Brad's Tropical Paradise

Here is one of my favorite cycads, a Dioon e dule var. palma sola . It got to 119 yesterday and will probably get as hot today. This plant gets the full brunt of the sun ("fires of hell" I call it) and has been here at The Tropical Paradise for several years. I have no idea why nurseries don't sell these in the Phoenix area. Not only do they shrug off the blazing sun, they do fine in the nasty frosts that we get in January. Amazing, beautiful plants. By the way, be sure to get the "palma sola" variety of dioon edule. Palma sola means sun palm, and they really mean it.

I have several Dioon cycads here at The Tropical Paradise. Dioon is the name of the genus. So the species name would be ( Dioon ) spinulosum , or ( Dioon ) edule . Of the Dioon edules I have here, I have two varieties, one called "palma sola" and one that is just called "edule" .  Actually, the edule variety is just the plain vanilla, but since the palma sola is so popular, I try to always add var. edule in my descriptions. The photo at left is a Dioon edule, var. edule. Once the leaves are mature, these two varieties look exactly the same. The only way that you can see the difference is when the leaves are young, while it's flushing. The new palma sola leaves are bright green, the edule leaves are anywhere from a greenish-yellow to a bronzy-brown. Cycads usually only grow once a year, so you really have to see a Dioon edule in flush to know for yourself that it is a palma sola or a regular edule . Or you have to buy it from someone you trust. ...

It's June 27th and the Phoenix area is heading for record heat, again. At 6 am it's nearly eighty, and when the sun starts to shine here at The Tropical Paradise, the heat comes on very fast. The afternoon sun is very harsh, and at this time of the year, even the morning sun can be, too. In fact, the forecast for this weekend is for the temperatures to get into the teens, that is, over 115 F. I moved to the Phoenix area when I was 19 and have been fortunate to have always had a job at a desk, in buildings with air conditioning. I know that other people have not been so lucky. It's this intense heat that keeps many people from moving to the desert. Unlike cold weather, you really can't dress for it. And it will be this way for the next two months. It's kind'a like waiting out a blizzard that lasts for months. If you don't have to go out into it, don't. I will be visiting a friend's swimming pool this morning, right after I finish writing this....

One of the great joys in my life is my dog. The Tropical Paradise just wouldn't be the same without her sniffing around, giving it animation. But there are some considerations related to dog ownership in this environment that are worth giving some thought to before you bring a dog into your garden. First of all, this is the desert, and it gets hot. My heart breaks when I see a dog with a big thick fur coat being obliged to live where the temperatures can soar above 100 degrees. If you have a dog that looks like it would be comfortable in Siberia, it will probably be tortured by living in the desert. They can't tell you, but I will. My house in the suburbs has a typically small yard. A big dog living there would be like being condemned to the center aisle of an airplane every day. If you have a large property, by all means, get a large dog. If you don't have the room, think twice before trapping a big dog in such a small space. If you have a large property, especiall...

One of the many great advantages of having a Mediterranean palm tree ( Chamaerops Humilis ) is the low maintenance. Unlike other palm trees, which require constant trimming to look their best all of the time, med palms can be left pretty much alone, season after season. That is, if you understand how they grow. Chamaerops Humilis palms sucker freely. No, I'm not using a silly word here, that's the term applied to a plant like this that send offshoots from the base. So they want to grow in a bushy shape. If you are constantly struggling to keep the sucker growth under control, under the mistaken impression that this is a non-suckering, single-trunk palm, you are gonna have a bad time. I've had this one (pictured) for many years now and have only just given it its first trim this morning. And while it's not a job you will need to do often, it's a nasty job. Those fronds are sharp! So, to do it safely, start from the top and be prepared to do two cuts on eac...

I don't have roses here at The Tropical Paradise anymore. Over the years I've had them, but, well, they really don't fit in with the tropical theme, and they use more water than I would care to give them. That's my excuse. But I love roses, and spent some time learning how to care for them, and especially how to trim them. I just got home from a visit to friend in California who has some typical overgrown rose bushes. I asked for permission to trim them. I have done this for friends before, and I always, always ask permission. The amount of trimming on a rose bush that has been improperly trimmed for years is extreme, and for people who don't understand it, it can be a shock to see, because, well, all you are going to see for a few weeks will be stubs. If you live where the weather is warm all of the time, such as California or Arizona, you can trim rose bushes any time of the year. If you want huge, spectacular roses, you are going to have to be brave, and be...

