If you love to garden, count yourself lucky you live in Phoenix. While we may have to suffer some brutal, withering summers we get to have the benefit of frost-free winters! Plants that would otherwise die off in other states due to their harsher cold wather can survive and thrive during Phoenix winters.
Our staff at ABC Scapes all have green thumbs and would love to help make your gardening dreams come true. Just because we live in a desert doesn’t mean you can’t be surrounded by a lush and invigorating variety of plants. Fruit frees, gorgeous flowers, delicious fruits and hearty vegetables: you can have all this and more in Phoenix, year round. And if you’re wondering what kind of plants you can grow during our cold seasons, check out this list we’ve made of some of the many plants suited to surviving a Phoenix winter.
Flowers
Due to the lack of subzero temperatures in Phoenix winters, flowers can flourish here year round! The key to facilitating their growth is the flower bed. Build your flower bed using a crumbly, fertile soil that is rich in organic matter. The organic matter helps promote the best growth and flowering of annuals in the winter season. You’ll want to steer clear of dry sandy soils unless the plants are native species or arid succulents.
Flowers that thrive in the wintertime include:
- Pansies
- Bachelor’s Buttons
- Sweet Peas
- Snapdragons
- Calendulas
- Johnny-Jump-Ups
- Annual Phlox
- Sweet Alyssum
- Heather
- Sweet William
- Camellia
- Hellebore
- Petunias
Vegetables
Thanks to the extended growing season, cultivating vegetables in Phoenix should be pretty easy. Phoenix temperatures tend to be warm in the winter, rarely dipping below 20 degrees at night. Daytime temperatures range between 60 and 80 degrees on average. This is ideal weather for growing vegetables! So long as you cover them when it gets too cold outside, they should grow fine.
Strong candidates for winter vegetables:
- Legumes: Fava beans and peas.
- Root crops: Carrots, onions, beets and radishes.
- Greens: Arugula, spinach, collards, lettuce, Swiss chard, mustard and kale.
- Brassicas: cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli.
Fruits
Fruit trees tend to do well year-round in Arizona. So long as you fertilize them in the spring, they should be strong enough to get through the winter and yield you delicious fresh fruit for the entire year!
Excellent choices for winter fruits include:
- Citrus
- Apricots
- Plums
- Pomegranates
- Peaches
- Figs
- Kiwis
Other Plants
The mild winter climate in Phoenix also can nourish and sustain a wide variety of other plants. There are all kinds of trees, herbs, berries, vines, creepers and other forms of plant life that could prosper in your garden and add unique colors and textures to your home.
These other plants include:
- Blue Aloe
- Lantana
- Big Honeysuckle
- Tacote
- Indigo Bush
- Baya Fairy Duster
- Hackberry Beardtongue
- Southwestern Mock Vervain
- Spreading Fleabane
- Winterberry
- Red Twig Dogwood
- Corkscrew Hazel
- Firethorn
- Holly
- Paper Birch Tree
Have More Questions About Phoenix Winters?
Need more help in planning out and preparing your landscape for the winter? Give ABC Scapes a call at 602-404-0568.