Brad's Tropical Paradise

Yes, you can grow Dioon spinulosum cycads in the Phoenix, Arizona area. I have three, and they have all been here over ten years. I think they're beautiful, as they look either like big ferns or small palm trees. I've never seen them for sale here in the Phoenix area, like at Home Depot or places like that, but they are common in Los Angeles, and are not expensive. That is, they're about the same as a sago palm (cycas revoluta). There are a few tricks to getting Dioon spinulosums to be happy in the desert, though. As you can see in the photo, they like shade. They also like the frost protection provided by a tree. Like all cycads, they only grow once a year in spurts called "flushes", so they use very little water in the summer and none at all in the winter. No, they're not cactuses (cacti?), so you can't just put them in the ground and forget about them, they just about the only way to kill them, or any cycad, is overwatering. Plant them in well-drai...

I have a lot of agaves here at the Tropical Paradise. Most of them are miniatures, and they do best with a little bit of shade. My trees provide the shade, but unfortunately, the trees also provide birds, which provide, well, you know. So the agaves need to be cleaned. Not just of bird poop, but of leaves, and just general dirt and crud. This Agave potatorum cv. Kichiokan is quite a little gem, and it deserves to be cleaned up! Luckily, all you need is a water squirt bottle and an old toothbrush. Set the bottle to shoot a sharp stream and blast the leaves. Or are those fronds? Anyway, get the toothbrush in there and brush. Then squirt, then brush. Then squirt. And squirt. This one took me about ten minutes to clean up. No, it won't be absolutely perfect, but it will look a whole lot better!

One of the best ways to instantly make your outdoor areas look more exciting and exotic is to have temporary palm trees. I've seen this trick used many times at outdoor events, where the palm trees are used to just add a "certain touch". Of course, they're in pots, not planted in the ground. Yesterday I got a Pineapple Palm, also known as a Canary Island Date Palm, at my local Lowe's. I also bought a big plastic pot and a bag of palm and cactus mix potting soil. The palm cost me about fifty bucks for an 11-gallon, and the total investment was about ninety dollars. And it will be temporary. I've resisted buying full-sized palm trees because my spaces are so small. If you make the mistake of planting a palm like a Canary Island, you will be staring at a "telephone" pole in just a few years. The scale of this plant is too big for just about any suburban lot, and they are difficult, and expensive, to remove. So don't plant it in the ground, pu...

This year at the Tropical Paradise, everyone who visits is marveling at the petunias. Yes, those ordinary, every-day, run-of-the-mill annual flowers that we've all seen every year since we were kids, no matter where you live. Petunias are everywhere. They're planted in yards, around public buildings, around malls. And they usually look pretty ratty. And maybe it's because they are so common, and cheap. They get punched into flower beds in quantity and then left to fend for themselves. At a distance, they look fine, but up close most petunias look pretty bad. My garden is small, and I wanted the flowers to be right next to where people walk, so I decided to give the full treatment to the petunias. This includes: • Planting the petunias with care. Yeah, I know petunias are cheap, but it doesn't matter to me, everything that lives in my garden is precious, and I give it the same care. Each tiny plant got some Osmocote slow-release dry fertilizer, a sprinkling of ...

One of the great things about aloes is that they produce offsets, or pups. These are miniature versions of the mother plant which can be removed and grown into plants of their own. Some aloes pup so much that they really do look their best in clumps, but for some I prefer to trim off the pups as they appear, and then I can have more plants. It really is so easy it's ridiculous. I did a bunch of them this morning before I'd even finished my morning coffee! I planted a nice big aloe this morning, and before planting it, I trimmed off any damaged leaves, the leaves at the base (just for neatness), and all of the pups, which I set aside. Most of then I cut off, but one I got roots on (it's best to get roots, but it's not absolutely necessary). I have a big pot on my patio with an Elephant Ear in it, and plenty of room around it, so I just poked the pups in around it. I made a hole with a dibble (or you can just use your fat fingers), pushed in the pups, and firmed th...

One of the really great things about cannas is that they're like tulips and daffodils, they grow from bulbs. Well, technically they're rhizomes, but the principle is the same - you plant the bulbs, and season after season they multiply. And that means that you can share them. In fact, it's a good idea to thin out your cannas every once in a while just to give them more soil space to live in. Things can get awfully crowded down there! You just dig down a bit and give the plant a tug. Today I filled a garbage bag full of cannas for a friend of mine who has been kind enough to share plants with me, too. He asked me to leave the tops on, which isn't actually necessary because the old growth will die back. But the grew growth will start right away. And cannas grow like wildfire! I promised about a dozen, but I will be giving about twice that. This is a win-win situation, it's good for the garden, and it feels good to share! If someone just gave you a bag full ...

If you're the kind of person who keeps their receipts from Home Depot so they can return plants that have died, or if you're a "close enough for government work" kind of person, you aren't going to like what I have to say in this post. Because planting a tropical plant in the Phoenix, Arizona area takes a LOT of work, and time, and it can cost more than the plant itself. My granddad would have called it "digging a $100 hole for a $50 tree". Well, here in Arizona, it's much, much, more than that. I just bought a nice little Arabian Jasmine. I got a one gallon size, and it cost me about seven bucks. And right now I'm in the process of planting it. And it's quite a process! Here are my suggestions: • Plant in the spring. It's May 2nd, and a day after a rain, so the timing is perfect. Don't plant them in summer, fall or winter. • Plant them in partial shade. If the tag says "partial shade", believe it. It gets to over 1...