Brad's Tropical Paradise

It's April 27th here at The Tropical Paradise and the Canna Tropicannas , which were completely flattened to the ground by the big freeze in January are coming back strong. So strong, in fact, that I am already trying to keep them under control. I am digging up the plants on the edges and potting them up. These plants, and the ones in the background, which appear to be a different color, all started from the same six Canna Tropicanna bulbs that I got online at Easy to Grow Bulbs . As you can see, they multiply like crazy, and the ones in the deepest shade (in the foreground) look the best, especially in the early morning with the sunlight showing through the leaves. The whole point of these plants is the tropical look of the leaves. Yes, they do flower, but only briefly. I let the flowers bloom, which only lasts a day or two, and then cut the stalks way down.

One of the secrets to the success of The Tropical Paradise is that the cycads are planted on a slope. I wish I could take credit for this, but it was purely by accident. The entire yard originally was covered with gravel (yikes!) when I moved in, which I found that I couldn't even give away, so I just took a shovel and moved it all up the sides of the yard. This created a wonderful place for cycads, who like to see water, but don't like to stand with their "feet wet" as it will rot the roots. Recently I discovered that I had a few flat areas along the slope that were getting wet, and staying that way. Bad for cycads, good for flowers. So my latest experiment is doing some terrace gardening to combine cycads with flowers. The flowers that I am using are iris and amaryllis. The iris are the the ones with the pointy leaves, the amaryllis are the ones with the strap-like leaves. There are a few other plants scattered around, but these are the ones that I can count o...

This past winter was terribly cold here in The Tropical Paradise. Definitely the worst frost damage I've seen in twenty years. And the elephant ears, which are always very tender in the cold, were completely flattened. I cut them all the way to the ground, and figured that they were dead. But it's late April, and they returning! So much so that I will have to get in there and thin them out a bit.  Like the cannas, I will need to carefully cut around the new shoots, and remove the bulb, otherwise it would just grow back. I am taking these little plants and putting them in pots out in the courtyard. It pains me to throw them away. Maybe I'll have a garage sale or something! Elephant ears last year

If you are seeing some strange pods emerging from your pygmy date palm tree ( Phoenix roebellinii ), don't worry, it's perfectly natural. It's the beginning of the flowering stage of the plant. A healthy plant will produce a lot of pods, and a lot of flowers. And while it is perfectly natural, it is just a little weird-looking. The pods will length and then open up to reveal the tiny little yellow flowers, and then the fruit, which are dates. I've watched them do this every spring here at The Tropical Paradise and I have to admit that I still really don't know what to do with them. I've made some mistakes so I know what not to do. • Don't start cutting them off when they appear. No, it wouldn't harm the plant, but it will just make the he whole thing more messy. They will continue to grow whether you cut at them at this stage or not, and will just look worse if you do. My recommendation is to let them grow all of the way out (it will take a few wee...

Your Tropical Paradise should look as good, and work as good, at night as during the day, especially here in the Phoenix, Arizona area, where days can be hot, and nights can be delicious. On this edge of the garden I have done two things that seem to be working well, I have installed a foot path and a couple of nice big pointy rocks. Most of the lighting here is done with uplights against the plants, but I have a few path lights in critical areas. The edge of the path should be clearly defined, both during the day and at night. If you have places where people accidentally step into the garden, or trip over things, you have a poor design. In order to study the very best of garden lighting, I visited The Phoenician Resort (Camelback and 60th Street) when I first started The Tropical Paradise twenty years ago. I walked around and noted how they did it. Any nice resort in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area will do. No, you don't need to put up big yellow roped-off areas to guide peopl...

