There is a Nursery Co-op Sale going on and I found some Xeriscape plants on their website. I was wondering if any of you would be interested in buying any of these plants that I found? This is a wholesale nursery that we as a group can buy from. They sell the plants in lots and then we would split the order and get the wholesale price.
I've gone to High Country Garden and looked there for ideas, then checked to see the the nursery that is envolved with the Co-op buying has any. These are what I have found so far, maybe you can find more.
Achillea Millefolium: Appleblossom
Agastache: Coronado-Golden Jubilee-Heather Queen-Black Addar-Blue Fortune
Penstemom:Sunburst Ruby-Husky Red-Beautiful Blue-
Pike's Peak-Red Rock.
Perouskia: Little Spire.
Artemesia:Silver Mound.
Lavandula:Hidcote Pink
Nepeta: Dawn To Dusk-Walker's Low.
Salvia: Rhapsody In Blue- and Eveline.
Co-op sale going on the Co-cop forum: found some Xeriscapes
Mmmm - they sound wonderful - I hope you get some takers. Most of them would fry here, other than the Artemesia, which I have. Shoot!
It's worth a look at the place they're buying from - www.nwbulbs.com. I think there are many others that are xeric, but you have to know what you are looking for.
If there was interest, I'd consider hosting a limited coop - just a few varieties.
Here are a few more xeric plants that nwbulb offers that, again may or may not be on the coop.
Asclepia Tubersoa
Delosperma: Nubigenum, Starburst, Tasble mountain
Carex: Testacea, Buchananii, Ice Dance, Siderosticha, Kaga Nishiki
Euphorbia: Black Bird, Amygdaloides
Gaillardia: Arizonia sun, Fanfare, Burgundy, Goblin
Rudbeckia: Black Beauty, Indian Summer
Miscanthus: Puenktchen, Little Zebra, Purpurascens, Gracillimus, Morning Light
Oenothera macrocarpa
Sedum: Autumn Fire, Brilliant, Dragon's Blood, Rubarb Mountain, Frosty Morn, Matrona, Autumn Joy, Iceberg, Xenox
Stipa tenuissima
Yucca Bright Edge
Pagancat, most of them would fry? I live in the desert also and spend April-Oct in temperatures well over 100. I've done extensive research and Agastaches, Penstemons, Salvias, Miscanthus, Oenothera, Sedums, Miscanthus, Stipa, Yucca, Asceplias, Delosperma, Gaillardia, Carex and Euphorbia, stand up to the 115-120 degree heat here. And We're almost there, too. It's only mid april and we're already in the 90's.
jessmerritt, aren't most echinaceas xeric?
I'm afraid I have to agree with Pagancat. Most of those will fry here. It is true that SOME types of salvia, penstemon, oenothera, asclepias etc. do well here but most of what is listed won't make it in Phoenix : (
I lived in Bullhead City for a year and was amazed at the fact that I'd have to have air conditioning on in order to keep an aquarium cool enough! I didn't have one. Naively, I wanted lots of windows in my rental for plants. Wrong. I had to cover the west windows with insulating bubble to deflect the heat. I set up a kids' mister on my tiny patio to keep a couple of colorful pots alive. Gardening there is a real study!
(But I still love the heat and sooooo miss the sunshine here in the land of neverending rain)
Yeah,Jess - I'm not sure what it is - perhaps the intensity of the sun? How long the season lasts? I really don't know, but I wish it weren't that way - like Hawaiisam sez, "our" penstemons do fine, but others have to be watered more to keep them going, and you probably know how much they like *that*, same with some of the others. Some stuff you can just keep in a shadier area and baby through the summer - there's a gal here in Phoenix who grows Hydrangea and Hostas, but needless to say, she isn't much into the xerics.... but my point is, much of your list is sun-loving stuff that just won't take the shade.
But, I might be talked into the A. tuberosa, just as a try..........
Oh 4paws - I miss having "weather"! I know I'm in the minority, but I like storms, love high winds, lightning and such... I'm starting to get bored with sun, sun, sun and more sun. And the summers are just plain brutal. Bullhead city... how long did you live there?
I was only there for a year, but in western Colorado for ten years before that. I think the desert is gorgeous, but I had the idea of staying in BHC for the school year and heading to the hills for the summer.
I enjoy the environment around me, but this continual rain and gloom is not for my personality. I grew up in upstate NY where the average annual days of sunshine was 60. As soon as possible, I headed west to lands of everlasting sun and big, blue sky. I understand the value of rain, especially after ten years in the high desert, but....
I would be happier if I were a frog right now. lol
So are you guys going to (or did you) add these plants onto the current NWbulb coop? Or do you want to start your own, or just talk about it? How did they say to figure out the price? I can't remember.
For the other thread, the price of the plants + shipping + paypal fees.
I am not going to add anything on to the other order. I think Melissa has her hands full now, and I believe it is closed to new varieties. She intends to order on Tuesday, so the cut off is Monday.
I'm interested in talking more about the potential of a coop. If there were 5-10 xeric use plants that you might want from nwbulbs, what would they be?
I want echinaceas, gaura (whirling butterflies), salvia, penstemon, agastache, ...
However, I was spending time on Bluestoneperennials.com and it seems they have a good selection and prices are reasonable for orders of three plants of any particular type, so another coop may not be necessary. Shipping from them is reasonable, as well. I have no experience with them.
Something to consider about these plants: they are roots only, packed in bags of 25. Some are cells, as is the Asceplias Tuberosa.
Does the stipa have sharp seeds that stick in fur and socks? If not, I'd put that on my list of wants.
