Brad's Tropical Paradise

I've had artificial turf here at The Tropical Paradise in Glendale, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) for eight years now, almost as long as I've had Macintosh, the good little wiener dog. And I am glad that I have them both. The artificial turf, aside from looking great, takes the absolute minimum of maintenance. In fact, I just spent five minutes taking care of it, which is to to blow it with a small rechargeable blower. Obviously, it doesn't need mowing, or watering, or anything like that, and unlike a paved surface, it looks fine with a few stray leaves on it. And, unlike a gravel surface, it's friendly to walk on. I have a bad ankle, and gravel surfaces can be as slippery as ice to me, and just as deadly. My artificial turf is great to walk on. I know what you're thinking - what about the dog? Yep, she can do her business on it - the artificial turf is perforated, so her piddle goes through it, and I have a pooper-scooper around the side yard. So, as you ca...

Every once in a while I hear someone say that Southern California should go back to its natural beauty. Just for fun, I sometimes chime in with, *yes, it should look the way it did before people started planting stuff, all natural*. And while most people wholeheartedly agree with me when I say that, a few people give me a *is he kidding?* look. Yes, I am. The transformation of the flora of Southern California since the 17th Century has been astonishing. From San Diego to Santa Barbara there's is hardly even the tiniest indication of what the natural state was. So if you don't know, and you're just using your imagination, it's understandable. The reality, unfortunately, was pretty awful, and ugly. You can get glimpses of it on any empty lot in Los Angeles, but if you really want to see Southern California flora in its natural state, I would suggest a visit to the San Diego Botanic Garden (formerly Quail Gardens). This is the only place I've seen that has actua...

If you've heard of cycads, well, I'm impressed. As common as they are in Southern California, most of the people I've talked to in L.A. have never heard of them. And it isn't as if it's a new plant - cycads have been planted in Southern California for over 100 years. The most common cycad is called a sago palm . Of course, a sago palm isn't a palm at all, it's a cycad. And if you can't see the difference, it's understandable. Physically these plants are very similar to small palm trees, or even ferns. Here in the Phoenix area I see a lot of sago palms. They are available at any Home Depot, and can do well in the right conditions. Unfortunately, the right conditions include protection from sun, and frost. When they're planted in the correct place, they look great. Out in full sun, they usually look kind'a sad. And their tips get burnt by frost. Over the years I've lived here I've planted a lot of cycads, including sago palms. I...

Some of my friends from Southern California (Los Angeles to San Diego) visited me recently and it reminded me that my goal here in the Phoenix area was to have the lush, tropical feel that I liked so much in Southern California. As you can see here in my backyard in Glendale, Arizona, it's possible, but it takes a few tricks to make it work. Luckily, there are a lot of similarities between Phoenix and Southern California, as a lot of people in Los Angeles are discovering. They're both deserts that get very little rainfall. So the first thing you have to do is to set up a watering system. Here in my yard I have two watering systems, both designed for minimal water use. Water costs money, and should not be wasted! I have a low-pressure *drip* system with sprayer heads and an ordinary misting system (like the kind that you see on restaurant patios). They are set on inexpensive battery-powered timers. For plant selection, avoid plants that require high humidity. Ferns won...

Last month, just before Christmas, as I was tidying up the yard, I dug up a little Elephant Ear plant that had sprouted where it wouldn't have room to grow. I've had Elephants Ears here for many years, and they send out a lot of sprouts, which I remove and mostly throw away, but it pains me to do so. But I'm experimenting mostly, so I put this little sprout in a bottle filled with ordinary tap water and a couple house plant spikes, and put it on a sunny windowsill. Sure enough, it continued growing. Which answers once and for all that you can't ever overwater Elephant Ears, they will grow in just water with no soil. The one in the photo was been in that bottle on the windowsill for about a month and all of the leaves you see are new since it's been in the bottle. So this morning I am beginning the process of adapting it to be outdoors, called *hardening off*. If I moved it outside and just left it there, it wouldn't like it, it's still too cold outside...

It's January 12th and the Phoenix area got a gentle winter rain yesterday, and last night. Since Phoenix is in a desert, people will often wonder if rain is typical or not. It is. I've been in this house for over twenty years, and the gentle winter rains, and the violent thunderstorms of summer, are as as dependable as the fact that it gets to over 100 degrees here. Oh yeah, and the fact that it snows every winter in Minneapolis! So, your watering system in Phoenix should be shut off right now. Your garden doesn't need automatic watering right now. If you have grass, it does, but, uh, why do you have grass? My artificial turf requires no watering, and my tropical plants don't need it in the winter, either. In fact, overwatering plants like cycads in the winter only makes their roots rot, and kills them. Ask me how I know! So relax. Listen to the sound of the rain, enjoy the smell. Rain in the desert is a wonderful thing. I went out for pizza last night and found m...

