Your gardens are ready — for cut backs, new plants, it is time! The next week will be unseasonably warm but then we get back to average temperatures in the 70s and the long range outlook is great!!
Now is the time to cut back your damaged plants. Prune back any deadwood that was hit by the freezes. Also remove any potted plants that have no root system left.
Go to the nurseries and choose plants that you like and if you are planting flowers, look for ones that I call “Shoulder Season” plants. Petunias, snapdragons, dianthus, marigolds and cosmos are good choices for these large temperature range days we have. You can certainly add some late season pansies and violas – you will get about 2 months out of them.
This is a great time to plant up some cactus and perennials too! Love hummingbirds? Try some salvia.
Have some fun as it has been a long winter!
- Tammy Graves
- Marylee, Desert Potted Gardener
Have a question? Email Marylee
This article appears in Mar 7-13, 2013.
I, like you, love our “unseasonably warm” weather forecast.
In fact, it has emboldened me to pop in some tiny zinnia and marigold seeds into my pots.
But what I keep learning, Marylee, is that I get even better, more fulsome blooms from those zinnias and marigolds seeds I nurture.
Than I have ever gotten from those “sets” that I once bought from the nurseries you recommend.
Hi – the seeds do the best but I am too impatient to wait for them to grow. 🙂 Some of my most successful zinnias were volunteers!! I also only buy 4″ plants and larger as the jumbo or six pack root systems are too small to have a great success rate in our heated soils.