Brad's Tropical Paradise

This is what The Tropical Paradise looks like to Macintosh, the good little wiener dog. Although I've read that dogs only see in black and white, and mostly she just follows her nose. Anyway, I like seeing her prowling around, weaving around the plants. The cycad in the center of the photo is a Dioon spinulosum , a native of Mexico. Behind it is a dwarf date palm, Phoenix roebellini . The cycad closest to you, and slightly to the left, with just one leaf is an Encephalartos villosus , native to South Africa. On the left are the elephant ears (Caladiums) that I transplanted from a friend's yard in Los Angeles. They come back bigger and stronger all the time, have been there for years. The reddish broad-leaf plants are Canna Tropicanas . The fronds that you see sticking into the picture from the right are of one of my tiny zamias , another cycad. And just behind the date stamp is a common houseplant, called a Dragon Tree (Dracaena) . They actually grow into small trees in c...

I was in a neighborhood in Scottsdale a few days ago and I kept seeing a lot of plants that were trimmed like "poodles". I also call this "Dr. Seuss" plants, or "pom-poms". Anyway, I think that they look ridiculous. And they limit the beauty of the blooms, too. I think that you know what I mean. If you've hired a service to care for your plants, I really can't blame them, that is the fastest and easiest way to trim. But it's so wrong. The picture at left is how an oleander should look trimmed. So, the first thing you should do is to put away that hedge trimmer. Unless you actually have a hedge, and I am assuming that you are in England, it's the wrong tool for this job. Plants such as oleanders look their best, and bloom their best, if they are treated like rose bushes, not hedges. But trimming an ordinary blooming plant is not as complicated as caring for roses, don't worry. When you go out to trim it, just use ordinary garden shea...

It's a couple of days from Halloween, and most of the damage from the recent freak hail storm here in Glendale has gone. It was just a few weeks ago, and I pretty much cut all of the caladiums (elephant ears) and cannas to the ground. As I expected, the ornamental sweet potato vine (glowing vibrant green - and it really looks like that in "real life"!) is coming back very strong as it's getting the benefit of a lot more light. In the foreground is a rubber tree, which I bought as a tiny "houseplant" last spring. It's growing so fast, and they get so big, that I will need to keep an eye on that one! It's still pretty warm here in Glendale, up into the high eighties, so I am leaving the automatic watering at every 48 hours. When it cools down for real, I will change it to just once a week or less. I will also cut down on how often the misters come on.

After years of trying different things, I have found the perfect furniture for The Tropical Paradise. I got those "mesh" types of lawn chairs and couple of inexpensive plastic tables. For a long time I had the big, clunky furniture that you put heavy pads on. These would get dirty so quickly, that I had to use towels to sit on them. With the mesh, I can hose them off, they dry in a few minutes, and they are clean! I got mine at Target. I've seen "outdoor furniture" that only belongs in the pages of a magazine, not anywhere near the real world. If your furniture is so delicate that people don't dare touch it, let alone sit on it, you are defeating the purpose of creating your Tropical Paradise as a garden room. Have lightweight, inexpensive furniture and a few small tables. That way it's easy for people to move them in and out of the shade as needed, and pull up a little table for their cup of tea, or their gin-and-tonic. Here at the Tropical Paradise...

My favorite part of the day to be in Tropical Paradise is in the morning. I'm a web designer and illustrator, so I work out of my house. And the first thing I do in the morning is to take my coffee outside and ponder the day. I inspect the garden, checking to see if any new bulbs are coming up, which they are, and just generally enjoying the fruits of my labor. It's late October now, and the temperatures in the morning are dipping down into the fifties. During the day it gets up to the high seventies, but right now it's a little bit chilly for Macintosh, the good little wiener dog. You can just see her barely poking out of her doggie door on the left. This area still look a little bare after being cut back after the freak hailstorm we had here a few weeks ago. You can see the elephant ears coming back strong. The cycads and palms weren't damaged by the hail, luckily. Since the plants have been cut down so much in this area, you can see how I have the watering system...

