Brad's Tropical Paradise

What I am working on now here at The Tropical Paradise I call the *criss-cross*. You can see it happening here in the Dioon Garden, with these cycads. It just means that these types of plants look their best when they are criss-crossing other similar plants. But you have to be careful here. I've found that the elephant ears were getting torn up when they started to criss-cross these cycads (which are sharp), so I moved them away from this area. These dioons are called *spinulosums*, which means spiny, and they are! Mostly these plants don't need any care. They grow slowly, only once a year (like the one in the center is doing) with a flush of new leaves. But it's important that I have access back there, so I can get in and trim and weed. If you look to the right you can see one of the stepping stones that gives me a place to stand when I need to get back there. Cycads are my favorite plants. And if you've never heard of them, that's a shame. They give the il...

Cannas can be beautiful, but they can also be ugly, as they tend to get very ratty quickly. There is just no better way to describe neglected cannas than *ratty*. Torn edges, etc. Here in Phoenix, the leaves sunburn. But there is a way to keep your cannas beautiful, and all it takes is a little careful pruning. What I am looking for from the cannas is the beautiful tropical foliage. And that is only on the new growth. Luckily, cannas grow like crazy. Once a stalk has gotten old, maybe flowered, it starts looking ratty and it needs to be removed to make way for the new growth. But here is where you have to be careful! The new growth shows as the bright red sprouts. The trick is to trim around them, but leave them alone. They will become the beautiful leaves that you want to see. And yes, you have to do this all of the time. This is a *fussy garden* thing, not a *monthly landscapers* thing. And you need access so these plants can't be in some distant part of the garden, they ne...

Ground covers simply don't work in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Believe me, I've tried everything I could think of, ice plants, hearts and flowers, you name it. If they grow at all, they just look weedy, and they have a tendency to just up and die when it gets hot, or cold, which it does here. My latest experiment (I'm experimenting, mostly) is Haworthia. I had never even heard of this type of plant until I got some cuttings from a fellow Arizona Palm and Cycad Association member last year. He has some rental properties, on which he maintains some pretty cool landscaping, and they include Haworthia. Haworthia looks a lot like aloe, but it's much tougher. All of the plants that you see here have grown from cuttings - that is, just pulled apart, even without roots, and planted. You can see the more recent plantings towards the back, they look kind'a sad and lonely. But once the plant takes root, it looks like it does well here, and starts to set offshoots. I'...

Mediterranean fan palms do well here in the Phoenix area. But they need to be trimmed differently from an ordinary fan palm. If you, or your landscape people, don't know the difference, there can be an awful mess, and a lot of frustration. The most important difference between a Mediterranean fan palm and an ordinary fan palm is the way that these plants want to grow. Mediterranean palms want to grow in a clump, with multiple heads, fan palms want to grow as a single stalk. So, cutting away of the multiple heads on a Mediterranean palm is an exercise in frustration, they will just grow back. So the best way to trim them is to embrace their growth habit, which is clumping. When they're tiny, Mediterranean palms and common fan palms look very similar. If you've planted a Mediterranean palm thinking that it was a common fan palm, and you are struggling to keep the multiple suckers from growing back, you're gonna have a bad time. You could, of course, dig ...

If you're fortunate enough to have a sago palm that looks like this one (no, it's not mine, I wish it was), with leaves growing out of the sides, you have a very healthy and robust plant. On some plants, this type of sucker growth is a bad thing, but on a sago palm, it's a good thing. These are *pups*, and it simply means that this plant is growing so well that it's bursting out all over! Like all cycads, sago palms live for hundreds of years and grow very, very slowly. That's the reason that they are so expensive! So, if you have a gem like this, either you spent a lot of money for it, or it has been on the property for decades. But you may be wondering what to do with the pups? Personally, I would remove them. I like seeing the trunk of a cycad. Cycad collectors show off how magnificent their plants are by showing the trunk. And you can grow more plants from the little pups, too, if you have the know-how. But mostly it's a matter of making the plant ...

When you transplant a cycad, such as this dioon edule, or a common sago palm, it's best to cut off all of the leaves. This plant was given to me by a friend who did everything right. He removed the leaves, kept as much of the root ball as possible, and got rid of the soil. When I planted it, a couple of weeks ago, I dug a nice deep hole and filled it with fast-draining potting soil. I mix in some volcanic pumice, or you can use vermiculite, or you can just buy a bag of potting soil that is made for cactus. I also put in some slow-release fertilizer (Osmocote) and stuck a couple of those houseplant spikes around the edges. They are slow release, too. This is the Phoenix, Arizona area, so I found a nice shady place for this plant (this is only very early morning light). It has a dedicated watering spray from the automatic system, and it gets mist from at least two different misting heads. It's got plenty of room to spread out, and it will. You don't want to make the mis...

