I am looking for suggestions of what to plant in my 3 beautiful Mexican pots that are in the front of my house
which faces North. Ideally I would like flowering plants and would like to have flowers in the pots all years around,
but I am open to all ideas. Plants could be annuals or perennials or both.
Thought I'd ask for suggestions before I kill something else like I did with my orchids :-)
Thanks,
Dee
suggestion for pot on North side of house
My potted flowers generally have joined your orchids in the Great Compost Heap up yonder, so I may not be your best resource here. To really have lots of flowers all year, the easiest thing is to buy whatever's in season, and replace it as soon as it starts to fade. This is what happens to a lot of publicly visible landscaping to keep it fresh always. There are, however, some cactus and succulents that would add form and interest and might survive in a pot. Their blooms tend to be very seasonal but often striking. (I'm partial to aloes myself.) Whatever you end up with, try to shade the pot itself as much as possible, the soil really cooks in there if it gets any direct sun in the summer. Good luck, and please share a picture if you can!
PS don't worry about failures, just compost and move on. This is a tough neighborhood to garden in!
Good advice, Nopala.
Thanks for your thoughts. I was actually thinking that cacti might be interesting. The pots are so beautiful that flowers may detract from them anyway.
I thought I'd start to work up the soil in my garden area last week and quickly found it almost impossible. It was like concrete!
I planned to amend the soil but didn't expect to find the soil impossible to till. Guess I will have to wait until my husband is ready to help.
Dmwade,
I know what are you talking about regarding the soil. I've been gardening here for over 28 years and I had to work hard and make my husband work harder in helping me with the soil and some hardscape.
I asked him to double dig the flower beds and fill them half with compost. I still can envision him sunk below his knees in the holes , digging and filling them back with improved soil.
I forgot t mention, that in order to use the soil taken from the beds again, he had to sift it and discard what was left. You can not imagine the debris we found and threw away. We had to wait several weeks to get rid of it since it was so heavy and it would make the garbage container too heavy to lift (it happened several times before we learned).
It is true that gardening is a labor of love, but I think it is even more so here.
I have hundreds of pots and I use many types of plants, from annuals to perennials. One rule that I follow is place the highest plant in the back or middle (it depends of where the pot is going to be located) and worked with lower and cascading plants around it.
Good luck.
Rodica
I'm in Prescott, and my lot has compacted fill, clay and rocks, plus caliche in some areas. There is no tilling happening here! To dig a planting hole, I scrape out a hole just deep enough to hold water, then I soak it, dig out some more, soak again, pry out the rocks, soak dig pry and repeat. I back fill with purchased garden soil mixed with the native soil minus the rocks, and mulch over the top with lots of bark or wood chips. Some things I've planted have survived; if not, at least I have the hole ready for the next candidate. You can see why I'm partial to yuccas, agaves, and various natives. The side-oats grama grass is doing well. My neighbor's raised bed and armored-against-critters vegetable garden does very well, that's the way to go if you want veggies.
I'd strongly suggest you visit Desert Botanical Gardens and the local nurseries that lean toward natives, to see what's available and how it can look. I don't think there's much in bloom right now, but some of the cactus flowers are spectacular. It's a whole different gardening world here, it's fun to explore and try different things. How about a picture of those pots for us?
Nopala,
I had a friend that lived in Prescott and I could not believe the hard (pun intended) work she had to do in order to get a little garden. In your area, maybe only dynamite will make an extensive garden possible. LOL
Some areas here do have good top soil, just not in my neighborhood. Raised bed gardens can do very well, but it takes chicken wire underneath to keep out the gophers, fencing around it to keep out the squirrels, bunnies, and javelina, plus bird netting over the top. Then you just have to keep after the insects! So I buy my veggies at the Farmer's Market and enjoy watching the wildlife around my house, no worries!
I do the same thing every Wednesday when the Farmers Market comes where I work, since I can not enjoy most of my crops because of the birds, :O(
There are lots of Aloes, Haworthias, and Gasterias that will do well on the north side of your house dmwade. The front of my house faces north and here are some of my plants which are mostly the 3 types I mentioned.
I see lots of the same plants I have on my north-facing patios. If I can keep them alive anyone can.
Thank you Nancy for sharing your pictures. You have some lovely plants that won't survive a Prescott winter, so I'm jealous! Do you have to cover them or take them inside when there are freeze warnings? How often do you water? Any special soil? Do any of them bloom? You have a very nice collection there, thanks for sharing!
I do cover them if there is a chance of frost. We usually don't have more than a few days in winter with frost (some years no frost). Quite a few of these can take 32 degrees for a short time, as long as it doesn't get into the 20s for the whole night.
I only water around once a week in summer and maybe monthly in winter.
I use Cactus soil amended with pumice (about half and half)
Yes, most bloom. Many are aloes and bloom mostly in winter. There is one with a bud stalk in the first photo.