If it's Stipa tenuissima, it is almost as lovely and soft as fur, 4paws. >smile< No stickers.
Then I want that, too!
Actually, by the time all that I "need" to buy is bought, I might be too broke to host a coop! Not that everything I ordered on the other coop is necessary! I have to remember the time involved in nurturing all those new plantings, as well. I bet every gardener is having that "problem" now!
oh dear.
$$kaching$$
I'm really interested in getting a variety of echinaceas and some grasses....
Bluestone is having a 15% off sale, so I think I'm going to blow the rest of my budget there. They don't have all the echinaceas, but they have some. I'll order Echinacea Rubenstern (3/$6.97) and Magnus (3/$11.01). I'm also getting Coreopsis grandiflora Mayfield Giant (3/$9.31), Gaura Whirling Butterflies (3/$11.01), Berlandiera (Chocolate Flower) (3/$9.31), and, and, and...oh my.... I think I need an intervention. I just sent an order for shrubs to Forest Farm (6 coffeeberry shrubs, 1 baby's breath (also xeric), 1 wine cup calirhoe, and bear grass (for baskets). I've already committed to 25 plants on the coop: grasses, sedum, echinacea, papaver (a new one for me; may be too fussy), and hostas for the shady side of our house.
What I know about some plants being xeric is what I've learned from HCG over the years and a little bit of experience. This knowledge really helps on non-xeric/water use sites, because they don't really give clear watering requirements. ie. average, regular water = avg/regular to where?
I'm hoping to talk a friend into taking at least one of everything...lol)
It seems zonal geraniums are rather xeric as well. I don't know how cold they can take it, but mine in pots have made it through their second winter on the outer railing of the deck and it snowed this year enough to stick for several days. My jade is also xeric, but handles lots of winter water. The snow did make it lose its leaves, but they're coming back.
rambling on...what else when it's raining and cold?
I'm seeing dollar signs, too. I have a good excuse though...new house with absolutely nothing in the yard except bermuda grass (yuck!). I'd appreciate the xeric co-op so much that if I'm considering hosting it now, too. I've just never hosted one before and am terrified of screwing it up.
You've got rain. I'm envious. It hasn't rained here since sept. of last year and it's already blistering, too. See, I really need xeriscape plants, lol. I have some Geranium sanguinem and they are really tough. They've made it through the heat, drought and a few rare freezes this winter. I really have to give geraniums credit.
Hmmm....
It's really tempting. I know where you're coming from. I don't have the same terrain, but we have three acres. The first one came with our house we bought two years ago. Since then, I've become a contractor/construction worker/boss/tile layer/landscaper/dog rescuer/general laborer.... It's overwhelming with the number of directions I want to go. So I'm really working on the priorities.
Thus, in the planting department, I want to get my foundation plants in. Shrubs that will be for privacy and boundaries - starting with the coffeeberry are first. I had to back off from getting all the shrubs I would like this year, because the cost i huge, and the work to keep everything alive is time consuming at the least. I want to add ceaonthus and manzanita with the coffeeberry. They are all native and should do pretty well. Plus, I'll transplant native wild roses between them.
I want to have a variety of echinaceas, and have been interested in the for a long time, but haven't been ready for them. So this year I would really like to get several varieties, but not more than 3-5 of any one.
Jess, how many of any individual variety would you want?
I just d-mailed you, jessmerrit, but I think all that information is now moot.
I don't want regular lawn grass, either.
I have some though, and it's got to go. A contractor who was working here in the fall of 2004 thought he was doing a cool thing and spread grass seed around without asking. I knew it was dusty and would get muddy, but I sure didn't want to fight grass!
Foxtails and things that can hurt my dogs (and me when they get in my socks and other places of discomfort!) are what concern me most. I was told that regular grass mixtures are meant to be moved, therefore many of the varieties, when they go to seed, make prickers. I'd let grass grow and just whack it sometimes, but I don't want the manicured lawn thing. I'm trying to go mostly native, with big statements of color that I can also use for cut flowers, but that won't need heavy watering. We get no rain (supposedly) in the summer and though we have irrigation, it is an old system and not high on the tribe's priority list to keep running, since at this point, it's free.
Someday I want to set up large water tanks and collect winter rain to irrigate my various gardens (plantings?) and also to be prepared for wildfires, which is a factor in the boundary plantings, as well.
Check out bluestoneperennials.com
They really have a good selection of grasses, agastaches, sedums, echinaceas, and other xeric plants, but you can buy in smaller quanties, and they are already plants. The company gets good reviews here on DG.
This message was edited Aug 4, 2006 10:13 PM
My last order came Fed Ex 3-day, but it was already on the truck so my delivery woman brought it by in just 2 days. Of course, I'm closer, than AZ, but it's hot in those trucks.
I don`t know where Hoopa is but I imagine in the bay area or near Oregon? I too live in ahot zone so these plants won`t do well for me either and I have to agree, the hot hot summer thing gets old. I wanted the monsoons but this year You Az. people aren`t shootin over our way.
Hoopa is about 100 miles south of the Oregon border as a bird flies, 300 from San Francisico. It's quite remote, if considering how far one has to go for groceries and such, except for the not so great grocery store. It gets quite hot in the summer, rains and average of 57 inches a year, last year about 60. The winters put me into a deep depression because I can't get outside and the lack of sun. I hope I can erect a simple greenhouse and put a roof over part of our deck, so that should help.
Where is Rosamond?
Rosamond is where the gates to the Edwards Airforce base is (space shuttle landings). It is an hour SE of Bakersfield and an hr I/2 N of LA. Why do you live there if you hate it and it doesn`t sound like there is much in the way of employment? Are you retired?