Category Archives: Desert Southwest

05/4/07

One Albuquerque Garden: A Private Oasis

Private Garden, Albuquerque

Thanks to the owner of this garden for allowing me to photograph it and use the photos here. All photographs were taken May 4, 2007. Click on the thumbnails for a larger view.

This is a very small city garden, but is artfully arranged to utilize a variety of plants. Roses are the featured plant throughout the garden, but are just beginning to bloom in early May. At the time of our visit, the brightest spots in the garden came from clematis. The clematis was truly spectacular.

Clematis ‘The President’
‘The President’

Clematis ‘The President’ with rose ‘Gold Medal’
‘The President’ with rose ‘Gold Medal’

Clematis ‘Ernest Markham’
‘Ernest Markham’

Clematis ‘Ernest Markham’
‘Ernest Markham”

As soon as walked into the garden, I was hit by the sweet scent of an Oriental lily. The flower was as lovely as the scent:
Oriental lily, FABULOUS scent!
Oriental Lily

Here is a sampling of roses in this garden. There will be many more in bloom later this month. Continue reading →

05/4/07

Large-Flowered Climber: Royal Sunset

Royal Sunset is an oldie but goodie for the desert Southwest. It has dark green, leathery, disease-resistant leaves, large flowers that can have great form (especially for a climber!), a nice scent, and color to knock your socks off. To top it all off, it has long, shapely buds.

Royal Sunset bud; large-flowered climber

Royal Sunset, large-flowered climber

It takes about three years for this climber to get fully established. It is well worth the wait. This is a great choice for the Desert Southwest if you are looking for a large-flowered climber.

05/4/07

2007’s First Hybrid Tea

The first hybrid tea bloom of the year is always exciting in the high desert. One never knows exactly when to expect it, nor what it will look like. What have the late cold spells and especially the prolonged high winds done to the buds? Have thrips already damaged the bloom (for those of us who don’t like to spray, or spray very little)?

My first hybrid tea bloom this year was Gemini, one of my very favorite hybrid teas that thrives in the Desert Southwest. Someone once asked me how I could love a rose that did not have much of a scent. Take a look:

GeminiGemini

(Gemini, Keith Zary hybridizer, AARS 2000)

What is not to love? This rose blooms prolifically from first bloom to frost, has essentially disease-free foliage, and perfectly formed blooms.

According to Bob Martin, well-known rosarian, it was the top exhibition hybrid tea in 2005 (the 2006 data has not yet been provided). Also check here.

The fact that it is a top exhibition hybrid tea should not frighten away desert gardeners who just want a nice rose for the garden. This is a rose that thrives in the Southwest, is relatively disease-free, has many beautiful blooms that hold their size even in the heat, and can provide a lot of pleasure with routine care.

It is a hybrid tea that I can recommend for anyone in the Southwest who wants to grow a great rose!

04/14/07

Death and Rebirth in the Desert

The desert and the native plants growing there never cease to amaze me.

Prickly pear cactus is a native plant used in a lot of landscaping in Tucson and the Sonoran Desert in general.

Yesterday I saw this large piece of prickly pear that had been broken off its main stem and roots by a late freeze followed by high winds (click to enlarge the picture):

Broken Prickly Pear

“Oh, well, that’s the way it goes,” I thought. But closer inspection showed something rather amazing: the dying plant was giving birth to new prickly pear cacti:

New plants arising from dying prickly pear

This is just another example of why hope springs eternal among gardeners (and plant lovers) in the Southwest Desert.

04/14/07

Another Challenge: Late Hard Freezes

This weekend I am in Tucson, located in the Sonoran Desert of the southwest, rather than the high Chihuahuan Desert in which Albuquerque is located. Many years ago I lived here for seven years, and although many things about the city have changed, the plants have remained pretty much the same. Palm trees, which do not grow in the Albuquerque area, are pretty much a staple of cities in the Sonoran Desert.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived yesterday was that the palm trees looked very strange: the centers were green, but the outer fronds were brown and looked dead. I did not recall ever seeing all of them look like that before (click to enlarge image).

