Tropical Zone Gardening: Missing everyone, 1 by goofybulb

goofybulb wrote:
Hey, everyone!
Since I moved here, I tried to figure out how to cope with the huge differences between the hot-humid Miami and the hot-dry El Paso. In the little spare time, I went and devoured the books at the bookstore about the South-west. Unfortunately, they mostly talk of what normally and successfully grows here...

The neighbors all have xeri-plants and nothing fancy, but nonetheless beautiful. I'm starting to believe that orchids are really fancy here, as I barely see them for sale in the box-stores. And when I see them, there's one or two, drowning... Probably most people don't want to deal with high-humidity and high water needs plants, since El Paso deals with water restrictions of different degrees.
I searched for nurseries around El Paso (very little to find), but the only one I visited was a cacti-succulents one, and the Rose Garden. These are the plants that had a harder life in Miami, not too happy about the humidity there...

I think my mistake was to bring the orchids here. Then, trying to keep them outside. Of course, good air movement, but very dry, so I started to mist them every day. Kept most of them alive, but I cannot say they're happy.

I will start a desperation thread here on TZG forum, and also seek for advice in the SW forum. I just feel bad to post the helpless thread, I haven't had something nice happening for a while...

Just to give you an idea on what nature looks here: this is a nicely maintained house in the neighborhood