Protecting your tropical plants from the cold in Phoenix, Arizona

-
The good news about protecting your tropical plants in the winter in Phoenix is that it's the same as protecting them in the summer.

The best thing to do is to give them only morning sun, and to give them overhead protection, from a tree, or an overhang. And that's why this area in The Tropical Paradise is *prime real estate*. It's against an east-facing wall, and it's under a tree.

In the summer, of course, the tree offers much-needed shade, and the plants here get the benefit of afternoon shade from the house. But in the winter, where it can get to freezing and below, there are also benefits.

The morning sun warms up this area as quickly as possible. The days are short in the winter, and your tropical plants need as much sunshine, and warmth, as they can get. And at night, having an overhang, such as a tree, helps to trap in whatever warmth there is. That's because, if you remember from your high school science class, heat rises. If it can be trapped, even a little, that will help. This area becomes a *pocket* of slightly-warmer air in the winter at night. Conversely, out in the open the heat escapes easily, and you will get more frost damage on your plants.

So, there are limited areas where I can grow the most tender tropicals. Out in the wide open, I plant more hardly plants, like agaves. They also do better in full sun in the summer!

I'm keeping an eye on the overnight lows, looking for freezing temperatures. I haven't seen any yet, and I was glancing at the forecast and it looks like it will be a warm January. But I don't really trust long-range forecasts, I'll check every night in January. By February here, we're safe from frosts.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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