Category: garden landscapes

Winterproofing palms to survive climate change

You have probably already seen one: a tall palm tree wrapped in strips of burlap which the owners hope will protect the tree during winter cold. In truth, this burlap bandage going from the ground to where the fronds begin is unlikely to have any impact at all.

There is, however, a proven way to “weatherproof” and protect palm trees in areas where winter temperatures sometimes fall below freezing–places like Palm Springs, Tucson, Las Vegas and London. That’s right–palm trees are now being planted and thriving in London in the U.K., a city that is further north than Seattle.

Climate change is definitely having an impact on gardens worldwide and on which plants will thrive where. While we think of palms as warm climate trees, they are now being planted in areas where cold, freezing winters are normal. And future changes in weather conditions are becoming more unpredictable, except that it looks like extremes of hot and cold will become normal.

The Proven Way to Protect Palms

So here is how to look at the situation: The best way–the proven way–to winterproof palm trees, which thrive in warm to hot weather, is to start off right and plant one of the palms that are also hardy–one that has built-in DNA resistance to winter chill. And you may be surprised at how many palm trees fit this requirement.

Mediterranean Fan palm for identification purposes
This Mediterranean Fan Palm (Chamerops humilis) in Las Vegas is shrub-like – not tall and stately.

Let’s start with my London friend’s palm tree which she was told by her local garden center was a “New Zealand palm”. I recognized immediately that New Zealand had nothing to do with it. Her palm was and is a sturdy, hardy multi-trunk Mediterranean Fan Palm (Chamerops humilis).

Ideal for small gardens, this short shrub-like palm has survived brief cold spells down to zero F. (-18 C.) And “brief” is the important factor; their survival depends on daytime warming after a night of chill. It has been 14 years since she planted it in a sheltered corner and, growing slowly, it still survives, and recently has even bloomed and produced fruit.

The next on this list of chilly-weather survivors is the Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera), a native of the Middle East. It’s the tree you probably think of when someone says “palm tree”. Tall with long pinnate (rather than fan-like) fronds, this 75 foot high giant is very hardy. It has been known to survive and regrow after experiencing temperatures down to 5 F. (-16C.) Dates are, obviously, edible and the difficult-to-find Bahri dates are the very best. Unlike the chewy Medjool dates you buy in a store, Bahri dates are soft, delicious and taste like caramel.

Next is the Date Palm’s cousin, the Canary Island Palm, (Phoenix canariensis). While a few of these palms have reached a mature height of over 130 feet, that is uncommon. But they still are among the tallest palms. It will withstand temperatures to 20 F. (-7 C.) at least for a short time.  After a cold snap the fronds will turn brown and may very slowly regrow.

Tall palm trees native to the West

More common in gardens here in the West are two fan palm trees. The California and Mexican Fan Palms, (Washingtonia filifera and W. robusta), natives of Southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, are also rugged, surviving cold weather as low as 18 F. (-8 C.)

Trimming the “hula skirt” of dead fronds off these trees may make them look a bit more tidy but that “skirt” offers the palms some protection, some insulation from severe weather. The downside of not removing dead fronds is that Mother Nature may do it for you during our fierce Spring and Fall windstorms. And falling palm fronds are very dangerous. The thorns on these fan fronds are also hazardous.

Like the date palms, the Washingtonias can reach heights of 60 to 100 feet, making them not particularly suitable for residential gardens although we see them planted around homes everywhere. After a few years’ growth they are more like architectural columns in a yard than trees.

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Shorter palms for home gardens

A native of Mexico’s rocky Guadalupe Island, the Guadalupe Fan Palm (Brajea edulis) is a distinctive palm with a smooth grayish-brown trunk and silvery fronds. It grows about a foot a year to a mature height of only 25 feet tall, ideal for a residential garden. It flowers in summer from long drooping stems and the blooms are fragrant. Because it is a native to a small island with variable weather conditions, it tolerates heat, wind and drought, and it is one of the hardier palms, to 18 degrees F. (-7.7 C)

Pindo Palm (Butia capitata) , a native of dry South American savannahs, is another short palm, growing only to 20 feet. In Florida where it is popular in home gardens, it is known as the Jelly palm because people make jelly with its fruit. It tolerates temps as low as 5°F (-15 C) In this photo a very young Pindo palm was planted at the same time as the Washingtonia behind it. They have very different growth rates.

