How and why to plant petunias for the winter in Phoenix, Arizona

-

Petunias do great in Phoenix. The best planting time is late October or November, but you can plant them all winter. In fact, the only time you shouldn't plant them is in spring. If you're from back east, that may sound strange, but things are different here in the desert.

This year I decided to plant one in a pot, a nice big one. It's October 27th as I write this, and with regular watering, it will look great until the heat starts to set in, which here is in the spring. So I will get about five months of enjoyment from this plant. It's an annual, after all, and if I were planting it back in Minneapolis, where I grew up, I wouldn't get that much time between spring and the cold of winter.

Normally I plant them in the ground, usually from six-packs, but this year I have a puppy who still hasn't learned not to dig in the garden, and freshly-planted flowers would just be too much of a temptation for her. Even this pot will get her interest, but it's on the patio and I can watch it carefully.

I got the plant at Home Depot, which is where I recommend that you get annuals, because you want them young and fresh. Nurseries without that much rapid turnover tend to not have annuals quite as fresh. Your results may vary, but that's been my experience. The plant cost five dollars and forty-eight cents plus tax, which hurts a bit considering that I started planting six-pack annuals when they were ninety-nine cents. Oh well.

I selected a pot that will allow it to grow, and it will. You can't see it, but there's a drainage platter under the pot, which will allow me to water it generously without getting a bunch of water spilled out on the patio. What you're looking at right now is right after it was potted, so I'm watering it slowly, going back, adding more water, letting it soak in, going back. The potting soil is party some old stuff I had, and party some new potting soil. I added in some dry fertilizer and some moisture crystals. The watering can has both Miracle-Gro in it, and Superthrive. I believe in doing everything, as you can tell!

This will make a nice display all winter!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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