Brown and Crispy OR Nice and Green….Part 2

Well, after the rather ugly photos of brown and crispy plants that I showed you in my previous post, I am excited to show you the plants that did very well during our severe cold spell when temperatures dipped into the 20’s for 4 nights in a row.

Some are getting ready for the springtime show of flowers like my Pink Globe Mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua ‘Pink’).

My Valentine shrubs (Eremophila maculata ‘Valentine’) are getting ready for their big show of flowers in February….

One of my favorite, underused perennials is my Paperflower (Psilotrophe cooperi).

You can see why it got it’s common name of Paperflower, because the spent flowers have a papery texture and appearance.

My Firecracker Penstemon (Penstemon eatonii) only has a single blooming stalk, but will soon be covered in flowers.

All of these plants did well and I am looking forward to more flowers soon.

There are many other plants that also fared quite well throughout the cold.

I love the purple and green foliage of my newly planted Purple Hopbush (Dodonaea viscosa ‘Purpurea’).  I can’t wait for it to grow tall so that it covers a rather bare expanse of wall.

I drove through my neighborhood to see what other plants did well in our cold snap.

This ‘Green Cloud’ Texas Sage has not at all been affected by the cold.  During the winter months, most Leucophyllum species lose some of their leaves, leading to a somewhat sparse appearance, but this is normal.

Okay, now don’t laugh at the next photo….

Believe it or not, styrofoam cups offer some frost protection to the tips of columnar cacti.  This is important, because this is the growing point of many cacti species.

I call the house above, the ‘cactus house’ because they have so many different types of cacti in their front garden.  Most cacti did very well during the cold snap.

Other ‘nice and green’ plants not pictured:

‘Summertime Blue’ and ‘Pink Beauty’ Eremophilas

Feathery Cassia (Senna artemisoides) & other Senna species

Roses

Queen, Pygmy, California and Mexican Fan Palms

Purple Lilac Vine (Hardenbergia violaceae)

Desert Spoon (Dasylirion wheeleri)

Juniper

and

Rosemary

……just to name a few that I observed.

It is important to note that there will be some exceptions, even in neighborhoods close to mine.  Although I am less then an hour away from downtown Phoenix, my temperatures are lower and my garden receives more rainfall.  Gardeners in Phoenix saw less frost damage then those in outlying areas.

So what should you do if your garden is full of ‘brown and crispy’ plants?

I will ‘talk’ about that in my next post 🙂

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."