Originally found in high altitudes in China, Japan, Myanmar and India, the Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) is a semi-dwarf palm with windmill-shaped fronds. Slow-growing to 15 feet tall, this tree loves our summer heat but will withstand winter temperatures of -10F (-23C).

My favorite fails the chill test

My favorite is the graceful Queen Palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana) a native of South America commonly planted in Southern California. It does not do well at all in cold weather. While I’ve seen it planted in hot dry Palm Springs, but with the weather uncertainty stemming from climate change, it may not survive there at all, except in a local micro-climate. Nearer the California coast, it grows beautifully and is ideal for home gardens.

And finally…

If a freeze comes and your palm tree ends up with browned fronds, do NOT remove it right away. Give it a few weeks or even a month or two of Springtime weather and it may very well produce green fronds again. And if you have to replace it in the end, choose one of the palms on this list.

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  1. Cover up that naked wall
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  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Where to get free or cheap trees for your Western garden

What NOT to plant for fire season

I have always loved what I call the “Tucson Gardening Style“. No broad swathes of grassy lawn browning in the sunshine. No water-guzzling attempts at English flower garden borders limp and dying in the heat. Just native plants left where they were growing before any house was built: prickly pear cacti squeezed side-by-side with creosote bushes and saguaros and agaves and chollas and mesquites. And most of the time these Sonoran desert natives grow right up to the side of the house.

But on June 5th, after the Bighorn wildfire burst into life north of Tucson, this native plant gardening style suddenly seemed less charming and more threatening.

At first the Bighorn fire was just billowing smoke high up in the Santa Catalina Mountains. By June 9 when I drove around northern Tucson to to take photos for another blog, I began to realize an inferno would result if this fire reached down into the upscale Catalina Foothills neighborhood which had only hours before been designated as a threatened evacuation zone.

As I took a few pictures I also realized that in California, where I used to live, the “Tucson Gardening Style” would bring the fire service knocking at the door armed with chain saws and big fines. The law in California is that there must be a 100 foot cleared open space around a home and it is aggressively enforced.

There is, however, such a live-and-let-live “Nobody’s going to tell me what to do” outlook by many Arizonans that it is unlikely that type of regulation would ever be passed here.

Okay, while I live in Arizona now I’m going to ignore local attitudes regarding plants because wildfires happen here and throughout the Western United States. Here are some recommendations about garden plantings to help prevent your home turning into an pile of burnt rubble from an urban or wild fire.

First, clear plants away from the sides of your home and other buildings. Don’t let any shrubs or trees touch or almost touch a building. If the plants catch fire — even if ignited by sparks from a neighbor’s BBQ instead of a wildfire–your home could burst into flames before you even notice it.

While many trees suitable for hot dry climates have oily leaves, the Australian-native Eucalyptus trees are among the worst. Sure, they smell so good, but they are 50 foot high torches just waiting for a little spark to light them. As much as they seem to be great trees for hot dry climates (fast growth, low water usage, lovely dappled shade), they are not. As witness: the massive fires racing through the Eucalyptus forests of Australia in recent years.

I have also seen palm trees burning as 50 foot high torches in Los Angeles during an urban fire, but while embers fell from the palms, they did not seems as potentially dangerous as a flaming eucalyptus with its branches whipping in the wind casting sparks all over the area.

For very a different reason don’t plant a Cottonwood, a major water-sucking plant. Again, it is a fast grower, but will guzzle every drop of water in the ground around it and deprive other plants of water, leaving them tinder-dry. Cottonwood roots will also invade your plumbing and septic systems.

One grass is on the Do Not Plant list:

Buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris L., or Pennisetum ciliare L.) is often called white fountain grass. An African native, it grows and blooms quickly, then dies back to leave dry, quick-burning fields waiting for a lightning strike to start burning. This grass, a threat to native plants including Arizona’s famous Saguaro cactus, has been mentioned as a key factor in the origin of the Bighorn fire. You can view a new webinar on the topic of buffelgrass damage to the Saguaro National Park .

