Why you should uplight the tropical plants in your garden

-

One of the coolest effects that you can create in your garden of tropical plants is uplighting. It's really quite amazing, and it's easy to do.

You will need to invest in a low-voltage outdoor lighting system. I got mine at Home Depot, and I got the most basic one I could. I got plain black metal lights because I don't want any attention to go to the fixtures, I want the attention on the plants. The fixtures still show, of course, but I try to hide them a bit behind the rocks. Because it isn't about the fixtures, it's about the light.

Get spotlights, and get bright ones. The idea is to light the plants from the bottom with the light pointing up, so be careful here - don't allow the light to shine into a window, especially your neighbor's window! Point them at the plants!

The light will give a wonderful effect to the plant, and the rest of the light will splash on the wall, and kick back a little bit. Palm trees, cycads, and agaves look especially great with uplighting.

If you've made the mistake of lighting your garden like a football stadium, try again. The light should be bright on the plants, but soft and indirect for the people. I put in a couple of path lights to be absolutely sure that I could see where I'm walking, but most of the light in the garden is just softly bounced back. I love the way it looks on the leaves of the plants, and I love the interesting shadows on the walls.

Uplighted agave and cycad.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to tell if your cycad (sago palm) is alive or dead

-
Image
Cycads are strange plants. They're beautiful, and look like small palm trees, or large ferns. They grow very slowly, and can be very expensive, even common ones like "sago palms". But sago palms, in spite of their common name, aren't palms at all. They belong to a group of plants called cycads. They are wonderfully weird, and grow in strange ways. And sometimes they lose all of their leaves. Of course, if it were a palm tree that lost all of its leaves, you would know that the plant was dead. But it's not true of cycads. So don't dig that cycad up and throw it away! Not yet. If you've recently transplanted a cycad, and the leaves have all faded away, hang on. Take a look at the top center of the plant, at what I call "the pucker". There you will see some stubby, soft fronds, no more than an half-inch or so. At least that's what you should see. That means that the plant is still alive, and has dropped its leaves to focus on building r
Read more

Growing sunflowers from Pennsylvania in Arizona

-
Image
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
Read more

Rooting sago palm pups for more plants

-
Image
Once a sago palm ( cycas revoluta ) reaches a certain level of maturity, it starts to create pups. Like agaves, these are little plants that are exactly the same as the parent plant, only smaller. And yes, you can trim them off and grow them into new plants. This is how to do it. Cut them off from the parent plant with a sharp knife. If there are any roots at the bottom, try to save them, but chances are there won't be any. That's not a problem. The next step is rooting them. Douse the cut part and the bottom of the plant with some garden sulfur and some rooting hormone powder. Rooting hormone powder is pretty easy to find at your local Home Depot. I had to go to a real nursery to get garden sulfur. Anyway, the idea is to keep the little plant from rotting while giving it time to grow its own roots. Sago palm pups being rooted Bury them fairly deep in some free-draining mix. It should include volcanic pumice, if you can find it, and if not, you can use perlite. I
Read more