June is here, which marks the official beginning of hot, dry weather throughout the southwest.
While most of us can be found indoors in the comfort of air-conditioning – your plants can be suffering from the heat and intense sunlight.
May and June can be some of the most difficult months for plants in the garden until the summer rains arrive in late June.
Need some helpful tips for your June garden?
Here is my June “to-do” list that I wrote for Houzz.com.
Earlier this week, I have been sharing with you about our recent trip into the old, mining town of Bisbee, AZ.
From unique pieces of art, the friendly people, great food and endless stairways, our trip was so much fun.
What I haven’t shown you in my earlier posts are the plants and gardens of Bisbee, which deserve their own post.
Bisbee is located in zone 8a, which is means that it gets about 10 degrees colder then Phoenix and Tucson areas. Because this historic town is also higher in the mountains, it doesn’t get as hot in the summer months.
Much of the plants were the same of what you would see growing throughout central and southern Arizona. Missing were the more tropical plants such as bougainvillea, yellow bells and lantana, which struggle to survive the winters in this area.
The gardens in Bisbee often made use of old, antique pieces that intermingled almost seamlessly among garden plants.
In this garden, the homeowner added a splash of color by using brightly-colored bottles to form an informal border along her raised beds.
Up on her wire fence, she had an old miner’s pan and soup pot hanging from a post.
The Historical Clawson House had a lovely planting arrangement that I particularly liked.
A large swath of flowering coreopsis contrasted beautifully with the gray/blue agave showing us that you don’t need a lot of different types of plants to make a statement in the garden – sometimes less is more effective.
Walking along the main street, I saw the biggest star jasmine vine.
It grew up the metal fence and beyond, hugging this 3-story building. Needless to say, the fragrance was intoxicating.
A brightly-colored building had an unusual pair of container plants.
Spinless prickly pear (Opuntia ellisiana) looked great in half-whiskey barrels.
Continuing our walk through town, I saw a small cafe which had an adjoining garden that can only be described as a grotto.
Where else, but in the desert southwest would you see a prickly pear cactus growing along side a rose bush?
Speaking of roses, I spotted a hedge of pink Iceberg roses in full bloom.
*Iceberg roses are a typically used for providing an informal hedge and they do well in Arizona.
In front of the iconic courthouse, I spotted some flowering ocotillo, so I headed over for a closer look.
I never tire of seeing the vermillion-colored flowers of ocotillo year after year.
My little ocotillo produced its first flower earlier this spring, after 4 years in the ground! It can take while for newly planted ocotillo to flower, but 4 years was a little long to have to wait.
Alongside the ocotillo were santa-rita (purple) prickly pears in full bloom.
Continuing our walk through the historic downtown, I noticed murals painted along the Cochise County Cooperative Extension Building.
In the window of the building were some helpful plant tips.
What a great way to add ‘plants’ to an area where planting live plants isn’t feasible.
This small front garden had a naturalistic planting theme using white achillea with Mexican evening primrose.
A local store did add some live plants by training a pair of vines over the doorway.
As I passed by these large metal doors, I wondered what lay behind them…
I peeked through a crack and noticed a lovely, little garden. I just wish that I could have seen more.
I have always liked small bungalows and their gardens. Maybe I can have one someday when the kids are gone and we need less room.
Here is another bungalow garden filled with purple prickly pear, a white Texas sage and autumn sage.
The city park had a two rain barrels, painted with rainy themes. It was a great way to demonstrate how homeowners can harvest their own rainwater.
**In closing, I would like to say that it isn’t easy traveling with me. I am always stopping and taking small detours in order to take pictures of plants and landscapes.
My husband is always so patient and doesn’t hesitate to carry my purse for me when my hands are busy holding my camera taking pictures.
Another common occurrence when traveling with a horticulturist is having to stop the truck after passing a lovely (or sometimes bad) landscape.
Again, my husband doesn’t complain – he just pulls over and waits while I run out to take a picture.
In this case, it was a lovely metal fence that had small shelves for pots planted with red yucca, to rest on. There were figures sculpted out of metal as well. It was just lovely.
I hope you enjoyed this small tour of the gardens of Bisbee. I cannot wait to return again someday.
Have you ever visited a place that took you a long time to get to?
I’m not talking about how long it takes to travel there but the length of time that you had wanted to visit a place before you finally got there.
