Great Plants and Ideas from Arizona Gardens Amazing tips

These tips and ideas inspired by the annual Phoenix Garden Tour are doable throughout the Southwest. What grows effortlessly in Arizona typically fares well in Southern California---except of course for saguaro cactus.

Here I also share Desert Botanical Garden highlights; provide tips for pots, hardscape and water features; and give advice from plant pros---all with the aim of helping you make your own garden more carefree and inviting.

The Phoenix Garden Tour is sponsored by Phoenix Home & Garden magazine

Garden tours are a great way to see plants and outdoor enhancements. Check the website of Phoenix Home & Garden Magazine for more about this particular tour. Note: Editor John Roark graciously comped me on it, no strings attached. 

If you've recently relocated to Arizona, don't try to grow plants from “back home.” Desert landscapes have a limited plant palette. Stick to it and you’re on your way to a beautiful, regionally appropriate garden.

Embrace cacti (well, not literally)

Know the three main forms of cacti: columnar, paddle and spherical. Discerning homeowners and designers consider them living sculptures.

Learn to prize opuntia. There are hundreds of varieties of paddle cactus, ranging in color from pink through shades of green to purple, with every warm flower color. The pads alone have a singular beauty. They face different directions to maximize the plant’s ability to photosynthesize.

Plant columnar cacti. Slender ceroids celebrate simplicity, throw interesting shadows, and are supremely low-maintenance.

Columnar cacti and yuccas at the Desert Botanical Garden

Grow golden barrels. These spiny yellow spheres make any garden look more upscale and sophisticated. The globes contrast well with large succulents, perennials, walls and hardscape. Plant barrels in multiples and cluster in big pots.

Collect totem poles. Lophocereus schottii are nonspiny columnar cacti with intriguing lumps and bumps. Like most succulents, they start readily from cuttings. See them in Janet Orr's Paradise Valley garden.

Plant trees ASAP

Trees provide shade for people and understory plants, add height, texture and greenery, enrich soil with fallen leaves, and many bloom beautifully. Phoenix favorites include palo verde, mesquite, Texas ebony, desert willow and Caesalpinia, but there are many others.

"Palo verde" refers to the trees' green bark

Use low-litter trees near pools. Palms are a good choice. Fronds glitter in the sun, produce intriguing sprays of flowers, and sound wonderful in the wind.

Heed Rich Zeh's recommendations

Aloe vera and others in this genus of Old World succulents have showy flower spikes. Most need afternoon shade.

In his Paradise Valley garden, succulent collector Rich Zeh grows Aloe brevifolia, which has a mounding, spreading growth habit; Aloe vaombe, a tree aloe from Madagascar with an unbranched trunk; Aloe cryptopoda, with red flowers; Aloe striata x maculata; Aloe dorotheae; and Aloe porphyrostachys from Saudi Arabia---an excellent aloe for the desert. (See photos in my Aloe Gallery.)

Rich also recommends dyckias, which he says are "good spreaders and can take full sun if watered."

Rich cultivates hundreds of different cacti, including one that deserves to be in more gardens: Astrophytum myriostigma. “It does great here,” Rich says. “It loves thin, poor soil and direct all-day sun.”

Astrophytum myriostigma, Rich Zeh photo

Use tough native succulents

Discover dasylirions. Also known as desert spoon or sotol, these slender-leaved natives are fountain-shaped, and grow to five or six feet in diameter over time. They’re hardy to zero degrees and are considered succulents because they store moisture in their cores. Dasylirions are easy to overlook, but they’re great gap-fillers, and need very little maintenance.

Dasylirion longissimum (Mexican Grass Tree)

Add color with hesperaloes, commonly known as brake lights. These thin-leaved succulents do fine in full sun. They’re often planted in Arizona street medians, and look best when massed.

Know how big an agave will get before planting it. Most species offset, producing pups where you don’t want them. Big bold Agave americana, the century plant, gets six to eight feet tall and as wide.

Agave parryi 'Truncata' thrives in dappled shade, and stays manageable at about 3 feet in diameter.

