Brad's Tropical Paradise

It's August 31st, and while it's not exactly "sweater weather" yet here in the Phoenix, Arizona area, it's at least the beginning of the end of wondering, "what in the world am I doing living here in this desert?" And the first herald of cooler weather is the Cape Honeysuckle ( Tecoma capensis ) flower. If you have Cape Honeysuckle, and aren't getting blooms, you may be doing two things wrong. First of all, you may be looking for blooms in the heat of the summer. You won't see any. This plant blooms in cool temperatures. And the other mistake is to use hedge trimmers. This is a flowering plant, like a rose. Do not use hedge trimmers! Yes, you can cut the plant down to any size you want, but trim by hand. Taking hedge trimmers (especially powered ones) and giving it a nasty "haircut" will make it nearly impossible for it to bloom. You wouldn't do that to a rose bush would you? If you did, your rose bush wouldn't be able to bl...

One of the first mistakes I made when I started my garden here was to plant absolutely everywhere. At random. I was just pleased to see things growing "like a jungle". And then I realized that I hadn't left room for me to get in there to do maintenance. So here is what is behind the scenes, which I call the "wiener dog highway". It allows me access to the plants from behind, as well as access to the watering line. It's just wide enough for me to get back there (and for a wiener dog to run!) and it really doesn't show from the front. I learned about this by watching a gardening show years ago that described the correct width of a perennial border, which is six feet. And after I learned that, I started to see all types of gardens designed like that. Think about it, it allows someone to reach in three feet from both sides without stepping into the garden. Wiener dog highway east. In addition to giving room for maintenance, keeping the plants awa...

Living in a tropical paradise is great. But being surrounded by insects, especially mosquitos, is not. And if your garden is inviting to humans, it will be inviting to insects. So it's important to keep an eye on the guest list, especially at this time of year, when there has been rain. What insects want mostly is water, which your garden provides, even if just in droplets on the surface of your plants. You don't need a "green pool" to attract mosquitos! And once you have water, you have more insects, and some of these insects eat other insects, or drink your blood (yuk!).  So for my small part of planet earth I have a very strict policy! Sorry, bugs! What I do is to take a pump spray can fill it with a gallon of water and add 1 and one half ounces of "Ortho Bug B Gon". No, they don't pay me to advertise their product, I wish they did. But it works great. And if you're a neighbor of mine and you use it, and use it correctly, I will be very grat...

This year I will be doing a winter flower display in a pot by my front door. It's the last week of August, and if you're from back east you may be wondering "why now?" It's because annual planting time here in the desert is in September. So to prepare the home for the flowers, I have set some rocks down at the bottom of a plastic pot. Yeah, ceramic would be more elegant, but it also transmits a lot more heat to the soil, which cooks the roots and dries out the pot faster. It's still gonna be pretty hot in this corner! And I do want to use this corner, for while it's "the fires of hell" in the summer, it's very sunny and warm in the winter, which is what blooming plants need. And the best blooming plant for this is the petunia. The worst thing you could possibly do would be to go to your local nursery and buy a big already-potted display of flowers. If you do that, all that you will be doing will be watching it slowly die. It might loo...

It's the last week of August here in the Phoenix, Arizona area and we are now entering the very best time for planting your tropical paradise. If you're from back east, like I am, you are used to planting in the spring. But here in the desert, the season for planting is September and October. The reason for this is that the best weather here happens in the fall and winter. That's what I like to call "Chamber of Commerce weather". And since we always get some rain in August, your yard is now ready for the transformation from dirt and rocks to a tropical paradise. Here is how to start: Go get some inexpensive annual flowers. The best type is the humble petunia. They have a nice tropical look to them, they grow like mad, and they love it here. Get a few six-packs. There is no reason to get them in larger containers. If you plant them correctly, like right now, they will grow! Remember that they are annual flowers - they will do fine until the weather gets hot a...