Up-lighting tropical foliage is so cool. It always reminds me of expensive resorts and being on vacation, and it's actually pretty easy to do and not that expensive. My post about Malibu Lighting is here. This is my backyard, and I don't need the light shining all night, especially in my bedroom window, so I just have it hooked up to an ordinary on/off switch. To get the most out of a nighttime garden, try to plant some white flowering plants. The petunias in the lower left are just starting to bloom, and you can't really see it in this picture, but they make for nice little "sparkles of light" in the garden. The palm just left of center in the picture is a Ravenea rivularis (commonly called a "Majesty Palm") and is available just about anywhere. The trunk on the right, and the plant directly behind it is a Phoenix roebelenii   (Dwarf date palm), also commonly available here, and does well in the Phoenix, Arizona area.

There is a gentle rain falling right now on The Tropical Paradise. This type of rain, and at this time, is unusual for the Sonoran Desert, which is where Phoenix and Tucson are. Here we usually get rain at two times of the year, mid-summer and in the winter. The mid-summer rains are violent, and usually include thunderstorms. The winter rains, which I call "Christmas rains" are soft and gentle, like the one that I am listening to right now. Since rain is so rare here in the desert, it tends to put people in a good mood, unlike back east, where it tends to depress people. Here it makes us smile! Although the term "monsoon season" started as a joke on a Phoenix radio station, most people here take the term seriously. We just got over some very heavy thunderstorms here, including some very big hail. The rain in the desert usually comes down hard and fast. When I bought this house I made sure that the water drained properly, and I have been careful since then to be ...

There is just something magical about hummingbirds. I get a lot of them here at the Tropical Paradise, and they are attracted naturally. Like all birds, they seek water. But, as you know, they especially are attracted to reddish flowers with a long, tubular shape. And that's good, because I have some here. The plant that attracts the most hummingbirds here is called Cape Honeysuckle ( Tecomaria capensis ). It has a wonderfully tropical leaf, as you can see, and grows in a vining sort of way. You can trim them to keep them fairly small, like I do here, or you can let them get really big. Another really cool thing about Cape Honeysuckle, in addition to attracting hummingbirds, is that it blooms in the winter. It's October now and that's the first bloom I've seen. So it looks great when the winter visitors get here. It is not deciduous (doesn't lose its leaves in the winter), and is available at every garden center for cheap. It's a vigorous grower, too. Exc...

The president of The Arizona Palm and Cycad Association was kind enough to give me this plant, an  Encephalartos natalensis cycad, many years ago, and it is doing well at The Tropical Paradise. I transplanted it this spring, so I was nervous, but it sent up a nice new flush that got just a little bit sunburned, so I am satisfied. After another year in its new location, it will be fine. The Encephalartos natalensis is a very close relation to Encephalartos woodii , the rarest cycad in the world. In fact, the natalensis is what is being used to create a cross with the woodii. But where a similarly-sized Encephalartos woodii would be worth thousands of dollars, the natalensis is fairly common. Rarity of species of cycads can mean a huge difference in value. Me, I'm not a "deep pockets" collector, I just like the way they look. Over the years, my association with The Arizona Palm and Cycad association has taught me a lot. I enjoy going to the meetings and hanging out w...

A beautiful combination of plants, Canna Tropicana and ornamental sweet potato vine. On their own, these are beautiful plants, but together, they are just amazing. They are grown for their foliage, not their flowers, though both do flower. To encourage the best-looking growth, cut them back hard, and be sure to cut the blooms off as soon as they appear. These plants appreciate fertilizer, and a trick that I use is the little houseplant fertilizer sticks, which I stick in at random around the plant, especially at their drip line (just away from their roots). Another post about the ornamental sweet potato vine is here.

Annual flowers, such as petunias, are a wonderfully inexpensive way to add a lot of "zing" to your tropical paradise. I bought a six-pack at Lowe's yesterday for $1.98. There is no reason to buy them any bigger, and it is a waste of money to do so. Also, to pick out the best six-pack, look for the smallest plants you can find, with as few blooms as possible. It's good to see some of the blooms starting, just to be sure that you are getting the right bloom color, but you don't want big, overgrown, full-blooming plants. I know that this doesn't seem logical. At the nursery your eye goes to the largest and biggest-blooming plants, and that would seem like the best value. But it isn't. Please let me explain. What you are looking for in an annual flower is freshness and youth. Think of it like buying bread. The big, overgrown plants with lots of blooms have been sitting around for quite a while. The little ones are from the new shipment. When you transplant...