Red Fountain grass does not spread wildly like White Fountain Grass. And it looks lovely when the wind blows.

Instead of Buffelgrass, consider Red fountain grass (Cordyline) which is less invasive and stays where it is planted. The much larger South American-native Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) will also stay where it is planted in a desert climate, but not if there is a pond or stream nearby. In that case it becomes invasive forcing out native plants.

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Now onto something more positive. While the evidence is anecdotal, a few homeowners have sworn that their huge water-logged agaves saved their homes during a wildfire. I’ve seen the photos and the agaves encircling the homes look as if they have melted, but the houses were spared. It’s important to note that there was a cleared space between the house and the agaves and beyond the agaves, too.

As for planting any trees or agaves, wait until fall. It is too hot now and there is a great risk that anything you plant will die of heat at this time of year no matter how much you water it. Don’t let the landscape guy tell you otherwise!

The Bighorn fire is still burning on June 19th, but because of a wind shift, it is moving northeast, away from Tucson proper. A photo of it taken yesterday is at the top of this post. According to reports over 3,000 Saguaros have already been destroyed, but–happy news–most of the wild animals in the fire path, including baby mountain goats, have escaped. And there has been no loss of homes or human life so far.

Here is what happens to an SUV when the Forest Service makes a Phos-Chek drop. It’s that red stuff fixed wing airplanes drop on the edges of fires.

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  1. Cover up that naked wall
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Potmen for a fun DIY addition to your garden
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Where to get free or cheap trees for your Western garden

Light and shine for your holiday garden

luminaria

Even if you decide not to deck out your home with strings of lights and other festive decorations this year, consider using luminaria on your porch, in windows or along a walkway during the holidays. To my eyes, homes with luminarias are so much more attractive than ones with dancing elves and soaring Santas. (Although children love the elf-and-santa version of decorations!)

Many garden stores now have ceramic or metal luminarias but they are easy to make at home:

1) fold down the tops of brown paper lunch bags you can buy at the grocery store as if making a cuff and
2) fill in the bottom of the now-shorter bag with a handful of sand or garden soil to anchor it, then
3) set a tea-light in the bottom center of your handmade luminaria and
4) light the tea-light. Voila–you’re done!

Garden Gifts

If you have a gardening friend and are looking around for a holiday gift idea, consider giving them a garden ornament. These three are definitely for the friend who has everything. The two glass ornaments are in the garden behind the Sonoran Glass School in Tucson and are available for sale. The desert tortoise is not for sale and permanently at home in the Arlington Garden in Pasadena.

turtle garden ornament

But these three can be inspiration. If you like the idea of glass in the garden but would like something more affordable, consider buying a tempered glass wind chime at your local holiday faire. And almost every good garden shop has animal ornaments for reasonable prices.

Winter Flower Blooms Again

amaryllis bloom

Looking ahead: when the amaryllis blooming in your home during the holiday season fades, plant the bulb outside in a very sheltered place and in about 14-16 months, the amaryllis will bloom again…and every year after that. I had one in my Mojave garden that bloomed and produced offset bulbs for over a decade! The offset bulbs, which I separated from the original bulb and replanted, in turn bloomed in Springtime, too. It was definitely a gift that kept on giving! Happy holidays to you!

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  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Where to get free or cheap trees for your Western garden

Look to South Africa for unusual off-season flowers

Our mild Autumn weather is almost a second Springtime, especially for gardeners who live at lower elevations in the desert with warm winters.  Plant pretty annuals like carpets in empty flower beds to replace any perennials that have died back. Take care not to disturb the roots of the perennials because they will be back next year.

Or fill pots on your patio to overflowing. At higher, cold-winter elevations it may be too late as the first winter storms have blanketed mountains with snow.

Should you dig up the flower bulbs?

While some people, particularly in the U.K. and New England, dig up their bulbs in Fall, in most of the U.S. southwest it is not necessary. But if you want to add flowers from bulbs, rhizomes and corms to your garden, now is the time to plant to assure yourself of Springtime flowers.

purple and white iris

Freesia and Iris are two of our favorites. Both require little water and no attention. The exception, however, are those re-blooming iris that flower in spring and fall which need heavy watering.

