Brad's Tropical Paradise

If you have a potful of Kentia palms which have gotten so big for the pot that they're starting to splay out, it's time to repot them. Keep in mind that Kentia palms don't grow with multiple heads, so if there's more than one trunk in the pot, there's more than one tree. I divided four today. I put down an old shower curtain, even though I was working outside. That way I could dump onto the sheet, and then gather stuff up as I needed to. The first thing to do is to get the plants out of the pot. The easiest way is to cut the pot. Kentias can live for a long time in their original pot, but these plants had really gotten too big for it. As you can see, the roots were completely pot-bound. This isn't really so terrible for Kentia palms, which don't mind crowded roots, but these plants had gotten way too top heavy. The idea is to gently tease the plants apart - don't cut the roots. Use your fingers to pull them apart. I cheated a little...

Yesterday I got a magnificent Kentia palm as a gift. I encourage people to give me gifts for my birthday, which happens every year, and I really like palm trees. And this one is unbelievable. I tried to find a place in the house, but really, you need a big mansion for something like this, and mine is a tiny house. So I put it out on the patio, where it will get shade, and I will keep an eye on it. No, you can't just go plant a Kentia palm here in your yard in the Phoenix area. Like many cycads, Kentias don't mind the heat, but they really can't take the burning sun, and the winter cold. So, I have high hopes for this one as it will only get a tiny bit of morning sun, and I will protect it in the few nights that get really cold here. I'm experimenting mostly, but I have a lot of confidence in this plant. I've learned that Kentias like to be kept in small pots, so I've left it in the pot it came in, and did a cache pot around it. I'll leave it alone, ...

Agaves are wonderful plants for the desert and tropical garden. I have a lot of them here at the Tropical Paradise, like this one,  Agave potatorum cv Kichijokan . And if all you know of agaves are those gigantic and deadly "Century Plants", well, it's time to look at miniatures. Of course, all of these plants are the same size at the garden center. The trick is to learn to recognize miniatures. I am fortunate to have friends who collect agaves, and they have steered me clear of the ones that grow way too big. The trick, unfortunately, is to learn a little bit of Latin. I write stuff down, and take photos. The one in the photo at the top of this post I got at a nursery in the Phoenix, Arizona area, but it wasn't something that I've ever seen at my local Home Depot. And the problem, of course, is that miniatures are so much more expensive than the little versions of plants that will grow to be giants. I really never learned the name of this agave, but I learne...

I have a tiny backyard in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, which I call "the Tropical Paradise". When I first moved into the house, however, the backyard was just dirt, rocks, and a few dying plants. So calling it "the Tropical Paradise" from the beginning was me just being sarcastic. But over the years I've transformed this little space into an oasis. It uses very little water (I'm stingy), and I grow plants like cycads, miniature palms, and cannas. And there are a lot of tricks "behind the scenes" - such as the dual watering system. When I first started trying to grow stuff I just sprayed water all over the place. Of course, plants need water to grow, but water in the desert is precious, and expensive, so I tried to find other ways to deliver the water, without wasting it. What I discovered was a "drip system" (the one on the right) which is a low-pressure watering system that delivers water through little teeny-tiny spraye...

Petunias are amazing. Like all annuals, they only grow for a few months, and then you have to plant them all over again the next season. Here in the Phoenix, Arizona area, they bloom profusely throughout the winter, which is wonderful to see, especially for a kid from Minnesota, like me. There's really nothing as simple as getting beautiful blooms from petunias. You plant them, give them some water, and stand back. Really, that's all you have to do. They are even "self-cleaning", which means that the spent blooms will fall off naturally, so you don't even have to fuss with them. But I like fussing with my plants, so I periodically wander around and clean my petunia blooms. No, you don't have to do that, it just makes the plant look nicer, and encourages more blooms. Besides, it gives me something to do when I just can't seem to concentrate on my work, which is getting to be more and more these days! It is so nice out there! Of course, you have to ...

I've had freesia for many years here in my garden in Glendale, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix). I planted the bulbs long ago, and as they multiplied, I spread them around. Today is March 6th and I'm starting to see the first blooms of this season. In past years they bloomed in February, but I'm figuring that now that the tree in my backyard has gotten so much taller, not as much sunlight is reaching them, so the blooms are late this year. But if you're in the Phoenix area (or Los Angeles or San Diego or Las Vegas), I strongly recommend that you plant freesia. Just not in the shade! The time to plant freesia bulbs is in September or October. You will see foliage in December and January, and if you have a sunnier yard than mine, blooms in February. They will fade away as the heat starts to come on (which here in the Phoenix area begins in April), and, like daffodils, you let the foliage brown and die back for the next season. There's another challenge to growin...

If you have a desert garden, and you make coffee, you may be throwing away something that can be very valuable to your plants, coffee grounds. Of course if all you have is native plants, it's not necessary, but if you have plants like cannas, which like the soil to be a little bit more acidic, then it's a great amendment. In fact, when I planted my cannas years ago I got several bags of coffee grounds from my local Starbucks (they're glad to give it away, as it just goes into the trash), and I amended my soil with it. Nowadays I just keep a container next to my coffee maker, and instead of throwing the coffee grounds away, I dump them in there. Then I sprinkle it out into the garden, especially now while I'm thinning the cannas and can see a lot of ground, add some potting soil, water in, and the cannas love it. It looks like it's gonna be another great season!

If you're fortunate enough to live in a climate that can grow olive trees, you're in luck. I have two of them here, which were tiny saplings when I bought the house in 1993, and they now provide that wonderful dappled shade that is so great in a hot climate. They also are unaffected by the coldest temperatures that we get here in the Phoenix area, and of course they don't mind the heat. And they don't need any addition water. These are desert trees - Google Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, and you'll see plenty of them there, in Jerusalem. Oh, and by the way, if you've heard that you should cut yours down because they cause allergies, please don't. It's the Bermuda grass that causes the worst allergies in the valley - get rid of that. And spray your olive tree yearly so that it won't produce olives. Like all things in the garden, the base of an olive tree can be a thing of beauty, or a terrible mess. Olive trees produce "suckers...