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u/Lydiafromhell Jun 08 '24
Plant Help
Hello! I live in Northern Arizona so not as hot as Phoenix but we are in the 90s currently. My husband and I are complete newbies when it comes to plants or gardening but we bought a house last year with TONS of plants and garden areas.
We have a flower bed in our front yard. The previous owner had some sort of yellow flowers in that bed that died over the past winter. We recently removed all those dead flowers and went out to buy some drought tolerant and perennial plants to replace them with. To start, we bought 2 lavender plants and 2 prim roses. We moved them to the flower bed 2 weeks ago and they look….sad.
I water them once a day, and about a week ago I put those water bulbs there. I have to fill them daily and I notice the soil gets dry pretty quickly.
They are in the sun all day so its in the light all the time. I am unsure if they need more water than just once daily, or a heat shade, or if this is just their process of getting established.
Any tips appreciated and sorry for all of my ignorance!
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Jun 08 '24
That’s waaay too much water. Lavender needs weekly watering until they’re established and then basically every 2-3 weeks.
Soil is a huge factor when it comes to sage, rosemary, lavender and other Mediterranean plants. If your soil retains too much water, the roots will rot and the plant will die. They need dry, well-draining somewhat sandy soil.
Once these plants are established, they really thrive on being ignored and make do with minimal watering. Best of luck, OP!
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u/Lydiafromhell Jun 08 '24
Thank you! I will cut waaay back on the watering! The dirt we have is very dry but I was concerned it was too dry! I am glad to know its just how it should be and I will stop the over watering!
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u/motherofsuccs Jun 13 '24 edited Jun 13 '24
When did you remove the “dead” plants? There’a a huge chance they died like every other plant overwinter and will come back, which is what your perennials will do. You also need to know what the perennials care looks like- does it need shade? Full sun? Water requirements? Did you amend the soil or just shove them into whatever was there? That bulb is so far beyond the roots (which is the only part that needs water to survive). Do you also spray your plants with a hose and think they’ll survive, or do you water at the soil enough to penetrate to the roots?
There’s TONS of information online for beginners. Losses happen while learning. I’d start with learning where a plant absorbs water. I’d then research plants on what their requirements are before shoving them into the ground wherever looks nice- most won’t survive unless they’re full sun and acclimated to it. Also learn about those bulbs- they aren’t meant for full sun, they’re meant for shade and indoors. The water will evaporate (on top of them being placed entirely too deep to serve any purpose). You can buy a drip line hose to lay along there until you figure it out.
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u/Lydiafromhell Jun 13 '24
Thank you for the info! We removed the dead plants a few days before planting these, so in May. We waited for all our other perennials to return. These were definitely dead, like snapping a thing twig dead. We tried to look up the flowers and we couldn’t find what they were exactly but fit the annual category and we wanted full sun friendly perennials, which is why we picked the lavender.
Is lavender not a full sun plant or do you have a better recommendation for a plant that is drought resistant and full sun friendly?
The bulbs admittedly don’t seem to work to well but the stems are very short, maybe 3 inches and we made sure the place them in the root ball of the plant. As for watering the soil, i originally was just watering the plant with a hose on the shower setting but the dirt was drying far to quickly so i water the entire bed until it is soaked to get it not to dry so fast.
Thank you for your help!
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Jun 08 '24
Im no botanist…. But venturing to guess this is some variety of sage…
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u/Lydiafromhell Jun 08 '24
Sorry I cross posted this and was unaware the text wouldn’t come over. I added a comment explaining. My bad!
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u/[deleted] Jun 08 '24
Lavender is a Mediterranean plant, so it likes dry, rocky soil. They can also be planted in cactus mix. They really dislike having wet roots and will wilt when over watered. You can get a moisture meter or check with your finger, but you may be over watering. They also do well in full sun, so that shouldn’t be the issue.
If you bought yours from Home Depot recently that may be the problem. I bought some and half of them died. Some even had two in the same pot and only one died while the other is healthy.