Herbaceous flowers
This section is not designed to be comprehensive. A wide variety of plants can be grown here, even though the choice available in commercial nurseries is very limited.
Most of the plants you would recognise in a Temperate garden, but surprisingly, the reverse is not true. Many plants, which in Temperate countries would be considered to require a good hot summer, will not grow here. Some examples that I have tried many times are Californian poppy (Eschscholzia), Salpiglossis, and poppies (Papaver). In some cases, the plant will grow, but getting them to flower is extremely difficult - an example is lavender. In the particular case of nasturtiums, which also grow but do not flower, flowering is known to require cold nights (not something we have even in the middle of winter, unless you are far away from the coast). Others may have a problem over flowering being triggered by a particular daylength (Temperate summers may have the same temperature, but they have long days).
Most of the plants you would recognise in a Temperate garden, but surprisingly, the reverse is not true. Many plants, which in Temperate countries would be considered to require a good hot summer, will not grow here. Some examples that I have tried many times are Californian poppy (Eschscholzia), Salpiglossis, and poppies (Papaver). In some cases, the plant will grow, but getting them to flower is extremely difficult - an example is lavender. In the particular case of nasturtiums, which also grow but do not flower, flowering is known to require cold nights (not something we have even in the middle of winter, unless you are far away from the coast). Others may have a problem over flowering being triggered by a particular daylength (Temperate summers may have the same temperature, but they have long days).
In general, plants do not spread out to anything like the size you would expect in a Temperate country, probably due to the problem of dry soils (Temperate soils are usually damp to a considerable depth, while desert soils are usually only damp for a few cms deep, unless you are grossly overwatering!).
This means that to end up with a good coverage, you are planting at a much higher density (20 cm apart for petunia and marigolds). Thus in the marigold bed in the photo to the left, there are 300 plants, while the petunias in the header at the top consist of 450 plants, although obviously the photo only covers a small part!). When preparing a bed, you will have to work out long beforehand how many plants you need (and by experience, you can factor in how many seedlings you expect to die!). Since you need to first plant the seedlings in pots to get their roots established, you have to consider how many pots you have. Thus the marigold bed (photo to the left) was planted in 2 lots - the 2nd batch had to wait for the 1st batch to vacate their pots, which for marigolds takes 2 weeks. The petunias were planted in 3 batches of 150 plants and petunias take 3 weeks to get big enough to plant out. Note in the photo that when preparing the bed, it was dug as a row of shallow troughs, so that watering would be more even (filling up one trough after another). |
If you are going to plant in to pots, you need to consider the size as well as number of your available pots. Pots should not be too shallow or the root system will be too small to support the plant when it is out in the sun, and you will get stunted plants.
How many plants per pot will obviously depend on the future size of the plant. Thus in the photo, the petunias are 1 per pot, while the pansies are 3 per pot. Bigger plants obviously need bigger pots (the blue ceramic pot in the top left corner contains a Canna, while even bigger pots contain bushes such as Hibiscus. |
If you are short of space for your pots, maybe you should consider going vertical, like the suspended pots of petunias in the photo. When buying pots: all the plastic pots at the front of the photo below have liners (a false base) - it is much easier to repot the plant from such a pot. The ceramic pots at the back have no drainage holes, so they all contain Cannas which are not bothered by waterlogging of the pot. |