Creating a cooling, tropical-looking effect in the Phoenix area with cycads

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I love living in Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, but ya gotta admit that it gets hot. Real hot, unbelievably hot, brutally hot. So everything that I can do to not only cool off, but give a cooling feeling to the garden I do, and one of my favorite things is a plant called a cycad.

If you've never heard of cycads, that's not surprising. They look kind of like a tiny palm tree, and kind of like a fern, but they're neither palm trees or ferns. And that's good news in your garden, because palm trees tend to grow into gigantic telephone poles, and ferns just won't live in the Phoenix area (no, it doesn't matter how much you water them, or anything - I've tried). So the best compromise I've found is using cycads for that tropical effect.

Cycads aren't as tough as a cactus, but they're considerably tougher than any fern. With a little care, and a little shade, they thrive. I have many types here, and they've been here for many years.

Now calm down here, don't go wandering into Home Depot and start asking for cycads, you'll just get blank looks. They'll have some, but mostly they go by more common names, like sago palms. But once you start reading the labels, you'll find that "sago palms" (which aren't palms at all - they're cycads of course), you'll start discovering lots of different cycads. You may have to scrounge around a bit at nurseries, but it's a fun challenge, and very rewarding.

It's April 25th, so if you're in the Phoenix area this is the best time to plant them. But don't wait until June! And definitely don't plant them when the weather is cold (which does happen here - the roots will rot if you plant them in December or January).

Once you discover cycads, you'll discover agaves, and lots of other plants that do well in the heat, but give a cooling look to your garden. Hang on, it's gonna be another hot summer!

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