Add variegated agaves. Striped agaves look amazing when grouped or planted in multiples. Keep in mind that a variegate’s paler areas, having less pigment, tend to be more sensitive to sunburn than the darker green tissue.  These are Agave desmetiana with ferocactus in the foreground.

Agave americana 'Marginata' with orange mallow and other spring flowers

Plant Yucca species. These succulents store moisture in their trunks. They make good garden accents and produce large sprays of cream-colored flowers. My favorite is lovely blue Yucca rostrata.

Other must-have plants

Grow bougainvillea. Anyone who thinks desert gardens aren’t colorful needs to see all the red bougainvillea in Phoenix.

Isn’t this white variety of bougainvillea lovely against a white wall?

Plant Portulacaria afra (elephant’s food) in pots and terraces. It’s one of the best plants for carbon sequestration, and can handle desert climate extremes. Grow the pendant, solid-green variety and give it half a day’s shade.

Grow ornamental grasses. Their feathery textures contrast beautifully with walls and large hefty plants. Ornamental grasses have a similar shape as dasylirions, but need more water and to be cut nearly to the ground in winter.

Pink muhly grass is a favorite of Phoenix landscape consultant and "AZ Plant Lady" Noelle Johnson, author of Dry Climate Gardening (affiliate link). I’ve yet to grow it in my inland Southern California garden, and Noelle has convinced me I should.

Pink muhly grass has amazing color, texture and motion (in the breeze).

Garden Enhancements

Use planters to define sitting areas. Steel box planters (affiliate link) that develop a rust patina come in a variety of sizes. In these grow Russelia equisetiformis, commonly called firecracker plants, that attract hummingbirds. Palo verde trees add bright fluffy color and provide a privacy screen.

A topdressing of river rock echoes the silvery gray of the table and chairs.Add a fountain. Splashing water sparkles, lends motion, and provides wild birds a place to drink and bathe. In urban areas, the sound of dripping water helps drown out neighborhood noise and muffles private conversations.

Use large pots for focal points. Rather than a lot of small pots, which can cause clutter, go with a large one. A pot with the right scale and proportion for your entryway is a good investment.

I love the diamond texture on this pot...and its color. 

Install misters. One highly rated cooling system (affiliated link) that costs a paltry $15 on Amazon has 33 feet of outdoor misting line and 11 brass nozzles. It attaches to a standard hose bib and cools the surrounding air temperature by as much as 50 degrees F.

Doesn't this look dreamy? Misting systems are also supremely practical.

Include work by local artists. The finishing touch for your garden is artwork that withstands the elements and delights you. Not to mention it’s fun to explain to visitors how and why you chose it.

Enjoy shadows. Tucked inside this screened vegetable garden is a small metal table and chairs made of wire fashioned into circles. As the sun slowly moves, soothing shadows shift and overlap.

I didn't want to leave this garden because of the shadows.

Install artificial turf. Yes, it’s OK. Lawns need too much water and maintenance. Yet who doesn’t love the look? A swath of emerald green is soothing and refreshing.

 

This "lawn" doubles as a putting green.

Go with turquoise for your pool. A dark bottom absorbs the sun's heat and increases the water temperature, which is OK near the coast but uncomfortably warm where temps rise into the 90s and you need your pool the most.

Turquoise tiles mirror the sky and resemble blue ocean water near a white-sand beach.

Speaking of turquoise, Phoenix Home & Garden editor John Roark and I matched the pool. Photo: Lori Johnson

Related Info on This Site

See Rich Zeh’s 30-Year Succulent & Cactus Collection

Rich Zeh has an Aladdin’s trove of cacti and succulents. “I’m pretty much maxed out on space,” he says of his one-acre garden and greenhouse in Paradise Valley (Phoenix) Arizona.

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Tour an Arizona Estate Garden

For 15 years majordomo Woody Woodruff has kept everything running smoothly for billionaire homeowners on 7 acres in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, in Paradise Valley NE of Phoenix. His love of his “babies”—thousands of cacti and succulents—is evident, as is his Southern drawl.

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Design Ideas from an Arizona Artist’s Garden

Wait ’til you see these desert garden design ideas at Arizona artist Janet’s Orr’s home! Her whimsical outdoor gallery shows her eye for design, skill as a ceramic artist, love of color, and superb succulent savvy.