Many upscale HOAs in the Phoenix area won't allow palm trees. The overall look of the community is meant to look like it belongs in the Sonoran Desert, which in itself is exquisitely beautiful. Arizona in its natural state is a beautiful place. Just look at how popular the magazine "Arizona Highways" is all over the world. If you live in one of those communities, you may be surprised to find that I agree with your HOA. When most people think of palm trees, they think of Mexican Fan Palms ( Washingtonia robusta ), which are a very weedy-looking palm tree and are way out of scale for even the largest home. They are what I call "telephone pole" trees. The same goes for all types of large scale palm trees. You may as well just plant a telephone pole next to your house. But as nice as natural desert vegetation is, it's really not so nice next to the pool, or by the patio. So my recommendation is to create a tiny oasis. Dedicate most of your property to natu...

It's April 18th and the weather just couldn't be more perfect for lazing in the backyard. Here at The Tropical Paradise I am seeing some strong growth from the cannas (the reddish-purplish leaf plants at left), which is nice. They got knocked all the way to the ground this past winter. This is the first year I've had the table and the umbrella, and now it seems like I've always had it. There is just something so civilized about having a table, and it took me a long time to figure out that, since I have artificial turf, I could put it out anywhere. Did I mention how much I like the artificial turf? I did lose some tender plants in the big freeze of January 2013, but I have a poor memory, so I won't dwell on that. Instead, I like to look at the big winners, the star of which is the Mediterranean fan palm in the corner. The trick, by the way, to getting the best out of a med palm is to leave it alone. I've seen people try to trim it into a single trunk, but i...

There are plant experts who can just stick their finger in the soil around a plant and estimate if the amount of water is correct. I am not one of those people! So, since my Kentia palm likes to be kept consistently moist, but not too wet, I got a moisture meter. This one, which I got at Walmart, has a digital readout that goes from 0.0 to 9.9. It takes a few seconds for it to read, so the first I used it I was surprised to see 0.0! Anyway, I am looking for a mid-range. To use it correctly, push the metal part down all the way, and take a few readings in different places in the pot. I just took a reading around 5.5 so it looks good for now.

This year I am watching spring arrive at different times in The Tropical Paradise. Right here, where there is plenty of sun, spring has already arrived very nicely. Just a few feet away, where there is more shade, spring is very slow in coming. If your amaryllis is at this stage, give it plenty of water and plant food (I use the plant food spikes from the Dollar Store). Amaryllis are tropical so you have to convince them that they are growing in a rainy area down by the equator. By the way, the plant behind it is a dioon edule cycad. You are looking at a fairly steep slope, as cycads do not like a lot of water, but amaryllis do. As the water drains from the cycad, it puddles a bit for the flower. A good combination! OK, gotta go out and look at it again. That seems to help, too! Update four days later Update the next day (April 23rd) Update the next day (April 24). I tied it to a small bamboo stake as it was nearly sideways, reaching for the ligh...

The last step of transplanting a sago palm ( cycas revoluta ) is to remove all of the leaves. I did that, and believe me, it is the saddest step of all. All of the cycad experts that I talked to had told me that it would be best to remove all of the leaves right away, but I left three on just for show for about a month. But those leaves died, and it probably would have been better for the plant if I had removed them sooner. Other than that, I feel that I have done everything right. It was transplanted in late winter and the bottom part, with what roots it had, was covered with garden sulfur and rooting hormone. It's in a nice sunny area with afternoon shade. So I am hoping to see some new leaves in a month or so (it's April 15th now). I just gave it a little drink of water mixed with SuperThrive, but mostly just as a bit of encouragement. The new leaves will emerge from that "pucker" on the top, so I will be obsessively checking it all of the time. I'll let ...

I had the privilege of visiting Saint Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery in Florence, Arizona yesterday. I went with a group from the Arizona Palm and Cycad Association, although it wasn't an official meeting. Most of us had never been there, but had heard of its amazing grounds. Whatever made these monks choose an empty patch of desert in Arizona for a Monastery in 1995, I have no idea. But clearly they knew. It is indeed a holy place, and a place of deep serenity. And the group that I was with are some of the most knowledgable people on the subject of the interesting plants there. But it was clear to me that just about everyone had missed the point of the design. The most common remark I heard later was that it was a "hodgepodge" of design. As a designer, I am used to hearing people make judgements about design. I suppose it's everyone's prerogative, like criticizing music, or anything. And I respect whether someone likes or dislikes something. But it ...