October is the best time for planting annual flowers here in the desert. Actually, you can plant them all winter, but if you start now, they will have time to get very big, develop a strong root system, and bloom like crazy. Here at the Tropical Paradise, I've tried lots of different annual flowers, but I keep coming back to petunias. Their foliage has the most "tropical" shape, in my opinion, and they spread out in a wonderfully "tropical" way. For bloom color, I choose white, because it makes wonderful little bright spots in the garden at night, and also because it won't clash with any of the colors of the blooming bulbs, which will be coming up soon. My opinion on plants has always been to buy them small and take good care of them. These tiny little guys right out of the six-pack don't look like much now, but they are vigorous growers. I always add fresh potting soil, usually Miracle Grow Moisture Control , along with Osmocote and a few pieces of...

One of the things I have here at The Tropical Paradise is a misting system. It's the same as the types of misting systems that you see over patios at restaurants around here in Phoenix, except, of course, that it is on the ground, and it's for the plants. Personally, I don't care for misting systems that spray all over me, but the plants love it. It's nothing elaborate, just a plain misting system that I got at Home Depot. The trunk line runs along the ground, just under the soil, and the misting heads are set on risers that I get at Amazon, which are about 3 inches tall. You can see one just to the left of the "cardboard palm " (Zamia furfuracea) cycad. In the summer, I have it set to come on every few hours. The plants love the added humidity. I can feel the air cool when the misters come on, and I hope that the plants do, too.

This little cycad, a zamia, was just labeled as a "houseplant" at my local Lowe's here in Glendale, Arizona. The most common zamia is a "cardboard palm" (Zamia furfuracea), which is considerably larger (you can see a bit of one on the right). Small, fine-leaf zamias are variable in appearance. Some people call them "coonties". I just call these "little zamias". These little gems grow beautifully here in the Phoenix area, but you rarely seem for sale here. They will show up occasionally at a Lowe's or Home Depot if a shipment is meant to go to California, or in this case, where it is just being sold as a houseplant. They are not expensive, being the same price as a sago palm (cycas revoluta ) , and that's because most nurseries can't tell the difference between these two types of plants. But there is a considerable difference! A zamia like this will grow low, bushy and full. A revoluta will grow like, well, a palm tree. There...

Growing plants from bulbs in The Tropical Paradise is a lot of fun. It's the second week of October here in Glendale and I am just starting to see some daffodils starting to push up. This is the time of year to plant bulbs here. During the winter they produce strong root systems and push up leaves, and in the spring they bloom. Daffodils (narcissus) look great along with palms and cycads. Here is what it looked like last year. They naturalize and multiply in the garden, so year after year more come back. While they are just starting out, keep them well watered and fertilized. I have good luck with bulbs from many places, from fancy online sites, like Easytogrowbulbs.com to the local "Dollar Store". In fact, I buy bulbs anywhere I see them for sale, and put them in the ground. It is pure joy to see them begin to grow, and then to bloom.

I have a very basic automatic watering system here at the Tropical Paradise. It is based on a simple "drip system", which is a low-pressure 1/2" line with various "mini-sprayers" attached. I originally started with "spaghetti tubing", but those little tubes would get clogged and lost. Even though it's a low pressure system, there is still plenty of power to spray, as you can see in this video. The sprayer heads are available at any home depot, and come in lots of shapes and sizes. It's actually kind of fun to put together and mess around with. And the plants love it! Of course, the grass is artificial turf, so it doesn't require any watering at all. Overall, it's a pretty efficient way to get a tropical paradise here in the desert. Just ask Macintosh, the good little wiener dog!

This was a few days ago. I just love the sound of the gentle raindrops on the Elephant Ears (caladiums).