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Recognize and Avoid Weedy Succulents Amazing tips

Here you'll learn about and recognize succulents and cacti that become weedy, invasive nuisances if you make them too happy, and what to do about them. Keep in mind---as I explain elsewhere on this site---that your region, your garden's microclimates, and the time of year make a big difference as to which succulents are ideal or pose potential problems.

Avoid weedy succulents

Controlling invasive succulents can be as simple as not growing them to begin with. (How do you know which ones? Well, keep reading!) Unlike annual weeds---those that sprout in spring and are suddenly everywhere---most succulents are perennials.

Carpobrotus edulis (pickleweed, ice plant), planted extensively by CalTrans on freeway embankments, is native to South Africa. It's invasive along coastal California, causing instability of fragile bluffs.

Like all plants, succulents bloom, but not necessarily annually. When they do flower, most don't send forth a lot of seeds. Nor do the seeds always sprout (most don't).

A "Good" Succulent Weed

Purslane is a succulent weed worth having.

Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is both a vegetable and an annual weed. The taste is similar to watercress, so use it as you might spinach or lettuce. It's loaded with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, and is higher in Omega-3 fatty acids than other greens. I occasionally run across it when weeding my garden, so do watch for it in yours. Or start it from seed. Use it as an ornamental filler for succulent container gardens, hanging pots and window boxes. Discover more edible succulents. 

Unwanted pups: What to Do

Succulents that spread by underground runners---roots that grow parallel to the soil, just under the surface---produce clones that turn green (photosynthesize) when breaking into sunlight. Parent roots, similar to umbilical cords, feed the offspring until they're established.

Agave americana attempts to take over a streetside landscape

Pups of small succulents such as haworthias and dwarf agaves are seldom a problem, in fact, welcomed.

Haworthia retusa spread to fill a frog pot. Yay!

However, pups of large succulents have to be dug up if unwanted. This tends to be typical of large agaves.

Agave americana pups eager to escape from a pot

Like a protective mama bear, a mother agave has claws---thorny spikes along leaf margins. These make it challenging to remove offspring beneath Mom's leaves. Don't delay pup removal; all too soon they're big enough to fight back.

Most agaves pup. Among those less prone to do so are Agave victoriae-reginae, Agave 'Blue Glow', Agave guiengola, Agave ovatifolia, and Agave 'Sharkskin'. Learn more about agaves on this site and in my YouTube video: Agave Essentials and Essential Agaves.

Meet an invasive aloe

A common aloe that propagates by underground runners is Aloe maculata (formerly A. saponaria). About a year after planting it in a flower bed, I found pups three feet away. The soil was soft and friable, so I'd grab a pup, pull on it, and along with it came a long lateral root.

Aloe maculata (saponaria)

I moved the colony to a less hospitable part of the garden with native soil (clay and decomposed granite). They've been there ever since, spreading more slowly. Because they're free for the asking and not especially attractive (except in bloom) I refer to them as "trash aloes."

Aloe maculata (Aloe saponaria) is one of the few midsized aloes that spreads via underground runners

Too many offsets?

Fairy crassula (Crassula multicava) grows offsets (baby plants) on its flower spikes. I produced an article and video about it a few years ago: Grow Shade-Loving Fairy Crassula: A Succulent Ground Cover You'll Love.

A recent comment on my You Tube channel surprised me, but perhaps it shouldn't have:

Tiny plants on flower spikes form in winter. As these grow, ever-lengthening stems lower plantlets to the ground. If they land on good soil, they may take root.

Fairy crassula (Crassula multicava). Tiny plants grow on flower stems.

It's a brilliant strategy: The offspring---now a foot or so from their parents---don't compete for light or nutrients. Hence, a fairy crassula colony has the potential to spread endlessly.

Mother-of-millions kalanchoe

Like fairy crassula, these produce plantlets that fall off and root. Unlike fairy crassula, which produces plantlets on flower spikes, those of mother-of-millions fringe the leaves.

Kalanchoe delagoensis (tubiflora) is not a weed in my garden, alas.