If you're interested in planting native plants in Southern California, you may be in for a surprise. The entire landscape from Santa Barbara to San Diego has been so throughly re-designed over the past hundred years that it is nearly impossible to imagine what it looked like before the addition of non-native species. And the reality may be disappointing to you. The lush, tropical, "palm tree" world of Southern California is beautiful, and it is all fake. Southern California is a desert. That is, it gets very little rainfall. It's a cool desert, but it's a desert all the same. And the things that grow naturally there are mostly grasses, most of which if you planted in your yard would look like weeds. The stars of the natural landscape, however, are oak trees. This one next to me is in Las Virgenes Canyon in Calabasas. And if you want to see what Southern California looked like before the landscape was "reinvented", go there. It's just a mile or ...

I planted this begonia two seasons ago and it's now (April 12th) blooming like crazy. I wish I could take credit for it, but like most things here at The Tropical Paradise, it appears to be a lucky accident. But there it is, so I'll tell what I know. It's planted in the deepest shade I have here, and it gets a lot of water. I planted another one less than a foot away which has long since disappeared and since they both got the same amount of water, I would imagine that it was the deeper shade for this one that helped it to survive. I've planted a lot of things here in this tiny corner of The Tropical Paradise, so the soil is deep and rich (you can tell by the number of worms that crawl out when you dig). I amended it with a lot of coffee grounds from Starbucks®, and as you can see, I allow leaves to pile up as a mulch, which eventually rots down. I fertilize with ordinary house plant food spikes from the Dollar Store. The ferny-looking plant that it's cudd...

Southern California is a wonderful place for cycads. From Santa Barbara to San Diego, the climate is as close to ideal as it can be for people - and cycads. Cycads are primitive palm-like plants that have been on this planet since before the time of the dinosaurs. In fact, if you want to create a "Jurassic Park" look, planting cycads is the way to go. But there are a few things that you need to take into consideration. • Cycads grow very slowly. I've had cycads in my garden for almost twenty years and while they are strong and healthy, they don't grow much. I consider this an advantage as opposed to palm trees which grow very fast and turn into "telephone poles" in your yard. And because cycads grow so slowly, as compared to palm trees, they are much more expensive to buy. • Cycads can be killed by overwatering. They are very tough plants, but too much water can make their roots rot. When you plant them, give them good drainage. Once they're est...

A friend of mine in Los Angeles gave me some bulbs last weekend of a flower that I have never tried here in The Tropical Paradise - Tigrida. I looked it up on the web and it looks like it may do well here in the Phoenix, Arizona area. I'm experimenting mostly, so I found an area with plenty of sun, in close proximity to the sprayers and created "Tigrida Terrace" This is a new way of using this slope. In the past, I've only had "background plants". I removed them this past winter and now have a nice clear path along the top of the slope. This is important as flowers need tending, and I will have easy access to this area now. I've also flattened out a bit of the slope, as a terrace, to hold the water better. I will let you know how it goes!

All cycad collectors know that the age of the plant is determined by the size of the trunk (technically called the "caudex"). On smaller cycads, the caudex is sometimes referred to as "the pineapple" as it's less of a trunk and more of a, well, pineapple shape. It's impossible to determine the exact age of a cycad. Unlike most trees, there are no "rings" to count in the trunk. And cycads grow at different rates, depending on conditions. Most put out a flush of leaves once a year, but under ideal conditions, they can grow faster. The one pictured here, a dioon spinulosum , has the longest trunk of any cycad in the United States. It was collected in Mexico as an adult around the year 1900 by oil tycoon Edward Doheny. It was planted in this little park in Los Angeles in the 1950s when it was about 25 feet high. It is now about 40 feet tall. Standing under it, and next to it, was quite amazing for me. What caught my eye was the lack of th...