Here at the Tropical Paradise, I have been using coffee grounds for several years now, and the plants love it. You can get the coffee grounds free at any Starbucks. You may wonder why I don't use manure. Although there is nothing wrong with using manure, it smells like, well, manure. The coffee grounds smell like coffee, especially right after you dump it out. The smell tones down after a day or two. Coffee grounds make an excellent mulch and also help to acidify the soil. Here in the desert, the soil is very alkaline, so a little bit of added acidity is good. And the deep, rich brown color is just beautiful. I've read that coffee can be bad for dogs, but Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, has no interest in it, and other than tracking it around with her tiny paws, it's not a problem. So, the next time you're at Starbucks, look for a little "trash can" with a sign that says, "Grounds for Your Garden". It's free, and would end up in landfi...

It's finally cooled off here in Glendale, and my favorite place in the morning is The Tropical Paradise, with my best friend, Macintosh, the good little wiener dog. The back of my house faces due east, so plants that don't like the hot afternoon sun are shaded by noon. I bought this house with its orientation to the sun in mind. Afternoon shade is more comfortable for plants, people and dogs. And morning sunlight is so beautiful, don't you think? I've been a member of the Arizona Palm and Cycad Association for almost ten years now, and many of my plants were given to me by fellow members, both through kindness and also the fact that many people have run out of room in their gardens. Believe me, it happens! I have tried to label the plants carefully, especially the cycads, but the one in the foreground started growing this year and I didn't even realize that it was in the ground. It is a type of cycas, but I can't be more specific. Behind it is a small Raven...

I love dogs. And I love gardens. Getting the two of them to mix is a challenge, but it can be done. I recommend against getting a dachshund, unless you are really serious about training. Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, is a wonderful part of the tropical paradise. She loves roaming around and chasing the little lizards, and she is just the right scale for my tiny garden. But she is a dachshund, and keep in mind that dachshunds have been bred to dig and to bark. I got Macintosh, my best friend, when she was a puppy and we started coming to an understanding about living in The Tropical Paradise right away. When she started digging, which is purely natural for a dachshund, I promptly stopped her. The key is to spend time with your dog, and if you see her do anything you don't want, correct it immediately. No, you don't have to "freak out" and scream - and I would appreciate it if you didn't - but you do have to gently correct immediately. And the key here ...

The hail storm a couple of days ago really tore up the soft plants here at The Tropical Paradise! If you live in Phoenix, you know about the freak hail storm we had. Some of my friend's cars were dented! There was no damage to any other types of plants, but the hail really ripped holes in the cannas and elephant ears. The good news is that after they are cut back, they come back fast. In fact, the cannas are the "Tropicana" variety, and they look their best right after being cut back, when they are at their most vivid reddish color. It's good to cut them back severely several times a season. The beauty of these plants is the tropical leaves, not the bloom, which is just OK. The spreading vine is ornamental sweet potato, which is now enjoying much more sunlight than before. Luckily, the weather has cooled down or it would be getting sunburned! This is the time of the year to start looking for bulbs re-sprouting. I have planted lots of daffodils, and they come back se...

Lighting a tropical paradise is a special joy. It looks like a million dollars and really doesn't cost that much. I've installed low-voltage Malibu Lights from Home Depot. The spot lights are 20 watts and the path lights are 11 watts. The trick to using these lights is to aim them up towards the plants and away from people. If they catch you in the eye, they can dazzle, and that is pretty unpleasant. I put in a few path lights but most of it is uplighting with spotlights. If you want to see where they do it the very best, go to the Phoenician resort in Scottsdale . I made a special trip there years ago just to see how they did their lighting. Remember that you are not lighting a football field here, you are trying to set a mood. On the other hand, be sure that there is enough light to allow people to walk safely and see where they're going. Experiment by using a flashlight, sticking it in the ground and standing back. The beautiful cycad in the foreground is ...

A very inexpensive way to get that "Tropical Paradise" feeling is with vining plants. I've planted ornamental sweet potato vine and it is doing well in the shade of my palms and cycads. It doesn't look so good in sun, and it does require a lot of water, so I am putting it in shady, low-lying areas. This vine started out as a tiny inexpensive plant from Target and has spread. In addition to looking great, vining plants discourage people from stepping into the garden. I plant them in rich potting soil with plenty of Osmocote fertilizer and moisture crystals , which you can get at Home Depot.

