What is on Desert-Tropicals.com site?
Desert-Tropicals is designed to provide you information about plants. Our goal is to have gardening information on all the plants that one can encounter in Arizona.  Considering that gardeners are an adventurous bunch, it represents a lot of different types of plant.  It not only covers the plants that can grow outside in the ground, but also the large number of container grown, strictly tropical plants.

How did it start?
Desert-Tropicals.com is the brain child of Philippe Faucon.  It started during the holidays in December 1998, and grew up for a number of years.  The number of species in the database was almost 1000 at the end of 1999 with about 10,000 visits a month.  By the end of 2002, there were over 7000 pages and 400,000 visits per month. Sadly, then, the site was not maintained for a number of years. It represents many, many hours taking pictures, researching, asking people about what is growing in their garden.

There was a long hiatus.
Life happens. This April 2020 Philippe was stuck at home, hiding from the coronavirus. It seemed like a great time to take care of it again. Most of the tools to maintain the software are obsolete and gone. It is quite an undertaking to actualize it.

We are not a nursery. 
This is about Internet, about information available for free.

Who is Philippe?
Philippe was born in France.  His parents are still making wine in the south of France a couple of miles away from the springs where the Perrier water comes from.  Philippe has been heavily involved in desert gardening since he first arrived in the valley of the sun in 1984 and is designing software for a living.  He has 3 children, the youngest was born in August 2000.

How is the site financed?
The site is running very lean, the monthly expenses are mostly covered by some advertising income. 

How can you help?
We would also love to have more articles or pictures.  Just tell us about what grows well in your garden.  Talk about us to your family and friends.