Growing Dioon spinulosum cycads in Phoenix, Arizona

-

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-draining soil on a slight slope where the water can drain away quickly. Cycads don't like standing with "their feet wet"!

I call this area the Dioon garden, but I have Dioons all over my property. The fine-leaf one in the foreground is not a spinulosum, it's an edule, but the two bigger ones in the deepest shade, are "spinners" (as we cycad collectors like to call them).

Like all cycads, spinulosums grow very slowly. They can get very tall, over forty feet, but the only ones I've ever seen like that are the ones in Pacific Palisades, which are about 100 years old. In a normal lifetime, they really won't get very tall. By the way, I've made planted mine where they would have room to get very tall, in case the person who is in this house after I've gone wants to keep them.

By the way, "spinulousum" means spiny, so plant them away from where people walk. The leaves are stiff, and sharp!

Dioon spinulosum flushing

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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