If you're thinking that a beautiful palm tree like this can't be planted in full sun in the Phoenix area, think again. This Phoenix rupicola is planted in full sun, facing west, and in gravel, which reflects the heat. The rupicola is a medium-sized palm tree, not as large as it's big brother the Phoenix dactylifera (date palm), and not as small as its little sister the Phoenix roebellini (dwarf date palm). It has long, green, beautiful, arching fronds and grows to a medium height, so it won't become a "telephone pole" in your yard. I saw one of these in a neighbor's yard when I first moved here in the '90s, did some research to find out what it was, and finally got one in 2005. I have no idea why these are not more commonly planted in the Phoenix area. They are not expensive and are readily available by nurseries that sell palm trees. You won't find them at Home Depot or Walmart, though. They are slow growers, which is good, because ...

The best place to start your tropical paradise is with some inexpensive plants. The very best is the Phoenix roebellini , which is readily available at Home Depot, Walmart, etc. Unless you are going to be viewing your palm trees from miles away, avoid their big brother, the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera ) - those look great along the edge of a golf course, but in an ordinary back yard, they are just telephone poles. To get the most "tropical island" feeling from your Phoenix roebellini , buy one with multiple trunks. They will lean out away from each other and give you the impression that you are in Tahiti! Purchase 5-gallon plants. Remember that these are miniatures. By the way, many plants look the same when small - check the label, be sure it says, "Phoenix roebellini ". If you want to be sure of the plant you are getting, get ready to start reading Latin! These plants will require some special care during the first season or so. They can be k...

Although cycads look like palm trees, they are more closely related to pine trees, and both types of plants produce cones for reproduction. Cycads are dioecious, in other words, either male or female. This is common in animals, but rare in plants. You can tell if a cycad is male or female by the cone it produces, but sometimes it takes many decades for the first cone to develop, so you have to be patient! This particular specimen is male, as evidenced by the shape of the cone. The female cone would be much rounder. In order to produce viable seeds, a female cycad must be coning at the same time as a male cycad, so the pollen of this particular cone has no place to go. It will last a few weeks, then break apart and crumble away.

Temperatures here in the desert can get in to the 100's so creating a "mini-oasis" can be quite soothing. Palms and cycads look especially nice near grass. But growing grass in the desert is very difficult, especially in a small area. In the summertime the shade needs of cycads can make growing Bermuda grass (which requires lots of sunshine) impossible. In the winter, Bermuda grass goes dormant and turns brown so it's necessary to "overseed" with rye grass, a ritual that starts in October and uses an enormous amount of water, not to mention seed and fertilizer. So about five years ago I invested in artificial turf. If you remember the old "Astroturf", you will be surprised to see how natural this stuff looks these days. I've had people walk on it and not realize that is was artificial until they reached down to touch it! It's perforated to allow water to flow through and the only maintenance it needs is to be blown or raked oc...

Tropical plants appreciate water and humidity. Here in the desert, we don't have much of either. So, in addition to the watering system, I have installed a misting system. If you have ever been to a restaurant that has outdoor seating here in Phoenix or in Palm Springs, etc., you have seen (and felt) this type of misting system. They cool down the ambient air temperature, which feels good to both plants and humans. And they also spray a fine mist of water on everything, which is more pleasant for plants. All you really need to get started is a simple misting system that you can buy at any Home Depot. But, before you do this, there are a couple of special considerations. Do not run the tubing above the plants, run the tubing at soil level. You will need nozzle extensions, which will need to be purchased separately. They stick up about three inches above the soil line, because if you put the nozzles on the soil line, they will get buried. Believe me, I know! You can bu...