The trick to growing exotic plants in Arizona is potting soil . Here in my garden in Glendale, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) I like to say that the plants aren't really planted in Arizona, they're planted in holes dug out of Arizona that were filled with potting soil. My friends know what I want for Christmas, for my birthday, just to cheer me up. Potting soil. Over the years I've lived here, I have no idea how many hundreds of bags of potting soil I have used. And it really doesn't matter if it's the good stuff (Miracle Grow Moisture Control) or the cheap stuff from the dollar store. I can use all of the potting soil I can get. So there you go. The clay soil of the desert is really only good for native plants. I dig a hole, remove the native soil, put it away in a pot that I can use if I need to build up a slope somewhere, pour in a generous amount of potting soil in the hole, and that's where the plants live. Potting soil.

Cycads, like sago palms ( cycas revoluta ) do great in the Phoenix, Arizona area. But the desert is a harsh climate, so there are some tricks to making them do their best. Before you water your sago palm, be sure that it is on a well-draining slope. No, it doesn't need to be on the top of a mountain, it just needs to be where water will drain and it won't stand with "its feet wet". If your sago palm is in an area that collects water, whether after you water it, or after it rains, the roots will rot and the plant will die. I have killed sago palms by overwatering, but by no other way. But sago palms are not cactuses. They do need water to be their best! This is what I have discovered: Water them in the summer every day. I have a simple battery-powered timer that comes on every day for fifteen minutes. That's the summer schedule. And since all of my cycads are planted on well-draining slopes, I can be this generous with water without having to worry about ...

If you are seeing white, powdery residue on your palm fronds, and are concerned, don't be. It's perfectly natural, and is a sign of a very healthy tree. Palm trees, like this Phoenix roebelinii (pygmy date palm) grow from the center. To determine the robust health of a tree, look at its "spear" leaves in the middle. They start out all clumped together, with that powdery residue, and then open up. I have had palms here at The Tropical Paradise for twenty years, and no, I have no idea what the botanical reason for the white powdery residue is. I am satisfied in knowing that it means a wonderfully healthy tree, and that that is how God made it. By the way, if you have a healthy tree that is throwing up several spears, go ahead and do a gentle shake to open up the fronds. You will see that powdery residue, which falls off, and mostly you will see some beautiful leaves!

Iris do great here in the Phoenix, Arizona area. But there are a few tricks to making them work here. There are places in the world where you can dig a hole, put the plant in, and that's it. In fact, I was in one of those places last week - Southern California. I helped a friend dig up and subdivide some iris, which do incredibly well there. And naturally, as they had multiplied, they were getting overcrowded, which was reducing the bloom, so while I came to the rescue, I was also able to get some choice bulbs (actually they're called rhizomes) to bring back here to the desert. The first thing that I did here was to provide a water line. Iris love water! In the photo you can see how I am beginning the process of "excavating" the native soil. I love Arizona, but the soil is really only good for native plants, who have the ability to send their roots through that "concrete". I start by soaking the area, then physically removing the clay soil (I put it ...

If you're brave enough to look at the lower canopy of The Tropical Paradise, or if you have two-inch legs, you discover a very important secret: the misting system. From a wiener dog's eye point of view, they are obvious, but from a distance they are virtually invisible. And this trick brings the one thing that these plants really need here in the desert, added humidity. The heart of the misting system is a simple setup, the same that you would find at any Home Depot. Normally misting systems are installed along the edge of patios. If you've been to a restaurant that has outdoor seating in the Phoenix, Arizona area, you have seen them. They have probably dripped on you. But when it's over 100 degrees, that feels pretty good. And it feels good to plants, too! The trick to making it work in the garden is to install the risers. They are made of copper, are ridiculously expensive, and bring the misting head up about three inches. If you don't do that, by the w...

If you're wondering if you can grow Dioon spinulosums in the Phoenix, Arizona area, you can. I have several here at The Tropical Paradise, and with a few tricks, they do fine. First, and foremost, these plants need shade. Even too much morning sun can sunburn the leaves and cause stunted growth. This plant is in "prime real estate" as it gets the shade from the olive tree in the morning, and the shade from the house in the afternoon. It gets a little bit of dappled sunlight, which appears to be just perfect. Even though this particular species gets tall in the wild, it takes over 100 years to get to the size of a small palm tree. Like all cycads, it's a miniature.  It's just a big miniature (I guess like jumbo shrimp). Mostly I just treat it like a fern. In spite of the illusion of looking fern-like, it's spiny. So be sure to plant it well away from where people will walk. This is essentially true of all cycads, including "sago palms". They ...

