View from The Outback at The Tropical Paradise

-
The area south of the olive tree, where the artificial turf ends, has been a neglected area in The Tropical Paradise for years. And it is a tricky area to deal with. It's not an area that is traveled much, except by Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, and it needs to be able to pretty much take care of itself most of the time. I call this area "The Outback".

As you can see, the mulch is created by the leaves of the olive tree. I blow them off of the artificial turf and up into the garden, where they not only look good, they help hold in moisture, as any mulch will do, and eventually rot down, which is good for all plants, including the tree itself.

It's May 12th and I am still seeing some of the damage from the severe frost of January 2013. Right above Macintosh's head is a frond of a Macrozamia Moorei cycad that took a bad hit from the cold, but is still hanging one. Am waiting for a new flush of leaves before I trim off the old damaged ones.

To the left is another cycad, a dioon spinulosum. You can also see some frost damage, on the leaf furthest away, and this plant has also yet to flush. It's best to leave the damaged leaves on your cycad, even though they look bad, until the new leaves (which are very delicate) have grown and hardened.

To the lower right is another cycad, a zamia furfuracea, commonly called a Cardboard Palm. The cold completely destroyed the old fronds, down to the pineapple. But you can see the new leaves beginning to emerge, looking a bit like a toothbrush.

There are several large plants behind me and off to the right which will fill in this area, which still looks sparse, by summer. When everything grows in, it will take on more of a look of a tropical paradise, and less of an outback!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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