AN EXPLANATION OF THE TERMS USED WHEN TALKING ABOUT GROWING REQUIREMENTS

SUN
These categories will help you get your plant established in about the right place. It seems counter-intuitive, but most plants want full sun. Only plants from higher elevations or entirely different climates will need a break from the sun. However, conditions that reflect heat are different than full sun situations. Plants in nature have sometimes evolved in places with lots of rocks and have learned to tolerate reflective heat. But many plants have evolved around situations lacking the reflective heat and may burn. Some plants have evolved in mesquite bosques and can tolerate shade, at least while young. Most plants tolerate a range of sun conditions.

DEEP SHADE—a shadow can barely be cast
BRIGHT SHADE—there is no direct sun, but you can cast a shadow
FILTERED SUN—like under the edge of a mesquite, sun gets through in small specs consistently all day
PART SUN—usually means sun for around 6 hours
FULL SUN—unimpeded sun all day, but without reflected heat
REFLECTED SUN—full sun, near reflective walls, sidewalks, or gravel which intensifies full sun.

WATER
Communicating the correct watering for a plant is difficult because it requires knowing more about the soil. Someone with unimproved clay soil will have to respond differently than someone with improved loamy soil. How the water is applied is also important: are you using a drip system? Watering by hand using basins? What season is it? Is your plant dormant? These designations only get you in the ballpark, you must respond to the situation. Watering guidelines ALWAYS refer to when the plant is established. Even cacti need help getting started, particularly on dry years when not much rain is falling. THESE CATEGORIES REFER TO ESTABLISHED PLANTS IN THE GROUND. Plants in containers need water much more frequently. Here is more information on WATERING PLANTS.

RAINFALL—plants with this rating can live on rainfall ONCE ESTABLISHED, but remember on the dry years to give such plants some extra water when it hasn’t rained in a wile.
LOW—this means plants can look good with minimal but deep watering, perhaps a thorough watering about once a month (in summer).
MODERATE—this means the plant can take a deep watering about every two weeks in summer.
GARDEN—this designation is for vegetable and herb gardens. They are watered a few times a week in summer. This is usually in well-amended soil.
RIPARIAN—this usually means the plant needs water fairly often; once a week or more, and in nature are in places near places that get running water. Wild plants that are riparian are usually found near the edges of running water or in washes that are running fairly often.
BOGGY—these are plants that can handle standing water for extended periods.

SOIL
This is an important subject. Often people will say things like “native plants don’t need compost when planting”—the problem with this thinking is that we often aren’t dealing with NATIVE SOIL. Long before we got to where we are, bulldozers have done their worst, erasing the successional history of the soil, that is removing the many years of organic material that accumulated. What is more, our soil is often also eroded, having been further degraded. Also we need to designate between plants that can grow in clay soils with low drainage, from plants that require good drainage. A hint: most plants want good drainage. But some can tolerate clay soils more than others. We will list what a plant prefers and also try to list conditions that a plant is likely to not do well in. Here are some of the terms we might use. Here is more information on SOIL & NUTRITION.

UNIMPROVED—this usually means no compost was added. Some plants can tolerate these conditions.
IMPROVED—this means, upon planting, some digging, breaking up dry chunks, and addition of compost has happened.
CLAY—clay soil had tiny particles and allows for little air.
SANDY—this condition is common in our region, particularly around washes. Sandy soil is great but needs frequent feeding and compost.
ROCKY—many regions, like foothills of mountains, have rocky, often granite based soils. These soils are a bit like sandy soils, and are not bad if amended and some feeding occurs.
CALICHE—though talked about more than is actually common, caliche is a large deposit of calcium carbonate, or sometimes its just parent rock (because of so much erosion). It makes digging difficult and sometimes you will need to break up the deposits to ensure there is some drainage. The caliche can be underneath other types of soil conditions. Many people with massive caliche deposits will use raised planter beds rather than jackhammer through what is essentially solid rock.
GARDEN SOIL—this is highly improved soil that one has worked on, best for non-native garden plants or vegetable gardens.

HARDINESS
This discussion will often accompany a low temperature. It is important to remember that in our region, low temperatures happen for a very short period, usually the few hours before the sun comes up during the winter. Plants have a general hardiness but genetic variations may occur. Also, determining exactly how cold it gets in a particular area is difficult in a dry region where low temperatures can fluctuate almost foot-to-foot. South-facing walls and nearby trees can make a location warmer and create a microclimate where you can grow more frost-tender plants. You can also make a plan to cover plants on the cold nights (cloth is always best). Some plants may not have an exact hardiness because they haven’t been tested—especially the plants we deal with, since we grow a lot of native plants that haven’t been in cultivation at all or for very long. We do our best to give you an idea. The plant’s native elevation (and region) will help you determine frost hardiness.

BASIN
For those of you who are doing basin-planting as per Brad Lancaster’s guidelines, we have recommendations on where in a basin a plant can do well. Once again, guidelines refer to ESTABLISHED PLANTS. Plants may take a year or so to become established and you must have a plan for watering during that time. Landscaping like this aims at getting off city water and using mostly or only rain water. Just be aware that plants may look bad during dry spells without some help. And remember there are times where we are experiencing extreme drought and some supplemental watering is required. Here is further information on PLANTING ZONES.

BOTTOM ZONE: the lowest part of the basin that might sometimes be full of water
MIDDLE OR TERRACE ZONE: the middle part of the basin perimeter where plants are terraced in
TOP ZONE: the highest and driest part of the basin

CONTAINER
Some plants do better in containers than others. Here we can give you an idea. And who would know more than we would know since we grow plants in containers for a living.

NUTRITION
Even native plants need nutrition. Usually they get it from decaying organic matter that enters the soil. Some plants live in areas that accumulate more organic material than others. Creosote bushes grow in flats, sometimes with little else growing, and can tolerate soils with low nutrition. Other plants grow in mesquite bosques where there is a higher amount of organic accumulations, or canyons where the material is high, even in the low desert. This usually determines how much extra help you may need to give a plant. That can usually be in the form of compost that you can dig around into the soil once in a while. Or it can be in the form of an organic fertilizer. Many domestic edible plants need a high amount of nutrition because we expect more out of them than regular plants. Here is more information on SOIL & NUTRITION.

LOW: these plants need little to no organic material or fertilizer
MODERATE: occasional feeding, can be once or twice a year
HIGH: regular feeding

MAINTENANCE
Here we may suggest some maintenance tips for keeping plants healthy. Plants don’t have gardeners out in nature, and have evolved to deal with their own problems. And most maintenance is needed not for the sake of the plant, but to meet our expectations. We always recommend managing these expectations and let plants be as much as possible. But we are dealing with human spaces and sometimes unnatural situations that sometimes require some manipulation.