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Stop! Don’t do it. Wait.
This is the worst time of the year to plant.
Why? The combination of low humidity, heat and wind makes it extremely hard for any plant to get a good start. Plus, you will have to water like crazy to keep the plant healthy.
Wait until the summer rains start and the humidity increases significantly.
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Now is the time to enjoy a cool beverage while you plan and design your landscape for the next five months.
It is also a great time to prune back roses and flowering native shrubs, whose first blush blossoms are stressed by the heat and wind.
Many native and desert-adaptable plants will achieve two or three blooming cycles when pruned in June and late August.
General guidelines
While you are waiting, consider the following general principles of gardening in the high desert.
Spring is a bad time to plant large-leafed, non-desert trees due to the wind. Spring is an OK time to plant native trees, shrubs and ground covers.
During the summer rains, and only when they start, which could be as late as August, is the best time to plant most native and non-native ground covers, shrubs and trees.
Fall is the best time to plant large-leafed trees and large, non-native shrubs. Do not plant most native shrubs and ground covers in the fall. If you are not familiar with a variety of plants for its climate, research and ask experienced, knowledgeable people. And, unfortunately, do not rely on big-box stores, who carry many plants not suited to this climate due to sun exposure, lack of humidity and temperature extremes.
Do not be fooled by large displays of color plants in retail outlets. For example, azaleas will not grow here due to low humidity, even in the shade, and bougainvillea is a seasonal pot plant, not a plant to be put in the ground.
Read the plant tags for sun/shade requirements and temperature tolerance. Remember that full sun at our altitude is much stronger than full sun in the large plant nurseries of coastal or smoggy Southern California, and our temperatures usually range between 20 and 100 degrees, with possible lows of 10 degrees for Old Bisbee and Naco.
We live in a U.S. Department of Agriculture Zone 8 for planting. Rely on that. The “Western Garden Book” will give you several microclimate zones, but they are not reliable because of winter air flow and lack of humidity.
Bisbee soils
Old Bisbee soils range from great to terrible due to deep backfills behind retaining walls and solid rock found in most other locations. Warren has a combination of good soil along Bisbee Road due to an old drainage ditch, and moderate to poor soil combined with rock and caliche elsewhere.
San Jose is generally alluvial sand, rock and caliche. Naco has a lot of clay in some areas and can produce some of the prettiest shrubs and trees in the area when the clay is broken up and plants are watered sufficiently.
In all Bisbee areas, vegetable gardens and landscape areas will do better if raised behind short retainer walls.
Incidentally, about eight years ago the University of Arizona Agriculture Department, after years of research, started recommending that you do not add soil amendments when planting shrubs and trees. Their research showed that plants will do better in the long term if planted in only native soils.
Planning and planting
Also, when planning your landscape, it is best to dig test holes, especially for trees, to make sure that you can achieve necessary depth and drainage. A plant that sits in a caliche hole may rot or root girdle, and then you have lost your time and money and possibly four to six years of growing time. Also, holes should be wider at the bottom than the top so the root growth is forced out from and below the original root ball.
Many people confuse the words transplant and planting. For practical purposes, transplanting is taking a previously planted plant out of the ground and moving it to a new location.
Planting is taking a plant from its growing container and planting it in the ground. Never transplant during periods of high stress, such as May/June.
Two rules laid down by Mother Nature are: There are no straight lines, and plants do not grow in twos. Sidewalks, planter bed and patios look much more natural with soft curves, and two plants together don’t work.
You will see a solitary tree or shrub that works as an accent plant, but two trees look like goal posts. Always plant in odd numbers with a possible single plant of the same type at a distance for shape, color and leaf form balance.
Shorter, thicker trees will be easier to grow and suffer less wind damage than tall, skinny trees.
It also helps to leave the lower side branches on for at least a year because more nutrients are carried up the trunk, which develops a thicker, hardier tree.
Now for the fun part. Enjoy your beverage, start your research and plan a colorful, low-water-use, practical landscape for your personal enjoyment and to add value to your home.
Talk to knowledgeable people and the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension and take the Master Gardener course. Develop your own color scheme of low-water-sue plants.
Get a color planting guide
Receive a color plant list by writing to Dave Cartun at P.O. Box 4128, Bisbee AZ 85603. Please include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Plants list
Vines that grow in the morning sun and afternoon shade include Virginia creeper and star jasmine. Shrubs include Oregon grape holly, abelia, heavenly bamboo and dwarf pittosporum. English violets, sweet potatoes and peppermint work as ground covers.
For native and desert adaptable color and low-water-use, try the following. For yellow use Arizona bird of paradise, calylophus, grey santolina, Mt. Lemmon marigold, gopher plant, Mexican chrysanthemum, moonbeam yarrow, chocolate flowers and banks rose. Wooly butterfly bush, Mexican hat, Mexican flame, desert honeysuckle, gaillardia, native mallow and trumpet vine provide orange.
Jupiter’s beard, penstemon and peppermint yarrow are red shrub/ground covers and coral honeysuckle and coral vine are fantastic red vines. The coral vine must be mounded over in the winter to survive and should not be used in Old Bisbee or Naco.
White flowering shrubs include little leaf cordia, Apache plume and black-eyed daisy. Silver lace vine will provide overwhelming white flowers from May through September, and the white banks rose blooms about six weeks in spring.
Blue flax, blue mist, cat mint, any of seven sage varieties, monarda and verbena ground cover will provide a variety of blues and purples.
Chitalpa, three varieties of desert willow, green palo verde and western redbud provide seasonal tree color and filtered shade. If you need an excellent small screening tree, use little leaf ash.
Dave Cartun is a longtime Bisbee resident and former landscaping professional. He currently owns his own business, Feline Furniture.