I have lived in Arizona for 28 years and during that time have visited the southwestern, western, northwestern, northern, northeastern, eastern and southern areas of our beautiful state.
However, I am embarrassed to say that I have never visited the southeastern part of Arizona. I had wanted to visit Bisbee, AZ for years. So, my husband and I decided to take a trip to Bisbee for our 28th wedding anniversary.
So, we packed our bags and headed out. Our route took us through Tucson and then toward Tombstone, AZ where we had some fun adventures including viewing the “World’s Largest Rosebush”.
You can read about our Tombstone adventures, here.
After leaving Tombstone, we soon arrived in Bisbee.
Bisbee is an old copper mining town.
It has been often described as an old mining town with a European flair.
Bisbee is situated within the Mule Mountains and built into the hillsides.
100 year old buildings have been converted into art galleries, hotels, restaurants and shops.
Bisbee’s existence is due to the now-closed, open-pit copper mine.
As you drive into the historic section of Bisbee, you can view the enormous open pit where they mined for years.
*To get an idea of the scale, look at the buildings to the left of the mine.
It is obvious, after spending a few minutes in Bisbee, that it is a community with many artists.
Concrete walls throughout the town displayed a variety of murals.
This mural was just outside our 100-year old hotel, Canyon Rose Suites, which I highly recommend.
I liked this garden mural of potted succulents along the Cochise County Cooperative Extension Office, which had gardening tips up in the window.
As you walked past some of the art galleries, you could see examples of unique art, like the colorful doorway, across the street.
I walked across the street to see what was used to create this unique doorway…
It was a collection of colorful, plastic shopping bags and recycled bottles.
*Plastic bags are banned in Bisbee and stores charge you 5 cents for paper bags. So, it’s easier to bring your own recyclable shopping bag with you.
We didn’t buy anything for our kids, although I was tempted to buy this ‘zombie miner’ shirt for my son.
I enjoyed seeing the old buildings – some were a bit quirky like this storefront covered in bottle caps.
We passed by this interesting figure made from recycled materials. His body is made from an old propane tank, his legs are made from rebar inserted into coils, the arms are made of rebar with plastic forks stuck to the ends and his head is an old bucket with washers for his eyes.
An empty lot along the main street had some unique pieces of artwork as well with an outdoor living room depicted.
As you can see, it is wise to expect the unexpected when walking through the historical sections of Bisbee.
One evening, we were walking along the main road after dinner, when I noticed something strange on the mountainside…
Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting a skull and crossbones. The hotel across the street, had a special light that shone onto the mountainside across the street.
*The next night the skull and crossbones had been replaced by the ‘bat signal’ from Batman fame.
The residents of Bisbee are very friendly and the city proudly marches to beat of its own drummer.
I saw this bumper sticker that I think described Bisbee pretty well.
Because Bisbee is built up on a mountainside, there are a lot of stairways, which have led to an annual event known as “The Bisbee Great Stair Climb” where participants climb 1,000 stairs, distributed throughout different stairways.
Each stairway is clearly designated throughout the city and the number of stairs in each stairway is indicated for tourists who want to try climbing the stairs for themselves.
Here is another one.
This one leads up to the city park and is 127 steps.
This one was the most colorfully painted.
*My husband dared me to climb one of the longest stairways. Click here to see which stairway he dared me to try and if I tried to scale the seemingly endless steps.
Of course, a vital part of a vacation is enjoying good food. We had lunch at the ‘Screaming Banshee’, which served delicious basil pesto breadsticks and great pizza.
We also enjoyed eating at Bisbee’s Table and Santiago’s Mexican restaurants.
Walking through Bisbee is enjoyable, but bring comfortable shoes because you are either walking up or downhill.
Because Bisbee is 5,500 feet up in altitude, we got a good workout walking, which is a good thing because we ate a lot of great food!
As you can see, we had a great time AND I haven’t even shown you the gardens yet!
Come back next time when I show some cute bungalow gardens, roses, cacti, hidden gardens and more 🙂
Earlier this month, my husband and I traveled to Bisbee, Arizona.
For those of you who have never visited, Bisbee is a fun, quirky place that marches to the beat of its own drummer. I had a great time!
Bisbee, Arizona is an old, mining town built on a side of a mountain. As a result, there are different stairways scattered throughout the historical district. An annual event is held each year called, “The Great Stair Climb” where participants climb the stairways for a total of 1,000 steps.