The incredibly fragrant Freesia dies back to the ground after blooming; the Iris keeps its leaves and provides an upright structural element in a garden border.

If you already have Iris, split and replant the rhizomes now for double the flowers next year. Do not plant them deep. Simply place them in a shallow trench and cover lightly–deep enough to protect from a freeze if you live in an area with occasional light freezes in winter.

About tulips: yes, you can plant the bulbs, but they really love a damper, milder climate — like the Netherlands or Seattle.

Flowers from South Africa

Gladiolus dalenii

You may be much better off planting bulbs native to South Africa, such as the freesia-like Tritonia or the Watsonia borbonica, which looks like a miniature gladiolus. The low-growing Babiana is a Sub-Sahara native also worth considering as an edging plant. It looks somewhat like a crocus and does well in a desert garden.

The Gladiolus (Gladiolus dalenii), above, a South African native, is a delicate variation on the large, sturdy upright “glads” of late summer. These bloom in Spring.

Salvia leucantha sage

One plant that is a joy for so many gardeners in California and the Southwest is the Mexican Bush Sage, Salvia leucantha ‘Midnight’ that blooms twice a year. Unlike re-blooming Iris, the Mexican Bush Sage is not a water guzzler. It naturally blooms in Spring and late Fall.  It is a super-tough plant with tall spires of purple or purple and white flowers that stay in bloom through December! One year I even clipped the flower stems and used them to decorate my Christmas tree. Tip: Cut it back to about 8 inches high in January and it will re-grow and bloom again in March.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!

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  1. Cover up that naked wall
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Potmen for a fun DIY addition to your garden
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Where to get free or cheap trees for your Western garden

Plant white this fall for nighttime viewing next summer

Fall is the best time to plant in hot dry gardens. The soil has now cooled enough that the roots of new, young plants won’t die from being enveloped by hot summer dirt. And summer dirt can be really hot: up to 140 degrees F (60 degrees celsius!) in direct sunlight. At that temperature the roots “cook” and if the roots get cooked, the plant dies. So do your planting now. Over winter, the roots will have plenty of time to toughen up and spread deep into the earth before the heat comes back next year.

Now I have a few suggestions for what to plant this Fall for a White Garden for nighttime enjoyment next summer.

A famous garden reinvented for the Southwest

First a little background: the White Garden was “invented” by author Vita-Sackville West when she designed a garden room at Sissinghurst Castle in the U.K. with plants that only produced white flowers. It was a radical idea for that time, the mid-20th Century. In fact, the White Garden vaulted her into fame as a garden designer and horticultural columnist for the London Observer. (She was already famous–maybe infamous–for her personal scandals and novels!)

So borrowing her idea–although not the plants she used in cool, damp Kent in southern England–here is a slide show with a few plants to use in a White Garden in the American Southwest.

  • White roses
  • White crape myrtle
  • White yarrow
  • Japanese Privet
  • Pittosporum- very fragrant

In addition to these white flowering plants you could also include dwarf White Oleander, White Jasmine Vine, white Iris, or Texas Wild Olive. Be careful with the Texas Wild Olive, Cordia Broissiere, because the seeds are slightly toxic to humans. Birds, however, love them. Also take care with the Oleander, all parts of it are poisonous.

Plants with variegated or silver leaves can also add luminousness and be reflective in a nighttime garden.

  • Variegated Turf Lily
  • Artemesia Powis Castle

Even if you are not interested in a white garden room, adding white blooming plants to an otherwise color-filled or all-green garden brings a spark of interest and contrast to the other plants.

Full Disclosure: I have visited Sissinghurst Castle to see Vita Sackville-West’s garden rooms. The book she wrote about her gardening ideas, “Sissinghurst” is available on Amazon. Someone, not VSW who passed away in 1962, is posting on Twitter using the handle @thegardenvsw. Also posting on BlueSky. The tweets, taken from her writings and accompanied by photos, are always very interesting.

