you plan...

I got involved with The Arizona Palm and Cycad Association over ten years ago because I wanted to learn more about garden design, specifically using palms and cycads. My intention was to create a tropical paradise look here in the Phoenix, Arizona area, but most of the information that I could find was from Southern California. I was a novice to the world of cycads, a beginner, and I still am. I have observed that cycads are collected mostly by middle-aged men, like me. And although technically, this is a "gardening" group, it has always seemed more like a bunch of overgrown boys trading baseball cards. Cycad collectors, like collectors of anything, tend to want to get as much as they can, and are attracted by the rarest specimens. Of course, to the untutored eye, most cycads look pretty much the same. The difference in price can be incredible, though, from a common cycas revoluta (sago palm) that you can get at any Home Depot for twenty bucks to an  Encephalartos wo...

It's March 5th and here at The Tropical Paradise the freesia are just starting to bud. It doesn't look like much at first, but once it gets started, it's fireworks! I am posting this because the first time I planted freesia, I never found anything on the web but flowers in full bloom. I wanted to know, "is it supposed to look like that?" This is what it looks like a few days before the blooms start. And this is the time to start staking. I bought some thin bamboo sticks at my local dollar store and tied the stalks with flexible gardening tape, which I carefully cut lengthwise. I wish it didn't show so much but apparently the manufacturer's idea of "green" is different from green in the real world. The flowers grow on stalks about a foot and a half tall, and once they start blooming, they go in sequence. So it's a good idea to keep them where you can reach them easily to clean off spent blooms. OK, now all I need is a little more time ...

My friends know that I have a particular horror of people walking up into the garden. Not only do they crush tiny plants with their big clumsy feet, but they kick the watering heads, which I have to go back and repair. Unfortunately, some of the nicest people enthusiastically walk into garden beds, especially if they have brought the beer. And if you even hint that you don't want them to do it, well, you may as well be criticizing their driving. And so I want to protect my garden and not annoy people. I have just discovered agaves. Now, before you say "yuk" - if you live in the valley you have probably only seen the common, ugly ones. Agaves, like this  Agave potatorum cv. Kichiokan are quite beautiful. And no, you won't find them at your local Home Depot. I got this one yesterday at Summer Winds. They are very small and very expensive. They are also extremely deadly. So I don't have to tell you not to walk there, it's pretty obvious. At least I hope so! ...

It's March 4th and I am getting ready to plant my new sago palm ( cycas revoluta ). As you can see, it has about two feet of trunk, the bottom foot of which will be underground. It was dug up from a place where it had grown too big, and as you can see, very little of the roots came with it. This is not a problem for a sago palm. So I am going to treat it as if it were being planted "bare root", which is possible with all cycads. What I am using is Rooting Powder (available at Home Depot) and Powdered Sulfur (not available at Home Depot, I got some yesterday at Summer Winds Nursery). What you want here is to get some strong root growth. A plant like this will live for years without any roots, but it won't grow without them. And I want to see some new leaves! The planting hole itself has been ready for a week, but I have been waiting for the weather to warm up a bit. Planting in cold soil is a real mistake for a sago palm. Like cactus, your biggest worry is that...

If you have ever walked into an elegant hotel, from Monte Carlo to Las Vegas, and seen an indoor palm tree, it was a Kentia . And in movies, including "Casino Royale" at left, if you saw an indoor palm, it was a Kentia palm. No other palm tree looks this good and works this good indoors. My education on Kentia palms just started this year when Kevin Williams of Valley Palm Company installed one in my house. Before that I considered myself pretty good at recognizing different species of palm trees, but I have never given a thought to Kentia palms. I can't say that I've never seen them, I can say that I never noticed them. And that's what so cool about indoor palm trees. Just like being used outdoors, if done correctly, they just set an elegant mood. So, if you are considering putting a palm tree in your house, think twice. Most species will just fade away, no matter what you do. Kentias have a strong reputation of doing well indoors since the 1800s. But don...