Forty-two years ago now, my wise ol' grandmother introduced me to cactus and succulents. The rest, as they say, is history.

I've taken that interest and developed it into a passion for landscaping, a passion that complements nicely my passion for real estate and my career as a property inspector.

My love of plants and real estate has developed into an intense interest to help people understand how the wrong tree, bush, or ground cover planted on their property can have devastating effects on their home, effects that might not become visible until many years later.

Here in San Diego, virtually anything will grow because of our climate, and with the proper amount of watering, those things will grow tall and wide, and some that you've never seen bloom before, will bloom.

When I was growing up in South Texas several decades ago, my grandmother was quite proud of her Norfolk Island Pine (also called a Star Pine) that had grown to six feet in ten years. Here in the canyons of San Diego, it's not uncommon to find Norfolk Island Pines that are 35 or 40 feet tall—also in ten years.

The umbrella tree, or schefflera, is the same. We Texans were proud if they were six feet tall and still had all their lower leaves. Here in San Diego, they not only grow to 20 feet tall, but the darn things bloom! And beautiful blooms they are, too.

Unfortunately, because everything will grow here, people plant plants in the strangest places, and notwithstanding our desert environment with an average of only 10 inches of rain a year, they will water them and water them to make sure they grow big and strong. Here's an example of a ficus tree which not only grew big and strong, but its root system grew wide and destructive:

That tree was not at the home that I was inspecting; it was next door! Yet it had not only destroyed the foundation of the home in the picture, it had also destroyed the foundation of the home to the left, the home that I was inspecting.

Moral of the story? Don't fall prey to the grocery stores that sell the cute, little ficus trees at all times of the year. Those cute, little ficus trees grow to be big, monster, destructive trees, as do many other small plants common sold in grocery stores, discount stores, home improvement stores, and, of course, at plant nurseries.

This next picture is at a home that I was inspecting that had some sagging floors. Since I normally walk around the outside of the home before going inside, I knew before ever going inside that there were probably some sloping/sagging floors in this area.

The two lime-green plants in the picture are cyperus plants, typically categorized under "aquatic, wetland, and invasive" plants. Since those two plants were looking quite nice, and we live in a desert, I knew that they were being watered well. And since the house was on a raised foundation, my suspicion about sloping/sagging floors in that area was confirmed from the interior. The extreme amount of watering they were providing to these two plants had caused the concrete piers to sink in mud. Unfortunately, the plants were planted in the two access openings to the foundation crawl space, so I couldn't tell my Clients much more.

Moral of the story? Just because a nursery sells a beautiful plant doesn't mean that it is right for your home.

This last picture is of a tropical paradise:

Nope, it's not Miami or the Mediterranean. It's right here in San Diego, a desert that gets an average of 10 inches of rain a year, not to mention about 30 days of 100+ temperatures in some areas and the all-too-often hot, dry Santa Ana winds that dessicate everything they blow across. To have a tropical paradise like that in an environment like San Diego, again, requires lots of water. I don't normally mention vegetation at the time of the inspection, but I have an extensive regetation section in my SOLUTIONS real estate library that I quite often reference (readers can find it here: http://www.russel-ray.com/reports/Vegetation.pdf).

In this case, my Clients loved the tropical paradise and didn't bother reading the vegetation section of their property inspection report. A couple of months after they moved in, they called me wanting to know if I had broken some plumbing during the inspection because they had a $250 monthly water bill. After I pulled up pictures of their paradise, I told them exactly what was going on and asked them if they had read the vegetation section. Nope, they hadn't.—Clients not reading all of their property inspection reports is a common occurrence in the home inspection industry. :(  They weren't too happy with their water bill, and apparently they hadn't asked the sellers about the utility bills, but when I went by their house for their first anniversary of close of escrow, they still had a tropical paradise. So I guess the sticker shock of the first couple of water bills wore off once they really got around to enjoying their paradise. Unfortunately, being in a desert environment with almost 3 million people in a state with 37 million people, and a state that is commonly subject to the extremes of weather, these Clients with an inappropriate tropical paradise in a desert quite often deprive others of needed water during times of drought.

Moral of the story? Just because you fall in love with mature landscaping doesn't mean it's the right landscaping.

Moral of this blog? If you fall in love with a plant, do your due diligence to find out more about the plant. How big will it grow? How fast does it grow? How much water does it need? How much light does it need? Is it a shade plant or a sun plant? Can it survive droughts? Can it survive floods? What insect pests is it susceptible to? There are many resources on the Internet. Use them, or at the very least, ask the salesperson where you are going to buy the plant. If necessary, ask me!