A reminder for Fall: be sure to add organic mulch around plants in your garden and, if possible, dig it in without disturbing the roots. Also avoid using mulch that has peat in it. From what I read from U.K. gardeners peat retains carbon which helps slow climate change. Better for all of us for the peat to remain buried in bogs rather than scattered around our gardens.

Visit my author’s site to see books I’ve published.
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Read our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Cover up that naked wall
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Potmen for a fun DIY addition to your garden
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Where to get free or cheap trees for your Western garden

The bee-friendly Tucson Botanical Garden

The Tucson Botanical Garden has become very bee friendly. Yes, of course there are still displays of cacti and other desert plants as well as their famous ramadas and winding shady paths. Their efforts to support bees, however, are non-traditional for a Botanical Garden and should be applauded. And, in my opinion, should be emulated by other public gardens!

Here are some of the efforts they are making:

solitary bee homes Tucson Botanical Garden

Above, what appear to be tall, whimsical garden ornaments are actually homes for solitary bees–the kind of bees that do not live in hives and do not produce honey–but pollinate flowers and fruits and vegetables nonetheless. These bees are non-aggressive because they do not have hives or honey to protect.

As you can see these homes are holes drilled into the wood. It is something so simple almost any gardener could do it. Or you can purchase an economical bee home online and easily hang it up on any branch in your garden.

What to do about honey bees

Bee trap in tree Tucson Botanical Garden

Working in conjunction with a local Tucson beekeeper, this box up in the tree is a bee trap — not a bee house. When a swarm of honey bees has entered the box, the beekeeper comes and removes it to transfer the bees to his apiary because honey bees can become aggressive. The bee trap in the tree is then replaced with an empty one.

flowers to attract bees at Tucson Botanical Garden

The Tucson Botanical Garden is noted for its shade-producing ramadas in several designs. Beside this one is a bed of flowers to help provide food for bees. Not to mention the flowers are visually appealing.

Mediterranean herb garden Tucson Botsnical Garden

One of my favorite places in the garden is the Mediterranean herb garden under its blue pergola. It was one of the first gardens created in 1964 by the plant collector Harrison Yocum who founded the Tucson Botanical Garden at his home. Since then the garden has been expanded with purchases of neighboring properties.

And here are some other photos of the garden, including the docent who gave me a private tour. Thank you, Carolyn.

colorful ramadas at Tucson Botanical garden

As I was leaving I discovered this amazing decorative wall by a local Tucson artist. No bees that I could spy but there are hummingbirds, red peppers, butterflies and magical angels. If anyone knows the name of the artist, please let me know.

Decorative wall Tucaon Botanical Garden

Just a reminder. Until the daily high temperature falls below 90 F (32 Celsius) the only thing your garden plants need is regular watering. It’s inadvisable to fertilize or transplant during hot summer months.

Where to get a free or cheap tree for your home.

Read our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Cover up that naked wall
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Potmen for a fun DIY addition to your garden
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Where to get free or cheap trees for your Western garden

Gardens walled in by color in historic old Tucson

By midsummer most of the plants in hot, dry gardens–with the exceptions of Lantana and Mexican Bird of Paradise–are muted desert green.  Desert style gardens simply look drab and dull  at this time of year. The plants are in survival mode until Fall.

xicn Bird of ParadiseMy first plan for this post was to focus on those two plants which bloom in full force in summer. It turns out that the Mexican Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia mexicana or C. pulcherrima. ) is also known as the Pride of Barbados and Poinciana. And while it flowers in sunset colors, left, one variety has only yellow blooms. And as for Lantana, a least here in Tucson, these popular plants need some shade during the day or they will rush to bloom and make seeds.

But as I was driving around historic old Tucson neighborhoods looking for good examples of Mexican Bird of Paradise to photograph, I noticed that so many gardens were  filled with color. But not from plants.  Homeowners had taken an adventurous route with painted walls — both on their homes’ exteriors and the garden walls that surround them. The green colors of plants had almost become accents.

Yes, we all know that painting walls and homes can be quite expensive, but the colors can be inspiring. And, once painted, the colors last for decades.  No watering, no fertilizing, no replacing sick or dying plants required.

