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Several groups of plants such as cacti and succulents and warm season lawn grasses actually prefer to be transplanted in the summer.

Warm Season Planting
by David Salman

Summer planting is generally not recommended for many plants that appreciate cooler temperatures to get established. But there are several groups of plants such as cacti and succulents and warm season lawn grasses that actually prefer to be transplanted now. We are now shipping cacti, Agave, Iceplants and other succulents, ornamental grasses, native Buffalo/Blue Grama lawn grass plugs and seeds all summer. We’ll resume shipping of all our other plant groups August 24th beginning with USDA zones 3-6.

Some of my personal favorites in the succulent group of plants include Agave (Century Plants) and Delosperma (Iceplants). In fact, I often plant these two together using the Iceplants to carpet and color the ground around the Century Plants. Because I garden in the cold USDA zone 6 (-10°F winter low) grasslands of northern NM, I use only very cold hardy species of these outstanding garden plants.

The cold hardy Iceplants (Delosperma) are a perfect fit for use in our xeriscapes because of their vigorous spreading growth habits, evergreen foliage and shimmering, brightly colored flowers. They are especially useful for covering and cooling down areas of hot gravel mulch (that has become very common as people have ripped out their high water use blue grass lawn and replaced it with gravel). By using an assortment of varieties you can have Iceplants blooming from early to mid-spring through summer. My favorites include ‘Lesotho Pink’, ‘Blut’, dyeri ‘Red Mountain’ and Delosperma nubigenum (which will tolerate dappled sun and afternoon shade).

The Century Plants (Agave) are the living sculptures in our xeriscapes, beautifying our yards with their often daunting spines, geometrically arranged leaves in soothing colors of blue, gray or green. They range in size from miniature species like Agave toumeya v. bella to 3 to 4 ft. wide giants like Havard’s Century plant (Agave havardiana) from West Texas. Now is the time to plant as they love heat and need hot weather to re-establish their extensive root systems.

Opting for a more water sensible lawn? Consider planting native Blue Grama grass and Buffalo grass now. Instead of high water blue grass or ugly, hot patches of gravel mulch, these species are excellent options that provide cooling green lawns that use 50-75% less water than Kentucky Blue Grass!

These warm season grasses need hot weather to become active (as opposed to cool season grasses that are in active growth during cool fall and spring weather).

Photos in this article by David Salman, Copyright © 2009

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New for Fall, 2009: Berry Producing Plants!

I want to share with our High Country Garden customers my excitement about planting cold hardy grapes and berry plants in our home xeriscapes. Home food production is becoming very popular. Along with fruit trees and vegetable gardens, these are long lived plants that will provide you with tasty, nourishing fruit for many years to come. Grapes are an excellent multipurpose vine that can provide both food and shade (on arbors or trellises) or screening (of unsightly views by planting on wire fences). We’re offering uncommon cold hardy seeded and seedless varieties suitable as table grapes and for wine and juice making.

In addition to my work at High Country Gardens, my family and I have been in the commercial raspberry business for over 25 years. I’ve been amazing by these tough, productive, long lived plants. So I decided it’s time we started to offer the best cold hardy raspberries and black berries for our home gardens. All our berry plants have been selected for abundance of fruit and ease of cultivation. No complicated pruning and trellising like older varieties; simply cut the old canes to the ground each winter. New canes emerge in the spring and flower in mid-summer, thus missing damaging late spring frosts. The fruit begins to ripen a month after flowering begins. You'll enjoy 4-6 weeks of late summer-early fall picking with friends and family. Yum!!!

All our grapes and berries thrive in our Western climates as well as the Mid-West and eastern areas of the US with medium to very cold winters (USDA zones 4-8 ).

View all new plants for Fall, 2009.