Tourist are welcome to climb one or all of the stairways at any time of the year.
Each stairway is marked with the number of steps that it has. Some are rather long while others are less so.
This stairway that led up to the city park was 127 steps.
While walking through the historical district, my husband dared me to climb one of the longest stairways.
I don’t think that my husband expected me to climb those stairs – he knows that I am not the athletic type. BUT after 28 years of marriage, I decided to prove to him that I am still full of surprises, so I started up the stairway.
I’m not sure why I took my purse with me.
For those of you who may be scoffing at my labors at this point, I’d like to point out that this photo shot is zoomed in and doesn’t accurately show how many steps I had already climbed.
It was getting pretty difficult at this point and I realized that we were at a high altitude of 5,500 feet, so I was beginning to huff quite a bit.
But, I wouldn’t quit unless I fainted.
I am happy to say that I made it climbing 188 steps!
Can you see my arms raised in victory at the top?
Here is a close-up.
Now I just had to walk down 188 steps.
I must admit that my legs felt shaky when I had climbed down, but I was happy that I had done it and surprised my husband at the same time.
After the climb, we walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch.
Along the way, we passed another stairway and my husband challenged me to climb that one.
Needless to say, I said “NO”.
Over the weekend, my husband and I went away for the weekend to celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary.
We had debated on where to go and decided to make the trip to southeastern Arizona. Why this area, you may ask? Well, I have lived in Arizona for 28 years and during the time, have traveled to the northwest, southwest, southern, northern, northeast and eastern regions of the state – but I had never been to the southeastern areas. Our ultimate destination was to be the former mining town of Bisbee, now a popular tourist attraction.
Along the way to Bisbee, we decided to visit Tombstone along the way. My husband had visited Tombstone when he was you, back when many boys dreamed of becoming a cowboy.
If you are a little rusty on your cowboy history, Tombstone is the place the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place in 1881.
The main street is blocked off to cars and is lined on either side by stores and restaurants catering to tourists.
It was an interesting mixture of historical places converted into tourist attractions.
I enjoy visiting museums, so my husband and I headed over to the old courthouse, which has been turned into a museum.
It was very interesting to learn of Tombstone’s history as a silver mining town.
The back of the courtyard was where hangings took place.
Inside, was a diorama where the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral was depicted with a detailed description of what happened.
Cowboys stood along the side of the main street of Tombstone, which added to the illusion of being taken back in time.
After visiting the attractions along the main street, we decided to stroll through the adjoining streets. There were many old buildings dating back to the late 1880’s that were still standing.
Tombstone is in zone 8a, which means that it gets down to 10 degrees in the winter months. As a result, I was interested in seeing what types of plants did well here.
Coastal Cholla (Cylindropuntia prolifera)
Prickly pears and cholla cacti were in full bloom.
Cow’s Tongue Prickly Pear (Opuntia engelmannii)
There were no lawns to be seen and most of the landscape consisted of a variety of succulents including desert spoon, hesperaloe and yucca.
Yellow Bird-of-Paradise (Caesalpinia gilliesii)
I did see a beautiful yellow bird-of-paradise, which is usually seen in high desert areas where its more cold-tender cousins red bird-of-paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima) and Mexican bird-of-paradise (Caesalpinia mexicana) can struggle.
I love how the bright red stamens contrast with the yellow flowers, don’t you? Yellow bird-of-paradise is hardy to -10 degrees or zone 6.
Texas sage as also prevalent in the area.
I wasn’t sure what to think of this collection of container plants.
It consisted of a mixture of plastic pots and toilets planted with live and silk flowers. I’m pretty sure my HOA wouldn’t allow this 😉
While Tombstone was much of what I expected, the history and cowboy themed attractions weren’t my favorite part of our visit…
I invite you to come back for my next post, where I will share with you why this small plant made me so excited and how it is part of a very historic plant!
Join me for my next post about our adventures in Tombstone.
Prickly pear
The next time you find yourself grumbling about having to prune your trees and shrubs – just be thankful that you don’t have to prune cacti at the Desert Botanical Garden.
While I have never had to prune a large bed of cacti, I have backed into cholla that lined the golf course where I worked. I had a piece stuck on the back of my leg – Ouch!
Some cacti like prickly pear and cholla sometimes need to be pruned from time to time in a landscape setting.
