May has arrived, and you may notice that your container plants aren’t looking to hot right now. Petunias, pansies and snapdragons usually start to dry out and droop as the weather approaches the century mark.
It is time to switch out your winter flowering annuals for those that can handle our summer sun and heat.
This is always somewhat bittersweet for me. I do not like tearing out beautiful flowers. They have performed so beautifully for me since last October.
Container plants
But the truth is, is that if I don’t pull them out, the heat will finish them off sooner or later. Also, it is helpful to plant summer flowers before the heat arrives so that they can have time to establish before dealing with the stress of summer temperatures.
And so for those reasons, I gritted my teeth and began pulling.
Container plants
Now, I am ready to start with a clean slate or should I say, clean soil.
Now, not all of the following photos are particularly beautiful, but are helpful in illustrating how I planted my new summer flowers, which will look great soon.
Now, I couldn’t find my small hand spade this morning, which is probably a result of having four children still living at home. I am sure one of them knows where it is, but they were at school and so I improvised.
Okay, I realize that those of you who have had the opportunity to come over and eat at my house may never do so again after seeing me use my large serving spoon. But, it really worked out ideally and I put it in the dishwasher afterwards 😉
First, I dug up the top 6 inches of soil, taking care to remove large clumps of roots.
**I warned you that some of the pictures were not going to be particularly pretty….
The next step was to add 6 inches of compost and mix it in with the existing soil. Unfortunately, I do not have my own compost pile, so I used bagged compost available at my local nursery. The brand is not important, just use what your nursery has in stock.
I made a single hole for my new plant, which is 1-gallon in size, instead of the smaller sizes – I’ll explain more about that later. I made sure that I did not add too much soil, because I do not want to deal with soil overflowing whenever I water.
The area my pots are located in faces west and receives afternoon sun in the afternoon. As a result, I need to use a plant that can withstand the intense sun and heat of summer. From my experience around golf courses and commercial landscapes, Lantana and Vinca do best.
Last year, I planted Vinca and so this year, I will use Lantana. Since it is not always easy to find Lantana in a small size, I just purchased a single 1-gallon Lantana for each container.
Now, I must admit that the picture on the plant tag, does not exactly match the flowers. But, they have not opened up completely, so we will see what they look like.
Okay, I admit that it does not look too impressive right now. You may be asking why I am not adding any more to the pot? Well, first of all, my tastes are somewhat simple. But, the major reason is that the Lantana will grow rapidly and cover the bare areas very quickly.
Soon, it will hopefully look like this one….
The last and maybe best reason that I love to use Lantana in containers is that when I dig them up in the fall, (in order to plant winter/spring flowers), is that I can plant the Lantana in my garden and enjoy them year-round.
What summer flowers are you planting in your containers?
Flowers for Summer? Not So Fast…..
Out With The Old and In With The New….
ArizonaMay has arrived, and you may notice that your container plants aren’t looking to hot right now. Petunias, pansies and snapdragons usually start to dry out and droop as the weather approaches the century mark.
It is time to switch out your winter flowering annuals for those that can handle our summer sun and heat.
This is always somewhat bittersweet for me. I do not like tearing out beautiful flowers. They have performed so beautifully for me since last October.
Container plants
But the truth is, is that if I don’t pull them out, the heat will finish them off sooner or later. Also, it is helpful to plant summer flowers before the heat arrives so that they can have time to establish before dealing with the stress of summer temperatures.
And so for those reasons, I gritted my teeth and began pulling.
Container plants
Now, I am ready to start with a clean slate or should I say, clean soil.
Now, not all of the following photos are particularly beautiful, but are helpful in illustrating how I planted my new summer flowers, which will look great soon.
Now, I couldn’t find my small hand spade this morning, which is probably a result of having four children still living at home. I am sure one of them knows where it is, but they were at school and so I improvised.
Okay, I realize that those of you who have had the opportunity to come over and eat at my house may never do so again after seeing me use my large serving spoon. But, it really worked out ideally and I put it in the dishwasher afterwards 😉
First, I dug up the top 6 inches of soil, taking care to remove large clumps of roots.
**I warned you that some of the pictures were not going to be particularly pretty….
The next step was to add 6 inches of compost and mix it in with the existing soil. Unfortunately, I do not have my own compost pile, so I used bagged compost available at my local nursery. The brand is not important, just use what your nursery has in stock.
I made a single hole for my new plant, which is 1-gallon in size, instead of the smaller sizes – I’ll explain more about that later. I made sure that I did not add too much soil, because I do not want to deal with soil overflowing whenever I water.