Once a clump of iris gets too crowded, it stops blooming. No matter how much water or fertilizer, or whatever you do, won't help. You will need to subdivide and replant. This is how you do it: • Dig the whole clump up, if possible. When you do that, you will find that where there had once been only a handful of bulbs there are now dozens, all jammed together. Pull them apart and set them aside. Cut the leaves back to the fan shape as in the photo. • Pour in some fresh potting soil in the hole, along with some plant food. I add some moisture crystals, too, but that's not absolutely necessary. Plant the bulbs shallowly, with the leaves sticking up. Firm in gently, water well, and stand back! Be sure to plant in a sunny area, and give as much water as you want. Iris bloom best when their "feet are wet", so keep them well watered. Give them a little bit of Miracle Grow with a hose-end sprayer to help them along. After the blooms are spent, do nothing. Unlike o...

The biggest cycad in the United States, a dioon spinulosum , is in a tiny little park hidden away in Santa Monica, California. In fact, there are two there. I'm standing next to the slightly-smaller one, which is about 30 feet tall. I'm about six feet tall, so if you're better at calculating measurements, let me know. These plants were brought to Los Angeles by oil tycoon Edward Doheny in about 1900. They were collected during an oil, mineral, and general exploratory expedition to Mexico and were displayed in a conservatory in what is now downtown Los Angeles until the 1950s, when the conservatory was demolished. At that time the plants were sold to West Los Angeles nurseryman Casper Buergie who moved the plants to his nursery near the corner of Ohio Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard, near UCLA. When Buergie died his wife donated them to the LA Park Department where they were planted in this park. The most common type of cycad is a "sago palm" ( cycas revolut...

It's April 9th and the freesia is finishing up its bloom cycle. After the blooms have all dried up and fallen off, I cut the stems off and remove the bamboo staking. The leaves must be allowed to die back naturally in order to have blooms for the next season. Once the leaves have all gotten brown, you can cut them away. It will take a few weeks. Freesia can be planted anytime here in the Phoenix, Arizona area, and doesn't need any type of chilling or lifting. All you do it put it in the ground, watch it bloom in March and April, let the leaves die back naturally, and wait for next year. It's quite a show!

I was in Los Angeles this weekend and visited the biggest cycad in the United States. It's located in a tiny little park hidden away just inland from the Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica. If you know about cycads, you know that they are very slow-growing, and that they are miniatures. So when you see one that is several feet tall, you know that they are very old. I have a few at The Tropical Paradise, but they just look kinda like ferns. Most of the time they are just leaves and a short, squat trunk that looks more like a pineapple. By the time the "pineapple" (technically called the caudex) starts to become trunk-shaped, it is a very old cycad, what I call a "big miniature". The cycads behind me are dioon spinulosums . They are about 35 to 40 feet tall and have been in this park since the 1950s, and have been in Los Angeles since about 1900, brought in by Edward L. Doheny, the oil tycoon. I don't know how old they were when he got them, but it'...

This morning I am doing some potting. I am using this wonderful old little "tiki bar", which a friend of mine from California gave me this past January. Most of the time it functions as just a shelf, and bit of decoration to cover up a blank wall. But it's appropriate to use for potting, as it's the right height, and stray dirt can be easily cleaned off. The trick that I have found to making good use of this type of space is to keep it clear. I have only one little plant that lives there all of the time (the dioon spinulosum cycad) but otherwise I try not to use this as a "storage area". It's tempting to fill an area like this with a lot of decorative junk, or to leave stuff there all of the time, but that defeats its purpose. Today I will be digging up cannas that have grown too close to the edge, potting them, and then moving them into the courtyard. I really can't think of anywhere else I can plant them, but I just hate throwing the plants ...