Tall, pendant, tubular orange-red flowers are a bonus that makes the plants' weedy quality worthwhile (especially for those of us who have trouble growing them). Typical of kalanchoes, they prefer a maritime climate.

Succulents that break apart and root

Stem succulents start readily from cuttings, but most don't fall apart in order to do just that. These cacti are prized in some regions, reviled in others:

Cholla cactus

Eve's needle (Opuntia subulata or Austrocylindropuntia subulata) is my least favorite succulent---possibly my least favorite plant. It grows vigorously, isn't choosy about soil or other conditions, and falls apart if someone sneezes 10 feet away.

Eve's needle Opuntia subulata (Austrocylindropuntia) in a residential garden

Eve's needle has vicious, concealed, hooked spines that latch on to anything they can, thereby traveling with the victim and leapfrogging the colony. This is what chollas do---a common name is "horse cripplers," but Eve's needle is especially happy west of its native desert habitat. Unwitting homeowners have spread it throughout Southern California.

If you see Eve's needle in a nursery, don't buy it. If you own a nursery, please don't sell it. If you already have it, get rid of it; all too soon, it'll be tapping on your windows.

Opuntia (paddle) cactus

The many species of Opuntia have in common pads shaped like ping-pong paddles that grow and spread from each another. Each pad is capable of rooting where it falls, not merely from the point it had been attached, but also from any of its areoles (growth tissue at the base of spines).

Opuntia macrodasys, sweetly labeled in US nurseries "angel wings" and "bunny ears," is "blind cactus" in Australia. Cattle that consume it go blind after getting its tiny glochids in their eyes.

Native to the desert Southwest and Mexico, opuntia has many uses, from edible nopales to security fencing, so there are "pro's" to its "cons." However, some species are causing major problems in Australia, where no cacti are native. I found an interesting list of those that are harming Australia's economy and therefore are illegal to sell or own, on the Queensland Government site.

Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire'

It distresses me to include a gorgeous succulent, but this one has outworn its welcome. Specimens that start out manageable grow too large, then endanger owners and gardeners attempting to trim or remove them.

Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' gets unmanagably large over time

Milky sap that drips freely is sticky, caustic, and can send people to the hospital, especially if they get it in their eyes.

Yet, as noted earlier, one person's weed is another's treasure. This YouTube comment-question puts it into perspective:

A YouTube viewer in Georgia treasures her Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire'

Yuccas

You don't see yuccas springing up in gardens where they weren't planted. These super tough succulents do the opposite: Sit quietly in situ and grow and grow.

Immense yucca in a residential landscape

After a decade or so, their swollen bases may encroach upon and split the seams of walls, terraces or (God forbid) pipes and your home's foundation. I have no idea how old the magnificent Bay Area specimen is in the photo, but I'm guessing it was planted well over a generation ago. Hopefully it won't cause trouble; it seems far enough away from the house behind it.

Know of a weedy succulent I haven't included? Do tell us about it in a comment below. And I'd be grateful to know your own experiences with any mentioned above!

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Dangerous Succulents: Grow with Caution

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How to Prune and Handle Euphorbia tirucalli ‘Sticks on Fire’

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Agave Dermatitis: How harmful is agave sap? Are you susceptible?

You’re already wary of poison oak, cactus glochids and the milky sap of euphorbias. Add agave sap to the list. In susceptible individuals, it causes the skin condition “agave dermatitis.”

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Gap Fillers for a New Succulent Garden Amazing tips

Hi Debra, 

I’m a new subscriber and am enjoying binging your videos. What should I do to fill garden gaps while waiting for succulents to get big? I've put in a variety and left room for future growth. How can I make my new garden look finished? -- Kimmi C.

Hi Kimmi -- I have several ideas for you, but first, what are you doing to control weeds? It's so important! The thing is...

Bare soil + water + sun = weeds

In spring weeds are fairly easy to remove: Scrape the ground to uproot green shoots.  Hoe larger ones. Don't delay; by summer, when soil is no longer rain-soft and friable, weeds are tall, well-anchored and spitting out seeds.