The area my pots are located in faces west and receives afternoon sun in the afternoon. As a result, I need to use a plant that can withstand the intense sun and heat of summer. From my experience around golf courses and commercial landscapes, Lantana and Vinca do best.
Last year, I planted Vinca and so this year, I will use Lantana. Since it is not always easy to find Lantana in a small size, I just purchased a single 1-gallon Lantana for each container.
Now, I must admit that the picture on the plant tag, does not exactly match the flowers. But, they have not opened up completely, so we will see what they look like.
Okay, I admit that it does not look too impressive right now. You may be asking why I am not adding any more to the pot? Well, first of all, my tastes are somewhat simple. But, the major reason is that the Lantana will grow rapidly and cover the bare areas very quickly.
Soon, it will hopefully look like this one….
The last and maybe best reason that I love to use Lantana in containers is that when I dig them up in the fall, (in order to plant winter/spring flowers), is that I can plant the Lantana in my garden and enjoy them year-round.
What summer flowers are you planting in your containers?
Flowers for Summer? Not So Fast…..
Beauty Emerges….
az plant lady familyWell, as I mentioned in my last post, the butterflies have emerged from their chrysalis. We have been raising caterpillars that came with a butterfly raising kit which was a Christmas gift for my daughter. You can read about the caterpillars growth here and their moving day here once they formed their chrysalis.
The caterpillars formed their chrysalis last Tuesday and we put them inside of their butterfly enclosure. We hung the enclosure on a tree in the back garden. I did have to bring it inside for a couple of nights when the temperatures dipped below 55 degrees.
Well, Saturday morning dawned and it was a beautiful day. I was happy because I got to sleep in a little bit. As soon as I woke up, I went to take the butterfly enclosure back outside when I noticed 3 butterflies fluttering about inside of the cage.
To say that I was EXCITED is an understatement! I ran to get my kids to show them. **The reason you don’t see me in any of the photos is because I still had my pajamas on 😉
We just sat there watching them and wondering when the others would emerge. We didn’t have to wait long….
You could see the chrysalis begin to wiggle a bit and then the end would bulge out and the butterfly would emerge very quickly….seriously it took about 10 seconds. The wings were wrinkled at first and it took about a half hour for them to fold out completely. **The red stain is baby butterfly excrement (poop).
Then a minute later, another one began to emerge….
We were beside ourselves with excitement, especially the kids.
I decided to get some pictures close up and opened up the enclosure so that I could fit my camera lens inside. I just prayed that I did not have any butterflies relieve themselves on the lens (my husband would not be too happy about that – it is his camera).
The butterflies are called “Painted Lady” and they emerged within a 3 hour period, except for one.
We prepared food for the butterflies as directed by the manufacturers of the butterfly kit. It was a mixture of sugar and water. An eye-dropper was included for easy application.
Applying the sugar water to flowers was recommended, so I used Lantana, which is very popular with butterflies.
Almost right away, some butterflies made their way to the flowers and began to taste the sugar water.
Their tongues are amazing. They actually work like a straw. You can see the black tongue above and it actually curls up.
The butterflies only live for 10 days. So, our plan is to observe them for 3 days and then let them go so that they can pollinate flowers and reproduce.
Who knew that butterflies could be so interesting?
**Our last installment will be in a couple of days when we release the butterflies out into the wild. There is also a story about the 10th butterfly who had to be helped out of his damaged chrysalis.
Pretty In Pink…..With A Hidden Secret
AZ Plant LadyMexican Evening Primrose (Oenothera berlanderi syn. Oenothera speciosa)
Aren’t these flowers just lovely?
I do love pink flowers.
Our local big box nursery had quite a few of these on display over the weekend.
Mexican Evening Primrose is a groundcover the produces beautiful pink flowers in the spring. They are drought tolerant and hardy to Zone 5 through 9. They do not require fertilizer and thrive on neglect.
Now you may be wondering what secret it is harboring. Surely a plant with such beautiful flowers cannot have anything to hide, can it?
Well, I discovered it’s secret years ago as a new homeowner. I was in heaven over having my own garden for the first time. I discovered these pretty plants at my local nursery and brought some home and planted them in a raised planting bed.
They grew very well and although they were fairly boring when not in bloom, they more then made up for it in the spring when they were covered with pink flowers.