Palm trees, Tucson 4/13/07

“What happened to the palm trees?” I asked.

“All the palms had been trimmed up this spring, but after that there was a late freeze that lasted several days.”

In all the years I lived in Tucson that had never happened. Fortunately, the palms seem to be recovering well.

I have certainly seen that happen to roses in Albuquerque, and I hope I have no pictures of that to show you later this season.

(There are some photos of roses with this type of damage, however, and an excellent discussion here.)

04/12/07

Wind: Another Challenge in the Desert Southwest

New Mexico is the only place I have ever lived where Spring is not my favorite season.  And that is because of the high winds that are a staple of Spring in the high desert.

Gardeners here learn very quickly to keep their plants well-hydrated, at this time of the year as much for the winds as for the temperatures.  Nothing can dry a plant out as quickly as the wind!

For the last several days we have had very windy weather.  On April 10, we had gusts up to 40 mph, but steady winds around 25 mph.  Not good for plants, especially tender young shoots on roses.  A lot of new leaves on my roses are looking a little ragged now, but the worst damage was to a new cane, which was snapped completely off:

(Click on thumbnails for larger view)

Cane snapped by high wind 4/10/07

The rose looked pretty bedraggled with the shoot just hanging there:

Wind damage 4/10/07

Fortunately, this is not the kind of damage that kills a rose. It can be frustrating to see promising shoots damaged so that they have to be removed, but the rest of the plant is fine.

Wind – just another challenge in the desert Southwest.

[ETA 4/14/07: Apparently wind was widespread across the entire Southwest, including California, at about this same time. For photos and discussion of damage in the high desert of California, there is an excellent link here.]

04/10/07

My First Hummingbird of the Year!

Less than 48 hours after posting “Attention, Hummingbird Lovers” and getting my hummingbird feeders up (three weeks late!), I saw my first hummingbird of the year feeding at one of the feeders.  This is the earliest I have seen a hummer in my garden any year.  It was a Black Chin male, and I hope he likes the looks of the place for a home for the season!

04/8/07

Attention, Hummingbird Lovers

Hummingbird
The Desert Southwest is fortunate to be home, at least part of the year, to an amazing variety of birds. The low desert, especially southeastern Arizona and around Tucson, have hummers during the winter months. Here in the high desert we have them only during the warmer part of the year.

I generally put up the hummingbird feeders on March 15, and take them down one month after I have seen the last hummer feeding at one. That is done to provide food for those migrating through – both the ones coming through early in the spring and those passing through in the fall.

The earliest hummers to arrive for an extended stay in my yard are the Black Chins. The earliest I have actually seen them here is April 13, and the latest April 15. The males arrive first, and it is important to have feeders up by the time they arrive, because they are looking for a place to establish a home. So I must get the feeders out today (and should have had them out long ago!) If you live in the high desert and want hummers to hang around your garden, I would recommend the same for you. Continue reading →

04/5/07

Why Hope Springs Eternal for Gardeners

In the first post of this blog, I bemoaned the effects of the freak snow storm in late December on Mermaid, the climbing hybrid bracteata that was the largest rose in my yard.

Spring 2006:

Mermaid

Mermaid

Mermaid

After The Big Snow of December 2006:

Mermaid After The Big Snow

The cleanup was not completed until early March, and Mermaid had to be sawed off at ground level. I expected her to come back, but I was not sure that she would.

Today, much to my surprise, she is showing several shoots:

Mermaid Coming Out

Mermaid has indeed survived the Winter of The Big Snow. I don’t know how long it will be before she is back to her full glory, but I have no doubt she will reach it!  Photos of her progress will be posted here throughout the growing season.

04/1/07

Early Spring in the High Desert: Fruit Trees

Here in Albuquerque, the first things to bloom in my yard in the spring are bulbs and the dwarf peach, Bonanza. I have grown this peach tree in a 3/4 whiskey barrel since the late 1980’s. No matter how cold or how warm the winter, it has never failed to bloom. This year, after the very heavy snows but relatively mild winter temperatures, the blooms were spectacular.

‘Bonanza’ bloom Continue reading →