Get 'em then prevent 'em. Spread pre-emergent herbicide (affiliate link), a granular that stops seeds from germinating. I can't emphasize this enough. Whenever I forget to apply "pre-emergent" around newly planted, in-ground succulents, I regret it. Weeds are sneaky, insidious and determined. Well, so am I. This is war.

Drum Roll...Three Simple Garden Gap-Fillers

(1) Plant a succulent ground cover, perhaps one of many ice plants coming into bloom. Spring is the best time to see them in gardens and nurseries. Edit these spreading plants as larger succulents need more space. See different ice plant varieties here on my site and on my YouTube channel:

(2) For a low-growing gap filler in shady areas, you can't beat fairy crassula. It fills in fast, blooms midwinter, trails nicely, and is easy to pull out. Often it's free---find a neighbor who has it and ask for cuttings. See the article here on my site or watch the video...

(3) Perhaps the easiest gap-filler is to topdress bare areas with crushed rock. Gravel makes any newly planted garden look finished right away, smothers weeds, holds moisture in the soil, and doesn't deteriorate like organic (bark) mulches. From an article on my site about a renovated succulent garden:

Newly planted succulent garden before planting and after. Design by Steve McDearmon of Garden Rhythms.

Above: If you were a weed, trust me, you'd definitely prefer the "Before." Once soil is topdressed, seeds that land find it difficult to germinate, root, and photosynthesize. (Evil cackle.)

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

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Ice Plant Uses, Photos and IDs

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Grow Shade-Loving Fairy Crassula

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Succulents and Way Too Much Rain Amazing tips

You’re aware that it’s death to succulents to overwater them, but did you know that under certain circumstances, they can handle much more water than they need? It's something I've observed for years in my own garden.

Because succulents growing at the top of a steep slope get excessive amounts of rain every winter, I've worried they might drown or rot. Sporadically, these dozen or so fat-leaved plants get significantly more water than similar specimens elsewhere in the garden---at least 100 times as much, and that's conservative.

It's because they're directly beneath a gutter that overflows during cloudbursts, sending a rooftop of rain directly onto them. This winter wasn't the first time that's happened, but it was likely the most in terms of quantity. In the past, my slope-top succulents continued to grow---even thrive---despite being deluged.

The winter waterfall

The roof gutter overflows 20 feet above the plants. After drenching them, the water flows and filters into the lower garden. The gutter doesn't need fixing, so every year I merely observe it, and every year I wonder how long the succulents beneath it can tolerate it.

Similar to their native habitats, the area’s small- to medium-sized aloes cling to what likely feels to them to be a "cliff." Soil along the top is coarse, pebbly and shallow. Several years ago, to keep the soil from washing away, I piled pieces of broken pottery around the plants. That did not, however, slow or minimize the intensity or quantity of the winter waterfalls.

This week, aloes and several other types of succulents at the top of the slope got pounded, but they're doing fine. The reason can only be superb drainage. Although their roots are continually wet, succulents in that spot never sit in a puddle. It makes sense that as long as water drains rapidly, succulent roots won't drown or rot!

Assessing the Damage

So yet again my aloes are fine despite downpours. However I did lose a venerable potted Euphorbia obesa. There's no excuse. I should have moved it under cover. Vinnie, a newsletter subscriber in my area, lost a pachypodium. Such bulbous-trunked succulent trees can rot fast. Like barrel cacti, one day the plant's fine; the next, a spiky, goopy husk.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather have my phone blare "hail in 20 minutes!" than a flash-flood warning. (But then, I'm alongside a canyon, not IN one.) Hail is infuriating---it's sudden, and it causes pitting on leaves that takes plants months to replace with new growth. Except aloes. What IS it about aloe leaves? They're brittle but don't show damage from impact.

What to do

To find out how I protect my vulnerable succulents from storms, and how afterward I check for damage (such as rot), go to: "Help Your Succulents Survive Rain, Hail, Frost" on my YouTube Channel and also the corresponding page here on my site.

Protect Your Succulents From Rain, Hail, Frost

Prolonged damp and cold are death to succulents. Rot begins in the soil and goes up the trunk. Tissues soften, turn dark, and leaves fall off.

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