Prickly pear can grow very large and spread. If you don’t have enough room, you may find yourself having to prune it back. When pruning prickly pear, make your pruning cuts where the individual pads, meet.
Cholla tend to drop segments on the ground, which are how they propagate. The segments will root in ideal conditions and grow a new cholla.
In a managed landscape, it is a good idea to clean the fallen pieces of cholla to help keep people from inadvertently getting it stuck to their shoes.
**Have you ever wondered why cacti have thorns? I wrote about the surprising reasons that cacti are prickly and some tips for pulling out cactus spines, if you get stuck…
Have you ever gotten pricked by a cactus? I’d love to hear your story 😉
I have been dreaming of converting our backyard into a beautiful, low-maintenance desert landscape.
Right now, it has a large area of grass surrounded by large, flowering shrubs against the wall. I would have loved to have taken out the grass years ago, but my husband and son protested since they would throw the football back and forth each evening before dinner.
low-maintenance desert landscape
But, now my son is almost 12 and often throws the football over the wall, so now I have been give permission to at least start thinking of converting the backyard.
Often, on my way home from a landscape consult, I will mentally design my new backyard garden. I have some concrete ideas, but there is still a lot to be decided.
Whenever I see a landscape area that I like, I stop to take a picture. I have quite a few pictures that I have taken of landscapes that inspire me.
Here are just a few…
Red flowering Chuparosa, growing underneath native mesquite and foothills palo verde trees. A hedgehog cactus grows by a large boulder. Mexican bird-of-paradise, trained as trees are growing in the background.
Goodding’s verbena, chuparosa and brittlebush blooming with creosote bush in the background.
Desert ruellia provides an attractive background for golden barrel cacti. This area needs to be pruned once every 2 years.
Young palo verde tree with potted artichoke agave.
I am still in the “designing inside my mind” stage, but will soon need to put things down on paper. I have my drafting supplies ready to go once I am.
Of course, the entire project hinges on having enough money for large containers, big boulders, trees, plants, dirt for mounds and paying someone to rip out our grass.
I would hope to be able to do this next winter, but we will see…
Which one of the landscape areas above do you like best?
Have you ever taken out an area of grass and added plants in its place?
I have – numerous times.
My past was filled with grass – acres and acres of it, when I worked as a horticulturist for golf courses. Nothing made me happier then when areas of grass were being removed and I was able to design a new landscape area.
It’s been 8 years since I worked as a staff horticulturist for golf courses, but the past few weeks have found me spending a lot of time back on the golf course.
Earlier this week, I told you about my most recent project – creating landscape designs for up to 30 acres of former grass area. Two golf courses, that I have worked with in the past, are removing large areas of turf in favor of a more natural, desert-scape.
The plants that I have chosen are extremely drought-tolerant, need very little maintenance and are native to the deserts of North America.
Another important criteria for my choices of plants was that I have to had experience growing them myself, either in my own garden or professionally in landscape areas that I have managed.
Here are the plants that I am using in this first area:
Desert Ruellia (Ruellia peninsularis)
Desert Ruellia is a favorite shrub of mine. It is incredibly drought-tolerant. I like to use it as a smaller substitute for Texas sage.
In this first landscape area, I wanted a shrub that could survive with intermittent deep-watering, limited maintenance while still looking attractive. The purple flowers that appear spring through fall will add color to the area.
Chuparosa (Justicia californica)
This flowering native, will find a place underneath the filtered shade of the large mesquite tree already present.
Chuparosa explodes with color off an on throughout the year, attracting every hummingbird in the neighborhood. It does well in full sun or filtered shade.
Desert Spoon (Dasylirion wheeler)
Succulents are a vital part of the plant palette for all of these new areas. Their unique colors and shapes add texture to the landscape and contrast well with the more softly-shaped plants.
Desert spoon will be interspersed throughout this first area where its gray color will contrast with the darker greens of the shrubs.
Santa-Rita Purple Prickly Pear (Opuntia santa-rita)
Santa-rita purple prickly pear is also high on my list of favorites. You just can’t beat the purple coloring that appears toward the tips of gray/blue pads.
Desert Marigold (Baileya multiradiata)
Often grown as a annual, Desert Marigold is a short-lived perennial that flowers throughout the year.
Cold and lack of water don’t bother these tough little perennials. They require little to no maintenance – but I cut them back severely to 3 inches once a year to improve their appearance and promote more flowering, although you don’t have too.