Here are a few of those colorful walls and homes.

multi color home
Why settle for one or two  when you can paint each wall a different color? Variations on this  shade of green seem to be growing in popularity. The terra cotta wall and beige are more traditonal–but not when used this way!

blue stucco garden wall
Blue garden wall with a pink painted house is a color combination I saw more than once. I wonder if the lights wrapped around the tree trunks are turned on regularly or only during the winter holiday season.

pink garden walls
There is a kind of subtle minimalism about the pale pink walls with just a few plants. The home behind the walls is a slightly darker shade of pink.

golden stucco garden wzll
The palm trees leaning over this golden garden wall are laced with bougainvilla blooms–a very clever idea while the palms are not too tall.

orange color stucco wall
Nothing shy about this chocolate brown painted home with vibrant orange trim and a matching wall. The desert plants in front of the wall seem to be accents now, but the agaves and barrel cactus will grow quite large in time.

green color house Tucson
While green is making a comeback as an exterior color, this all green home is really over the top. Maybe a subtler shade of green? Maybe tempering the green with an accent color? It is certainly non-traditional for a stucco home.

working after retirement ebook and paperback

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  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Where to get free or cheap trees for your Western garden

Crepe myrtle, the blooming belle of the South, needs help in a dry climate

On my continuing travels through Louisiana, I have noticed that few homes have anything that resembles a garden with shrubs and flowering plants artfully arranged.  The more common gardening feature is the lawn, a large mowed green area around the home.  Upon taking a closer look, I realized that many “lawns” are simply native grasses and other low growing plants sheared to slightly above ground level.  It is an act of self-defense. Extremely fast-growing native shrubs and trees take over every space that is not regularly cut back in this hot, damp climate.

Crepe myrtle trees Opelousas Louisiana
A garden has been planted around the Oplousas Louisiana courthouse including purple and pink Crepe myrtles.

The exception to this emphasis on lawns, are the Crepe myrtle trees (Lagerstroemia indica) planted by homeowners. They are ubiquitous.

These natives of southern China were introduced into Charleston, South Carolina by plant explorer and botanist to King Louis XVI, André Michaux, in the mid 1700s.  The name is sometimes spelled Crape myrtle, but Crepe myrtle now seems preferred.  Whatever the spelling, they took the South like wildfire.  People loved them.

hot pink crepe myrtle flowers
This hot pink color seems to be the most popular Crepe myrtle. It is a bright contrast to the green of the South and the brown of the southwest.

And Crepe myrtles loved the heat, lots of sunlight and the slightly acidic soil.

Some newer hybrids have been developed to tolerate chillier winter conditions, including frost.  And–surprisingly–they are somewhat drought tolerant.

Correcting alkaline soil conditions

It’s that “acidic soil” part that is an issue in a hot, dry climate. Most of the soils in the desert Southwest are alkaline, but alkaline soils can be corrected to a soil condition that Crepe myrtles love in two ways:

  • Add 4 to 6 inches of organic mulch and dig it in to a depth of one foot. Within a year or two the soil will become more neutral.  Mulch should be added every year.
  • Add sulphur to the soil and dig it in which will also balance the pH.  While this maybe a faster way to rebalance soil, be very careful with this because too much sulphur can be harmful.

And be sure to deep water your Crepe myrtle tree at least once a month in summer. Drought tolerant doesn’t mean “no-water-required.”

Here are some Crepe myrtles I’ve admired in Louisiana:
plant explorer and botanist to King Louis XVI André Michaux ink and hot pink crepe myrtles
Two colors of Crepe myrtles planted together. The neighbor, behind, planted a white one which is now at least 25 feet tall.
row of crape myrtle trees
These Crepe myrtles have been carefully pruned to allow an open area beneath them on the University of Louisiana campus. Their broad growth is a characteristic of the hybrid. Some hybrids grow tall and narrow, some broad, and there are dwarf hybrids that are perfect for hedges.
White crepe myrtle tree Lafayette Louisiana
White Crepe myrtle trees are less common than the various shades of pink and purple. This one was ladened with white flowers. This home actually has a small garden planted around it!