My African Spear Plant (Sansevieria Cylindrica) did just fine during its first summer, and winter, here in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. It really is a beautiful plant. It was given to me by a fellow member of the Palm and Cycad Association of Arizona, who has a great enthusiasm for Sansevierias. I talked to him today, and hadn't realized that these plants are not commonly sold, although I can't imagine why. If you have the opportunity to get one, and have a good place in your garden for it, I recommend that you do so. I'll tell you where mine is, which is doing great, and why I think that's working so well for the plant. I have the plant in what I call a *transitional area* in the garden. It not full sun, but it gets more sun than the, uh, shadier areas of the garden. It's also on a slight slope, with free-draining soil, and has its own dedicated watering head (hidden back there behind the rocks). It never got sunburn last summer, although you cou...

One of the most difficult things to do is to get a straight answer about is typical weather in Phoenix, Arizona. If you read stuff distributed by the Chamber of Commerce, or Real Estate agents, I guess you can't blame them for putting a bit of a *spin* on it. But I've lived here since I was a teenager, and although I love living here, I have no incentive to twist the facts. So here you go, starting with right now, in January. The winter weather is gorgeous. No, this isn't *Chamber of Commerce* talk. The winter weather in Phoenix, Arizona is just about the best place to be on planet earth. I'm talking impossibly blue skies, temperatures in the sixties and seventies, and well, nice. If you want to see this, I recommend that you arrive in November. You will see the most beautiful climate that you can possibly imagine for about five months. It can get a cold snap, below freezing, in the wee hours of the morning, so if you have tender tropical plants, be sure to cover ...

I have to admit that for most of the time I've lived in this house, I've neglected an area that I call *the Outback*. I kind'a pretended that you couldn't see it, and even when I started planting stuff, I intended it to be just a background. But people insisted on going back there, especially in the winter. And the reason is simple, it's the only place in my backyard in the winter with any sun - and besides, there are some cool plants back there to look at. So I have added more space for people to walk in the winter sun. As you can see, it's a tiny space, barely enough room to squeeze by, and certainly no room for chairs, or anything like that. But I laid two nice big pieces of flagstone today and planted an African Spear (that's the tall *spear-looking* plant there next to the flagstone). These plants grow out sideways, so it won't go out over the place where people stand, and it has all the room in the world to grow sideways It's not as close a...

If your Natal Plum got damaged by the recent frost, there's a good chance that it will be all right. But it depends on what you do now. What you should do now is nothing. Nothing. Don't touch it. Leave it alone. Yes, wait a little bit, a few more days. Yeah, I know it looks sad, and you want to rush out there and trim off the frost-damaged leaves, but resist the impulse. Relax, go do something else. Don't look at it for a few days. Watch something on Netflix, play with the dog, go play the piano. Just leave the plant alone. That's because the top layer is protecting the layer below it. If you immediately go out there and trim, you will be revealing the tender growth beneath it to more damage. So leave it alone for a while. Once the weather has warmed up beyond any possible chance of frost damage (no less than 40 degrees at night) you can trim. Unless it's all completely toasted and brown, it will grow back. Give it a nice drink of water with Miracle-Gro and ...

Now that the cold overnight temperatures have risen to no less than 40 degrees, it's time to trim back the frost damage on the cannas. Getting a cold snap, like we did recently in Phoenix, is not fatal to cannas. It got to slightly below freezing for a few nights and it did frost damage to the upper leaves. It looked awful for a few days. But really, it's a good idea to trim back the taller stalks anyway, so I got started on it yesterday. This is how to do it: • Use a small curved saw and trim the stalks as close to the ground as you can. There is no sense just trimming off the tops. After the big old stalks are cut down, you will see the new shoots, which will grow like wildfire, and be beautiful in just a few days. I put out a tarp and throw the cut-down stalks into it. If you accidentally cut a few small shoots, don't worry, there are a lot more where those came from. • Pull some of the larger stalks out. Yes, give them a yank, and pull. You will need to go back ...

It's January, and if you're new to Phoenix and are wondering why it's so cold at this time of year, the truth is that it's not unusual for the temperatures to get below freezing. The Sonoran Desert (which is where Phoenix is) gets bitterly cold in January, but only in the wee hours of the morning. I'm fascinated with Phoenix history, and my research has shown that, in spite of Marketing *spin* to the contrary, Phoenix gets really hot and really cold, and has for a really, really, long time. It also gets rain, and floods, you know, the kind of thing that Real Estate agents and the Chamber of Commerce doesn't like to talk about. Now, don't get me wrong, I like Phoenix. A lot. I moved here as a teenager. I was going to ASU during the *100-year flood* and the *500-year flood*, which were my last two years there, by the way. And then I discovered that every year, year after year, Phoenix has that type of *unusual weather*. And that includes getting very c...

It has gotten below freezing the last couple of nights here at The Tropical Paradise in Glendale, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) and I noticed that the tops of the cannas have taken the hit. That is, they're now all brown and droopy and already getting crunchy. Cannas are sensitive to cold. But not to worry, the cold of Phoenix won't kill them. And if you're wondering what to do right now, do nothing. The worst thing that you could do is to go out there, the day or so after a freeze, and start cutting your cannas. That's because the new shoots are benefiting from the protection of the old ones. So, just don't look at them for a while. I noticed the forecast is to be warming up pretty quickly, so that's the time to do the cutting, not when it's cold. When the overnight temperatures are no longer getting close to freezing, that is the time to prune. And prune hard! Cut the big stalks all of the way to the ground. Don't worry, the new shoots, which y...