Palms and cycads are beautiful on their own, but are spectacular in a garden with appropriate companion plants. I am a graphic designer by profession, so aesthetics means a lot to me. I have seen cycad collectors just plant cycads like "tin soldiers", all lined up in a neat little row, and standing all alone, and it really spoils it for me. Cycads seem to love company, and in addition to planting them in masses, give them some friends! Here are some beautiful canna tropicanas , which give a nice broad-leaf tropical effect. But be careful here! These tropical plants do best with a lot of water and with their "feet wet", so do a little careful planning with the level of the ground. The Dioon spinulosum that you see there is planted a good foot higher than the surrounding companion plants. This cycad likes to see water, but it needs to drain off quickly! In addition to the Cannas, there are Elephant Ears and Phoenix roebellini (dwarf date palms). ...

This is my absolutely favorite cycad for here in the desert. You can't find these at Walmart or Home Depot, but they are sometimes available here in Phoenix and are relatively inexpensive. You can just call it a "Dioon palma sola" or just a "palma sola". As the name implies, it is a cycad that loves the sun. They have an amazing blue-green color and they send out lots of offshoots. And in an area where you would think the only thing that would survive would be some prickly cactus, these beauties flourish!

The most common, and least expensive, cycad is the "Sago Palm" (Cycas revoluta ) . You can find these for sale just about anywhere, even in grocery stores! If you are a beginner in cycad collecting, this is the best place to start. Don't buy one that is in this state of flush, however, as the leaves are easily damaged at this point. Still, look for one that has signs that it flushed recently and has strong, healthy leaves. Avoid the temptation to buy one at a grocery store, but you needn't go to an expensive nursery, either. Cycas revolutas tolerate neglect and there are usually plenty at your local Walmart or Home Depot. Plant it on a slope, which allows drainage. Just about the only thing that a cycad can't stand is poor drainage - the roots will rot and the plant will die. By the way, if, for some reason, all of the leaves fall off, don't despair! As long as the caudex (the trunk) is firm, the leaves will grow back. Be patient. If, however, ...

Unlike palm trees, cycads don't grow all of the time. They send out their leaves in a "flush", usually only once a year. Here a cycas revoluta , commonly known as a "sago palm" is just beginning to flush. If you are a cycad enthusiast, there is no more beautiful site in the garden! Here in the tropical paradise, which is in Glendale, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix), flushing usually starts in late April and continues through June. While the new leaves are growing, it's important to protect them. While young, they are soft and easily damaged. Any damage that they receive while young will continue to show after the leaves have matured.

Here in the desert, location is everything for cycads. The best place for them is where they can get afternoon shade. Here they get the benefit of shade from the house. Cycads can take very high heat, but most will sunburn in direct sun. In my yard, they also get a bit of a break from the morning sun because of an olive tree. Dappled morning sunlight is the very best for cycads. Pictures here are D ioon spinulosum , Macrozamia mooreii , zamia furfuracea , Phoenix roebellini, Ravenea rivularis , Caladium (Elephant ears), Purple Hearts and Dracaena (Dragon tree). During the winter this area gets some nice warm sunlight from the south, as you can see in this picture.

This is a 1/4-inch 45-degree sprayer, which is attached to a low-pressure system with the trunk line buried just slightly below the soil. Here in the desert, water is precious so this is a very efficient way of delivering just what your plants need. All of the pieces for this system are available at any hardware store, such as Home Depot or Lowe's. Before I installed the sprayers, I used "spaghetti tubing", which just dripped on the ground next to the plants. This works for a while, right after you plant, but the tubing gets clogged and lost after a while. These sprayers sit up a few inches from the ground so I can keep an eye on them. But they don't show so much that they spoil the view. Pictured are English Ivy, Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata ) and Canna Tropicana.

It's early March and the weather in Glendale, Arizona, is just starting to warm up. It's been a very rainy winter, which is good for the flowers. I planted a bunch of daffodils last fall and they are doing great. Daffodils like water in the winter but the cycads don't, so the bulbs are planted in little depressions in the ground and the cycads sit up higher so that the water can drain. In this picture you can see from left to right, Dioon edule var. palma sola - that's the bluish one just at the end of the flagstone walk. Behind it is a Mediterranean Fan Palm (Chamaerops humilis ) . The dark green cycad is a cycas revoluta (sometimes referred to as a "sago palm") and the big blue cycad at the far right of the picture is a Dioon spinulosum.