Desert Messenger

Gardening with Dennis THIS AND THAT By Alex Taft In the desert spring, miscellaneous thoughts surface as everything blooms in its turn. Thorns - Someone mentioned to me that I like my thorns. It is true that I am drawn to plants with thorns: roses, thistles, citrus, cactus, bougainvillea, ironwood tree, blackberries, raspber- ries to name a few. Thorns, spines and prickles are rigid extensions of roots, leaves, stems, and buds. Leaf edges can have sharp edges that are called bristles. Anyone who has been weeding recently has had plenty of exposure to 10 DesertMessenger.com May 15, 2024 Receive a free 5−year warranty with qualifying purchase* - valued at $535. Call 928−927−1273 to schedule your free quote! the bristles whose itch can linger. The point of most thorns is to defend the plant from being eaten by wildlife. The thorns of prickly pear cactus and sagua- ros are for an additional purpose. The saguaro thorns provide shade. For the prickly pear, they provide insulation in the winter. Cactus thorns have a circu- lation or vascular interior, so removing them is a process, whereas rose thorns do not have a vascular interior and grow from the stem, so they snap off the rose stem easily and cleanly. Ros- es and thistles have thorns to prevent them from being eaten, but also use the thorns to climb over other plants. It is interesting that many plants with thorns guard a nutritious and or me- dicinal purpose. For example, milk thistle is used as a liver tonic, to guard your immune system. Roses are ed- ible and the rose hips are a wonderful and marketed source of vitamin C. So are citrus, as both the nutritional and medicinal benefit of arranges, lemons, grapefruit and limes supply. Thorns have worked their way into our language, our literature and folk tales. A thicket of thorns often ap- pears in folk tales as being caught in an impossible sit- uation unless you are willing to get bloody to disengage yourself or pause and reflect to see a way forward. Native seeds – Germinating native desert seeds is a challenge. Some do not germinate for more than a year. Some remain dormant until there is a very wet year. Others only germi- nate at the rate of 50% so established plants won't have too many young plants challenging them for the same resources. According to what I have researched, getting native seeds to germinate is not a simple process of planting them. Many plants have hard seed covers that only break apart to al- low the seed to sprout under specific conditions. To bypass that challenge, you can boil water and then soak the seeds in it for 24 hours and then plant the seeds in porous soil that needs to be continuously moist. Placing plas- tic wrap over the pot, with a few holes poked in it helps to retain the moisture. Keeping the pot with seeds inside near a window where they will get sunlight helps also. Mesquite and palo verde trees' seeds are a little easier to sprout, and once germinated, they grow fast. I would still recommend soaking the seeds for 24 hours. At this time of year everything is blooming, starting in February with the beavertail cactus to the prickly pear cactus to the palo verde trees, the ironwood and finally the smoke trees that fill the washes with their indigo flowers. Last year many of the iron- woods chose not to bloom and ditto the smoke trees. It is a wonderful cel- ebration of spring to see everything bloom in its season. A Botanical Garden was something Den- nis and I discussed on many occasions with no resolution. A botanical garden is a museum for plants that preserves and educates the public on local flora that once grew here and that flora which still grows here. The area across from the town hall parking lot and Plymouth Ave. was intended for the purpose of showcasing vari- eties of trees, shrubs and plants that grow here. Another is Celia's Rainbow Garden and that is the closest we have come to having a botanical garden. Like the unfinished discussions with Dennis, it was never resolved. Our area has so much more greenery than most of the areas of the county, with the possible exception of Salome which is at a higher elevation than we are. The flood plain, for all its chal- lenges that residents have to address is also why we have an uncountable number of palo verde and ironwood trees that surround the town with first yellow, then pink, clouds of blossoms every spring. Note: for those who did not know Dennis, he was a part-time employee of the town parks department, a Master Gardener since 1985 and instructor for the Master Gardener Class. He passed away in 2018.

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