After my accident, over a decade ago (please don't ask), I was concerned about the garden. Back in those days, I had real grass (not the artificial turf that I have now) so kind friends came over to mow several times. But as for the rest of the garden, that was up to me. It became the best physical therapy that I've ever done, and continues to be. Yes, I continue to do my exercises at the gym. But the garden is the place where I do the more important stuff, like stretching, bending, reaching. And I don't mean on a yoga mat! I mean caring for the garden. The plants that you see here, which are cycads, don't require much maintenance. They only grow once a year, and require trimming only when the fronds get ratty, which isn't often. They are on an automatic watering system. Sprinkled around them are smaller plants, which require care usually only in the spring, fall, and winter. In summer here in the Phoenix area, you really don't want to have a *high mainten...

One of the most frustrating things about figuring out garden design, and engineering, is that all of the *behind the scenes* stuff is usually pretty carefully hidden. I mean, that's the point - you want to show off a beautiful garden, not watering systems, etc. Here at The Tropical Paradise, the *Wiener Dog Highway* gives me access to the plants and also the watering systems. It's a space only a couple of feet wide at the most, and is regularly patrolled by Macintosh, the good little wiener dog. Here where the watering system begins, you can see the dual system, which is the misting system and the low-pressure watering system. Both are on battery-operated timers, which I adjust based on the season. It's summer now, so the misters come on every six hours for fifteen minutes, and the water comes on every 48 hours for 15 minutes. Yes, you can see this *behind the scenes* stuff here, but only if you look for it. And all gardens need to have it. This area remains dry (yo...

One of the worst mistakes that you can make in your garden is not giving yourself room to do routine maintenance. And that means giving yourself a place to stand, and the ability to reach into the garden without really ever stepping into it. I learned this trick about perennial borders which are always no wider that six feet. That's because the average person can reach about three feet. And if you have access from both sides, that's perfect. What you are looking at in the photo is the back of the southern edge of the east-facing wall. This is a premium place for plants as it gets dappled shade from the tree, and of course, full shade in the afternoon from the house. So plants do well. Maybe just a little too well! Which means that I have to get in there and trim, and weed, etc., regularly. Until today, this area was a mass of random plants that I had planted all the way up to the wall of the house. But yesterday I moved the watering head from just inches from the way to...

If you're seeing something that looks like a giant pine cone on your sago palm, don't worry. It's perfectly normal. In fact, it's a sign of a strong, healthy plant. And yes, it's a cone. This beautiful sago palm is in Southern California, where they grow very well. Without going into too much botanical stuff (which I really don't understand), sago palms are more closely related to pine trees than to palm trees. And these ancient types of plants don't flower, they cone. By the way, sago palms are dioecious, that is, they have two genders, just like people, male and female. And that means that you can recognize the gender of a sago by looking at its cone. This one is a male. Female cones on sago palms are much wider and flatter. And you will only see cones on very large specimens, as it takes at least a decade, if not two, for them to mature. Also note that cones can have poisonous stuff in them, so wear gloves when you go out there and cut it off. Man...

The Tropical Paradise is a tiny space, so I sat at the table yesterday and took a series of photos from the chair, June 10th, 2014, at 4:30 pm. This first view is of the Tiki Bar patio, where I have several plants in pots that are protected both by the overhang and by the fact that the walls face east and north. In the lower left is Macintosh, the good little wiener dog, who is keeping an eye out for geckos. That's my knee and foot, in the reflection of the sliding glass doors. The table, which is aluminum, I got online at Walmart, and is made by Panama Jack. The umbrella, also from Walmart, is just aluminum with plastic *grass skirts*. It was pretty cheap, as I just wanted to see if I wanted to have an umbrella in the yard, which I do, and my intention was to upgrade at some point, but I kind'a like it. I'm sure it'll start to fall apart, and then I'll think of replacing it, but not then. Macintosh's doggy door is right behind the post there, where there ...

Cannas have done great here at The Tropical Paradise, year after year. So much so, in fact, that it's quite a job controlling them. Cannas thrive with water and shade. Where the cannas look their best here is what I call *Canna Forest*, which is along the east-facing wall of my house, turning the corner and going to just past where the dwarf date palms are. And although it looks sunny, now at 10 am, by early afternoon this area will be going very quickly into deep shade. This area in the photo is what I consider the edge of Canna Forest. And I want to control that edge! So, I've done a couple of things. Firstly, I've gone in and dug up a few feet of bulbs. Literally dug down and pulled them up. That's where you can see the rocks on the right, towards the wall. The big rock, on the far right, is there to allow me to step behind where the cannas will be, and trim them. There is already a tiny sprout appearing (you really can't see it in this photo) between that ...

