I guess the best thing about being in Arizona?
I will never need a greenhouse. In fact, I have a fabulous orange tree in the backyard to act as a nursery/shade tree for the plants I am starting up outdoors.
I have been harvesting seeds from anything I see that's interesting since I came down here. Next weekend I am going to mix up a bunch of half native/ half bagged dirt and start out a bunch of trays. I have no idea what might and might not sprout.
I am very much 'adventure' gardening this fall. It's all unknown.
Some of the seeds:
Cat claw vine
Palo Verde
Several other varieties of Palo tree... there are a bunch of them out here
Mesquite
Red 'yucca' (actually an agave)
Several other bushes and a few low growing annuals or perennials...
It will be interesting trying to identify the stuff as it comes up!
Other seeds I am thinking about:
Snapdragons
Nigella papillosa
Vigna Caracalla / syn with Phaseolus caracalla (corkscrew vine/ snail vine)
Calendula
Sunflowers
Hot peppers!
Julia 'grape' tomatoes
A few Ipomoeas - cardinal climber and scarlet creeper
Some Ipomopsis rubra - I really need to find a seed source for this other than Burpee. Maybe the Thompson and Morgan catalog I requested today will have some...?
I'll think of more, I'm sure.
Desert is a unique climate. The dry air is punishing to most plant life. We'll see what we will see...
Hi Jenn,
When you talk about a place to grow seedlings in the shade of an orange tree, you sure are not in Michigan any more! I've grown a few of the plants you're thinking about, Snail vine, Juliet tomatoes and the ferny-leaved relative of Cardinal creeper called Cypress vine or Hummingbird vine/Ipomoea quamoclit.
Your red yucca sounds like it's the same one we grow in Austin -Hesperaloe parviflora? They're cool plants, but not fast growing. I picked up a seedling at a Master gardener sale in spring '05 and hope to see a bloom stalk next spring.
When we first moved here there was a field we passed where Standing Cypress/ipomopsis rubra bloomed. The field is still there but I think the deer moved in and eliminated the plants. I've never grown it but saw it again in a wildflower border at one of the gardens from last summer's pond tour. Good luck with getting seedlings.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Posted by: Annie in Austin | September 18, 2007 at 10:46 AM
Yep, the Hesperaloe parviflora is the one.
They are slow growing, and probably I'll get a lot of die-off, but the seed pods on the plants in the courtyard at work had little babies sprouting right out of them on the plant. SO CUTE!
So I have quite a handful of them to start. They seem rock solid desert adapted, so maybe the little plants that I do get will be what I plant out front as my legacy to this rental house.
From little seeds do great gardens grow!
Posted by: jenn | September 21, 2007 at 09:09 PM
I've grown both the palo verde and hesperaloe (red yucca) from seed. I cover them with composted granite sand, water, and eventually something sprouts. Lindheimer senna is supposed to be easy to start from seed. Does it grow in Arizona?
Posted by: mss @ Zanthan Gardens | September 24, 2007 at 08:52 PM
Lindheimer senna:
I think I've seen this one around. Pretty sure I don't have any seeds from one tho. I'll have to keep my eyes open, lots of stuff is seeding now as we end our bake season and enter extended summer.
Posted by: jenn | September 28, 2007 at 12:23 AM