If you've ever gone out into your garden here in the desert and come back with severe, painful, itchy bites on your ankles (or on your hands if you have been planting), you have been stung by fire ants. I have been successfully controlling them here at The Tropical Paradise for years with a product called Amdro. Using something like Amdro takes a different point of view than going out and trying to kill ants with a can of Raid. In fact, it takes an attitude that I call a "pre-emptive strike". That is, you put it out every season, and it keeps the fire ants out of your garden. This is how you do it: Go over to your local Home Depot and buy some Amdro. It costs about twenty bucks. It's granular, so you take it home and sprinkle it out all over your yard. The whole container. You don't even have to be that careful with it, it's not poisonous to people or dogs, it just kills fire ants. And how it does it is kind of cool. These little pieces of ant killer loo...

Cannas grow fast. Plants that grow fast have an advantage, and a disadvantage, for the gardener. The advantage, of course, is that they fill an area very quickly. The cannas you see here grew this tall in a couple of months. The disadvantage of fast-growing plants is the need for constant maintenance. To keep cannas looking their best, you have to keep trimming them all of the time. It doesn't take long for cannas to start looking "ratty". Their blooms only last for a couple of days, and even the foliage begins to look a little rough fairly quickly. It's the new growth of foliage that looks best, and then, well, it's old. So the trick to it is to get out there and cut back viciously as often as possible. I go out and fill trash can bags full of foliage all of the time. This is why cannas make very poor plants for your front yard. I have these in my backyard where I can tend to them constantly. I've seen cannas out front of businesses and they usually loo...

I have a cycad that has been doing poorly for a couple of months now. It threw up a stunted flush last month, which is usually indicative of a problem with the root system. I gave it a good tug, but it's still rooted in well, so all it needs is a little bit more time. And since the heat has come on so very strong lately, I thought it would be nice if it got a little shade, too. Doing this is easy - all you need to do is get a tomato cage and some shade cloth from your local Home Depot. They come in different sizes and I got the smallest one. There is no need to be fancy here, this is just temporary. The shade cloth is just draped over and is pushed through the slight bumps on the top of the cage. There is no need to tie it down, nor is there any need for it to go all the way to the ground. You do want to keep good air circulation. An impaired root system in combination with severe heat can be fatal to a cycad, so watch for any signs of stunted growth. If the root system is ba...

It's the first week of June here in the Phoenix, Arizona area and it is really heating up. A lot. This is the time of year in this type of climate when people throw up their hands and give up on their tropical paradise. And that's a shame. This is when a cool oasis looks the best. For a cycad collector like me (the cycads are the palm-like plants), it's the best time of year as it's the time that they grow. It only happens once a year for cycads (unlike palm trees) so it's kind of fun to watch. The leaves start pushing out in what is called a "flush" of leaves. In this photo you can see some flushing dioons , the big ones are spinulosums , the little ones just starting from the stumps that I transplanted earlier this year are edules . There are some serious considerations for the desert garden in the summer. First of all, this isn't Minnesota. "Summer annuals" like petunias, etc., will die in the summer. Those are to be planted in the w...

Gardening in the desert is great. It never snows here in the Phoenix area, and the temperatures rarely even get below freezing, and that's only in the dead of winter, in the wee hours of the morning. The low humidity and the clear skies are wonderful for people, and keep any plants that want to stray out of the garden mostly in control. What this means is that a garden is easy to control here. Things only grow where I say, and mostly where I water. It's June 1st and the desert heat is starting to come on strong. It will stay brutally hot until the end of September, which is when the winter tourists will start to return. That means four months of very extreme temperatures. And really, it's the best time to have a cool-looking oasis in your backyard. In order to do this, this is what you need to do. Provide shade wherever possible. I bought this house with a garden in mind, so the back yard faces the east. After noon the house shades the backyard completely. There is a...