BUT, one year after I planted them, I began to notice them coming up in my lawn, adjoining beds and the cracks in the driveway. It was then that I found out that they could be invasive. They spread by stolons and by seed. **It was experiences like this one that I had as a new gardener that motivated me to obtain my degree in horticulture. However, I am still learning as I go along and just when I think I know all about a particular plant – one will surprise me by doing something different 😉
Now, I am not saying not to ever use Mexican Evening Primrose in the landscape. They do have a place in the landscape. For example, they do very well along dry hillsides and other areas where their growth can be contained in a particular area.
What I do recommend, is to research a plant before you decide to put in your garden. Mexican Evening Primrose can be invasive in a residential garden, but can be the answer to a difficult, bare hillside. This goes to prove that just because a plant has a “pretty face”, doesn’t mean that it is delicate.
**Butterfly Update: Guess What?!! The butterflies emerged for their chrysalis. I will post about them soon!
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Beautiful Flowers and New Seeds
A Gathering of Bees
AZ Plant LadyThe other day, I was on my way to the store when I saw something in the distance in our local park that was out of the ordinary. I was pretty sure that I knew what it was as I had seen this before and so, I drove nearer.
Can you see it? There is a large mass on the right side of a newly planted Desert Willow tree.
Once I got closer and realized that my guess was right, I turned around and drove home to get my trusty camera.
Swarm of bees
What this is, is a swarm of bees that had stopped to rest in this tree.
Swarming is actually a fascinating phenomenon. Usually the old queen of a bee colony, lays special eggs to create a new queen. Then the old queen leaves with a bunch of her worker bees to form a new colony elsewhere.
They usually stop along the way for a day or two, which is what happened here. While they rest, scout bees are sent out to find a new place to build a new colony. This is a very vulnerable time for the bees as they are unprotected. The queen is in the center of the mass of bees for better protection.
I had to play a bit with the lighting of this photo so that you could see the bees. I stayed in my car and took this photo.
Swarming usually occurs during a 2 – 3 week period in spring. You do not have to do anything if you see a swarm, but stay away. The bees will usually leave in a day or two. If they are in a dangerous location, you can call in a bee-keeper who will take them somewhere else and release them. You can read more about swarming here.
**By the way, did you know that beekeepers clip the wings of the queen bees to keep them from leaving their hives? I think that is just so interesting, although I wouldn’t want to do it.
Although I had observed bees doing this before, I was so happy to have witnessed this fascinating behavior of bees again AND to have had my camera handy.
Moving Day for Caterpillars….
az plant lady family, Gardening With KidsI am sure that many of you have been on the edge of your seats for the next installment of my youngest daughter’s butterfly raising adventures 😉 In case you missed it, you can read the first installment here.
We have been waiting for the caterpillars to form their chrysalis so that we could take them out of their containers and transfer them to their new butterfly enclosure.
The caterpillars attached themselves to the underside of the lids and formed a chrysalis. And so, the next step was to carefully take the lids off and take the caterpillars (chrysalis) out.
To be honest, I was a little nervous about this part. I didn’t want to accidentally dislodge any of the chrysalis from the undersides of the container lids.
At this point, one of the caterpillars within the chrysalis began wiggling madly about. Now, I usually pride myself on not being squeamish around bugs, but the wiggling kind of grossed me out a bit.
The next step was to pin the lids to the lower sides of the butterfly enclosure.
*You may notice that the enclosure comes with its own beautiful silk flowers, something that I try to stay from….I like real flowers best 😉
The last step was to hang the butterfly enclosure outdoors and wait for the new butterflies to emerge in a few days.
We can hardly wait….
Leaving the Wardrobe….C.S. Lewis
AZ Plant LadyI have always been an avid of reader of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia books and was fortunate to have been able to visit his home and gardens in Oxford, where he wrote all of his books. I shared my visit in an earlier post, which you can read here.
Rosie, of LeavesnBloom recently wrote two wonderful posts about Lewis’ earlier life in Northern Ireland and the landscape where he received much of his inspiration of the land of Narnia. You can read her last post here.
And so in closing, I would like to share with you my visit to one of Lewis’ favorite pubs, his church and his final resting place.
First on our list is a visit to the Trout Inn, which is located just outside of Oxford. In this pub, C.S. Lewis would frequently meet with his friend J.R.R. Tolkein (Lord of the Rings author).
As we approached the inn, we were greeted by it’s resident doorman or should I say bird….
The Trout Inn is a wonderful place to visit and eat. The food is delicious. Once inside, you can almost envision the two scholars (Lewis and Tolkein) sharing ideas over a couple of pints of ale.
After our visit to the inn, we went to see his church and grave.
