Why not wait?

Are there Plant Police insisting you plant immediately?

So...is this one of those forums where everyone just makes snide remarks and flames each other? I haven't read around yet. I hope not.

No, but it is kinda slow here. How about Lantana or society garlic.

Hadn't thought of society garlic, but I put Lantana on the list last night! I found a catalog online called High Country Gardens (New Mexico) that specializes in plants that take the heat, too. Love it.

Everyone sings the raves of High Country :) Im glad you found it!

If you are looking for a quick seasonal fix on a budget, zinnias, portulaca, marigolds, and vinca can be grown from seed, and do well in the heat.

Lantana is beautiful but if your spring nights are chilly like ours, it won't come back until late May or won't bloom until June.

Salvia, on the other hand, blooms early, and thrives here, at 2500'. It comes in many beautiful colors of red, pink, blue, and lavender, and I have found it easy to grow from cuttings stuck in the ground throughout the spring and summer. If you can hook up with a local gardener, perhaps he or she will let you take snips of their plants.

Jan

I was pointing out that if you plan to put roses there when it cools off, waiting until you are ready to plant the roses might be a good plan.

1 - It saves money for the roses and other new house expenses.

2 - It saves effort (no planting the temp plants and no removing the temp plants)

Take the money you might spend on temporary flowers and buy the newest Sunset Western Garden book ... it answers all kinds of questions about what grows where.

2500 feet Jan? Yup! You are in my backyard! Ridgecrest CA

Be wary with High Country Gardens. They're a great place to shop, I do when I have the $$$, but their plants are meant for high country and not your heat zone.
I'm at about 3800 ft. and in the Chihuahua Desert and I have to be very careful about what I purchase from High Country. You're much lower in elevation and in a completely different desert so do your homework. I think High Country is almost done shipping for the Spring too. There must be a nursery near you that has plants for your area.
And why is this,
"Why not wait?
Are there Plant Police insisting you plant immediately?" considered flaming?
Sounds like great advice....

Good luck.

You might check out Las Pilitas Nursery and Tree of Life Nursery. They both sell California native plants that will do well in SoCal. Also, the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens in Claremont has experts available to answer questions on the first Saturday of the month from 10:00 to 1:00. They could probably suggest low water plants for summer in your area.

Wow! I was at Las Pilitas yesterday (they have a nice compact Manzanita I will probably put in the front yard), and read online about Tree of Life in San Juan Cap just last night. I may head over there tomorrow...didn't want to get on any freeways over the holiday weekend, though!

Thanks!

I bet some salvias wil make it through the heat planted a bit late. Like salvia gregii.

Oh1My! I really didn't think lazygardens was flaming to me it was just a statement of fact....maybe wrong

lol!

I didn't know it was a fact that there are plant police!

I just took it to mean, "What? Are you stupid or something?" and to me that is flaming.

No big deal...I'm over it :)

I hadn't been to the house much when I posted the question. Once I got out there to do some work, I saw that the soil was full of weeds that had sprouted...and weed seed from seasons past were abundant. A look to the side and I saw weeds galore coming up in the lawn. So what I did was, pulled all the weed in the beds, scooped up the seeds that laid in drifts at the bottom of the fence, and put down black vinyl. This is to kill the seeds I couldn't get to, while I rid the lawns of weeds.

So, much against the wishes of the H, there will be no summer color this year. I don't want to start out planting in August!