Summer arrives in the Phoenix, Arizona area by the end of May. By the first week of June, it's already blisteringly hot. And it will be that way until the end of August. So it's important to set your watering timer to the summer schedule. By the way, if you don't have an automatic timer, and you're thinking that you will be able to do this by using the hose, you're gonna have a bad time. I can't recommend that. As you can see from this view behind the cannas, there is a 1/2-inch low-pressure *drip system* water line a few inches from the block wall. The water is sprayed out, very precisely, and at the bottom of the plants, through risers and sprayer heads. They are held firmly in place by the holders, which are pounded in with a hammer. Note that the wall never, ever, gets wet. The whole idea here is to deliver the water exactly where it's needed, and nowhere else. I keep this area clear to allow access, and to check to be sure that everything is worki...

I have to admit to neglecting the hotter parts of the backyard here at The Tropical Paradise. Where there is a lot of shade, closer to the back door, I have been happily growing tropical plants, like cannas, and cycads. But I am starting to experiment with the area that I have been calling *The Outback*. Here in the Phoenix, Arizona area, the temperatures get into the 100s F (40s C) consistently all summer. But the heat isn't really the problem for most of the tropical plants that I have, it's the lack of shade. So The Outback gets a little shade, but not much. So I have been experimenting with sansevierias. The most common one was called *Mother-in-Law's Tongue* when I was a kid, but mostly now it's just called a snake plant. But they are just the most common type of sansevieria. And since the treasurer of the Arizona Palm and Cycad Association is also a sansevieria enthusiast, I have been given lots of cuttings in the last few months, and lots of encouragement....

Although people use the term *jungle* in a positive way when you have a lot of tropical plants, having your garden turn into a jungle, with no access for trimming, and letting everything get overgrown, is not a good thing. The trick to it is to create access without making places look like a path. It's quite a challenge! As you can see in this photo, I have some small *stepping stones* behind the cycads and miniature palm trees. They are not meant to look like paths, in fact, visitors should not really pay any attention to them. They're just places where I can safely put my feet when I need to get back there and trim the plants. The rocks back there also perform another function, they cover the *spaghetti tubing* that comes from the main water line and goes over to the plants. I don't want to accidentally kick that tubing, or really to disturb it at all. Last season I made the mistake of planting some small elephant ear plants that very quickly got big, and were d...

I just replaced the two chairs in my backyard. They really don't look all that much different from the ones I've had there for the last four years, and they're simple and inexpensive, and that's just the point. I bought this furniture to be easily replaced. Remember that garden furniture lives outside. It gets rained on, the sun hits it, birds poop on it, etc. If you've made the mistake of putting furniture that really belongs in your living room outside, I recommend that you look up. There's no roof there. This type of chair is the kind with the netting that allows water to flow through. I've noticed that they've improved this type of design, and the material feels a little softer. Also, the material doesn't just suddenly stop at the edges, where the old chairs were fraying, it wraps around. You may also notice that I have my chairs and table on *the grass*. Well, the artificial turf. It took me a long time to realize that I could put furnit...

I love miniatures. Hey, look at my dog! But I hate tiny spaces that are cramped, such as the inside of airplanes, and gardens that have overgrown plants in narrow spaces. So, if you have a tiny space, think miniature. And also consider that human beings will need to get closer. This is no place for hoses lying around, or places where people will misstep. I've learned by watching how people look at the garden, and how I look at gardens that I visit. So this is what I've learned: • Make a very clear space for people to walk, and stand. The placement of the pointy rocks there is critical. No, don't have a *border*, people will just want to step on it, or worse yet, walk along it, balancing. And no flat rocks! If it looks like a stepping stone, people will step on it. If it's jagged, like these pointy rocks, it says *keep off*. And be sure the rocks are buried down in the ground deep enough so that if someone accidentally kicks one, it stays put, and doesn't roll ...

Now that I'm digging around and fixing leaks in the misting system, I am again taking a hard look at what works, and what doesn't work, where. And I've noticed that while the canna has multiplied, and grown into a transitional area, in the summer, it really looks sad. So I tore a whole bunch out this morning. I call this area a *transitional zone* because while it gets afternoon shade, it gets it later than where the cannas are closer to the house. Yes, it's only a few feet, but it really matters. And that block wall there, which faces south, makes this area even more deadly in the summer - brutal heat! My thought is to create a small aloe garden area here, using a miniature agave as the center. I don't want anything sharp coming anywhere near the pathway, so I will be careful not to plant it too close to the walkway, and that I plant a miniature agave, not kind that will get huge. Knowledge is power! I will be giving away the canna bulbs (there must be abou...