Whether we want to admit it or not, summer is coming. That's the bad news. The good news is that because summer has yet to arrive, we still have a few more weeks left in this great planting season. Plus, it gives us time to prepare our landscape for the summer. Our nursery pros have compiled a few tips and tasks for your landscape this month.
To Do List:
- Watering: With the temperature starting to warm up, it's time to to keep a close eye on the watering schedule for our yards. It is always important to look at temperatures. You always want to water slowly and deeply. For more information, check out our watering guide.
- Fertilize: Right now is a great time to start fertilizing your lawn! Our winter lawns will begin to slowly die out as the temperature increases and the summer lawn will gradually begin to take over. You can give that summer lawn a boost with our fast acting Moon Royale Professional Turf Fertilizer. In most cases, you will see results in just four days, and it gets stronger as it goes to work greening up your lawn.
- Protection: Trees, just like us, can also get sunburn. However, the bottle of sunscreen isn't going to be enough. Young trees need protection from the sun when temperatures increase. You can protect the trunk of a new tree from sunburn with Protective Tree Wrap. Available at any Moon Valley Nursery location. To further protect your tree, young or old, you can stake them. This provides stability when high winds come in. Moon Valley Nursery also offers staking services as well. Click here to map a location near you.
- Weeds: Stick to your weeding plan. Continue to do it often. Moon Valley Nursery stocks all of the things you will need for your weed prevention plan at our locations.
- Mulch: With temperatures increasing , mulching is going to be extremely important for the next few months. Mulch any area where the sun is shining directly on the dirt. The mulch allows the roots to keep cool and moist. Moon Valley Nurseries has a great selection of mulch to choose from.
- Vegetable Garden: Pumpkin, cantaloupe, winter squash, sunflowers. (consider a shade cloth for the garden)
Piru Queen Palm
Queen palms are the height of tropical beauty and appeal in just about any landscape. Moon Valley Nurseries’ Piru Queen Palm variety is custom grown to be the benchmark for both durability and appearance for tougher growing climates. Grown from specific Argentine seedlings with superior genetic traits, Piru Queen Palms feature wider trunks, thicker crowns, and greener fronds then other queen palms. Our Piru Queen Palms are exposed to hot summers, cold winters, and dry climates to promote drought tolerance and water retention. The result of these growing conditions produces a palm that is better conditioned to extreme weather cycles, frost periods, and drought situations.
King Palm
Originally native to Australia, the King, or Alexandra palm has been one of the most sought after palm in our region since it’s introduction to the area over a century ago. Known for their silky green trunks and super clean appearance, King Palms create the utmost in luxury resort appearance. Moon Valley Nurseries has been growing King palms at our local farms for over 30 years and has perfected the ability to produce the finest King palms on the market today. Can be single or multi-trunk.
Date Palm
Date Palms love it when they are planted when it is hot out. The ultimate palm for your pool, the Date Palm are usually found at most resorts and shopping centers. Around pools the Date Palm provides excellent shade due to its wide fronds and it has practically no litter. The Date Palm looks great when planted in clusters of 3 to 5 palms and is hardy to cold, heat and drought tolerant. While usually tough to find because of the time and care needed to grow such majestic specimens from seedlings…Moon Valley Nursery has the quantity and quality to fill any sized order.
Mediterranean Fan Palm
Compact size with an ability to thrive in the hot summer months and survive the cool winters has made the Mediterranean Fan Palm a popular choice for an outdoor oasis. Commonly used as a stand-alone focal point around pools, the Mediterranean Fan Palm sprouts multiple trunks and is slow growing. Aside from their wonderful looks, Mediterranean Fan Palms are some of the more durable palm trees grown in the Western United States. They thrive in hot locations and require minimal amounts of water compared to most palm trees. They’re also able to survive the typical frost season with little or no freeze damage.
Willow Acacia
Named for its similar appearance to a classic Willow tree, the Willow Acacia is a unique, fast-growing desert-adapted evergreen tree. The Willow Acacia is green all-year long and is a popular pick for our customers who are seeking fast shade and minimal maintenance. Its leaves display a unique grey-blue color.
Tipu
Looking to create a massive canopy of shade? Look no further than the Tipu tree. This semi-evergreen has become a popular choice for its rapid growth and eye-catching apricot yellow flowers during the summer. Tipu Trees require modest amounts of water for optimal performance, so they react well to droughts and landscapes desiring less water usage. Landscapers find many uses for the Tipu not just because they’re fast growers, but also for their golden blooms during the spring. In just a few years, the Tipu can reach heights of 25 feet quickly creating massive canopies of shade for your home, patio, home playground, or to protect the other plants in your yard from the summer sun.
Desert Museum Palo Verde
When this trees blooms, it blooms. Vibrant yellow flowers cover this entire tree in early summer with blooms through fall. It creates a massive canopy of layered shade, so you can plant ground covers or grass around the trunk. A popular choice for people looking to decrease their water usage. Low maintenance and easy to grow with a bright green thornless trunk.
Crape
The Crape Myrtle has something to offer for every season but stands out in late spring to summer when it begins producing stunning blooms of purple, pink, red, and white flowers that are pleasing to the eye when planted in clusters or accent locations. The Crape Myrtle is known for its long and constant bloom cycle and works well in just about any landscape. In the fall, the Crape Myrtle’s foliage turn to a showy bright orange.
Vitex
This multi-trunk tree is known for its eye catching displays of purple blooms on long spikes that jet out at every growth tip during the late spring and into summer. The Vitex’s twisting trunks under the bright flowering canopy gives this tree a unique, grand appearance. Its canopy is large and layered, which allows sunlight to penetrate the ground below. The Vitex requires minimal water and little maintenance. Vitex trees establish quickly and are exceptionally strong in full sun locations.
Jacarnada
One of our favorite flowering trees, the Jacaranda is known for it's breathtaking and picturesque blooms of vibrant purple flowers and unique fern-like foliage which makes them adaptable to many landscape designs from desert to tropical. The Jacaranda’s canopy is layered, giving it a “light” look in your landscape while also providing much-needed shade where it is desired. Though soft looking in appearance, Jacarandas are very hardy trees that love and thrive in the warmer months of the year.
Olive Tree
Best part about our olive trees is that they are fruitless. The unique, silver appearance of Fruitless Olive trees make them an interesting focal point in nearly all landscape styles. In addition, the natural, multiple trunks always create an artistic look, while bringing strength and flexibility to the tree. Olive trees keep their leaves all year which makes them great for creating privacy or blocking unwanted views. Fruitless Olives are very durable to heat, cold and require minimal water once established.
Chinese Elm
Widely used throughout the Southern U.S. for more than 100 years, the Chinese Elm is a beautiful tree and one that has become a very popular choice for our customers due to its dark green foliage on its umbrella shaped canopy. A great canopy of shade can come form rather quickly with these trees. The Chinese Elm thrives in hot and sunny environments and in very mild winters, they can retain their leaves.
Arizona Yellow Bells
Commonly called Yellow Bells, this shrub can grow 8 feet tall and wide. Yellow Bells display many yellow, trumpet-shaped flower clusters starting mid-spring all the way to winter. This shrub is drought-tolerant and is very fast growing. Yellow Bells are great for focal points, fence or borderlines, and color accents in desert and tropical landscapes. To maximize blooming cycles, be sure to prune off dead blooms occasionally.
Orange Jubilee
This shrub loves the sun and blooms all summer and fall. It is drought-tolerant once established and has large clusters of orange trumpet-shaped blooms. The Orange Jubilee is fast growing and can reach 10 to 12 feet high and needs an area where it will receive at least a half day of sun.
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