This past February I was convinced by Kentia Palm expert +Kevin Williams  to try growing a Kentia Palm indoors here at The Tropical Paradise. When I met with him, I had thought that I knew what a Kentia palm was, actually now I realize that I didn't even know at all. It has become quite the successful experiment here! And like everything I've done successfully, it has been mostly a combination of happy accidents. I wish I could say that I knew what I was doing, but mostly I'm just learning. If you are tempted to get a Kentia palm, do so. Here is what I have learned: • Place it where it will get some morning sun. It's 7:30 am in the photo and you can see that the plant gets some sun, but just a bit, for about an hour. From then on it gets indirect sunlight. I have visited people who have Kentia palms and have seen them looking very straggly and stretched, without any fullness towards the middle. • Put it in a plastic urn-shaped container, kept in its original pot...

A Tropical Paradise isn't complete without ferns. If you live in an area such as Hawaii, or Southern California, you can grow ferns. Heck, you can grow ferns in the summer in Minnesota, and some of the biggest tree ferns that I know of are in San Francisco. But you can't grow ferns here in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Believe me, I've tried to grow ferns. No matter how much water, how fancy a misting system you have, they just shrivel up and die. And I'm stubborn! I've purchased a lot of different types of ferns over the years, only to watch them slowly die. And sometimes not so slowly. And if they did manage to linger for a while, they looked so ratty that it wasn't worth the trouble. So I have created the illusion of ferns, with cycads. If you Google "cycads" you will find sago palms and its relatives. The "ferns" in the photo are not sago palms, they are close relatives. In the foreground is a dioon edule , with multiple trunks, and be...

I received an inquiry recently by someone in Tucson, Arizona, who asked about a "strange growth" starting to grow in the middle of their sago palm (cycas revoluta ). If you're seeing this, don't worry, it's perfectly natural. It's a cone. Although they physically resemble palm trees, cycads are more closely related to conifers (pine trees). And while they don't cone as often or as profusely as your average Christmas tree, they do cone. If you've had a sago palm for many years and haven't seen it cone yet, be patient. It will. The plant has to be very mature before it starts it's reproductive cycle, at least ten to fifteen years. It's actually quite fascinating, as cycads are either male or female. But you can only tell the gender of a plant from its cone. The one in the photo, by the way, is a male. The female cone is much wider and flatter, so if yours looks like that, congratulations, it's a girl! Double male cone on a dio...

I grow cannas here at The Tropical Paradise for their lush leaves, not for their flowers. But it's kind'a nice to see them. They only last for a day or so, and get pretty ratty-looking very fast. In this photo, you can see one in bloom, and one at the left, that really needs to be trimmed off. Flowers take energy away from a plant, so if you really want the biggest, healthiest leaves, you should trim the flowers off immediately. I really don't have the heart to do that, I look at them for a day or so before I cut them off. And I trim back hard, all the way down as far as I can reach on the stalk. To grow cannas, you have to cut them back very hard, and stay at it all of the time. They make very poor "front yard plants", as they tend to look scraggly very quickly. In addition to cutting off the blooms, I look for sunburned leaves (you can see a few in this photo) and trim them off right away. In a front yard, or at a shopping center, you really see them at th...

Unlike most plants, cycads don't grow all year long. So if you have one that is just sitting there, there is no need to worry. If the leaves aren't drooping or falling off, it is just waiting to flush. A flush happens once a year. I've had cycads here at The Tropical Paradise, like this Dioon Spinulosum , and sometimes they flush twice a year, but that's rare. And they usually flush in late April, in May, and in June. Sometimes as late as July. I have no idea why this one decided to wait until August, but I'm glad to see it. And that's one of the great joys of owning cycads. When it starts sending out its yearly flush, it grows fast. Cycad collectors are known to carefully scrutinize the center and wonder if they are really seeing a new flush. Needless to say, I've been watching this plant for months. During this time the new leaves are very soft, so avoid the temptation to touch them. Any damage to the leaves before they harden off is permanent, so ...