Brad's Tropical Paradise

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...

I wanted some flowers to plant in some pots on my patio, so I went to a nursery this morning. Well, I guess you'd call it a garden center, and really so do I, and there isn't any difference, except your attitude about the plants. I'll see if I can explain. Now calm down there if you think that I'm gonna be fussy about what you call these places - that doesn't matter to me at all, you can call them "plant stores", and I'll know what you mean. But the plants there are babies, and when you take them home they need tender loving care. If you're holding onto the receipt to return them because you buy them and set them somewhere and neglect them, I'm sorry, but that's cruel. These are tiny living things. At some point their roots will establish in your garden and you can be more casual about caring for them, but at first they need the kind of attention that you would give a baby, or a puppy. If yours is a nurturing nature, caring for plants from ...