When to plant petunias in Phoenix, Arizona

-

The best time to plant petunias in the Phoenix, Arizona area is from October to January. It's been very hot lately, and although it's October 4th, this year I'm going to wait another week. And yes, you can plant them all winter. If you get them in and established in October they will have their best chance to grow as much as possible before they die in April.

Yes, I know it seems kinda funny. I grew up in Minnesota, and the season for planting petunias there is spring. Here in Phoenix it's fall. It never gets too cold for petunias in Phoenix, you just don't want to plant them when the temperatures are too high, which can last through September, and early October. As I write this, it's 97 degrees. Too hot to plant yet! Next week!

I've planted petunias many times here at the Tropical Paradise. The photo at the top this post is from 2012, and that was a great year. Petunias love water, so you really can't overwater them here. And Phoenix tends to get what I call "Christmas Rains" which are gentle rains in the cooler months, which are wonderful for annuals.

My plan this year is going to be a little bit different. I'm always experimenting! I normally buy a lot of small plants, but instead I'm going to buy them at a gallon size. There are several places in the garden where I can move some river rocks temporarily, and that will give me places for planting right up front where I can water and care for them (and see them!) the best. As usual, I will mix in plenty of fresh potting soil in the planting hole, and add coffee grounds. I save my coffee grounds from when I have my morning coffee, and you can also get bags of it for free at your local Starbucks (they're happy to get rid of it, they're just going to throw it in the garbage). Coffee grounds help acidify the soil, bring organic nutrition to the plant, and besides, it smells good. Dig it in and mix it up into the planting hole, along with some moisture crystals and slow-release plant food.

I just learned from a gardening friend that purple petunias stay in bloom the longest, so I'm going to do purple and white. It should be beautiful! I can't wait for next week!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to tell if your cycad (sago palm) is alive or dead

-
Image
Cycads are strange plants. They're beautiful, and look like small palm trees, or large ferns. They grow very slowly, and can be very expensive, even common ones like "sago palms". But sago palms, in spite of their common name, aren't palms at all. They belong to a group of plants called cycads. They are wonderfully weird, and grow in strange ways. And sometimes they lose all of their leaves. Of course, if it were a palm tree that lost all of its leaves, you would know that the plant was dead. But it's not true of cycads. So don't dig that cycad up and throw it away! Not yet. If you've recently transplanted a cycad, and the leaves have all faded away, hang on. Take a look at the top center of the plant, at what I call "the pucker". There you will see some stubby, soft fronds, no more than an half-inch or so. At least that's what you should see. That means that the plant is still alive, and has dropped its leaves to focus on building r...
Read more

Rooting sago palm pups for more plants

-
Image
Once a sago palm ( cycas revoluta ) reaches a certain level of maturity, it starts to create pups. Like agaves, these are little plants that are exactly the same as the parent plant, only smaller. And yes, you can trim them off and grow them into new plants. This is how to do it. Cut them off from the parent plant with a sharp knife. If there are any roots at the bottom, try to save them, but chances are there won't be any. That's not a problem. The next step is rooting them. Douse the cut part and the bottom of the plant with some garden sulfur and some rooting hormone powder. Rooting hormone powder is pretty easy to find at your local Home Depot. I had to go to a real nursery to get garden sulfur. Anyway, the idea is to keep the little plant from rotting while giving it time to grow its own roots. Sago palm pups being rooted Bury them fairly deep in some free-draining mix. It should include volcanic pumice, if you can find it, and if not, you can use perlite. I ...
Read more

Growing sunflowers from Pennsylvania in Arizona

-
Image
It's October 21st, and I just received some sunflower seeds from a friend in Pennsylvania. Their season is ending and the season for planting here in Arizona is just beginning, and I'm kinda wondering if the seeds are wondering what's going on? It's spring again already? If you're new to the Phoenix, Arizona area, and are from back east it must seem kinda strange that fall and winter is our flower season, but it is. By springtime it will start to get so hot here that the flowers will die, and of course back east the season is just beginning.  Sunflowers growing in Peoria, Arizona, about a mile from where I live I've seen sunflowers blooming around my neighborhood of Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, in the winter, and although I've never grown them I understand that they're easy to grow. I guess I'll find out - I learn best by doing! The seeds arrived safely, and it's my understanding that they were still connected to the spent flower (I do...
Read more