Brad's Tropical Paradise

One of the secrets to the success of the Tropical Paradise here in Glendale (a suburb of Phoenix) is the misting system. It's an ordinary misting system, like the kind you see along the edge of patios, that sprays a mist of water, except that I have it on the ground, for the plants. And the plants love it! The challenge to something like this is regular inspection and maintenance. I walk the line regularly and replace clogged misting heads (which happens all of the time) and then every year I replace the filter. Well, it looks like it's been a couple of years, because what I did today shows me that the heat of the sun had practically cooked all of the gaskets. When I took it apart, the gaskets were terrible. In fact, on the connector (that green thing) they had pretty much become part of it. So I got a new connector and bunch of new gaskets. In addition to using fresh gaskets, I used plumber's tape (you can see a little bit of white sticking out) because I don't ...

Sometimes, no matter how careful you are, plants will start to look unhappy in your garden. An example is a petunia plant that I bought just a few days ago, planted with care, looked after, and it looks terrible this morning. Your first question might be "What did I do wrong?" and unfortunately even if you did everything right, sometimes a plant is unhappy in its new location. In this instance even the small amount of morning sun that it got was enough to stress it. But don't panic, and don't make it worse. It's time for some tender loving care. First of all, you can give it some more water. But be careful that you don't drown the plant, at this point that could happen - the roots could rot and too much water could kill it. But do water it every day, and maybe twice a day. The best thing you can do is to get a spray water bottle and spritz it as much as you want. The reason that this plant is looking so terrible is that it can't quite get enough wat...

If you live in the Phoenix, Arizona, area and don't have cyclamen in your garden, you're missing out on a very cool flowering plant. I plant one every winter here at the Tropical Paradise, and I'd never even heard of them until a few years ago. They love the cool desert weather, and bloom continuously. They are so amazing that they hardly even seem real. If it's November or December, go get one. And I mean one, or maybe two. Cyclamen isn't meant to be planted in masses, like most annuals, and I've never seen it in six-packs. It's what I would call a "specimen" plant, a plant that looks it's best standing alone. It's November 11th and I planted the cyclamen that you see there yesterday. I got it at Home Depot, and it was a little over four dollars. It will remain in bloom all winter, grow a little bit, but not much. Like any annual, it will die when the heat of the summer returns, which here starts in April. But all winter it will b...

Petunias do great in the Phoenix, Arizona area, but there are a few tricks that you have to keep in mind. First of all, you have to wait until the weather cools down. It never, ever, gets too cold for petunias in Phoenix, but it definitely gets too hot. If you're thinking of planting them anytime between April and October, stop. Don't do that. The time to plant petunias here is November through March. Go check your calendar, if it's the right time, go buy a petunia plant. Yes, you read that right, a petunia plant, not a six-pack of petunias. I've tried that before, and the air is just too dry in the desert for such a tiny plant to survive long enough to look like anything in your garden. Yes, a few will survive, but I'd rather have a 100% survival rate. So I buy them in a full-sized container. That way they won't spend the next month struggling to just survive, it will continuing growing just as it's always been doing. Because you aren't really so...