This is Holy Trinity Church, where Lewis worshiped for over 30 years.
Inside the church, you can see the pew where Lewis would sit every Sunday as it is marked with a plaque.
One of the windows of the church, plays tribute to the characters of Narnia.
Who can you identify in the windows?
I see Mr. Beaver, a dwarf, Peter’s shield, Aslan, Digory and Polly on the flying horse Fledge, the mountains of Narnia, Susan’s horn and much more.
We then stepped outside into the church graveyard.
Here is the final resting place of C.S. Lewis, who passed away November 22, 1963.
What a legacy he has left behind for us all to enjoy. I remember reading “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” for the first time as a 7 year old. Then as an adult, I enjoyed reading his stories to my oldest daughters.
I now get to read them to my youngest children 🙂
Flowers Raining Down….
AZ Plant LadyThis is my favorite time of year in the garden. You may be saying, of course it is….it is spring after all. Isn’t that everybody’s favorite time? Well, there is another reason. This time of year I cannot go outside without coming back inside with a yellow flower or two in my hair.
Desert Museum Palo Verde (Parkinsonia hybrid ‘Desert Museum’)
All three of my Palo Verde trees are blooming. Each one is covered in yellow blossoms. Actually some of the branches are hanging quite low due to the weight of the flowers. My Palo Verde tree above, is about 4 years old and will eventually grow to be about 30 ft. tall and wide.
‘Desert Museum’ Palo Verde flowers
Palo Verde trees are the iconic trees of the desert southwest. The word “Palo Verde” is Spanish for “Green Stick”, which aptly describes their green trunks.
In times of extreme drought, they drop their leaves to avoid losing excess moisture and they will continue to photosynthesize through their green trunks. What a great survival mechanism, don’t you think?
There are quite a few different types of Palo Verde trees. My favorite is a hybrid that was found growing in the Tucson desert near the Sonoran Desert Musuem. Appropriately, it is called ‘Desert Museum’ Palo Verde.
It grow very quickly, is thornless, produces yellow flowers somewhat larger then their cousins and is quite low-maintenance.
Blue Palo Verde (Parkinsonia floridium)
Blue Palo Verde trees are also quite beautiful and an asset in the landscape. Their bark has more of a gray-green color and is a slower growing Palo Verde.
Palo Verde trees flower in the spring and mine sometimes flower a little in the fall, although that is not always dependable.
Palo Brea (Parkinsona praecox)
Another type of Palo Verde is the Palo Brea tree. Their trunk is bluish green in color. They do have thorns and must be pruned often to keep their branches from growing downwards. But, they are absolutely lovely in the landscape.
Foothills Palo Verde (Parkinsonia microphylla)
Last, but not least, are the Foothills Palo Verde, which grow very slowly, but have beautiful branch architecture. This is the type of Palo Verde that you will find growing out in the desert most often.
Yellow flower
Lately, every time I come back inside from the garden, I find a flower or two that has fallen into my hair.
Did I mention that I love this time of year?
A Surprise From My Daughter….
az plant lady familyMy youngest daughter received something very interesting in the mail earlier this week and she wanted me to share it with you.
Butterfly kit
Can you tell what it is? You may have to enlarge the photo.
Caterpillars!
Okay, I admit that they look a little gross. There are 5 caterpillars in each container.
Why get caterpillars in the mail you may ask?
Well, my daughter received the following kit for Christmas….
I found this butterfly kit at Costco for about $15 and just had to buy it for her. She has been waiting patiently until spring temperatures arrived so that she could start raising her own butterflies.
There is a coupon inside that you send in to receive 10 caterpillars in the mail to get started. She was so excited to open the box when it arrived in the mail.
According to the directions, the caterpillars eat the food on the bottom of the container and grow big, VERY quickly.
In just two days, they were larger (compare with first photo above).
We keep the caterpillars indoors and the first thing every morning, the kids have to check to see how much bigger they have become.
Yesterday, some of them were already hanging from the underside of the lid and this morning they all were. This means that they are ready to form their chrysalis.
Once they have all formed their chrysalis, we can then transfer the lids to the butterfly habitat. It should be a couple of days before we do this.
My kids are not the only ones interested in the caterpillars…..so is our cat. We did have a little incident when the cat knocked one of the containers to the floor but, all the caterpillars survived.
We will keep you updated….hopefully we will be able to move them to their new enclosure in a couple of days.
Have a great weekend!
We are off to our son-in-law’s birthday party 🙂
Beauty Emerges….
