It’s hot. It’s humid. It’s summer. And seed collector Gary Maskarinec loves it.
“Especially in the heat, I enjoy working in the middle of the day,” says Maskarinec, who owns Wildlands Restoration. “It’s quiet out there. Everything slows down from the heat.”
Maskarinec and his wife, Bernadette Jilka, owner of the wholesale Nighthawk Native Nursery in Avra Valley, keep busy with their respective businesses.
She grows plants to sell to retail nurseries like Mesquite Valley and Desert Survivors. You can also find her plants at nonprofit plant sales.
He collects wildflower seeds at flower farms and mixes them at the couple’s central Tucson home. He packages those mixes into small packets and one-pound bags for retail sale at Green Things nursery, Native Seed/SEARCH retail store and Tohono Chul Park’s garden shop.
His seeds and her plants also are used to restore wild areas and landscape developed areas.
Several local garden centers also sell desert-friendly summer plants.
The couple believes many gardeners pretty much stop working their yards in the summer, mainly because it’s too hot for gardening and it seems too hot for flowers to survive.
But once heat-loving plants or seeds are in soil, the couple say, tending summer plants is very easy. And rewarding.
“It’s exciting when you see something germinating,” says Julka. “Everything is like a little miracle.”
“Now that the humidity is up, this is a great time to plant,” says Jilka. “You let the monsoon (rains) do the work.”
Quite a number of flowering plants do well in the Sonoran Desert summer. They include butterfly milkweed, wild fuschia, snapdragon vine, lavender spice, desert zinnia and desert senna. There’s also blue verbena, wild oregano, golden columbine and ruellia.
Maskarinec’s “Monsoon Mix” of 12 species includes red dome blanketflower, thimblehead, pale blue trumpets, pygmy aster and Arizona poppy.
He has other mixes that combine both spring and summer bloomers, allowing a garden bed to have flowers for most of the year.
At least 12 species of native bunch grasses also thrive in the humid heat and summer rains, including spruce tip gama and hairy gama.
Like plants for other seasons, these summer growers provide food and cover for birds and caterpillars. They cool the ground with their shade and provide pops of color. Grasses especially provide different textures and forms to the garden.
“They make a nice complement to the landscape,” says Jilka.
And they easily turn a sunny, bare spot into a colorful one.
PLANT CARE
Summer wildflower seeds will best germinate between the time monsoon rains appear and mid-July, says Maskarinec. While they can be planted before the rains, they won’t germinate until the ground temperature reaches about 90 degrees.
Scratch the desert ground with a rake. Mix the seeds and desert soil in a bucket, then spread the mixture on the ground. Cover up the seeds with more soil and gravel.
Water the seeds if you want, but Maskarinec suggests you just allow the monsoon rains make them sprout.
By late July, put in summer wildflower plants in order to get flowers more quickly, he says.
If you put the plants in pots, use a good potting soil, says Jilka. If planting them into the ground, “desert soil is good enough,” she says.
Desert plants like to grow under and around rocks, so top the soil with gravel or even river rock.
“The point is to not put artificial organic mixes,” she says. Desert plants will have a hard time adapting to the enriched soil.
Some plants will need some shade, so make sure you know which ones need protection from the sun. Jilka suggests picking a spot under a tree or in shadowy areas.
When the monsoon rains stop and there is no irrigation, many of the flowering plants will go to seed. Other summer plants will continue to bloom well into September and maybe into October.
As ground temperatures drop, the plants go dormant. Cut dry stalks back at this time.
Reseeded areas may have sprouts as early as May.
Grasses actually start growing in the spring. “They come real strong with the monsoons,” says Jilka, when they produce tiny flowers, then go to seed.
Grasses should be completely dried out before cutting them back. Doing so will keep the grasses healthy and full when they return in the spring.
GARDENER CARE
Fortunately, taking care of summer plants is pretty easy. If you do find yourself out in the garden during hot hours, follow these tips that Jilka and Makarinec do for maximum comfort.
- Drink a lot of water.
- Keep yourself shaded as much as possible.
- Cover yourself in cotton clothing–pants, long sleeves and hat.
- Wear a wet towel under your hat or around the back of your neck. When a breeze comes up, you’ll get an evaporative cooling effect.
