desertpalm's Member Page

garden in the arizona desert, dry and hot. I really had to learn a different strategy from mass, where I came from. There are severe limitations here in the desert, but I have grown some beautiful palms in my backyard including Bismarckia Nobillis, sabal blackburniana, sabal bermudana, butia capitata, brahea armata. In all I have ~50 palms growing in my backyard of 1/4 acre. The strategy is to have the palms shading each other in a symbiotic fashion. I use the brahea armata on the western sides of other palms to help protect against the late day sun. I also have 6 ficus nitida that are interspersed among the palms to cut the heat. The (6) mexican blues are very healthy(4' to 8' tall) with a variety of color from powder blue to shades of blue-green. The (3) bismarks are also very nice, though the specimen from thialand on this site is a shade of blue I have not seen. I have also managed to grow a nice livingstonia chinesis(fountain palm) in a shaded area on the east side of my house. I do use sulfur pellets to modify the soil pH and have used sand and peat to modify the clay soil. I also use aerify(natureslawn) to keep the soil breathing well and humic acid and fertilizers to keep things growing in this heat.