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  1. Cover up that naked wall
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Potmen for a fun DIY addition to your garden
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Where to get free or cheap trees for your Western garden

Be a superhero! Plant flowers and save the world’s food supply

Okay.  Maybe that headline is a bit extreme…but it is not that far off.  Here’s why.

As we all have heard, bees seem to be vanishing all over the planet. And without them to pollinate edible plants–whether tomatoes in Pasadena or romaine in Yuma or pecans in the San Pedro river valley–we humans may be in trouble and face food shortages.

And it turns out that flowers can be part of the solution.

Red and Yellow cherry tomatoes Hot Gardens

At a recent gardening event in Los Angeles a speaker recommended planting annual flowers between tomato plants to encourage more bees to pollinate the tomatoes while they are seeking nectar from the larger, flashier annual flowers. It helps keep the bees well fed and the bee colony thriving. Tomato plants will produce more abundantly, too.

“Wait a minute”, you say. “There are no commercial growers near me and I’m not growing vegetables in my backyard. Why should I encourage bees?”

The answer is that you can become part of a larger effort to sustain genetic diversity all over the planet.  That’s where the Gardener-Superhero role comes in.

As I look at many desert style gardens filled with agaves and other rarely flowering plants I realized that our new water-wise gardens are creating starvation conditions for our friends the bees. Not enough variety, not enough flowers blooming for not a long enough time.  Worse yet, in many desert areas, the native plants that could provide nectar to bees are being removed to make way for houses and roads.

It is, however, not necessary to plant water-guzzling plants to have bee-friendly flowers in a hot, dry garden.  Here are some that will thrive and  produce flowers over a long period without running up your water bill.

Lantana ground cover mixed colors
The low-growing Lantana (Lantana montevidensis) comes in many colors these days.

Low-growing Lantana (Lantana montevidensis)  is one of the best and most readily available flowering plants for hot, dry gardens. Bees and butterflies love it! It blooms for as long as 9 or 10 months out of the year and because it is a perennial, rather than an annual, you will not have to replace it every year. Be aware that the purple and white varieties bloom for a much shorter time than the gold, yellow or varigated Lantanas. Upkeep is easy: in mid-winter cut the low-growing branches back to a foot or so in length.

Instead of the low-growing lantana, however, consider planting Lantana camera.  It grows to 6 feet tall and makes a very colorful, bee-friendly hedge. A light mid-winter trimming is all the maintenance needed.

Next, Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis) attracts bees like a magnet and can provide a delicious herb for your table. Plant several about 2 feet apart to create a rosemary hedge or simply put one plant outside near your back door to clip and use the aromatic leaves in bread or for baking chicken.

Lavender (Lavendula) is another tasty and aromatic herb that bees love as much as humans do.  I prefer French lavender to the English or Spanish varieties, but I have to confess that I have not had much success keeping lavender plants alive from year to year. I simply replant annually.

And finally: annual sunflowers.  If you plant the seeds over a period of a couple of weeks, you will have a longer blooming period for the bees to harvest the nectar. Then later, birds will come to harvest the seeds. You can harvest them, too, and then toast the seeds in your oven for a tasty snack.

So get out your garden gloves and think of them as the red superhero cape for gardeners.

Where to get a free or cheap tree for your home.

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What’s this? A pig topiary? With succulents?

topiary pig with succulents
A moss topiary pig wearing succulents.

On a trip to Southern California last week I wandered into Brita’s Garden Center which is 3 blocks from the ocean in Seal Beach.  And there in the back of the center was a pig topiary about 3 feet long.  Someone had built a framework of chicken wire/hardware wire and added plenty  of moss.  Next, came the succulents in a variety of colors and shapes. I am sure they were drawing the moisture they need from the damp moss.

curly pig tail on topiary pig
This little pig even has a curly black tail.

This is a clever idea for a garden ornament, although in a hot dry garden these tender succulents may shrivel up when the summer heat begins to build!

I also made a trip recently to Phoenix and will be reporting about my observations at the Desert Botanical Garden shortly.

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Read our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Cover up that naked wall
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Potmen for a fun DIY addition to your garden
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  7. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat
  8. Where to get free or cheap trees for your Western garden