Whether you or not you are a fan of yellow – it is an important color to include in the garden because the color yellow helps the other colors in the landscape to ‘pop’ and stand out more vividly.
Although short-lived, desert marigold self-seeds, ensuring that they remain a presence wherever they are planted.
Firecracker Penstemon (Penstemon eatoni)
If you are a fan of penstemons, this is one to consider adding to your list. Firecracker penstemon has a long bloom period in the low-desert. It starts blooming in late December and continues into spring.
You can often prolong the bloom period by removing spent flowering stalks, which will promote a second flush of bloom. I have several of these growing in my own garden – some are 15 years old and still going strong – although that is uncommon.
Bursage (Ambrosia deltoidea)
I’ll be the first one to admit that this low-growing shrub is not exciting – one may even call it ‘boring’.
But, bursage is seen carpeting the ground throughout the Arizona portion of the Sonoran desert. Its gray/green foliage serves as an understory plant that helps to tie the separate elements of this ‘natural landscape’ together.
Example of bursage use in a natural desert landscape planting.
The key to keeping bursage attractive is to prune it back severely to 6″ tall and wide every 2 – 3 years in early spring.
So, this is the plant palette for the first of many ‘natural desert landscape areas’. I do have a few more plants that I will show you as I create designs for the other areas on the golf courses.
Do you grow any of these plants in your garden?
As a horticulturist, I have quite a few plants on my list of favorites. So many in fact, that I cannot grow them all in my own garden.
But, this favorite has a prominent place in my home landscape – I have four of them.
This pink beauty is what I see when I look out my kitchen window.
I can also see another one growing when I look out my living room window.
And another one when I look out my bedroom window.
You get the idea…
Pink Trumpet Vine (Podranea ricasoliana) grows in both humid and dry climates. Believe it or not, it is drought-tolerant too!
To learn more about this beautiful, pink plant and why you will want to add one to your garden, check out my latest plant profile for Houzz.
Last week was a busy one for me. I had several appointments scheduled, and then I got the ‘mother’ of all colds.
I don’t get sick colds very often. So, that is probably why when I do get them every few years – I get a severe one.
My constant companions the past week.
I am finally among the living after a week of fighting through all that this cold could throw at me, and I feel weak and drained – BUT, I can now walk through the house without carrying a box of tissues. *Being able to breathe through your nose is so delightful when it has been stopped up for a week (cold medicine just doesn’t seem to work all that well for me).
Despite this terrible cold, I was able to make it through my appointments, although I prayed that my nose wouldn’t start dripping in front of my clients. Whenever I started to feel weak or faint, I would come up with an excuse to sit for a minute or two by saying, “Let’s sit for a minute and see what the view of the landscape looks like from this perspective.”
I promise that I used a lot of hand-sanitizer before shaking hands with everyone 😉
Alright, enough complaining about my cold. I am excited to show you my latest project.
Okay, I admit that it doesn’t look too exciting right now.
As you can see, the project is on a golf course. This particular course is removing 50 acres of turf and planting drought-tolerant landscapes in their place in their attempt to save water. The area pictured above is just one of many that I will be working on throughout the summer.
As part of the turf removal, the golf course will be re-designing its entire irrigation system. (It hasn’t happened yet in this area, which is why it is wet.)
Along the entire length of this area, will run a river-rock lined wash, which will help to channel stormwater.
I have been working on a plant palette that includes native, drought-tolerant succulents, shrubs, and groundcovers that will require minimal water once established.
Railroad ties, that separate homeowner properties will be removed to help the transition toward the golf course landscape visually. To that end, I will include a few of the same plants already present in the adjoining properties to create the illusion of a seamless landscape.
The goal is to create a beautiful landscape area that has minimal water and maintenance requirements. To say that I am excited about working on this project is an understatement.
Interestingly, my first job out of college was working as a horticulturist for a golf course. Although I had unlimited opportunities to golf for free – I never did. Other than indulging in an occasional round of miniature golf – I don’t play golf at all.
I may not play golf or completely understand the passion for the game – I have come to know the unique challenges that landscaping around golf courses entail – overspray from sprinklers, carts driving through landscape areas when they aren’t allowed, knowing what plants to use in areas that are in play, etc.
Next time, I will share with the plant palette of drought-tolerant natives that will be used in these areas. Who knows? You may be inspired to use some of these plants in your landscape!
Tips to Save Money When Shopping for Succulents
