Wow...Lotsa new names...and then there's the rest of ya.

I tried to comeback last year. Didn't work out so well with everything that was going on with family. I needed to step up my game with helping care for my Mom who now, is able to dance the Pearly Gates Polka with Dad after being apart for 18 years.

It's nice to see a good number of the reprobates still around and making trouble. :-) I've sorely missed the abuse and smart**s remarks.

My yard (calling it a garden would be overly optimistic) is nothing short of pathetic, but I have started the long painful road to recovery. My name is Jim and I'm a Plantaholic. I have started the recovery process: Buy plants, Plant Plants, Care for Surviving Plants, Buy More Plants, Rinse, Repeat.

The photos are of the Ann Kochan (Mom) Memorial Cape Mallow sent to us by my friends from work who remembered my love of gardening. I am rehabilitating a back flower bed for it. I hope I can keep it going.

Anyway, it's nice to be back, I'll try to be a regular again and thank you all for being here.

Viridis solet usque ad finem. Jim :-p

That's a very pretty mallow, and it's good to see you back. Good that you have breathing time again.

Jim,

Sorry about you loss.
We are happy to have you back and I know your garden will be wonderful.

Hello Ladies, I started two weeks ago to reclaim the yard. The neighborhood cats had turned my front main flower bed into the worlds largest litter box. Nothing would keep them out. Tried scarecrow type sprinklers, pepper, ammonia. Finally had to give up the idea of having a nice loamy flowerbed for bulbs and stuff. I planted a couple of shrubs and planted 5 tons of rock on top. It took four days and a tube of Aspercreme, but the dissatisfied reaction of the little beasties has made it worth while. Pictures are before and after. The current battles is a Chlorosis condition in my Little John B.Brush and HK Orchid. Pic. 3 one of the five and is doing great. Pic 4 is 2 feet away...The others are in varying degrees, the same or a little better. I've been treating the tree and B.Brush with Chelated Iron and acidifying the soil to try to raise the pH. Do you think they are too far gone?

Jim, I would suggest deep watering and week fertilization once a week till it gets too hot , when you will need to water more and no more fertilizer.
You might thing of protecting it from the sun till it gets better.
Good luck !

Nice to see you back Jim!
I am so sorry for your loss, the Memorial Cape Mallow is lovely and I am sure will do fine.

The old reprobates, smart a$$ remarks and encouragment to keep you plantaholic tendencies running wild are still the norm around here.

Susie

Sorry for your loss, Jim, but glad to have you back here! We'll be sure to support your plantaholic tendencies!

Hi Jim, I'm one of those new names here, I'm really enjoying the Southwest group. You haven't posted since April, I hope all is well. I'm trying to translate the Latin phrase, the online dictionaries haven't helped much, can you give me a clue?

My sympathy for your loss, may some garden therapy help work its magic.

I'm guessing the latin is something like 'Only green until the end'.

Welcome Nopala.

Greetings Nopala welcome to DG, Judy hit it right on the head. Unfortunately that little Latin tidbit now applies to the Cape Mallow. It was green right up until it wasn't. I guess it REALLY didn't like that spot, and by the time I noticed, it was ipso mortuo. (very dead) I'll replace it with something a little more forgiving ( I hope) when it's not blast furnace temperatures outside. In the meantime it blends quite nicely with most of the other shrubs. :-(

Hi Jim, I'm in the process of attempting to find those plants that withstand searing heat, freezing cold, dry air, low water, and still flowers. I've got a few candidates, but like your experience, Cape Mallow wasn't one of them.
Carpe optimum reliqua. (Seize the best, leave the rest) (I made that up).

This is a classy bunch!
I'm a survival-of-the-fittest type gardener, so have admired plenty of nursery plants right until they joined the great compost pile. I've done best with natives and desert plants, if you can find them. It's a whole different group of plants in Prescott, and the only advice I can give is in English: keep trying and have fun!

CAPE mallow does not do well here, but Sphaeralcea ambigua, commonly known as Desert Globemallow, is native and grows fine in full sun in Phoenix area.

Globe Mallow is an annual here...right? I'm looking for a perennial that is or I can train into a tree form about 36 to 48 inches tall. Just to show how poorly I'm performing in the gardening dept. , I actually managed to to kill my red castor that I've had for 5 years.

Globe mallow keeps coming back. Whether you want it or not. ;-) It stays in leaf for most of the year but I don't think it would be good for a topiary. How about Baja fairy duster? It's a shrub but perennials usually go dormant at some point.

I don't think that Desert Mallow or Baja fairy duster are good for a tree form. How about standard oleander? I see them trained as trees all the time.

I can't stand oleander. I've been surrounded by them since I lived in CA a hundred or so years ago, and every house or apt. I've lived in here has had them. Pretty, but messy. I've been looking at the blue hibiscus. I think I remember seeing a tree form of one of those somewhere.... and the one I had before I managed to kill seemed bullet-proof in full sun. I think I managed to over-water it to death when I changed the drip irrigation timing and didn't cut back on its drip output.

My blue hibiscus appeared to thrive - until it started dying off limb by limb. I think they get stressed by summer and then they lose vigor. Dunno, but they sure are purty when they're bloomin'. Give it a try!

I'm in Prescott, and actually miss the low desert, and the unique plants that grow there but not here. Anyhow, if I had a spot with some shade and no hard winter freezes, I'd try Aloe ferox. I 've seen them in bloom at DBG in January, the flowers are spectacular, and the hummingbirds are always around. They look pretty interesting the rest of the year, too.

I agree with judyb. I had blue hibiscus and it did the same thing-slowly died over time. I think the summers are hard on it. Nopala has a great idea actually. Aloe ferox and Aloe marlothii do great here. It does help them look less stressed to have some shade during the hottest part of the day, but they will make it either way.