A Farm, Flowers and a Restaurant in the Midst of Suburbia
AZ Plant LadyImagine a family farm where crops had been grown for years in their fields. Then a developer comes in and buys the property in order to build houses on it. Many of us have seen this happen often where we live. A farmer sells his fields and new homes or a parking lot with stores rapidly pop up afterward. Well, this is not exactly what happened in this case. The family who owned this farmland decided to tweak things a bit.
Now, there was a subdivision that was built on their land, aptly named “Agritopia”. But 12 acres of land was reserved for the creation of an urban farm. There is a grove of olive trees and an orchard with citrus, apples, peaches, plums, apricots and blackberries. Another area of the farm is a large field where vegetables, herbs and flowers are grown.
In addition, the family’s original home was converted into a restaurant with beautiful surrounding gardens that are open for all to enjoy.
My first stop was to go and see the community organic farm, which grows food for the restaurant and the residents of the surrounding homes can grow their own plot of vegetables, flowers and herbs here as well.
Being the flower lover that I am, my attention was first captured by the beautiful flowers that were blooming among the vegetables. The flowers attract bees to help pollinate the crops.
As a new vegetable gardener myself, I was excited to see what they had growing and so I tore myself away from the flowers and stated to explore the beautiful vegetables that were growing.
Aren’t the artichoke heads beautiful?
Many of their vegetables and fruit are available for sale at The Farm Stand.
As I finished my walk through the vegetable gardens, I decided to look closely at a crop that does grow in Arizona, that may surprise some of you. It certainly surprised me when I first moved here 24 years ago.
Can you tell what this is?
Did you guess yet? They are grapevines. I love how the grapevines line both sides of the pathway.
At this point, I could smell some delicious food in the air and so I turned my attention across the street where the restaurant is located.
As you can see, it is actually an old home that has been converted into a restaurant.
Diners are invited to eat at any of the picnic tables under the shade of the trees.
In front of the main entry to the restaurant, were two absolutely huge Tamarisk trees.
The trees are so tall as you can see and easily dwarf the diners and the restaurant.
I then took a short walk through the gardens, and came up upon the coffee shop.
I particularly like to visit this coffee shop because the eating area is surrounded by roses – my absolutely favorite flower.
The fragrance of the roses was intoxicating.
If you look carefully, you may find one of the hidden ‘rooms’ in the garden where you can sit and enjoy your coffee.
The smell of delicious food was in the air and I was hungry, but had no time to stop for lunch. I will never make that mistake again….note to self, when visiting a restaurant’s gardens, make sure to have time to stop for lunch.
On my way out, I saw the beautiful flowers of the Passion Vine and the colorful snapdragons in the distance.
Okay, seriously, I am not getting paid to promote Joe’s Farm and Grill 🙂 But, it is a great place to visit to sit and relax, enjoy good food, kids are free to run around, the gardens are beautiful and the farm is an educational experience as well.
It is one of my favorite places to visit.
**There are still 5 days left to participate in April’s MGB (Monthly Garden Bouquet). I’d love to see your garden bouquets.
April’s MGB – Monthly Garden Bouquet
azplantladyMy April bouquet is a humble one, but special to me because it is my last tribute to spring. By this time next month, my garden will be full of summer blooms.
My purple Violas had been blooming for me since October. Their pretty faces greet me each day by my front door.
The sweet, tiny flowers of my Alyssum have sweetly perfumed the air.
The beautiful, tubular flowers of my Bower Vine stand on either side of my front entry so that I am surrounded by flowers as I walk up to my home.
My April bouquet
I would love it if you would come join me and other garden bloggers as we each create a bouquet from our gardens. MGB occurs during the third week of each month.
I can’t wait to see what bouquets you create.
Please send me a link to your bouquet as a comment to this post and I will post your link so that others can visit you and see your bouquet. Please visit the links below to see more beautiful April bouquets.
Catherine from A Gardener in Progress
Floridagirl at Peace in the Valley
Meredith from The Enchanted Earth
Balisha from Never Enough Time
Gipplandgardener from A Year in a Gippsland Garden
Jan from Thanks For Today
Patty from SewingSeeds4U
JGH from Nyack Backyard
and
Deborah from Deborah’s Garden
**Update – there is still 5 days to go this week…..I would love to see your April bouquets.
**For those of you who may not have a blog, but would like to create a bouquet to share, just email me, (use the email link on the sidebar) a photo of your bouquet and I will be happy to post it on my blog so that everyone can see your flowers.
Have a great week everyone!